Action man ... Don McAlpine at work on new film Mental.
Adam Fulton, The Age, reports
CINEMATOGRAPHERS tend to get little of the public attention given to directors and actors. And Don McAlpine doesn't mind a bit.
''The job's fantastic. You just say: 'Well this is one of the prices you have to pay,''' the veteran cinematographer says. ''And as you live in the world of the famous, you realise there's not a lot of advantage to being famous.''
McAlpine, who demonstrated in the '70s that Australians could successfully export their cinematography overseas, will today be named the recipient of the Raymond Longford Award, one of Australian film's highest accolades.
He says he is ''astounded'' to be receiving the award for outstanding contribution to Australian screen and culture from the new Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts. ''I've enjoyed what I've done - and then to receive this honour is just absolute icing on the cake,'' McAlpine says from his central coast home. ''I really am thrilled that I got it and I'm thrilled that a cinematographer got it.''
Just one other cinematographer, Russell Boyd (Crocodile Dundee), has won the award. Other recipients include Reg Grundy, Geoffrey Rush and George Miller.
McAlpine, 77, has made more than 50 films across four decades, from Don's Party and My Brilliant Career in the '70s to Breaker Morant and Predator in the '80s and, later, the likes of Patriot Games, Mrs. Doubtfire, Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge! and The Chronicles of Narnia. A documentary on his work, Show Me the Magic, is in production.
He will be given the award on January 15 in Sydney. Today's announcement is the first of the inaugural AACTA Awards, which are replacing the AFI Awards.
McAlpine says his film career evolved ''organically'' and without any planning of how to break through overseas. He was a school teacher when he furthered his interest in motion picture photography, later becoming a freelance cameraman. Work with directors such as Bruce Beresford followed.
A big lift came courtesy of the ''freakish situation'' of having several Australian films released in New York within a fortnight around 1980 - The Getting of Wisdom, My Brilliant Career and Breaker Morant.
''Eventually somebody found out they were all shot by the same person. And on the basis of that, Paul Mazursky asked me to shoot Tempest … and from then on I've just managed to hang onto the big league.''
As milestones, McAlpine nominates 1978's The Getting of Wisdom, saying: ''It was the first time I had something beautiful to shoot.'' He also cites Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet - ''the production designer provided me with a brilliant tapestry to work in front of'' - and 2003's Peter Pan, ''one of my least successful movies financially [but] a wonderful experience''.
He has just finished Mental, directed by P.J. Hogan (Muriel's Wedding). ''I've always said I'll retire when no one sends me a script,'' he said.
That seems far off yet.
Just one other cinematographer, Russell Boyd (Crocodile Dundee), has won the award. Other recipients include Reg Grundy, Geoffrey Rush and George Miller.
McAlpine, 77, has made more than 50 films across four decades, from Don's Party and My Brilliant Career in the '70s to Breaker Morant and Predator in the '80s and, later, the likes of Patriot Games, Mrs. Doubtfire, Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge! and The Chronicles of Narnia. A documentary on his work, Show Me the Magic, is in production.
He will be given the award on January 15 in Sydney. Today's announcement is the first of the inaugural AACTA Awards, which are replacing the AFI Awards.
McAlpine says his film career evolved ''organically'' and without any planning of how to break through overseas. He was a school teacher when he furthered his interest in motion picture photography, later becoming a freelance cameraman. Work with directors such as Bruce Beresford followed.
A big lift came courtesy of the ''freakish situation'' of having several Australian films released in New York within a fortnight around 1980 - The Getting of Wisdom, My Brilliant Career and Breaker Morant.
''Eventually somebody found out they were all shot by the same person. And on the basis of that, Paul Mazursky asked me to shoot Tempest … and from then on I've just managed to hang onto the big league.''
As milestones, McAlpine nominates 1978's The Getting of Wisdom, saying: ''It was the first time I had something beautiful to shoot.'' He also cites Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet - ''the production designer provided me with a brilliant tapestry to work in front of'' - and 2003's Peter Pan, ''one of my least successful movies financially [but] a wonderful experience''.
He has just finished Mental, directed by P.J. Hogan (Muriel's Wedding). ''I've always said I'll retire when no one sends me a script,'' he said.
That seems far off yet.
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