Live, Online and On Demand
2022–20264 min readThe studio on Broadway gave way to Zoom, and the audience got much bigger. Since 2022, ASC members have taught live webinars that students joined from dozens of countries, judged our contests and recorded courses for the StudentFilmmakers Academy. Several of the names from earlier chapters came back in this era: Roy H. Wagner, Michael Goi, Christopher Baffa and Patrick Cady among them.
Mark IrwinCSC, ASC
“What I took away was, 'get back to the story'.”
A webinar attendee, on Mark Irwin, CSC, ASC
Mark Irwin, CSC, ASC, taught a live webinar for us in May 2023, then helped judge our Summer Shorts video contest and our Winter Photo Contest. His live Ask Me Anything session on cinematography is now an on-demand course.
Irwin was born in Toronto in 1950 and graduated from York University in 1973 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in film. He started by shooting documentaries for the National Film Board of Canada and the CBC, along with freelance television and low-budget features, and went on to shoot The Fly, There’s Something About Mary and Old School.
Gary BaumASC
“I am very thankful to have the benefit of the wisdom of experience that Gary brought to us.”
A webinar attendee, on Gary Baum, ASC
On May 16, 2023, three-time Emmy winner Gary Baum, ASC, taught a webinar on building collaboration among showrunners, directors, production designers and key departments. Attendees especially valued how candid he was.
Baum started out as a film loader with Lorimar Productions at MGM and worked his way up to camera assistant and camera operator on shows such as The A-Team, MacGyver, Magnum, P.I., Friends and Will & Grace. His course on live set presence and managing a multi-camera crew is part of the Academy.
Paul HughenASC
Paul Hughen, ASC, joined the judging panel for our Winter Photo Contest 2024, giving entrants a chance to have their work evaluated by someone who has contributed to more than 100 film and television projects. He has been second unit director of photography on Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Book of Boba Fett, Avengers: Endgame and Stranger Things.
Nancy SchreiberASC
“You started me thinking very differently about lens choices.”
A webinar attendee, to Nancy Schreiber, ASC
Nancy Schreiber, ASC, taught our Lens Selection for Film and TV webinar on December 11, 2023, followed by a session on creating look books. Both are now available on demand.
She was born in Detroit in 1949 and studied psychology and art history at the University of Michigan, which had no film school. She made Super 8 films with friends and ran an alternative movie theater for the Ann Arbor Film Cooperative, which she calls her real film education. She followed a boyfriend to New York, answered an ad in the Village Voice to get onto a set, and worked her way from electrician to best boy to gaffer. She was the first female gaffer in New York’s NABET local, and mentors loaned her their Eclair NPR as she moved into camera. She was the first woman to receive the ASC’s President’s Award, and her recent work includes P-Valley.
Jaron PresantASC
“Exactly the kind I find most valuable; a mix of practical and theoretical by a presenter who thinks deeply about their work.”
A webinar attendee, on Jaron Presant, ASC
Four days after Nancy Schreiber’s session, Jaron Presant, ASC, taught Cultivating Commonality of Vision in a Complex System, about how a cinematographer builds a shared vision across a large production. His work spans features, series, documentaries and music videos, including Rampage.
More Friends from the Show Floor
Over the years StudentFilmmakers has crossed paths with many more ASC members at NAB, Cine Gear Expo and other industry events. Among them are Garrett Brown, ASC, the inventor of the Steadicam, whom Anastas Michos once assisted; Robert Primes, ASC, who recommended M. David Mullen for membership in the ASC; and Stephen Burum, ASC, photographed with Roy H. Wagner and Daryn Okada at Cine Gear Expo at Paramount Studios in 2014.
Passing It On
Look back over these twenty years and a pattern shows up. Almost none of these cinematographers had a straight path. Some went to the great film schools: USC, AFI, the National Film School, Łódź, the Royal College of Art. Others were turned down by every school they applied to, dropped out of high school, or started in the stationery department, the mail room, the projection booth or the back of a camera truck. Nearly all of them learned from someone who took the time to show them how, and nearly all of them have spent years doing the same for others.
That is what this honor roll celebrates. To every ASC member who has taught a workshop, sat for an interview, answered a forum question, judged a contest or led a webinar for StudentFilmmakers: thank you for passing on the art of cinematography to the next generation.
Are you an ASC member who has worked with StudentFilmmakers and is not on this list yet, or do you have a correction or a photo to share? Get in touch. This honor roll keeps growing.
Learn from working cinematographers: see Academy membership
ASC is the American Society of Cinematographers. Other credentials: ACS (Australian), AMC (Mexican), BSC (British), CSC (Canadian), GSC (Greek), ISC (Indian) and SBC (Belgian) societies of cinematographers. Dates are from StudentFilmmakers Magazine back issues and StudentFilmmakers.com workshop records. Background details come from each cinematographer’s own interviews with StudentFilmmakers and from published biographies.