DION BEEBE

#1: From interview [2012]

#2: With wife Unjoo Moon

DION BEEBE ACS/ASC

Born: 1968, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. His family moved to Cape Town, South Africa, in 1972.

Education: Pretoria Technikon; Australian Film Television and Radio School [AFTRS] [1988-90].

Career: 'I was born in Australia. When I was five years old, my parents immigrated to South Africa after living in Zimbabwe. We moved to Cape Town after about a year. I did most of my schooling there until I was 18 years old. My father was a dentist, but he had a passion for still photography. When I was a kid, I'd go with him when he was taking pictures. I had my own camera. They didn't have television in Cape Town until the 1970s, so we rented 16mm films and watched them every Sunday night. We'd set up the projector, and one of the kids would spool the film. I treasured those Sunday screenings. My dad ran a practice in town and also out in the townships. He tried to talk me into taking over his practice in dentistry, but I dodged that bullet. I started taking photography courses in high school. They also had a little dark room. I took a lot of still life pictures. I also got interested in fashion photography. That happened because my mother was one of Cape Town's leading makeup artists for fashion photographers. When I finished high school, I did a sort of internship with one of Cape Town's leading photographers. My transition from still photography to cinematography was sort of natural. I went to a film school in Pretoria, South Africa, for a year. It was a very technical school. We studied things like waveforms and how to disassemble cameras. After a year, I decided to apply to the national film school in Sydney. I was accepted and spent the next three years there. I was the only full-time cinematography student, so I probably shot about 30 short films for other students. It was the best education I could have gotten. John Seale, Dean Semler, Russell Boyd and other Australian cinematographers visited and spoke with us. I got out of school in 1990 and joined Worlds End Productions, Sydney, as a director/cinematographer. We mainly shot music videos. The small, and the artists were all Australian. Most of them were film school graduates who were trying to get into feature films. It was a means of making a little bit of money while you were trying to get into features. It was mostly 16mm film, and occasionally 35mm. I've shot between 40 and 50 videos. It was a way to experiment. Billy McKinnon was a producer and one of the partners in the music video company. He had worked with Jane Campion on the script for 'The Piano'. Billy introduced me to Alison Maclean who was preparing to I showed her some of my work, which was primarily short films that I'd shot at school. She took a gamble and asked me to shoot her film. I was a 24-year-old Australian shooting my first film in New Zealand. Of course, everyone there was thinking, who the hell is this guy, and why is he shooting one of our movies? It was a little tense on the set at times. […] My wife was running a commercial production company in Australia. We moved to Los Angeles in 1997 because she enrolled in the directing program at the American Film Institute. My first project in the United States was 'My Own Country', a Showtime movie that I did with Mira Nair. She is an inspiring director.' [From the KODAK OnFilm website.] budgets were always direct 'Crush'.

Ph commercials dir by John Curran, Doug Liman, Scott Hicks, Agnieszka Holland, Harald Zwart, Javier Aguilera [for Ford (2007)], a.o.

Ph music videos dir by Kriv Stenders [1991; 'Rendezvous'; a: Choirboys; s8/b&w-c], Emma-Kate Croghan ['I'm Only Looking', a: INXS], Tracey Moffatt ['The Messenger', a: INXS], Jake Nava [2014; 'Shades of Cool'; a: Lana Del Rey], a.o.

Member of the ACS since 1996.

Married to dir Unjoo Moon.

His brother Anton is a film dir and his brother Damien is a c.op/doph.

Appeared in the doc 'Cinematographer Style' [2005, Jon Fauer; ph: J. Fauer, Jeff Laszlo, Brian Heller & David Morgan].

