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Shooting a commercial [2012] |
2012 |
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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 Ackerman: 'It's true that my filmography is pretty eclectic. I'm proud 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 'Beetlejuice'. 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.]
FILMS |
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1972 |
Jerusalem Lives [Charles Guggenheim] ?; doc/53m; for Embassy of Israel |
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1976 |
The Last of the Cowboys/The Great Smokey Roadblock [John Leone] c; co-addph; ph: Ed Brown Sr. |
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1978 |
A Place to Be [Charles Guggenheim & Steven York] 16mm/c; doc/55m; cph: Foster Wiley |
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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 |
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1980 |
New Year's Evil [Emmett Alston] c; as Edward Thomas |
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1981 |
Foxfire Light [Allen Baron] c |
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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) |
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1984 |
Frankenweenie [Tim Burton] b&w; short/30m; 2uc: Peter Anderson & Rusty Geller |
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1984 |
Roadhouse 66 [John Mark Robinson] c; 2uc: Bryan Duggan |
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1984 |
Girls Just Want to Have Fun [Alan Metter] c |
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1985 |
Back to School [Alan Metter] c; 2uc: Frederick Moore; uwph: Alan Gornick Jr. |
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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 |
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1986 |
Inside Out [Robert Taicher] c; 2uc; ph: Jack Wallner |
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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) |
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1987 |
Beetlejuice [Tim Burton] c |
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1987 |
Moving [Alan Metter] c; co-2uc; ph: Don McAlpine |
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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 |
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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 |
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1989 |
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation [Jeremiah Chechik] c; 2uc: Eric Engler |
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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 |
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1990 |
True Identity [Charles Lane] c |
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1992 |
Dennis the Menace/Dennis [Nick Castle] c; 2uc: Steve Yaconelli, Reed Smoot & Flemming Olsen |
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1993 |
Baby's Day Out [Patrick Read Johnson] c; 2uc: Steve Yaconelli |
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1994 |
Jumanji [Joe Johnston] c; 2uc: Jan Kiesser |
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1996 |
The Eighteenth Angel [William Bindley] c |
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1996 |
George of the Jungle [Sam Weisman] c; 2uc (+ 2ud): Steve Boyum; aph: Kurt Soderling |
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1997 |
My Favorite Martian [Donald Petrie] c; vfx ph: Scott Beattie |
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1998 |
The Muse [Albert Brooks] c |
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1999 |
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle [Des McAnuff] c; 2uc: Roy Unger |
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1999 |
Beautiful Joe [Stephen Metcalfe] c |
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2000 |
Rat Race [Jerry Zucker] p/c; 2uc: Don McCuaig |
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2001 |
Snow Dogs/Winterdance [Brian Levant] c; 2uc: Roger Vernon |
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2001 |
CinéMagique [Jerry Rees] c; short/25m; + archive; made for theme park Disneyland, Paris, France |
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2001 |
Los Zafiros: Music from the Edge of Time [Lorenzo DeStefano] c; mus doc/85m; + prod |
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2002 |
Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star [Sam Weisman] p/c |
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2003 |
The Battle of Shaker Heights [Efram Potelle & Kyle Rankin] c |
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2003 |
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy [Adam McKay] c; addph: Darren Michaels |
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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' |
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2003 |
Are We There Yet? [Brian Levant] c; 2uc: Don McCuaig & Randal Platt |
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2004 |
Marilyn Reloaded [Axel Breuer] scope/c; short/6m |
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2004 |
Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World [Albert Brooks] c |
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2005 |
The Benchwarmers [Dennis Dugan] c; assoc ph: Sebastian Jungwirth; 2uc: Stephen Andrich |
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2005 |
Scary Movie 4 [David Zucker] HD (Genesis)-to-35mm (+ D-Cinema)/c; 2uc: Randal Platt |
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2006 |
Balls of Fury [Ben Garant] HD (Genesis)-to-35mm/c; 2uc: David Parrish |
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2006 |
Kill Theory/Killers/Last Resort [Chris Moore] c; ?; ph: David A. Armstrong; reshoots in August 2007 |
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2007 |
Alvin and the Chipmunks [Tim Hill] c; 2uc (+ 2ud); ph: Peter Lyons Collister |
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2007 |
Infestation [Kyle Rankin] c; 2uc: Ivo Peitchev |
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2007 |
Superhero Movie [Craig Mazin] c; 2uc: Josh Bleibtreu |
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2008 |
Fired Up! [Will Gluck] HD (Genesis)+s35-to-35mm scope/c; addph: David L. Parrish |
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2008 |
Mardi Gras: Spring Break [Phil Dornfeld] HD (Genesis)-to-35mm/c |
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2009 |
Furry Vengeance [Roger Kumble] RED-to-35mm (+ D-Cinema)/c; addph 2u (+ 2ud); ph: Peter Lyons Collister |
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2010 |
Hop [Tim Hill] s35-to-35mm (+ D-Cinema)/c; 2uc (+ 2ud); ph: Peter Collister |
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2011 |
Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked [Mike Mitchell] s35-to-35mm (+ D-Cinema)/c; 2uc (+ 2ud) Vancouver: Mark Vargo; aph: Phil Pastuhov |
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2012 |
The Smurfs 2 [Raja Gosnell] HD (Sony F65)-to-35mm (+ D-Cinema [also 3-D version])/c; 2uc; ph: Phil Méheux |
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TELEVISION |
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1977 |
Roots: One Year Later [Robert Guenette] doc special/120m; cph: Erik Daarstad & Andre Gunn |
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1981 |
Talmage Farlow [Lorenzo DeStefano] doc/b&w-c/58m |
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1984 |
To Save Our Schools, To Save Our Children [Thomas Lennon, a.o.] doc/144m; cph: Don Lenzer & Richard Roy; for ABC News 'Closeup' |
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1986 |
The Making of Liberty [Charles Guggenheim] doc/58m/16mm; for PBS-tv |
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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 |
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1980 |
The Gangster Chronicles [: An American Story] [Richard C. Sarafian; tv-miniseries] c.op 'a' cam; ph: Gerald Perry Finnerman |
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1981 |
The Gift of Life [Jerry London; tvm] ph: Gerald Perry Finnerman |
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1981 |
One from the Heart [Francis Coppola] co-c.op; ph: Vittorio Storaro & Ronald Garcia |
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1985 |
Iron Maiden - Live After Death [Jim Yukich; concert film] co-c.op; ph: Daniel Pearl |