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YEARS ON
Technicians celebrates a specia
Photo main: Alec Mills, the first Chairman of the GBCT;
above l-r: Mike Fox, behind the camera, on the set of Dangerous Liaisons; the Poster for the 1978 smash hit Superman; Trevor Coop, the present Chairman of the GBCT
Fujifilm Motion Picture • The Magazine • Exposure • 13
news profile
l anniversary
By his own account a ‘reluctant chairman’, Mills served the first two- year term. Twenty-eight years later Trevor Coop holds the post, which offers a nice symmetry as he had worked as focus puller for his father Denys on Superman, and went on to see his Dad share a Special Achievement Academy Award for his work on that film.
But his tenure is as much about looking forward as well as looking back, and he is keen to build on the ideals of those four founding fathers and the 42 technicians – of which Coop was one – who established the Guild proper nine months later.
“The thing driving the Guild is the desire to maintain standards in the camera department,” Coop adds, “to only allow people who have those let- ters after their name to reach the cri- teria that we demand in order to gain entry. These are pretty stringent, and hopefully through that we have main- tained the sort of quality that has led the rest of the world. Many countries have fantastic technicians, but not in the depth that we have.”
Part of the emphasis in this auspi- cious year is on the educational initia- tives the GBCT undertakes, spreading the knowledge accumulated over whole careers by its members and passing it on to the next generation.
“I’ve done five or six sessions going over equipment with would be trainees and film school people,” says Deaton, “teaching them what you know about the equipment, how you use it and how you’d like them to use it and things like that. That sort of stuff is good, I think we’ve turned out some very good technicians.”
“We have open days and semi- nars,” Coop continues, “so that exist- ing members can come and look at the new Panavision stuff, or the new Arriflex stuff - whatever new toys are on the block. We make sure that our members have the opportunity to have a good look, because there’s so much new equipment that comes out that if you’re busy working for a living it can be very difficult to keep up with it.
“We’re very keen on making sure that our members find out about all that, we work in conjunction with the rental houses to have open days so that our members can come down and have a look at the really new state of the art equipment.
“Once again maintaining that sort of thing is our aim for the future of the Guild, as well as spreading ourselves into different areas of cinematography. We’re encouraging people involved in live outside broadcast, things like that, people that are serious and skilled, to become involved.”
As well as predictable celebrations at the forthcoming GBCT birthday party on June 2 there will be a more formal opportunity to recognise excel- lence in the work of its 480 members.
In the past the awards have been restricted to the Best Camera Operator, the prestigious Panavision sponsored Focus Puller’s Knob – made of a gold plated knob from the now obsolete PSVR – and the David Lenham Award,
given for lifetime achievement in any area of the business and named after a founder member of the GBCT who died tragically young.
This year there a host of new awards, indicating the high regard with which the GBCT is held by the wider industry, with sponsors includ- ing Chapman/Leonard, Panavision, Eon Productions and – sponsoring a cinematography award – Fujifilm.
“It’s all about recognition of the backroom guys,” says Coop, “that’s partially what the Guild is about. We don’t just want to give ourselves a pat on the back, we want everyone to sit up and take notice that it takes us to make movies as well as the heads of department.”
In the ultimate team sport that film- making is, every contribution serves a purpose and is deserving of such recog- nition. Perhaps the most significant effect of the GBCT’s first 30 years is in emphasising the fact that each of the disciplines the organisations represents is not necessarily the means to an end, but might be an end in itself.
“For 28 years I’ve been a camera operator,” says Coop, “but as a kid I wanted to be a cinematographer. Once I got two or three decent pictures under my belt as an operator, I realised that’s what I was good at, so I made a decision to be a career opera- tor rather than to continue the move up through the ranks.
“I stopped there because I knew this was what made me happy, I seemed to be appreciated and I think I do it well.” As a testament to the val- ues and aims of the Guild of British Camera Technicians that is as fitting as any. ■ ANWAR BRETT