AFC-related activities

I am pleased to have presided over the destiny of Thales Angénieux for the past two and a half years. Although Angénieux is an internationally recognized brand in the world of cinema through our famous line of Optimo zooms, our company had not previously established any formal link with the AFC.
Yet it is to the AFC and its members, directors of photography, the early users of our products, that we must turn to propose lenses that continue to perfectly meet the technical and artistic requirements of this métier.

Camera manufacturer, designer of image capture at a time when film sets are opening to digital, Sony is joining the AFC. Sony’s involvement in the film world, but especially in the capture of the image, for many years is a reality that has resulted in new additions to the director of photography’s vocabulary: the 750, the 900, then the F23, and finally the F35 which is currently making its appearance among rental houses.
There was an urgent need to involve all this work and reflection in the dynamic that inhabits the AFC.

It is with great pleasure that Sony joins this year for the first time the AFC, the true guarantor of cinematographic creation and image in France. Thank you for bringing us into this big family.
As you know, we are manufacturer of digital cameras, some of which are destined for cinema artisans. As such, we wish first of all to develop contacts with all those involved, the directors of photography of course, but also directors, makeup artists, production designers and the various service providers.

The interview by Eric Guichard, published in the AFC Newsletter 173 in February 2008, represents Lubomir Bakchev better than I could do. It is also much more interesting for the reader.
I met Lubomir Bakchev as an assistant on Toulouse-produced commercials shot in Switzerland.

It is with great pleasure that we welcome within the AFC, Panasonic Cinema, which many directors of photography have already had the opportunity to know while shooting feature films and television.
In the coming weeks their representative in France, Guilhem Krier, will provide a more detailed presentation of the company and its various activities.

We are pleased to welcome Tom in his migration to the AFC.
Usually, it’s AFC members who knock on the door of the ASC to become members!
Why this attachment to France for a DP who is à la mode because of his work on the films of Clint Eastwood? He started as a gaffer for 18 years with Clint… and DPs Bruce Surtees, Owen Roizman and Jack Green.

I am very honored to sponsor Tom Stern to the AFC. I met him two years ago at Camerimage. I was impressed by his work on Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby. I saw in those films what I found absolutely remarkable in the work of Haskell Wexler, Vilmos Zsigmond or Conrad Hall: the distortion of what could be described as a realistic image.

It was during an evening in Cannes that I had the pleasure and the honor to meet Tom Stern: he was the president of the jury for the Vulcan prize for Technical Artist awarded by the CST, and I was able to spend a few hours talking with him about the business and the responsibilities it engenders.

The 8^th edition of the AFC "Micro Salon" ("micro trade show") was held on Thursday, March 13, 2008 at the Fémis film school in the 18^th district in Paris between 10 AM and 10 PM.
The AFC Micro Salon has been supported by the CNC (National Cinema Center) and the Fémis since its inception. We wish to thank the school’s director, Marc Nicolas, and his team for welcoming us so faithfully in this cinema landmark in the middle of Paris, on the site of the historic Francoeur sound stages.
This year Veronique Cayla, general director of the CNC, and Thierry Frémaux, General Delegate of the Cannes Film Festival, honored us with their presence.

The Annual General Assembly of Imago took place from February 15 to 17, 2008 in Amsterdam. Representatives of the European associations were invited to gather in the Dutch capital on the afternoon of Friday, February 15^th.

The meeting ended the presidency of Andreas Fisher-Hansen (FDF), who had agreed, during an exceptional general assembly in Paris on December 13^th, 2003, to take on the burdensome task of reorganizing Imago.

At the last Cannes Film Festival we started a series of interviews with directors of photography who were not members of the AFC.

I had the pleasure of meeting Lubomir Bakchev at the special screening, organized jointly with the CST, of A Secret by Claude Miller, photographed by Gérard de Battista.

I knew that the release of The Secret of the Grain (La Graine et le mulet) by Abdellatif Kechiche was imminent and I asked Lubomir to see a preview. I then suggested to Lubomir that we extend our conversation with the present interview.

If I had one wish to make for the AFC, it is that interviews, like the one of Gérard de Battista by Wilfrid Sempé, become a means of strengthening relationships and kinship between members, and of reinforcing that most important subject for the future of our association: the image of a film.

Enjoy the interview. Eric Guichard

On November 7^th, 2007 at the Espace Cardin, Paris 8^th, the AFC and CST organized an event entitled “From Digital to 35mm” based around Claude Miller’s film, A Secret. A discussion with the film’s director of photography, Gérard de Battista followed the screening. Wilfrid Sempé wished to continue this discussion by talking with Gérard who “went digital” once again on a Claude Miller film.

Josée Deshaies is a Quebecker. Having studied Art History in Italy, she started training in Montreal as a second assistant cameraman, before photographing documentaries and short films. Through her encounter with Bertrand Bonello, she switched to full length with Quelque chose d’organique (Something Organic) in 1998. Since then, she has photographed such films as Royal Bonbon by Charles Najman, Cache cache by Yves Caumon, Les Invisibles by Thierry Jousse as well as Bertrand Bonello’s Tiresia and Le Pornographe (The Pornographer). Two of the films selected for this year’s edition of the Director’s fortnight were photographed by Deshaies: Avant que j’oublie (Before I Forget) by Jacques Nolot and La Question humaine (The Human Question) by Nicolas Klotz. (FR)

Upon graduating from the Femis in 1999, Celine Bozon made her debut with Jean-Paul Civeyrac on Fantômes, a low-budget film freely shot on video with a tiny crew. The result, feature film Fantômes, was given a theatrical release. Then came Le Doux amour des hommes (Man’s Gentle Love) and Toutes ces belles promesses (All the Fine Promises). At the same time, she shot medium-length Mods with her brother Serge Bozon, then two films by Tony Gatlif (Exils (Exiles) and Transylvania). In 2007, two of the films she photographed were selected in the Quinzaine des réalisateurs: her brother’s second feature La France and Lebanese Danielle Arbid’s Un homme perdu (A Lost Man).

The IMAGO Board: President Andreas Fischer-Hansen, DFF, Vice-president Tony Costa, AIP, and General Secretary Paul-René Roestad, FNF, had their yearly board meeting in Paris, hosted by AFC in rue Francoeur.

Having worked for over 20 years as a gaffer to the greatest American cinematographers of the 1970s (Bruce Surtees, Owen Roiszman, Haskell Wexler, Conrad Hall…), then 46-year-old Tom Stern started a new career as a cinematographer on Clint Eastwood’s Blood Work. His faithful collaborator since 1981 Honkytonk Man, he has photographed all of the star’s films since 2002 and subsequently won several international awards.
Four years after Mystic River, Tom Stern returns to Cannes as foreman of the CST jury.

You can now order the first issue of the French-language review Lumières, les Cahiers de l’AFC, which comes with a CD containing movie excerpts, film stills, set photos and other documents.

The price is 15 Euros (CD included) not including mailing costs
The student price is 12 Euros not including mailing costs
Mailing costs are 3 Euros within France, contact us for other country costs
Upon request an invoice is added to the mailing

You can also pick up a copy in Paris at the AFC, 8 rue Francœur - Paris 18ème - FRANCE

Click here to order one or more copies

Below is the table of contents (note that all the texts are in French)

The AFC has just published the Image Charter, designed to re-specify the responsibilities and obligations incumbent upon a Director of Photography. This document will be used as a basis during this period of changing technologies and working conditions.

AFC Image Charter English version