American Cinematographer - May 2015 - 94

From top: ASC members Francis Kenny and Richard
Crudo flank Henner Hofmann, ASC, AMC while
visiting Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica,
A.C.; Crudo addresses a group of students; Crudo
and Kenny conduct a seminar at Chapala Media
Park, with Dan Ikeda and ASC associate Mark
Bender of the Tiffen Co. providing Steadicam
instruction; Gabriel Beristain, ASC, BSC with AC
editor-in-chief and publisher Stephen Pizzello.

May 2015

ASC Extends Educational
Outreach to Mexico
American Society of Cinematographers President Richard Crudo and Society
member Francis Kenny recently led a series
of instructional seminars in Mexico as part
of a joint ASC/American Cinematographer
trip to Mexico City and Guadalajara.
Accompanying the pair were Dan Ikeda and
ASC associate Mark Bender of Tiffen, who
provided Steadicam instruction during
hands-on lighting-and-camera sessions.
Gabriel Beristain, ASC, BSC met up with the
group near Guadalajara to participate in a
press conference outlining the Society's
educational initiatives and its Master Class
program, and AC editor-in-chief and
publisher Stephen Pizzello was also in
Guadalajara to answer questions about the
magazine's role as the ASC's flagship publication.
The excursion began in Mexico City,
where Crudo and Kenny conducted a
professional-development seminar and
lighting workshop sponsored by Canon
Mexicana, Umpeq TV, CTT EXP & Rentals,
Aianet and Litepanels. On the following
morning, the ASC delegation paid a visit to
Revolution's stages to see a demonstration
of the Bolt High-Speed Cinebot, a six-axis
motion-control arm designed in England by
Mark Roberts Motion Control. Later in the
afternoon, the group met with executives at
the Mexican mass-media company Televisa,
where they discussed the facility's desire to
upgrade its systems to a 4K platform and
had a general talk about cameras and lighting techniques.
That evening, the ASC's emissaries
visited the Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica, A.C. (also known as "El
CCC"), an elite film school supported by
Mexico's National Council for Culture and
Arts. CCC director Henner Hofmann, ASC,
AMC welcomed the Society's delegation,
introducing them to members of the Mexican Society of Cinematographers and a
group of students who were invited to ask
Kenny and Crudo questions about their
American Cinematographer

cinematography for the FX Network television series Justified.
The ASC group then visited Instituto
Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Occidente (ITESO), where Crudo and Kenny
shared their knowledge and professional
experience with 120 university students.
Next, after traveling to Guadalajara, the duo
led "mini Master Classes" at Chapala
Media Park, a studio facility located 45
minutes south of Guadalajara. The park is
managed and maintained by the Jalisco
Institute of Information Technology (IJALTI)
with support from both the federal and
state governments.
The visiting cinematographers,
working closely with Bender and Ikeda,
offered 15 students from Latin America and
the Caribbean three intensive days of
instruction in lighting, composition, camera
movement and other aspects of their craft.
Volunteers served as models on a threewalled set lit with equipment provided by
the facility and by Circulo Blanco S.A. de
C.V., Umpeq TV, CTT EXP & Rentals and
Litepanels. Informative Q&A sessions with
Crudo and Kenny covered a wide variety of
topics to supplement the tech lessons.
During the press conference at
Chapala Media Park, which featured a Q&A
session with more than a dozen Mexican
media outlets, Beristain joined the group to
help emphasize the ASC's ongoing commitment to educational outreach. After returning to the U.S., he noted that he offered his
enthusiastic support by serving as a liaison
with the Guadalajara International Film
Festival, which included the ASC instructional sessions as part of its educational
programming.
"It's always an eye-opener for me
when I'm traveling around the world as part
of an ASC delegation," Crudo reflects. "In
Mexico, especially, we find that there's a
profound desire for direct contact with our
members. On this trip, the students were
very well schooled by the time we met
them, so any instruction we offered necessarily began at a somewhat refined level.

Photo of Clubhouse by Isidore Mankofsky, ASC; lighting by Donald M. Morgan, ASC.
Mexico photos by Alex Beatty and Saul Molina.

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American Cinematographer - May 2015

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