Articles


Goert Giltay - Zen and the Art of Tightrope Walking

Amsterdam, 2023-11-29 - Gerlinda Heywegen

Goert Giltay, recently retired director of photography with a huge track record, likes to leave things up to others when his style is concerned. Every film was a new search. Sometimes his work had to be zen and a few times he got angry. But friendship was the core of his work, with ‘his’ heroes of cinema, the directors.


EURO CINE EXPO 2023 - MOTORWORLD, MUNICH

Amsterdam, 2023-07-05 - Miga Bär

Last year Munich and the German film industry were introduced to a new event called Euro Cine Expo. On June 30 and July 1 of this year the sophomore edition took place at Motorworld in Munich.


Lennert Hillege - Making Movies at Full Steam!

Amsterdam, 2023-06-08 - Gerlinda Heywegen

Director of Photography Lennert Hillege claims he does not have his own style. He is just as good or bad as the project he works on. He says he is always looking for the right wavelength to attune to in collaborations, whether that is with directors he has worked with for years or whether he works with new ones, such as Steve McQueen with whom he worked recently.


HBO CAS 2023

Amsterdam, 2023-06-21 - Ties Versteegh NSC

On Wednesday, June 14th, the NSC presented the exclusive HBO CAS 2023 showcased by Director of Photography:Suny Behar.


Piotr Kukla - No plans on retiring any time soon!

Den Haag, 2023-01-06 - Gerlinda Heywegen

Piotr Kukla will often use that word in this interview when he is talking about something or someone. A little afraid that he won’t be able to work in the Netherlands anymore because of his age, enthusiastic about his students at the Łódź Film School in Poland. Full of love for the directors he has worked with for years, and where storyboarding is sacred.


P I N A

Amsterdam, 2023-01-13 - Nina da Costa

In the run-up to the ceremony of the 4th edition of the Robby Müller Award, the NSC takes you on a journey along the films of winner cinematographer Hélène Louvart AFC.


Sander Snoep - Never in charge, always a guest

Amsterdam, 2022-09-02 - Gerlinda Heywegen

Sander Snoep has been a well-known player in the Dutch documentary scene for years and would never have expected to still be so passionate about his profession. He is still curious every single time he’s starting a project. How his films get made, in rain or shine, does not matter to him. As long as they come about.


Paul Özgür - In a hurry to make that one masterpiece

Amsterdam, 2022-02-25 - Gerlinda Heywegen

He’s aiming for a large audience. His work has to be seen by as many people as possible. He talks about balance, Dutch DP Paul Özgür. In style and story and also in his own portfolio. And then there are the rules.


Myrthe Mosterman - Finding Synergy

Amsterdam, 2021-11-15 - Gerlinda Heywegen

A Gouden Kalf Award (Dutch film award) for her first feature film; that is what happened to DP Myrthe Mosterman in October 2020. In a Zoom interview, she talks about her style and how she prefers to work. NSC manifest New Deal pops up once again in this interviews series and it seems inevitable to address ‘being a woman’ within this ‘male profession’. But so far, she does not yet have to use a nom de plume.


Jean Counet - A jazz musician’s travels

Amsterdam, 2021-06-01 - Gerlinda Heywegen

There were five films on the shortlist for discussion with DP Jean Counet. Two feature films and three documentaries. Although Counet studied Directing at St Lukas, Brussels, he prefers to be a cameraman. But the conversation via Zoom kicked off with his own work, due to the March 2020 lockdown.


Martijn van Broekhuizen - Gangs of London

Amsterdam, 2021-04-23 - Aart Verschuur

Martijn van Broekhuizen worked on the first season of Gangs of London and is currently shooting the second season. 


Richard van Oosterhout - Insight and Wonder

The Netherlands, 2021-02-10 - Gerlinda Heywegen

Netherlands Society of Cinematographers initiates a series of interviews. NSC chair Richard van Oosterhout starts. He talks about his work, a Dutch New Deal, creativity on set and about breaking with what you know.


2021 ROBBY MÜLLER AWARD goes to Kelly Reichardt

Rotterdam, 2020-12-22 - Bianca van Riemsdijk

Kelly Reichardt will receive the second annual Robby Müller Award. As part of the award, she will also receive a gallery print of one of Robby Müller’s Polaroids.


