By technical editor Matt Allard:
It is that time of year again. This week in Las Vegas Newsshooter will have a team of 13 people from 6 different countries covering the NAB 2015 convention. As ever we aim to offer a global perspective and continue our proven track record of giving the most comprehensive and informative coverage. This year our coverage is sponsored by our good friends at Teradek, Atomos, Rode and Movcam.
Let me introduce our 2015 team:
Dan Chung
Dan has been editor of Newsshooter since starting it in 2009 and is also a working cameraman. He started as a photographer working for the Reuters news agency, then the Guardian newspaper in London. After joining the Guardian he transitioned to video. During his career he has covered the Iraq war, World Cup soccer, the Olympics, the Asian and Japanses Tsunamis and earthquakes in China and Pakistan.
In 2007 he moved to China working not just for the Guardian, but also CNN, NBC, Al Jazeera English and others. Other clients have included Soho, Oxfam, The Climate group, Lenovo, Oracle and others. Most recently he has been a staff cameraman for US network CNBC.
Matthew Allard ACS
Matt was a Camera/Editor in TV news for 24 years, previously working for both Channel 9 and Channel 10 in Australia. Twice Network Ten Australia’s cameraman of the year as well as being a Walkley Finalist for outstanding camerawork in 2006 (for coverage of the Cronulla Race Riots) and a Logie Finalist for outstanding news coverage 2006 (Bali 9). He has covered news events in more than 40 countries, from major sporting events to terrorist bombings.
Matt spent 7 years working for Aljazeera based out of Kuala Lumpur Malaysia and covered some of the biggest stories in the world. In 2009 he shot the worlds first ever international news story captured entirely on a DSLR. A pioneer in promoting and using large sensor cameras for TV news and documentaries Matt co-runs newsshooter.com with Dan Chung.
In 2013 Matt was given full accreditation from the ACS (Australian Cinematographers Society) becoming only the 350th Australian to ever receive the honour. Matt has won 25 ACS awards including 3 prestigious Golden Tripod Awards.
Matt is now a freelance DP based out of Tokyo, Japan who specialises in shooting documentaries, corporates and TVCs.
Jonas Schönstein
Jonas Schönstein has worked as a professional- grade cameraman and producer for the past 8 years. In addition he is also professionally trained in video editing and motion graphic design. A native German-speaker, he is also fluent in English and conversational in both Mandarin Chinese and French.
Jonas graduated from the FH Darmstadt in 2008 and holds an International Bachelor Degree with Honours in Media Production, majoring in Cinematography. His father, who is a painter and sculptor, awakened his interest in art at a very early age. This innate love for the visual arts eventually led to his passion for video.
Jonas Schönstein’s work covers a wide scope, including documentaries, corporate videos, TV news, sports, fashion videos and more. His clients include Apple, ARRI, BMW, Burberry, Channel 4, CNBC, Daily Telegraph, Dell, The Guardian, Louis Vuitton, Mark Jacobs, Mercedes, Montblanc, Nike, Porsche, Siemens and VW.
In recent years he has also worked on a large variety of international productions across the globe.
He currently resides in Beijing, China.
Clinton Harn
Cinematographer, filmmaker, producer and audio recording engineer, Clinton’s peers & colleagues regard him as a “Renaissance” man, as his passion for creative technology has seen him delve into almost every facet of creative & artistic media content.
After years of being entrenched & producing work for the music industry, 2013 will finally see Clinton shoot his first full length feature film, which is currently in production, with a 2015 scheduled release.
His recent endeavours includes working as camera operator and AC to Rodney Charters ASC, known for lensing numerous TV dramas such as 24, Dallas, Shameless, Roswell, and many more.
In another recent development, Clinton was commissioned by 2 time academy award winner & director Malcolm Clark, to shoot segments for an upcoming feature documentary “Better Worlds”, which looks at the political relationship & climate between USA & China.
Prior to this, Clinton has donned many roles such as an executive producer, art director, director of photography, assistant cameraman, focus puller, sound recordist, sound designer & mixer on short films & documentaries since 2002.
As an educator, his involvement in tertiary education has spanned over 15 years.
He currently runs his own production company that specialises in video marketing content for corporate establishments. Other services include music videos, documentaries, short feature films and sound for post and pre production.
Clinton is a member of the Australian Cinematographers Society and is currently completing his Masters in Recording Arts & Sciences. He is also a regular contributor and team member of newsshooter.com, a blog owned & run by Dan Chung & Matthew Allard ACS that focuses primarily on gear reviews, education, factual & documentary work.