Awards: AFI [Aus] Award nom [1995] for 'Eternity'; AFI [Aus] Award nom [1996] & Film Critics Circle of Australia Award [1997] for 'What I Have Written'; ACS 'Golden Tripod' Award [1997] for 'Down Rusty Down'; ACS 'Award of Distinction' [2000] & AFI [Aus] Award nom [1999] for 'Praise'; 'Oscar' AA nom [2002] & BAFTA Film Award nom [2003] for 'Chicago'; ACS [NSW State Award] Gold Award [2003] & Camerimage 'Golden Frog' Award nom [2003] for 'In the Cut'; LAFCA Award [2004; shared], BAFTA Film Award [2004; shared] & ASC Film Award nom [2004; shared] for 'Collateral'; 'Oscar' AA [2005], ASC Film Award [2005] & BAFTA Film Award [2005] for 'Memoirs of a Geisha'; ASC Film Award nom [2009] for 'Nine'.

FILMS AT THE AFTRS
1987	Clegg Family [Jill Moonie; short/5m] c.asst; ph: Pauline Chan
1987	Glass [Andrew Macneil] v/c; short/7m
1987	One Rose Hill [James Middleton] c; short/8m
1988	Signposts at the Crossroad [Kathryn Brown] v/c; doc/42m; cph: Peter Borosh, Atlanta Francis, a.o.
1988	Rhapsody [James Middleton] c; short/11m
1988	Sound of Wheels [Isao Morimoto] 16mm/c; short/12m
1989	A Parting [James Middleton] c; short/20m
1989	Hang Up [Pauline Chan] c; short/7m
1989	The Space Between the Door and the Floor [Pauline Chan] 16mm/b&w; short/25m
1989	Black Sorrow [Anton Beebe] c; short/12m
1989	Tale of Two Shoes [Jill Moonie] 16mm/b&w; short/10m
1989	The First Valley [Mojgan Khadem] 16mm/c; short/10m
1989	Jimmy Dancer [Liz Crosby] c; short/22m; cph: Peter Borosh & Jonathan Ogilvie
1989	The Calling [Anthony Partos] b&w-c; music video/5m; 2nd cam: Peter Borosh
1989	Victor L [Drago Hari] c; 61m; co-prod DFFB
1990	Azzadine [Unjoo Moon] c; short/7m

FILMS
199?	The Gift [Unjoo Moon] ?; short/?m
199?	Reservoir [Unjoo Moon] ?; short/?m
199?	The Shop [John Hughes] ?; short/?m
1991	Antonio's Angel [Polly Watkins] 16mm/c; short/28m
1991	Come and Get It [Ron Becks] c; addph (+ 2uc); ph: Martin McGrath
1991	Because You Can [John Evan Hughes] 16mm/c; short/14m
1991	Dark Aisle [John Evan Hughes] 16mm/c; short/14m
1991	Crush/Jesus' Son [Alison Maclean] c; 2uc: Allen Guilford
*1993*	Red Rain [Jim Kaufman] shooting halted after 2 weeks due to lack of finance
1993	Eternity [Lawrence Johnston] 16mm/b&w-c; doc/56m
1993	Vacant Possession [Margot Nash] s16/c
1994	Small Room Confessions/Small Confessions [Belinda Chayko] c; short/15m
1994	What Comes After Why? [Graham Thorburn] c; short/24m
1995	What I Have Written [John Hughes] s16-35bu/c
1995	Floating Life/Fu sheng [Clara Law] c
1995	Trunk [Jonathan Ogilvie] b&w-c; short/10m
1996	Down Rusty Down [John Curran] b&w; short/15m
1996	40,000 Years of Dreaming [: A Century of Australian Cinema]/White Fellas Dreaming [: A Century of Australian Cinema] [George Miller] b&w-c; doc/67m
1997	Memory & Desire [Niki Caro] c
1998	Praise [John Curran] c
1998	Holy Smoke/Holy Smoke! [Jane Campion] c; 2uc: Jackie Farkas
1999	Forever Lulu/Along for the Ride [John Kaye] c
1999	The Goddess of 1967 [Clara Law] c
2000	Equilibrium/Cubic [Kurt Wimmer] s35/c; ph Italy: Harvey Harrison
2001	Charlotte Gray [Gillian Armstrong] c; addph: Chris Plevin & Eddie Collins; aph: Simon Werry
*2001*	Lily and the Secret Planting [Hettie MacDonald] went into suspension after 2 weeks shooting, then folded in September
2001	Chicago [Rob Marshall] b&w-c; re-shoot ph: James Chressanthis; 2uc: Jens Sturup (add) & Peter Benison; ph Chicago: Michael Kohnhorst; 'How did you get to work on Chicago?' 'It came out of the blue. When I first got the call, I was in London doing a movie that was actually in the process of folding, because the lead actress was injured about a week after we started shooting. The project came to a complete stop while they were trying to recast her role. One of the producers had connections and he managed to get me tickets to see 'Chicago', which was playing in a theater in London. I was on my way to the theater when I got a call from my agent saying that a director wanted to talk with me about filming a musical called 'Chicago'. That sounds like a story, but it's true. I went to the play, and as I watched it, I wondered how they were going to take it to the screen and create the dramatic thread needed to make it work. The script arrived the next day. I read it, and then a day or two later, I had a phone conversation with Rob Marshall. We had never met and I knew nothing about him. He probably knew very little about me aside from a reel of my films that he'd seen. We spoke, and I think he literally made up his mind during that conversation that we were going to do the film together. I remember that one of the things we spoke a lot about was how to make the visual transitions between the dialogue scene and musical numbers work.'
2002	In the Cut [Jane Campion] c; 2uc: Nils Benson