Sidik and The Panther

Amsterdam, 2020-11-17 - Freek Zonderland

SIDIK AND THE PANTHER is a film about a man called Sidik, wandering around in the mountains of Kurdistan looking for a sign of the Persian leopard. Directed by Reber Dosky and shot by Roy van Egmond. Selected for IDFA 2019 and Camerimage 2020, mominated for an IMAGE award.


Sisters

Amsterdam, 2020-05-05 - Freek Zonderland

ZUSSEN (SISTERS) is a short dance film by director Daphne Lucker and cinematographer Casper van Oort. It has screened and has won prices at festivals all over the world. In November it screened in the student competition at Camerimage and it won the IMAGO Student Award 2020. 


Onderhuids

Amsterdam, 2020-04-27 - Freek Zonderland

ONDERHUIDS (UNDER THE SKIN) from director Emma Branderhorst and cinematographer Michel Rosendaal screened at the Berlinale earlier this year. We spoke with Michel about this poetically shot twenty-minute short film. 


First ROBBY MÜLLER AWARD goes to Diego García

Rotterdam, 2019-10-30 - IFFR / NSC

The Robby Müller Award honours an ‘image maker’ who, in the spirit of the late Robby Müller, has created an authentic, credible and emotionally striking visual language throughout their oeuvre. The first award goes to Diego García and will be presented at the 49th International Film Festival Rotterdam.


The Circle of Film

Amsterdam, 2019-10-02 - Jean van de Velde

"Wil de Nederlandse filmcultuur overleven, dan zal de filmketen een filmketting moeten worden! Dan moet het einde van die keten (de filmexploitatie) aan het begin (de filmproductie) geklonken worden. Dan moeten de baten aan het einde de 'boost' voor een nieuw begin zijn."


Regisseurs naar de achterbank

Amsterdam, 2019-08-24 - Jos van der Burg & Karin Wolfs

“Doreen krijgt heel veel power.” Aldus waarnemend Filmfonds-directeur Ger Bouma tien jaar geleden over de benoeming van Doreen Boonekamp tot directeur. Anders dan haar voorgangers kreeg Boonekamp bij haar aantreden twee petten: ze werd zowel directeur als bestuurder van het Filmfonds.


New Deal NSC

Amsterdam, 2019-04-17 - NSC

Uit een NSC-enquête die in mei 2018 onder de leden is gehouden, was de belangrijkste conclusie dat het de DP’s frustreert dat ze hun werk niet optimaal kunnen uitvoeren. Daarom dit manifest met suggesties om het werkproces te veranderen.


Living the Light, at 75th Venice International Film Festival

Amsterdam, 2018-11-18 - Vincent Visser

Living the Light – Robby Müller, made by Claire Pijman NSC, will have its world premiere at the 75th Venice International Film Festival and is selected for the Venice Classics competition


Time Layers Come Together

Amsterdam, 2018-11-17 - Vincent Visser

'Paolo Ventura, Vanishing Man,’ shows how an Italian artist creates his own timeless melancholic world in a barn on an abandoned mountaintop in Italy. With paint, cardboard, and relics of a human life, he resonates his childhood’s memories and isolation by giving himself and found objects a new magical life.   


Frank van den Eeden about Waldstille

Amsterdam, - Vincent Visser

Dutch cinematographer Frank van den Eeden (May 14, 1971), resident of Antwerp is best known for his work with directors such as Fien Troch, Nanouk Leopold and Jan Verheyen. Besides many nominations he has won several awards for his work as cinematographer.  One of his later productions is ‘Waldstille’ from writer and director Martijn Maria Smits, a feature film that got its world-premiere during the San Sebastian Film Festival in 2016. The NSC talked with Frank about this film.


NSC Investigates Film Making Process in The Netherlands

Amsterdam, 2019-05-01 - NSC

The Netherlands Society of Cinematographers (NSC) conducted a survey among its members as a response to the Netherlands Film Production Incentive 2014-2017 evaluation.


The Cinematographer as Co-Author

Amsterdam, 2019-05-09 - Hans Beerekamp

While cleaning up his archive, film journalist Hans Beerekamp found several editions of the (small-scale published) Dutch film magazine Cineécri.


