DANIEL MINDEL

#1: From interview [Global Cinematography Institute, 2015]

#2: 2005

DANIEL MINDEL ASC/BSC

Born: 27 May 1958, Johannesburg, South Africa, as Ivor Daniel Mindel.

Education: [In Australia and Britain].

Career: 'My father had an 8mm Bell & Howell camera. He recorded our adventures, and we would watch them on the screen at home. But it wasn't until I saw a still camera that I really became interested in photography. I ended up in secondary school in England in the mid-1960s. By that time, I was dabbling with 35mm stills. I was at a school with an arts-based curriculum, but they didn't actually have a photography class, however there were a couple of darkrooms there. I was able to persuade the teacher to allow me to have my own photographic lesson. So I taught myself how to print and do all that. Some other kids in the class became interested and would join me. We just did it ourselves. [...] I was enamored with Jacques Cousteau's documentaries. I realized that still images could move and go underwater and do all sorts of things. I realized that in order to carry on, I would have to use real motion picture cameras, and I learned that there was a film union, which was impossible to get into unless you knew someone. My parents were both doctors. I kept looking, and I went to college, where I saw an advertisement in the evening newspaper for a guy to come and look after a film studio - clean the floors, make tea, and that kind of thing. I got a job making 40 bucks a week, and I watched what was going on. This studio was a commercial production house, BFCS [Brooks Fulford Cramer Seresin], one of the first in London. One of the partners was Michael Seresin. Michael allowed me to hang on to his camera assistants and help them out. I became a trainee and eventually the company got me my union membership. One of the focus pullers, Hugh Johnson, asked me if I wanted to come and work with him on the reshoots of 'The Hunger', a Tony Scott movie. I was all over that! That was basically how I got in. I met these serious motion picture workers and they allowed me in. I began alternating between Tony and Ridley Scott as a camera assistant on commercials. [...] I was able to work with some of the greatest commercial directors in London at that time. And we began traveling back and forth to the United States to work. Eventually, I got a job as focus puller with Tony on a movie called 'Revenge', which was an American movie shot by Jeff Kimball. Then Ridley was going to do 'Thelma & Louise', and he asked me if I wanted to work on that movie. I did and that allowed me to stay and meet more American filmmakers, and eventually I got into the union here in the U.S. 'Thelma & Louise' was a nonunion picture that went union, and we were all invited in. At that point I started shooting commercials, low-budget pictures, and some episodic television. Then Tony asked me if I wanted to shoot 'Enemy of the State', which was a $100 million movie. I had never done anything like that before. It was just mind-blowing. I will always be grateful to Tony for showing me the way. That's a really common attitude amongst that generation of filmmakers - to help kids get going. The rest is history.' [From the KODAK OnFilm website.]

Ph commercials dir by Tony Scott [for Marlboro, Coca-Cola, Miller Brewing, a.o.], Ridley Scott, Hugh Johnson, Michael Seresin, Roger Spottiswoode, a.o.

Member of the ASC since 2008. Member of the BSC since November 2010.

Married to model/actress/health coach Lisa Fallon.

FILMS
1993	Zalman King's Red Shoe Diaries 3 - Another Woman's Lipstick [seg (ep #6) 'Another Woman's Lipstick' dir by Zalman King] c/V; comp of 3 ep of tv-series; other ph: Ronn Schmidt (seg [ep #4] 'Talk to Me, Baby' dir by Rafael Eisenman) & Larry Fong (seg [ep #5] 'Just Like That' dir by Ted Kotcheff)
1994	Crimson Tide [Tony Scott] p/c; uncred addph; ph: Dariusz Wolski
1995	Snakeland [Joëlle Bentolila] b&w-c; short/35m
1995	White Squall [Ridley Scott] p/c; uncred addph; ph: Hugh Johnson
1995	The Fan [Tony Scott] p/c; uncred addph; ph: Dariusz Wolski
1996	G.I. Jane [Ridley Scott] p/c; 2uc (California); ph: Hugh Johnson
1996	Recon [Breck Eisner] c; short/10m; prod USC
1996	Sand/Sandstorm [Matt Palmieri] p/c; cph (+ c.op): John Skotchdopole; addph: David Miller
1997	Enemy of the State [Tony Scott] p/c; vfx ph: John Mathieson; aph: David Nowell; replaced scheduled ph Dariusz Wolski, who was not available; filmed 1997-98
*199?*	Champion [Andy Snipes (= Andrew Douglas Sipes)] ?; short/?m
1999	Killer Pink [Patrick Cadell] c; short/13m
1999	Shanghai Noon [Tom Dey] p/c; 2uc: John Clothier & Joel Ransom
2000	Spy Game [Tony Scott] p/c; aph: Phil Pastuhov (uncred), Dean Head (Hong Kong) & John Marzano; filmed 2000-01
2001	The Bourne Identity [Doug Liman] s35/c; co-addph; ph: Oliver Wood
2003	Stuck On You [Bobby & Peter Farrelly; (2nd dir) Mark Steilen] p/c; 2uc: Bruce McCleery

"The Skeleton Key"

