Still cameras have always had a big place in the art, craft, and business of Motion Pictures. There are, of course, glamour photos of the stars and the publicity stills that Unit Still photographers take on set for use in marketing films and TV programs, but what movie-goers are not aware of is that we use still cameras extensively in visual effects, in some obvious and some less obvious ways.
Visual effects director of photography and supervisor Mark Weingartner, ASC will explore with us the ways that still photos have been incorporated in filmmaking historically and currently – and you may be surprised at how often ideas have been “re-discovered.”
Mark Weingartner bio: Director of photography and visual effects supervisor Mark Weingartner, ASC began his career as a theatrical lighting designer in New York. He migrated first into television and motion picture lighting, and subsequently into cinematography and visual effects in Hollywood. Weingartner has worked on every continent but Antarctica, and on projects ranging from studio tentpoles to indie films, TV shows, and documentaries, working in formats from 16mm to IMAX.
His work can be seen, if not recognized, in “Dunkirk”, “Inception,” the Christopher Nolan Batman films, the G.I. Joe films, the last three “Hunger Games,” the last two “Twilight” films, “The Passion of the Christ”, and “Apocalypto” among many others.
Weingartner is a member of the American Society of Cinematographers, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Visual Effects Branch, the International Cinematographers Guild, and the Visual Effects Society.
Weingartner is represented in life by his wife and partner Shannon Brown, and at work by Wendy Schneider of The Schneider Entertainment Agency.
