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Member LoginJohn McLean ACS
I was born 3rd July 1939 in Cessnock NSW in the Hunter Valley and bought up for much of my early years by my uncle; Jack Smith, Regional Manager for Greater Union Theatres in the Coalfields Region of NSW (Cessnock, Kurri, Maitland etc). Jack was quite often host to the Newsreel crews of both Cinesound and Movietone when they were in the area covering some of the Miners Strikes or Floods both serious events in the Hunter in that era. Sid Wood was a regular and a very good friend of Jacks.
As a result of spending a great deal of my young life in Cessnock I would go down to his Empire Theatre and spend hours in the Bio Box rewinding the reels at the matinee. From that start I never wanted to do anything else but to be in " the film business".
When I left school my Uncle Jack organised me an interview at Movietone through Sid Wood and another with Ken Hall at Cinesound but there was no positions available at that time. Reg Barrett at Cinesound however rang Kinelab and got me an interview with Manager Owen Harrington and I got my first job. I was in the industry.
It was 1954 and I was right out of school at 15 yrs when I got the job at Kinelab. They were housed in the old Adams Hotel Building in George St. where the Hilton Hotel is now. I was both in the Lab mastering the art of manual Dye Fades and Negative Fades (with Cyanide!) and in the Optical Sound Track departments where I spent many hours in the dark producing the tracks for 35mm and 16mm copies of the John Heyer classic "Back of Beyond" (Shell Film Unit). I also did the Acetate recordings for Cinema Feature Theatre Ads with Jack Davey, Bob Dyer and later Len London.
The manual Dye and Cyanide Fades where my favourite. A very basic process on the original camera Pos or Neg and using equipment literally made out of Meccano. The odd splash on the face and a wipe of the mouth when using cyanide and by about noon I would pass out so they would let me catch the tram home to Kingsford and have the rest of the day off. The best job in the world!
By 1956 and seeking a future outside of darkrooms I harassed Cinematographer Ross Wood writing to him every day for months. I think to preserve his sanity he relented and gave me my first job in the Camera Dept of Pagewood Studios.
Pagewood was just completing both a Feature version and a TV Series version of "Long John Silver" starring Robert Newton and then embarked on a series of features...Robbery Under Arms (Peter Finch version), The Shiralee again with Peter Finch. Summer of the 17th Doll, Siege of Pinchgut, Smiley Gets a Gun. I was lucky enough to work on them all albeit as Clapper Boy and then later as Focus Puller. The greatest influences on my life were my "bosses" who gave freely and unselfishly of their own brilliance to teach me. I am forever indebted to George Lowe, Ross Wood, Ron Horner, Carl Kayser and also Sid Wood who allowed me to work with him on weekend stories for Movietone and then to work as a stringer on my own. This was my "film" education.
From the 60s onward there were great opportunities for myself and many of our now well known Cinematographers. Overseas companies arrived to shoot both Features and TV Series and with that the chance to work alongside some of the great Cinematographers from Britain and the US. Harry Waxman BSC, Paul Beeson BSC,
Gerry Fisher BSC and Brian West BSC to name a few.
Getting the chance to shoot my first Feature in 1965 a small, no a miniscule budget,
“Demonstrator” opened up many opportunities for me and from that time onward through the 70s and 80s I was able to shoot quite a few Features and Mini Series here in Australia and overseas and I was supported by brilliant young Camera Operators and Focus Pullers on my team. You don’t achieve it on your own!
Like other Cinematographers of that era we were blessed with a steady flow of work as Freelancers. Our industry overall was very strong. The legacy I am left of which I am very proud is that whilst as competitive Cinematographers in a very competitive market place, we competed hard against each other for jobs yet, so many of us remain the close friends we were in those days. I think its called “respect”.
I count myself a very very lucky person indeed to have been privileged to be part of our industry as a Cinematographer.
The most UNUSUAL work in Cinematography.
Having worked as a very young Assistant Cameraman on the US production of... CINERAMA SOUTH SEA ADVENTURE. I was approached by a syndicate who had bought the equivalent Russian system KINEPANORAMA and in 1996 I shot as DoP a Documentary in this massive Three Strip format here in Sydney to be screened at the Motion Picture and Television Museum in Bradford. Yorkshire. U.K.
from Australian Cinematographer - Issue 12 - March 2001