May 2020

President’s Desk: Why Our Solidarity Is Now Essential

Kees van Oostrum, ASC (Photo by Jacekl Laskus, ASC, PSC) Last month, I promised you the follow-up column on the Art of Cinematography. I announced it as “In the Doghouse” and started writing the somewhat satirical interpretation of how my monitor tent on set is sometimes considered “the doghouse,” and how our position as cinematographers on set and in postproduction often parallels the life of Snoopy. However, while I was writing that, the world turned upside-down and it seemed superfluous to write about that subject at the moment. Instead, I had people asking me — as well as wondering, myself — if cinematography is still relevant in the current state of the world. Meanwhile, I have seen colleagues disappear in quiet retreat,...more