Emotional Shapes and Textures - Daniël Bouquet

Amsterdam, 2018-07-15 - Vincent Visser

Immediately after his graduation from the Dutch Film Academy in 2006, Daniël Bouquet made a flying start as Director of Photography. For his second feature length production “Nothing Personal” (2008) he won the Golden Calf award for best Cinematography during the Netherlands Film Festival in 2009. Nowadays he works mainly on a variety of international projects, amongst commercials for major brands like Adidas, Gillette and Vogue. The NSC talked with him about his career, interests and more.  


Beerified Scope

Amsterdam, 2018-11-16 - Vincent Visser

Joris Kerbosch (Culemborg, 1980) is best known for his work as cinematographer for directing duo Steffen Haars and Flip van der Kuil, for whom he shot the movies ‘New Kids Turbo’ (2010), ‘New Kids Nitro’ (2011) and ‘BROs BEFORE HOs’ (2013). ‘Ron Goossens, Low-Budget Stuntman,’ is their fourth feature film collaboration. Together those comedies where amongst the highest grossing films in The Netherlands and acclaimed international recognition. NSC spoke with cinematographer Joris Kerbosch about the film.

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EURO CINE EXPO 2023 - MOTORWORLD, MUNICH


Amsterdam, 2023-07-05 - Miga Bär

Except for the weird arena that is Motorworld, where basically all the supercar manufacturers of the world have a small showroom in a big conference center, this event can be likened to the BSC Expo in London, albeit a bit smaller.

The 5 halls with exhibitors were mostly filled with manufacturers of lighting, grip and peripherals. Except for Sony and Blackmagic, none of the camera manufactures had a presence on the show floor, the same was true for most lens manufacturers except Leitz and P+S Technik. With little surprises on the stands it became evidently clear that this event is not aimed at hearing the scoops about the latest and greatest of the manufacturers. Rather, it’s aimed at connecting people and sharing insights through the various presentations that are hosted.

On that last topic, the event offered an impressive lineup of seminars and workshops, attracting a decent crowd which also made the expo a great networking event. With 3 rooms for seminars and workshops running in parallel, I could only attend a selection of what Euro Cine had to offer and enjoyed every bit of it. Some of the highlights were:

All you need to know about... LEDs!

A highly scientific presentation on the difficulties of working with LED light, how LED lights in urban environments have changed the look of cityscapes entirely, how to correctly judge the qualities and shortcomings of LED lighting fixtures and how as a cinematographer you can make yourself aware of the pitfalls and consequences of your LED lighting choices. This session was organised by the IMAGO Technical Committee and hosted by Philippe Ros AFC and David Stump ASC/MITC. These two gentleman have gone on a bit of a European tour with this presentation, as it was also recently presented at the Visual Media Lab Conference in Stuttgart and the Oslo Digital Cinema Conference. And even though both the presenters have a tendency to go off on scientific tangents, the presentation was highly digestible and quite insightful. The most important takeaway: every cinematographer should have a 10,- Spectroscope in their standard toolkit to measure the spectrum of any given light, it’s a real eye opener (pun intended)!

Artifical Intelligence & Cinematography - Chances & Risks

With a healthy dose of scepsis I walked into the Black Box seminar room, where Felix Hüsken, renowned colorist and BVK board member was presenting his observations on how filmmakers can utilise the current state of AI in their creative process as of today. He managed to convince me that the current suite of widely available tools like ChatGPT, Dall-E, Midjourney and Relight (amongst others) can already be used to our benefits, even if the results aren’t ready for prime time yet. The main use case he presented was in the pre-production phase, where these tools can effectively help create a look book, mood board or look references to guide conversations about the visual direction of a production. In a way, Felix presented an AI driven next step in what Shotdeck has done for us over the last few years.

Did he present a silver bullet? I don’t think so. But it can be very useful to help translate the images a director, cinematographer, production designer, etc have in their minds to a visual reference for everyone to see.

Artistic Decisions on Cinematography - To be Burnt or not to be Burnt?

Another session in the series of IMAGO hosted presentations, this time a panel conversation about the desire to have camera manufacturers provide creative control to cinematographers. This has been a hot topic within the IMAGO Technical Committee for years, most visibly through the long conversations with SONY that eventually led to adding a Sharpness slider within the set of RAW parameters on Sony cameras.

