STEPHEN WINDON   ACS

Born: 1959, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, as Stephen [Steve] F. Windon, son of Ron Windon, a Fox Movietone newsreel and doc ph.

Education: Technical College, Sydney [graduated in 1977].

Career: Wanted to be a cameraman from the age of eight as his father, Ron, was a newsreel ph who became a commercial director and cameraman. After his study he started working for the Australian Broadcasting Commission [ABC]. He spent 6 years [as loader, c.op and ph] with ABC. During this period, he shot 26 tv-doc's, worked on drama series, and also worked as a news cameraman. 'I shot some of the last 16mm film when ABC-TV news was making the transition to ENG equipment in the 1980's. The CP-16 film camera was small, I had one Angénieux Zoom lens, on board batteries and a tripod, that was it! You remember how simple it was!' He left ABC to begin working as a 2uc on features and tv-dramas.

Ph commercials dir by Lance Kelleher, a.o.

Member of the ACS since 1989.

His brother Marc is a doph.

Awards: AFI [Aus] Award nom [1993] for 'No Worries'; AFI [Aus] Award nom [1994] for 'Country Life'; ASC TV Award [2010] for 'The Pacific' [ep 'Okinawa'].



 FILMS

1985

Some Babies Die: An Exploration of Stillbirth and Neo-Natal Death [Martyn Down] c; doc/54m; cph: Garry Maunder

1985

Experience Australia: The Best Kept Secret in the World [Tristram Miall] 16mm/c; promotional doc/56m

1986

The Mystery of the Full Moon/Full Moon [Tristram Miall] c; doc/53m

1987

Labour of Love [Harriet Clutterbuck & Mary Moody] ?; doc/60m

1987

Kadaicha [the Death Stone]/Stones of Death [James Bogle] c

1987

Cane Toads - An Unnatural History [Mark Lewis] c; doc/46m; cph: Jim Frazier

1987

Sounds Like Australia [Jamie Robertson] c; doc/55m; cph: Jim Frazier & Mick von Bornemann

1987

'Crocodile' Dundee II [John Cornell] p/c; 2uc Australia; ph: Russell Boyd

1990

The Wonderful World of Dogs [Mark Lewis] 16mm/c; doc/52m; cph: Tony Wilson

1991

Love In Limbo/Just One Night/The Great Pretender [David Elfick] c

1992

No Worries [David Elfick] c

1993

Rapa Nui [Kevin Reynolds] p/c; 2uc: Geoffrey Wharton

1993

Country Life [Michael Blakemore] c

1994

Rupert [Christopher Robin Collins] c; short/27m

1996

Hotel de Love [Craig Rosenberg] c

1996

Firestorm [Dean Semler] p/c; 2uc: John Stokes

1997

The Postman [Kevin Costner] p/c; vfx ph: Philipp Timme

1997

The Patriot [Dean Semler] p/c; 2uc: Richard Merryman

1998

Deep Blue Sea [Renny Harlin] s35/c; 2uc: Gary Capo; efx ph: David Stump

2001

The Tuxedo [Kevin Donovan] c; 2uc: Glen Keenan; addph: Jeff Valeri; vfx ph: Robbi Hinds

2001

Darkness Falls/Don't Peek [Jonathan Liebesman] s35/c; addph; ph: Dan Laustsen

2003

Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid [Dwight H. Little] s35/c; 2uc: Mark Wareham; aph: John Trapman

2004

House of Wax [Jaume Collet-Serra] c; aph: Phil Pastuhov

2005

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift [Justin Lin] s35/c; 2uc: Jan Kiesser & (Tokyo) Jun Fukumoto; addph: Leo Napolitano; aph: Douglas Holgate & Phil Pastuhov

2009

Cradlewood [Harry Weinmann] scope/c; pre-production (in development since 2004)

2009

Needle [John V. Soto] 35mm+RED-to-35mm scope/c

"Fast Five"

2010

Fast Five/Fast & Furious 5 [Justin Lin] s35/c (+ IMAX-70bu & D-Cinema); 2uc: Alexander Witt & Igor Meglic; insert unit ph: Tom Clancey; aph: Hans Bjerno, Steve Koster & (Monaco) Adam Dale; aph 2u: Ronald Hersey 

2011

A Few Best Men [Stephan Elliott] HD (ARRI ALEXA)/c

2011

G.I. Joe II: Retaliation [John Chu] s35 (+ D-Cinema)/c; 2uc: Patrick Loungway


 TELEVISION

1984

On a Wing and a Prayer [Dick Dennison (?)] doc/49m

1986

The Challenge [Chris Thomson] 3-part miniseries; ?; ph: Russell Boyd

1988

Prejudice [Ian Munro] docudrama/98m

1988

Mission: Impossible [ep #16 'The Plague' dir by Colin Budds (CB) & #18 'Submarine' dir by CB] 35-part series, 1988-90; other ph: Ron Hagen & Barry M. Wilson; revival of the USA series (1966-73); filmed in Australia

198?

A Big Country [various] 300+-part doc series, 1968-87 & 1991-92

1990

Come in Spinner [Robert Marchand] 4-part miniseries; addph: Stephen Prime

1990

Act of Necessity/Cotton [Ian Munro] tvm

1990

Police Rescue [various] tvm & 61-part series, 1990-94; other ph: Steve Arnold & Russell Bacon

1991

Children of the Dragon/The Sign of the Snake [Peter Smith] 4-part miniseries, 1992 & 2-part tvm

1991

The Leaving of Liverpool [Michael Jenkins] 2-part tvm

1994

In Pursuit of Honor/Fiddlers Green [Ken Olin] tvm; 2uc: John Stokes

1995

Naked [: Stories of Men] [various] 6-part series/s16, 1996; other ph: Mandy Walker & Tristan Milani

1995

The Bite [Michael Carson] 2-part tvm/16mm

2000

[Rodgers & Hammerstein's] South Pacific [Richard Pearce] tvm; 2uc: Ian Thorburn

2001

[Louis L'Amour's] The Diamond of Jeru [Ian Barry & Dick Lowry] tvm

2003

Future Tense [?] pilot for NBC-tv

2007

The Pacific [ep #3 'Melbourne' dir by Jeremy Podeswa (JP), #4 'Gloucester/Pavuvu/Banika' dir by Graham Yost, #8 'Iwo Jima' dir by David Nutter & JP, #9 'Okinawa' dir by Timothy Van Patten & #10 'Home' dir by JP] 10-part miniseries, 2010; other ph: Remi Adefarasin; vfx ph: Richard Chapelle; 'Remi and I were on the same page with the look of 'The Pacific'. And I think that we have a similar lighting style and approach. Albeit our scripts were very unique in writing and direction style, essentially we were shooting ten one hour feature films! Both of us wanted small lightweight 35mm cameras. We both felt that Arricam LT's and Arriflex 235's were ideal for our productions. We needed packages that would crossover from large handheld battle sequences to lavish studio sets. I wanted excellent glass on the front, but it also needed to be lightweight. For this reason both of us chose Zeiss Ultra Primes.'


 MISCELLANEOUS

1988

The Rainbow Warrior Conspiracy [Chris Thomson; 2-part tvm] c.op; ph: Andrew Lesnie

1988

The Rescue [Ferdinand Fairfax] c.op 2u; ph: Russell Boyd