IEC
[Courtesy of Ian Baker]
Born: 1947, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Education: Fine Art School [Sculpture and Painting]; Swinburne College of Advanced Education [now the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA)].
Career: Got a job as runner on commercials for Fred Schepisi's prod company 'Film House'.
Ph and dir [since 1977] commercials.
His son Leo is a vfx artist and dir.
Awards: AFI [Aus] Award [1976] for 'The Devil's Playground'; AFI [Aus] Award nom [1978] for 'The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith'; Film Critics Circle of Australia Award [2003] & AFI [Aus] Award [2003] for 'Japanese Story'.
Website: Ian Baker
After
enjoying a long working relationship legendary
Australian director Fred Schepisi and cinematographer
Ian Baker both agree that by now, they can read each
other's creative minds. The two have been working together since the very
beginning of their careers, when they both started out
during the renaissance of the Australian film industry
in the early 1970s.
Baker joked that back in the early days, he was happy to
'sweep the floor for Fred'. Since then Baker
has worked with him on every film except one, 'Last
Orders' [2000].
'I was around to take on the shooting of his first
feature film, 'The Devil's Playground',' Baker
said, adding that the idea came out of a short piece Schepisi
made for the omnibus film, 'Libido' [1972].
Schepisi, now 74, began his career in advertising and
worked his way up from a copywriter to owning his own
agency. He later joined the new Producers and Directors
Guild, a cooperative in which he felt he could learn
about all of the different disciplines involved in
filmmaking.
While Baker, on the other hand, attended art school,
studying fine arts, which he said was an excellent
experience and preparation for a cinematographer. Both
disciplines - painting and cinematography - deal
with composition, light and shade, color, tonality and
have many more common aspects. 'We study famous paintings quite often, to decide on
the ‘look’ for our film. And we talk about light,
perhaps describing it as 'Vermeer style lighting',' Baker said.
During the shooting of 'Plenty' [1985], Baker and Schepisi agreed
on a philosophy for shooting, which lasted from then on.
Sound and image are co-workers, meaning the sound can
tell something and save the camera from having to do it.
'Making films is extremely organic and everything may
have to change if it's not working,' he said.
Baker agreed that filmmaking was a process that should
be open to change. He just shot his first film with
digital equipment. 'I liked it more than I thought I would and I loved
having quick access to the material. We can look at the
final image, right there on the set. We are still
novices in the digital era at the moment. 'Words and
Pictures' look fabulous,' he said.
On the switch to working with digital cameras, Schepisi
said people should see the positive. 'Don't say I can't do this or
that. Talk about the positives. Film went through
progressions and now digital photography will too. It's here to stay and soon film
won't be around anymore.'
Baker said that he enjoys and greatly values working
with Schepisi. 'He is the best director I've worked with because he
pushes. He's tough. Yes, he pushes me and everyone for
their ultimate best. He'll say, "Let's do it
again. It can be better."' [From
article by Cynthia Webb in The Jakarta Post, November 24,
2013.]
FILMS & TELEVISION | |
---|---|
1968 |
Cool All at Onceness [Ian Baker] 16mm/b&w; exp doc/6m; + ed; prod VCA |
1970 |
Getting Back to Nothing/Double Stoke [Tim Burstall] 16mm/b&w-c; doc/26m & 55m; cph: Robin Copping, Garry Wapshott, a.o. |
1972 |
Don't Shoot Please, I'm Dead [Wolfgang Kress] b&w; exp short/35m |
1972 |
Tomorrow's Canberra [Fred A. Schepisi] c; doc/34m; optical sequences: Larry Wyner |
1972 |
Libido [seg #3 'The Priest' dir by Fred Schepisi] c; 4 seg; other ph: Robin Copping, Eric Lomas & Bruce McNaughton |
With dir Fred Schepisi [looking through cam]
"The Devil's Playground"
1975 |
The Devil's Playground [Fred Schepisi] c |
1977 |
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith [Fred Schepisi] p/c |
1980 |
Barbarosa [Fred Schepisi] p/c |
1982 |
The Clinic [David Stevens] 16mm-35bu/c |
1984 |
Iceman [Fred Schepisi] p/c; aph: Stan McClain |
1985 |
Plenty [Fred Schepisi] p/c |
1986 |
The Last Frontier [Simon Wincer] 2-part tvm; ph USA: Tom Neuwirth |
1986 |
Roxanne [Fred Schepisi] p/c |
1987 |
Evil Angels/A Cry in the Dark [Fred Schepisi] p/c |
1988 |
The Punisher [Mark Goldblatt] c |
1989 |
Everybody Wins [Karel Reisz] c |
1989 |
The Russia House [Fred Schepisi] tvi/c |
1991 |
Mr. Baseball [Fred Schepisi] p/c |
1993 |
Six Degrees of Separation [Fred Schepisi] s35/c |
1994 |
I.Q. [Fred Schepisi] s35/c; 2uc: Alec Hirschfeld & Tom Houghton |
1995 |
Fierce Creatures [Robert Young & Fred Schepisi (reshoots)] p/c; ph reshoots; ph: Adrian Biddle |
1996 |
The Chamber [James Foley] p/c |
2000 |
[Anne Rice's] Queen of the Damned [Michael Rymer] p/c; 2uc: Ian Jones; aph: Kurt E. Soderling |
2002 |
It Runs in the Family [Fred Schepisi] s35/c |
2002 |
Japanese Story [Sue Brooks] p/c |
2003 |
Picasso at the Lapin Agile [Fred Schepisi] scheduled to start filming in February; status unknown |
2003 |
Empire Falls [Fred Schepisi] 2-part tvm; 2uc: Wayne Paull |
2006 |
Evan Almighty [Tom Shadyac] s35/c; 2uc: Don McCuaig; aph: Kurt E. Soderling; Flying Cam ph: Mike Kirsch |
2010 |
The Eye of the Storm [Fred Schepisi] ? (+ digital)/c |
2013 |
Words and Pictures [Fred Schepisi] HD scope/c |
2013 |
Love Notes [Leo Baker] HD (ARRI ALEXA)/c; short/17m |
2014 |
The Olive Sisters [Fred Schepisi (replaced Don Burgess)] announced as doph, but film will be ph by Michael Burgess and dir by Frank Lotito in 2015 |