{"id":278,"date":"2017-11-28T07:10:18","date_gmt":"2017-11-27T21:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/?page_id=278"},"modified":"2017-12-14T21:05:12","modified_gmt":"2017-12-14T11:05:12","slug":"what-makes-a-good-cameraman","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/national-film-and-sound-archive\/what-makes-a-good-cameraman\/","title":{"rendered":"What makes a good Cameraman?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is an interview Series for the National Film and Sound Archive Aural History Programme.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

My name is John Fife (JF<\/strong>) and I have with me Morrie Pilens (MP<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Was that when you won your Thorn Award?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 No, one Thorn Award was for a bus coming down Heidelberg hill without brakes and going into Banyule park.\u00a0 The poor bastard was coming down, beeping his horn, right across the bridge and jumping.\u00a0 Loaded with kids.\u00a0 I got there afterwards anyway, but it was a big story.<\/p>\n

So regularly, every five years, I used to get a big one.\u00a0\u00a0 One story I covered was the Australian Royal Society was having a get together and Governor General Kerr (Sir John) was going to be the guest of honour.\u00a0 So, night time job, I say yeah, I\u2019ll do it.<\/p>\n

The Royal Society was in Queens Road in Albert Park.\u00a0 So we\u2019re there and I\u2019m filming this demonstration outside.\u00a0 And we\u2019re there and there are people making a bit of fun\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 This was after Kerr had dismissed Whitlam?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 In comes a calvalcade with Kerr, and eggs come onto the car, one bloke had a loudhailer and jumped on the bonnet, whacked the windscreen on it, the car drove in, BIG problem, you know.\u00a0 There was police attacked with sticks and what have you.\u00a0 Good action film!<\/p>\n

After that, I couldn\u2019t get to a demonstration, I couldn\u2019t get to a night job any more \u2013 because everyone else wanted to get them.\u00a0 They thought they were going to get an award!<\/p>\n

(Laughter)<\/p>\n

By showing it can be done, you gather the momentum of the rest of your crew to go with it.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the chief cameraman\u2019s job.\u00a0 Not sitting and bloody driving a desk.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 No, you\u2019ve got to have done the job to understand what going out on the road\u2019s about<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 And you\u2019ve got to have people that are willing to come with the momentum and do the things you are.\u00a0 But later on, with tape, things wasn\u2019t the same.<\/p>\n

Another good one was Miss Australia.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Just before you tell me about that, what makes a good cameraman?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Good news cameraman is basically brave and alert.\u00a0 Willing to take risks, willing to take this, willing to do this.\u00a0 I\u2019m not afraid of it.\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s a confrontation or a disaster or what have you.\u00a0 You brave enough to take risks.\u00a0 The other one is alert.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know which is more important, one or the other.<\/p>\n

And then, making a decision.\u00a0 And when you make a decision \u2013 with a news cameraman it\u2019s, well, the way I see things is\u2026\u00a0 you going out on the job and you\u2019re alert to your surroundings, and you\u2019re going to be alert of a framed composition.\u00a0 How you\u2019re going to frame this and how you\u2019re going to frame that.\u00a0 And if you see a nice frame, be it an aesthetic building with a branch leaning in front for your composition, and a figure in there \u2013 that\u2019s nice!\u00a0 And this is the same thing in disasters.\u00a0 You try and create your frame as you go along, as you see it, as you watch it.\u00a0 This is alertness comes in.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 But an arty farty guy isn\u2019t a good news cameraman?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Because arty farty guy basically doesn\u2019t really know what he wants.\u00a0 He says \u2018oh, it\u2019d be nice if I did that here.\u00a0 No wait a minute, if I just\u2026 I can reset it and do it there.\u2019\u00a0 He\u2019s too slow.\u00a0 He can\u2019t make up his mind.\u00a0 He\u2019s not willing to take a risk.<\/p>\n

A news cameraman if he takes a risk and makes a mistake in his mind, switch it off, forget about it.\u00a0 It\u2019s only a couple of frames, get it somewhere else.\u00a0 But arty farty guy has to reset it somewhere else. \u00a0Or do something else.\u00a0 Or the light\u2019s not right.\u00a0 Or this is not right.\u00a0 Because he doesn\u2019t really commit himself to a frame.\u00a0 He wants to create a frame.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 But often if you\u2019re shooting news, you\u2019ve got to shoot it there\u2026<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 You\u2019ve got to shoot it as it goes, but at the same time you\u2019ve got to compose it.\u00a0 You can\u2019t shoot news without cutting heads off or legs off or what have you.\u00a0 You\u2019ve still got to be award of illustrating properly.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 You\u2019ve done the big ones.\u00a0 What was your first one \u2013 the one you remember?\u00a0 Stringing for ABC?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yeah, stringing for ABC was good fun because I was basically a useful tool for them to use it on, outside metropolitan area.\u00a0 Be it go kart racing or whatever.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

My specialty was motor cycles, creative and hill climb, or Austin 7 mud rallies \u2013 a hill climb in a mud rally with a dozen little Austin 7\u2019s driving through mud.\u00a0 Some of the potholes were so deep that I think there\u2019s still some cars buried that they never got out of there.<\/p>\n

Another was flying.\u00a0 In Berwick we used to have a foreign minister of Menzies\u2019 government, Lord Casey.\u00a0 His wife.\u00a0 They had a property at Berwick which was an airfield.\u00a0 On weekends they usually have tiger moths and gypsy moths flying around.\u00a0 Actually I was in the glider club down there but I gave it up when the kookaburra come in because I didn\u2019t like an enclosed glider, I like an open cockpit glider.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I got an assignment from ABC to go and film Lady Casey flying.\u00a0 So, I went there and watched them taking off.\u00a0 I watched other planes taking off, and bits and pieces and people around \u2013 the usual sort of make up.\u00a0 Then got into the tiger moth of Lady Casey.\u00a0 And we flying off, and doing a fly past the parking planes, planes are passing us.\u00a0 And I opened up \u2013 loosened up my safety belt in the front to turn around and get some shots of her piloting the plane, when she decided to do a loop!\u00a0 (Laughter).<\/p>\n

