JACEK LASKUS   ASC

Born: 29 August 1951, Warsaw, Poland, as Jacek Wojciech Laskus.

Education: PWSFTviT, Lódz [graduated in 1976].

Career: Started as c.op. Came to the USA in 1977 and started his career in New York shooting commercials and doc's, both independent and for BBC-tv. Moved to Los Angeles in 1987.

Ph commercials dir by Mark Story, Tom De Circcio, a.o.

Also active as still ph [exhibition in Los Angeles, 1999]. Gives master classes at the International Film & Television Workshops in Rockport, Maine.

Member of the ASC since August 2000.

Appeared in the doc's 'Polscy operatorzy w Los Angeles' [1993, Pawel Hanczakowski; ph: Marek Beczek; 35m] & 'Cinematographer Style' [2005, Jon Fauer; ph: J. Fauer, Jeff Laszlo, Brian Heller & David Morgan].

Awards: ASC Award nom [1989] for 'The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial'; ASC Award nom [1998] for 'The Garden of Redemption'.

Website: Jacek Laskus

'Frankie and Johnny Are Married': 'The budget was going to be small and after several and lengthy conversations with the director about the look he wanted for the film, we did a great deal of research and shot some tests. After looking at the test footage we decided to shoot in multiple formats, both film and using digital. The choices were based on story, locations and on financial considerations. For the main bulk of the film we chose a Hi Def camera, a Panasonic VariCam and the Zeiss DigiPrime lenses. However, for shooting scenes at the house of the married couple, who are the film's main characters, we decided to go with a small unobtrusive camera that would allow us to capture the intimacy of their private lives. Our choice was a brand new Mini DV camera from Panasonic, the 24P, that can shoot both 30 frame or 24 frame video which looks more like film. For shooting daylight exteriors we chose to shoot on film in the Super 16 format which gave us more latitude in the highlights. To shoot the finale of the film, the actual performance of the play, we wanted to give it a more glamorous and rich look, so we decided to shoot with a 35mm camera on a Steadicam. We had all of the footage transferred to HI Def D5 format. This will allow further corrections and on line edit to prep for the final transfer from video to film. The editing was done using the Apple Final Cut Pro system.'

1982        Far from Poland [Jill Godmilow] 16mm-35bu/b&w-c; dram doc/106m

1983        Almonds and Raisins [: A History of the Yiddish Cinema] [Russ Karel] b&w-c; doc/90m

1985        Parting Glances [Bill Sherwood] s16-35bu/c

1986        Heart [James Lemmo] c; addph: Dariusz Wolski

1986        Square Dance/Home Is Where the Heart Is [Daniel Petrie] c; 2uc: Rick Anderson

1987        Inheritance [Bill Donovan] ?; doc/80m; cph: Tom Sigel, Robert Fulton, a.o.

1988        Stepfather II/The Stepfather 2: Make Room for Daddy [Jeff Burr] c; 2uc: Steve Schklair & Martin Schaer; addph:

                    Gerry Lively & Don McCuaig

1989        [William Peter Blatty's] The Exorcist III [: Legion] [William Peter Blatty] c; ph Los Angeles; ph: Gerry Fisher

1990        New Jack City [Mario Van Peebles] c; 2uc; ph: Francis Kenny

1991        Cousin Bobby [Jonathan Demme] 16mm-35bu/c; doc/69m; cph: Ernest Dickerson, Declan Quinn, Tony Jannelli & Craig

                    Haagensen; also aired as ep of PBS-tv series 'P.O.V.'

1991        It Was a Wonderful Life [Michèle Ohayon] 16mm/c; doc/84m; cph: Theo van de Sande & Bruce Ready

1992        The Opposite Sex… And How To Live with Them [Matthew Meshekoff] c

1993        Threesome [Andrew Fleming] c; addph; ph: Alexander Gruszynski

1993        The Spirit Realm/Spirit [Jonathan Wacks (replaced Louis Morneau)] announced as doph, but replaced by Bryan

                    England

1993        The Glass Shield/The Johnny Johnson Trial [Charles Burnett] c; 2uc; ph: Elliot Davis

1995        Cover Me/Selected Models [Michael Schroeder] c

1995        A Thin Line Between Love and Hate [Martin Lawrence] c; co-add c.op; ph: Francis Kenny

1996        The Undercover Kid [Linda Shayne] c; 2uc: Patrick Reddish

1997        Colors Straight Up [Michèle Ohayon] s16/c; doc/93m; cph: Theo van de Sande; addph: Teresa Medina

1998        The Giving Tree/Shaded Places/The Brutal Truth [Cameron Thor] c; cph: David Snedeker

1998        Choke [Robert Raphael Goodman] c; doc/98m; addph: Neil Shapiro

1999        The Whole Shebang [George Zaloom] c

2000        Frank's Last Dance [David J. Burke] c; short/18m; cph: Francis Kenny

2003        Frankie and Johnny Are Married [Michael Pressman] HD+mdv+S16+35mm-to-35mm/c

2005        Last Best Chance [Ben Goddard] HD+mdv+s16/c/V; short/45m; prod Nuclear Threat Initiative

2006        Golda's Balcony [Jeremy Kagan] HD (Genesis)/c

2007        Multiple Sarcasms [Brooks Branch] c

2008        12 Stones [Sandy Smolan] HD/c; doc/21m

2008        Stand [Tavis Smiley] HD/c; doc/95m; add camera: Michael Hamm