He also now works as content programmer & full-time shooter for RØDE Microphones.
Rick Macomber
Rick Macomber is a four time Emmy Award winning cinematographer and photojournalist, He’s also won first place awards ten times for the Boston Press Photographers’ Association. His coverage of the Cambodian refugee camps in Thailand for CBS Boston has won him a prestigious Boston Press Photographers “Best of Show” award. Rick has also covered major breaking news stories around the globe including 9-11 from Ground Zero in NYC and the 50th Anniversary of D-Day from the beaches of Normandy, France. Rick owns Macomber Productions and can be found at www.macomberproductions.com.
CY Xu
CY Xu is a bilingual cameraman based in Beijing, he has been shooting news and features for CNN in China and the area since 2012. You can see some of his work here.
Phil Arntz
Phil is a german Director of Photography and Director currently based in Amsterdam. Ever since leaving formal education of the age of 16, he has picked up knowledge and skills from some of the most recognised talents in the industry. Combining his love of visuals and travelling, he has travelled around the world for the last 3 years, working with a wide variety of clients and creatives of all nationalities to produce content of all forms, including commercials, documentaries, narrative content, action sports virals and more. In 2014, Phil relocated to Dubai, United Arab Emirates for one year, to shoot some of the biggest productions in the city, collaborating with likeminded creatives from around the world. Combining his passion of beautiful visuals and emotionally moving stories, Phil is constantly seeking and realising opportunities that broaden horizons in the world of visual media.
Having entered the industry in a time where the shift from film to digital cinematography is steadily happening, Phil realises that it’s important to study the advancement of technology. Testing new camera foramts, from Digital Cinema Cameras like the RED EPIC Dragon, Arri Alexa, Sony F55 & F65, to specialty cameras like the Phantom Flex 4K or Action Cameras, Phil is able to make an informed choice of camera format based on the needs of the production.
Phil often operates the camera when he is the Cinematographer or works with the Director of Photography on different projects as the camera operator. Phil has a natural sense for framing and is very experienced with using ultra-telephoto lenses like the Canon 1200mm and is also a camera operator of the Ultimate Arm. Having spent over 200 hours in the Ultimate Arm as a camera operator and learning closely from senior, experienced Crane and Camera Operators, Phil has learned to utilise the technology to it’s full potential.
Simon Glass
Simon has worked extensively in the media industry for the past 20 years shooting a wide range of award winning network programmes. Credits include Grand Designs, Bang Goes the Theory, Crimewatch, Hairy Bikers, The Culture Show and Countryfile.
He is a very versatile cameraman with expertise extending across presenter led series, documentaries, factual entertainment, formats, reality, drama and multi-camera shoots. Simon has worked as a lighting cameraman, camera supervisor and director of photography, specialising in arts, science, history, architecture and food. He enjoys working closely with the director and the production team sharing ideas to achieve great results.
Simon established Smashing Glass Television in 1998 and offer the latest camera equipment and broadcast filming skills. He has shot in a wide range of formats for programmes broadcast in the UK and internationally.
Slavik Boyechko
Slavik Boyechko is co-owner of Video Dads LLC based in Alaska and Oregon, USA. He is an Emmy-nominated producer/shooter/editor specializing in short, inspiring videos about people and organizations. Slavik is currently traveling around the country producing the PBS Digital series “Indie America.”
Li-Lian Ahlskog
Li-Lian Ahlskog Hou is Swedish-Chinese director of photography and editor working for the Norwegian broadcaster NRK. After earning her Master’s degree in International Multimedia Journalism at Beijing Foreign Studies University, she spent the past four years filming documentaries, promotion films and concerts in China.
She has been the Lead Videographer for Caoker, a web site which aims to merge Chinese and western music, filming Chinese and foreign bands performing at concerts and festivals around China. She has filmed Justin Bieber and Fan Bing Bing for commercials for Adidas, Handsome Fur’s music video for Subpop Records, music festivals for VANS, Modern Sky Festival and Tuborg, promotion videos for World Economic Forum, Mastercard and SOHO China.
In March 2015 the TV show “Norwegian Prejudices” (“Norska Fordommer”), which she filmed and edited for, was aired in Noway.
Scott Karlins
Born and raised in Connecticut, Scott began his college education at Emerson College, majoring in television production, then finishing up at the North Carolina School of the Arts, majoring in lighting and sound design for the theatre.