*So I nearly learned how to fly without an aeroplane!\u00a0 So the ABC\u2019s still got the film.\u00a0 Bob Grieve\u2019s got the offcuts.\u00a0 I gave it to him.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 I bet that was the last time you ever undid your seatbelt on a plane\u2026<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yeah hea hea.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t do that very often.\u00a0 But it was good fun.\u00a0 She was quite a character.\u00a0 A very good pilot.\u00a0 Well known.\u00a0 Actually I got to know the Casey\u2019s \u2013 I wouldn\u2019t say very very socially, but I was accepted with them.\u00a0 I had meetings with them when they walked into North Melbourne, you know, had cups of tea with them in the front room\u2026 yeah, it was good.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 \u2018Cos you\u2019ve got that ability with them \u2013 when you\u2019re a cameraman, you meet people from the bottom right to the top.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yes, and when you\u2019re a cameraman \u2013 especially a news cameraman, – oh, not now, any more \u2013 but you were accepted wherever you went.\u00a0 The highest of society or just in the coal mines, you know, it didn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

Talking about coal mines, I had a job.\u00a0 The Wonthaggi coal mines were closing down.\u00a0 So they move the horses, and they\u2019re going to bring the last horses up there from the depth of the mines and what have you.\u00a0 I got job to go cover that.\u00a0\u00a0 So we got down to the coal mines and put some stuff outside, coalminers, sentimental and what have you.\u00a0 So I said \u2018Is the lift still working?\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018Oh yeah, the lifts are still working.\u00a0 We\u2019ve just got to bring some more horses up too.\u2019<\/p>\n

I said \u2018Good, can I get into the cage because I want a shot of the camera going down the mine, looking upwards.?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Oh yeah, no problem.\u2019<\/p>\n

So down we go, down goes the lift, I\u2019m filming the hole getting smaller, smaller, smaller, finally disappering.\u00a0 Me down right the bottom somewhere, so they stop.\u00a0 They said \u2018Okay, we\u2019ve got to take a couple of horses up, then we\u2019ll come and get you.\u2019<\/p>\n

I said \u2018Oh, oh,\u2026. Okay, no problem.\u00a0 Yep, I\u2019ll wait.\u2019\u00a0 (Hushed dramatic voice)\u00a0 They left me down there for an hour.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Ah.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Left me down there for an hour.\u00a0 And then when they came looking for me, I was hiding!\u00a0 So they got panicky.\u00a0 (laughter).\u00a0 Screaming \u2013 mine\u2019s still going all over the placed and I\u2019m hiding.\u00a0\u00a0 \u2018You\u2019re a good bloody bloke!\u2019\u00a0 I got a miner\u2019s lantern and a hat!\u00a0 (laughter).<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 And I guess that\u2019s an example of one day you\u2019re working with the miners\u2026<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Next day with Prince Phillip.\u00a0 Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you about that.\u00a0 I used to have a Minolta camera with a mag stripe, the only one in Melbourne, off cuts put into the same processing.\u00a0 And I was taking some pictures of him, and he had some school kids that he was awarding or what have you.<\/p>\n

And he came up and said (deep sonorous PP voice) \u2018You don\u2019t really get very good quality with that.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got a Minox.\u2019<\/p>\n

And I said \u2018Minox, yeah, camera made in Latvia originally as a spy camera.\u00a0 But this is twice the size.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Oh, but it\u2019s still not the same quality is it?\u2019<\/p>\n

I said \u2018Well, it\u2019s not too bad actually \u2013 I\u2019ve got some good film.\u2019\u00a0 So I left it at that.\u00a0 Anyway he was poo pooing that it was small.\u00a0 I said, yeah, it\u2019s only half the size, the Minolta is twice the size \u2013 16mm \u2013 big film.\u00a0 And he said \u2018oh, mumble mumble\u2019 and off he went.<\/p>\n

A couple of days later I had another job to cover him, and I brought him the film that I had taken which was a slide, just the 16mm slide with half a dozen pictures on it, with him in it.\u00a0 I said \u2018Have a look at this!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018They are very good quality.\u2019<\/p>\n

I said \u2018Yeah, it\u2019s got a mag stripe on it!\u2019\u00a0 (laughter).\u00a0 Smartass!\u00a0 Of course bloody Minox is small.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 How many pictures would you get on your little\u2026<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Nineteen.\u00a0 You load your own.\u00a0 So what I have done now, I made a special knife that I can cut a 35 mm film.\u00a0 And I have had 35 mm negative film c processing.\u00a0 You\u2019ve just got to make sure that they trust you that that\u2019s the right processing when you give it to them.\u00a0 C processing \u2013 I make prints as good as 35 mm.\u00a0 The quality\u2019s absolutely superb.\u00a0 They just got rid of those camera\u2019s too early.\u00a0 Because digital cameras, you know.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0\u00a0 We see a lot of changes in the industry \u2013 perhaps that\u2019s a story for next time.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 (laughs)\u00a0 Yeah, perhaps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is an interview Series for the National Film and Sound Archive Aural History Programme.\u00a0 My name is John Fife (JF) and I have with me Morrie Pilens (MP). JF:\u00a0 Was that when you won your Thorn Award? MP:\u00a0 No, one Thorn Award was for a bus coming down Heidelberg hill without brakes and going … <\/p>\n

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