THOMAS ACKERMAN

#1/2: Shooting a commercial [2012]

THOMAS ACKERMAN ASC

Born: 14 September 1948, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA, as Thomas Edward Ackerman.

Education: The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA.

Career: '[I grew up] in a medium-sized Midwestern town, [and] there was no opportunity to learn cinematography except the occasional 8mm backyard epic. Formal training came at the University of Iowa. The cinema program was not very production-oriented, although a student could subvert the system and make a lot of movies, which I did. A pillar of strength at the University of Iowa was Gene Jones, a former chemistry teacher who ran the 16mm lab on campus. He could be a terror; thin negative meant a trip to his cramped little Quonset hut for a lecture on densitometry. When Marshall Lovrien, manager of the University of Iowa Motion Picture Unit, hired me to shoot Hawkeye football games and training films for the School of Dentistry, he gave me a break long before I had any rational idea of how I would make it to Hollywood. Charles Guggenheim was [also] a great mentor. I went to work for him just after he won his second Oscar, for 'Robert Kennedy Remembered' [1968]. He was a rigorous taskmaster who taught me how to tell a story on film.' [From the ASC website.]

Served in the US Air Force during the Vietnam War ph doc's and training films. After leaving the Air Force, he ph doc's and political campaign spots for Charles Guggenheim in Washington, D.C. In 1973, he moved to Los Angeles to form a prod company with ex-Air Force friend Mike Robe. Received his card in IATSE Local 659 in 1979 and became c.op and doph. He was a c.op for a while, which gave him an opportunity to work with doph Joe Biroc, Emil Oster and Frank Thackery. His last job as an operator was with Vittorio Storaro on 'One from the Heart' [1981].

The prod [and Ackerman's ph] of 'The Battle of Shaker Heights' was documented in an ep of the doc tv-series 'Project Greenlight'.

Thomas of that. In fact, it's really all part of the exploration that I think is the basis of photography. It's not a 'dial-it-in' business. It's important to mix things up and see where it leads. I can think of occasions where I had a choice of two things and took the project with more dubious prospects. One was At the same time I was offered a nice, safe back lot comedy, which with its cast and script seemed more promising from a box office point of view. 'Beetlejuice' didn’t even have a lead actor when I started prep, and I doubt that some of the people under consideration would have created the character in the way Michael Keaton did. Plus, it had a smaller pay check. What it had was the vision of Tim Burton, for whom I'd previously shot 'Frankenweenie' at Disney. I was more than willing to follow his lead. I had no doubt that wherever the trip went, Tim would make it worthwhile. [...] What convinces me to do a movie is absolutely the quality of the effort: the script, the director, the whole premise. Even though the images are wonderful, if they're supporting compromise and mediocrity, it's all for naught. Not that we as photographers, or anybody in the business, for that matter, have any way of knowing. That science is elusive. Nobody knows in advance if a film is going to work or not. And in fact I've done a few films that fell way short of the mark. The other side of that coin is that once any of us signs onto a project, the best thing is to put any reservations completely out of the picture. When you agree, as far as I'm concerned, it's total advocacy. You put everything into the success of that film. No looking back.' [From interview with Jennifer M. Wood in 'MovieMaker Magazine', 2003.] Ackerman: 'It's true that my filmography is pretty eclectic. I'm proud 'Beetlejuice'.

FILMS
1972	Jerusalem Lives [Charles Guggenheim] ?; doc/53m; for Embassy of Israel
1976	The Last of the Cowboys/The Great Smokey Roadblock [John Leone] c; co-addph; ph: Ed Brown Sr.
1978	A Place to Be [Charles Guggenheim & Steven York] 16mm/c; doc/55m; cph: Foster Wiley
1980	The Man Who Saw Tomorrow: Nostradamus/Nostradamus 1999 [Robert Guenette] c; dram doc/88m; cph: Erik Daarstad & David Haskins; alternate tv-version (60m) in 1991
1980	New Year's Evil [Emmett Alston] c; as Edward Thomas
1981	Foxfire Light [Allen Baron] c
1983	Water: The Source of Life [Werner Schumann] StereoSpace 70/c; doc/20m; for Louisiana World Exposition ('The World of Rivers - Fresh Water as a Source of Life'), New Orleans (1984)
1984	Frankenweenie [Tim Burton] b&w; short/30m; 2uc: Peter Anderson & Rusty Geller
1984	Roadhouse 66 [John Mark Robinson] c; 2uc: Bryan Duggan
1984	Girls Just Want to Have Fun [Alan Metter] c
1985	Back to School [Alan Metter] c; 2uc: Frederick Moore; uwph: Alan Gornick Jr.
1986	Captain EO [Francis Ford Coppola] 70mm (3-D)/c; Disney Attraction for Epcot Center, Florida/17m; 2uc; ph: Peter Anderson; visual, lighting and ph cons: Vittorio Storaro
1986	Inside Out [Robert Taicher] c; 2uc; ph: Jack Wallner
1986	Stevie Nicks - Rock a Little/Stevie Nicks - Live at Red Rocks [Marty Callner] c; concert film/57m; filmed 20 August (Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, Colorado)
1987	Beetlejuice [Tim Burton] c
1987	Moving [Alan Metter] c; co-2uc; ph: Don McAlpine
1987	Moonwalker [anthology seg dir by Jerry Kramer] c; cph: Bob Collins, Fred Elmes & Crescenzo Notarile; seg 'Smooth Criminal' ph by John Hora; filmed February 1987-May 1988
1989	Island of Hope - Island of Tears [Charles Guggenheim] b&w-c; doc/29m; original ph; + archive; prod for National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior
1989	National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation [Jeremiah Chechik] c; 2uc: Eric Engler
1990	The Spirit of Evolution [Thomas Ackerman] a 'Dome Format' trilogy of films ('In Nature', 'In Mankind' & 'In Volkswagen') for Volkswagen's Autostadt, Wolfsburg, Germany
1990	True Identity [Charles Lane] c
1992	Dennis the Menace/Dennis [Nick Castle] c; 2uc: Steve Yaconelli, Reed Smoot & Flemming Olsen
1993	Baby's Day Out [Patrick Read Johnson] c; 2uc: Steve Yaconelli