This was a promising session with a lot of very high profile names on the panel. Unfortunately, the chosen setup didn’t allow for a real conversation. After all 12 or so participants were given their 5 minutes to present their view on the topic, there was no time left to actually discuss the various statements that were made. A more suitable setup might’ve been to have a real round table open conversation between the speakers, and have the audience sit around that as bystanders. Given, this would require a bit of pre-existing context for the audience, but would’ve provided room for more debate to take place.

Nonetheless, there were very interesting views and opinions shared within the almost 2 hour session. ARRI presented their work on the Textures that are available within the Alexa 35, Suny Behar (director/DP of the HBO Camera Assessment Series) held a passionate plea both about making decisions as part of the creative process, but also to preserve these decisions as metadata, to enable future remastering as much as possible. Some of the participants fervently rooted for the burning in of creative decisions, either because constraints help the creative process or out of fear to loose control during the postproduction process. The most striking observation to me came from Pascale Marin AFC, who showed the importance of pragmatism by explaining how she would choose the amount of burnt in creative decisions on the level of confidence her director will show to her. She also hinted towards this conversation being more on the political and human level than the technical level, which I couldn’t agree with more.

I’m looking forward to the next step in this conversation, as the topic is a very interesting one.

AFC Lens Conference

Promoted as a conference, this turned out to be a screening of two extremely thorough and extensive lens tests that the AFC has performed over the last 5 years. In the first round, executed 4 or 5 years ago, 31 different s35 lenses were tested in a well thought out set, in which highlight detail, shadow detail, depth of field, flare, halation, focus breathing and many other characteristics were clear to discern. The second test, performed in 2021, did the exact same thing, but now with full frame lenses.

What made this a fun exercise was the fact that all lenses had received a two letter codename and the audience got pen and paper to keep notes on your observations during the screening. I have to admit that sitting through 2x 31x 1,5 minutes of the same 2 shots is tedious, especially as it was just that, showing the recordings, with no sound or commentary. Nonetheless I found it incredibly fascinating to see all the differences.

The most striking observation: s35 lenses come in all kinds of different flavours whereas full frame lenses are a lot of different iterations of vanilla and a few more exotic flavours.

I touched base with Pascale Marin from the AFC after the session to see if she would be willing to share the DCP of these tests with other societies. The AFC is very open to this idea, so I hope to host a screening of these tests for NSC members sometime later this year.

HDR On-Set Workshop

Hosted by BandPro, a Munich based reseller of cameras and peripherals, a small set was built in which colorist Felix Hüsken, DIT Christian Saure and make-up artist Julia Schlotke showed participants of the workshop what to pay attention to when shooting for HDR, and how to correctly monitor for HDR, both when you are fortunate enough to have HDR monitoring on set and when you don’t have that option. I especially had a great conversation with Julia Schlotke about the impact that sharper lenses, higher resolution and higher dynamic range have had on her work over the last decade.

On display were some of Small HD’s current monitors: the 350 nit limited 24” OLED and the 1000 nit 24” Vision series. Even though the list price on these models is still very steep, Small HD finally gives us hope that HDR monitoring on set will be something within reach even for lower budget productions in the next few years. The image quality and tracking of the PQ curve on both these monitors is stunning. Nonetheless, using these monitors on set still comes with its set of intricacies that you need to be aware of before deploying HDR monitoring on set.

Metamerism & Metameric Failure

As closing act, Dirk Meier (renowned colorist and world-class teacher) treated us with a full blown magic trick that would play very well at a Las Vegas residency show. With the use of a white sheet stolen from the hotel, a tungsten light source, an LED light source and a bag filled with bell peppers, Dirk managed to explain a very abstract yet important facet of color science in an easy and convincing manner. The details of the experiment go a bit too deep for this writeup, but it boiled down to being a very convincing demonstration of everything that Philippe Ros and David Stump had warned for in their opening session, which brought the entire show full circle. I’m hopeful we will find a good place at a future NSC event to replicate this magic trick, as it is definitely worth seeing it in real life.

Combine all of the above with great conversations, German sized beers and Bavarian cuisine and it is easy to imagine that these were two very fruitful and educational days but equally exhausting.

Miga Bär