2004	The Skeleton Key [Iain Softley] p/b&w-c; 2uc: Josh Bleibtreu (New Orleans) & Michael Trim (Los Angeles); aph: Phil Pastuhov
2004	Domino [Tony Scott] HD (Thomson Viper + Nikon D100)+s35-to-35mm scope/c; addph: Bruce McCleery; 2uc: Stephen St. John; aph: Kurt E. Soderling & David B. Nowell
2005	Mission: Impossible III [J.J. Abrams] p+s35+HD (Sony F950)-to-35mm scope (+ D-Cinema)/c; ph Germany: Jörg Widmer; 2uc: Mitchell Amundsen & Stephen St. John; aph: David B. Nowell & (uncred) Jeremy Braben; vfx ph: Patrick Sweeney; + small part
2007	Lions for Lambs [Robert Redford] p (+ D-Cinema)/c; co-addph; ph: Philippe Rousselot
2007	Star Trek [J.J. Abrams] p (+ IMAX-70bu & D-Cinema)/c; 2uc: Bruce McCleery; aph: David B. Nowell; vfx ph: Pat Sweeney; filmed 2007-08
*2009*	Super 8 [J.J. Abrams] announced as doph, but prod was ph by Larry Fong in 2010
2010	John Carter [Andrew Stanton] p (+ D-Cinema [also 3-D version] & IMAX-70bu [also 3-D version])/c; 2uc: Bruce McCleery; aph: Michael Kelem
2011	Savages [Oliver Stone] p (+ D-Cinema)/b&w-c; 2uc: Matthew J. Lloyd; aph splinter unit: David B. Nowell & Michael Kelem
2012	Star Trek Into Darkness/Star Trek 2 [J.J. Abrams] p+IMAX 65mm-to-35mm scope (+ IMAX-70bu & D-Cinema [also 3-D version])/c; 2uc: Bruce McCleery; aph: Phil Pastuhov
2013	The Amazing Spider-Man 2 [Marc Webb] p (+ D-Cinema [also 3-D version])/c; 2uc: Bruce McCleery; aph: Phil Pastuhov; edge system ph: Greg Baldi & Hans Bjerno
2014	Star Wars - The Force Awakens/Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens [J.J. Abrams] p+IMAX 65mm-to-p (+ IMAX-70bu & D-Cinema [also 3-D version])/c; ph Iceland: Andrew Rowlands; 2uc: Bruce McCleery; aph (Iceland): Adam Dale; vfx ph: Steven Hall
2015	Zoolander 2 [Ben Stiller] HD (ARRI ALEXA XT Plus/p & M/p)-to-35mm scope (+ D-Cinema)/c; addph (reshoots): Bill Pope; 2uc: Paul Hughen (uncred) & Giovanni 'Tani' Canevari; uncred aph: Hans Bjerno & Dylan Goss
2016	Pacific Rim: Uprising/Pacific Rim: Maelstrom/Pacific Rim 2 [Steven S. DeKnight] HD (ARRI ALEXA XT Plus/p)-to-D-Cinema (scope [also 3-D version])/c; 2uc: Brad Shield; aph: Peter Beeh; filmed 2016-17
2018	Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker/Star Wars: Episode IX [J.J. Abrams (replaced Colin Trevorrow)] p+IMAX 65mm-to-D-Cinema (scope) (+ IMAX 70bu)/c; 2uc: Andrew Rowlands; aph: David B. Nowell

TELEVISION & INTERNET
1992	Zalman King's Red Shoe Diaries [ep #6 'Another Woman's Lipstick' dir by Zalman King (ZK), #7 'Auto Erotica' dir by ZK & #8 'Jake's Story' dir by Michael Karbelnikoff] 66-part series, 1992-97 (+ 1 tvm & 19 comp/V); 1st season, 1992; addph (#7): Josef Yacoe, Mark Plummer & Nick Taylor; other ph: Nick Taylor (+ cph ep #8) & Roberto Schaefer
1996	Dangerous Minds [pilot dir by James Hayman] 17-part series, 1996-97; other ph: Bryan Hokom & Feliks Parnell
2004	Tooth Fairy [Jake Scott] c; internet short/5m; ep #4 of 5-part online series 'Amazon Theater'
2007	Cutlass [Kate Hudson] p/c; short/16m; ep internet series 'Glamour Reel Moments' for 'Glamour' magazine
2016	The Cloverfield Paradox/God Particle [Julius Onah] p-to-UHD (scope)/c; ph add unit: Pete Romano, Bruce McCleery & Josh Bleibtreu; for Netflix

FILMS & TELEVISION AS CAMERA ASSISTANT/OPERATOR
1982	The Hunger [Tony Scott] uncred c.asst (reshoots); ph: Stephen Goldblatt
1984	The Emerald Forest [John Boorman] c.asst; ph: Philippe Rousselot
1988	Revenge [Tony Scott] focus puller; ph: Jeffrey Kimball
1990	Thelma & Louise [Ridley Scott] c.asst; ph: Adrian Biddle
1992	Red Shoe Diaries [ep #1 'Safe Sex' dir by Zalman King; tv-series; 1st season, 1992] c.op 'b' cam; ph: Eric Engler
1992	Red Shoe Diaries 2: Double Dare [ep #1 'Safe Sex' dir by Zalman King (ZK)] c.op 'b' cam on ep #1; video comp of first 3 ep of 1st season of tv-series; ph: Eric Engler (#1) & Ronn Schmidt (#2 'Double Dare' dir by Tibor Takács & #3 'You Have the Right to Remain Silent' dir by ZK)