[Left] with dir Joe Johnston - "Jumanji"

1994	Jumanji [Joe Johnston] c; 2uc: Jan Kiesser
1996	The Eighteenth Angel [William Bindley] c
1996	George of the Jungle [Sam Weisman] c; 2uc (+ 2ud): Steve Boyum; aph: Kurt Soderling
1997	My Favorite Martian [Donald Petrie] c; vfx ph: Scott Beattie
1998	The Muse [Albert Brooks] c
1999	The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle [Des McAnuff] c; 2uc: Roy Unger
1999	Beautiful Joe [Stephen Metcalfe] c
2000	Rat Race [Jerry Zucker] p/c; 2uc: Don McCuaig
2001	Snow Dogs/Winterdance [Brian Levant] c; 2uc: Roger Vernon

[Left] with dir Jerry Rees - "CinéMagique"

2001	CinéMagique [Jerry Rees] c; short/25m; + archive; made for theme park Disneyland, Paris, France
2001	Los Zafiros: Music from the Edge of Time [Lorenzo DeStefano] c; mus doc/85m; + prod
2002	Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star [Sam Weisman] p/c
2003	The Battle of Shaker Heights [Efram Potelle & Kyle Rankin] c
2003	Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy [Adam McKay] c; addph: Darren Michaels
2003	Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie/Anchorman: Wake-Up Ron Burgundy [Adam McKay] c/V; assembled from excised footage from 'Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy'
2003	Are We There Yet? [Brian Levant] c; 2uc: Don McCuaig & Randal Platt
2004	Marilyn Reloaded [Axel Breuer] scope/c; short/6m
2004	Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World [Albert Brooks] c
2005	The Benchwarmers [Dennis Dugan] c; assoc ph: Sebastian Jungwirth; 2uc: Stephen Andrich
2005	Scary Movie 4 [David Zucker] HD (Genesis)-to-35mm (+ D-Cinema)/c; 2uc: Randal Platt
2006	Balls of Fury [Ben Garant] HD (Genesis)-to-35mm/c; 2uc: David Parrish
2006	Kill Theory/Killers/Last Resort [Chris Moore] c; ?; ph: David A. Armstrong; reshoots in August 2007
2007	Alvin and the Chipmunks [Tim Hill] c; 2uc (+ 2ud); ph: Peter Lyons Collister
2007	Infestation [Kyle Rankin] c; 2uc: Ivo Peitchev
2007	Superhero Movie [Craig Mazin] c; 2uc: Josh Bleibtreu
2008	Fired Up! [Will Gluck] HD (Genesis)+s35-to-35mm scope/c; addph: David L. Parrish
2008	Mardi Gras: Spring Break [Phil Dornfeld] HD (Genesis)-to-35mm/c
2009	Furry Vengeance [Roger Kumble] RED-to-35mm (+ D-Cinema)/c; addph 2u (+ 2ud); ph: Peter Lyons Collister
2010	Hop [Tim Hill] s35-to-35mm (+ D-Cinema)/c; 2uc (+ 2ud); ph: Peter Collister
2011	Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked [Mike Mitchell] s35-to-35mm (+ D-Cinema)/c; 2uc (+ 2ud) Vancouver: Mark Vargo; aph: Phil Pastuhov
2012	The Smurfs 2 [Raja Gosnell] HD (Sony F65)-to-35mm (+ D-Cinema [also 3-D version])/c; 2uc; ph: Phil Méheux
2014	The Arthur A. Collins Legacy: A Culture of Innovation [Thomas Ackerman] c; doc/24m; for the Antique Wireless Association of Bloomfield, New York, and The Arthur A. Collins Legacy Association of Cedar Rapids
2014	Night of the Living Deb [Kyle Rankin] c; 2uc: Eric Hurt
2014	Venom Therapy [Steven Murashige] c; short/17m; addph: S. Murashige & Taylor Miller
2015	Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip [Walt Becker] RED Epic Dragon-to-D-Cinema/c; 2uc (+ 2ud); ph: Peter Collister

TELEVISION
1977	Roots: One Year Later [Robert Guenette] doc special/120m; cph: Erik Daarstad & Andre Gunn
1981	Talmage Farlow [Lorenzo DeStefano] doc/b&w-c/58m
1984	To Save Our Schools, To Save Our Children [Thomas Lennon, a.o.] doc/144m; cph: Don Lenzer & Richard Roy; for ABC News 'Closeup'
1986	The Making of Liberty [Charles Guggenheim] doc/58m/16mm; for PBS-tv
1989	Journey to America [Charles Guggenheim] doc/b&w-c/52m/16mm; ep PBS-tv series 'American Experience'; extended version of 'Island of Hope, Island of Tears' (see Films)

FILMS AS CAMERA OPERATOR
1980	The Gangster Chronicles [: An American Story] [Richard C. Sarafian; tv-miniseries] c.op 'a' cam; ph: Gerald Perry Finnerman
1981	The Gift of Life [Jerry London; tvm] ph: Gerald Perry Finnerman
1981	One from the Heart [Francis Coppola] co-c.op; ph: Vittorio Storaro & Ronald Garcia
1985	Iron Maiden - Live After Death [Jim Yukich; concert film] co-c.op; ph: Daniel Pearl