Scott has enjoyed taking pictures and making movies since he was ten years old. While in college, Scott was the sound recording technician for the Winston Salem Symphony. During college Summers, he was the chief lighting technician for the Lake George Opera Festival in New York State and the Florida Shakespeare Festival in Miami. After college, Scott toured with several high profile bands, and later shot wedding videos for several years. He then went on to become an AutoCAD draftsman for an architect and a few years later, for a ground water consulting firm.
Today, Scott lives and work in the Atlanta, Georgia area. He started documenting fire scenes for Georgia and the surrounding four states, providing video and photography expertise to the fire investigation industry. Scott researched equipment, asked a bunch of questions, and soon found himself with a Sony EX1/ Letus kit. He know uses the EX1 without the Letus for all my fire investigation work, and the EX1/ Letus together for other creative work.
Since 2010, Scott has been working at ESI. Inc, who specialise in engineering and scientific investigation. Scotts primary role is a Certified FARO 3D laser scanner trainer and operator. His operator projects take him all over the USA laser scanning crime scenes, fire and arson scenes, large plant and factory explosion scenes and vehicular accident scenes. Scott is a certified FARO trainer, and primarily provides training to his staff at ESI, and also to law enforcement.
In addition, Scott also provides services to private contractors and the military, filming their military exercises for promotional purposes, and for target acquisition footage.
Rodney Charters ASC CSC
On April 1 2004 Rodney Charters was invited to become an Active Member of the American Society of Cinematographers. This invitation to the ASC is a great priviledge and honour, as well as a prestigious hallmark in his career as a cinematographer.
Rodney grew up as the son of a small town photographer on the coast of New Zealand — a place recently made famous by Tom Cruise, whose residence in New Plymouth for 5 months during the making of “The Last Samurai,” has propelled the inhabitants into a Hollywood inspired state of euphoria. But they had always been a community of film lovers and Charters as a young boy starred in several of his fathers 16mm dramas made with the assistance of Roy’s partner Rowan Guthrie and the New Plymouth Film Society.
Charters grew up in the darkroom of his fathers studio, “Charters and Guthrie Photograhers”, with the smell of hypo, developer, and the allure of the enlarger. Inspired by his fathers love of movies, he took up the camera early. He quickly progressed to his fathers Bolex, and made his first film “Film Exercise” at the, University of Auckland. This short, which played to acclaim at the Sydney Film Festival, garnered Rodney a place at the prestigious Royal College of Art in London, where Charters’ fellow students included such names as Directors: Tony Scott, Richard Longcraine, and D.P. Stephen Goldblatt A.S.C. Upon graduation, Charters worked briefly on commercials while living in London. Immediately following a short stint in the US, Charters was chosen to work on documentaries in Toronto for a Canadian Network. He spent 15 years traveling the world — shooting on location in such exotic spots as 5 months in the jungles of South America and 4 months in the Soviet Union during the cold war. Charters eventually moved into the world of drama after Toronto DP Mark Irwin A.S.C. tapped him to shoot Second Unit on a Toronto based feature called “Youngblood”. Charters returned briefly to documentaries and after winning a Canadian Genie for best cinematography he turned full time to Drama.
As a self taught Mac guru, Rodney has embraced the remarkable changes taking place in the technological side of how movies are made. Working on some of the very first morphs to make it to the big screen with VFX Supervisor Jeff Okun on the the picture “Sleepwalkers” he learned to transform humans into cats and Chevy’s into Fords.
After several years of American TV work in Toronto and Vancouver, Charters made the move to the US for Don Johnson’s first season of “Nash Bridges”. Charters continued to work steadily on numerous TV Drama’s, and several Feature Films which he lensed during this period. As a DGA member for several years he has directed 11 hours of episodic TV including 2 episodes of “24”. However, in recent years, the vast majority of Charters work has been as a D.P. in Episodic TV. Charters spends the bulk of his hiatus, doing either small Features, or TV Movies, which allow a nice break from the schedule of TV Drama. Currenty, Charters is the DP on the highly successful Award winning Fox series “24”, which stars Kiefer Sutherland. He is inspired by his wife Gillian, and 3 wonderful children: May, Jasmin, and Robin who are all devoted to the love of filmmaking.
Elliot Smith
Elliot was a founding member of the Guardian’s award-winning multimedia team and has shot videos all over the world.
He is currently Head of Video at Happen Digital, a boutique agency that specialises in online content for companies, brands, charities and NGOs.
You should follow him on Twitter where he is @elliotsmith