[Left] with dir Michael Mann - "Collateral" - photo by Frank Connor

2003	Collateral [Michael Mann] HD (Sony F900 + Thomson Viper)+s35-to-35mm scope/c; cph: Paul Cameron (first 3 weeks); aph: David B. Nowell
2004	Memoirs of a Geisha [Rob Marshall] p/c; 2uc: Sion Michel; filmed 2004-05
2005	Miami Vice [Michael Mann] HD (Sony F900 + Thomson Viper)+s35-to-35mm scope (+ D-Cinema)/c; 2uc: James Muro & Duane Manwiller
2006	Rendition [Gavin Hood] s35 (+ D-Cinema)/c
2008	Land of the Lost [Brad Silberling] 35mm (+ D-Cinema)/c; 2uc: Sion Michel; aph: Hans Bjerno
*2008*	Frankie Machine [Michael Mann] announced; in development

[Left] with dir Rob Marshall - "Nine" - photo by David James

2008	Nine [Rob Marshall] s35 (+ D-Cinema)/c; 2uc UK: Damien Beebe
2009	Fujifilm Eterna Vivid 160 & 500 Product Demo [prod: Sneak Preview Entertainment] s16+35mm/c; ph scenes #54-68 (5m - incl titles); ph scenes #1-29 (9m - incl titles): Phedon Papamichael; ph scenes #30-53 (9m - incl titles): Kramer Morgenthau
2010	Green Lantern [Martin Campbell] s35 (also 3-D version) (+ D-Cinema [also 3-D version])/c; 2uc: Brad Shield; addph: Sion Michel; aph: Phil Pastuhov & David B. Nowell
2011	The Zen of Bennett [Unjoo Moon] RED+HD (Canon EOS 5D & 7D)/c; mus doc/84m
2011	Gangster Squad [Ruben Fleischer] HD (ARRI ALEXA Studio/p + Phantom Flex)-to-35mm scope (+ D-Cinema)/c; addph: Sion Michel; addph (reshoots 2012; D. Beebe was unavailable because he was prepping 'All You Need Is Kill'): Caleb Deschanel; 2uc: Paul Hughen
2012	Edge of Tomorrow/All You Need Is Kill [Doug Liman] p+s35-to-35mm scope (+ D-Cinema [also 3-D version])/c; 2uc: Fraser Taggart; addph: Robert Eberlein; ph splinter unit: Peter Talbot; ph TV unit: Jim Jolliffe; aph UK: Adam Dale; uwph: Tim Wooster & Pete Romano; vfx ph: Steven Hall; filmed 2012-13
2013	Into the Woods [Rob Marshall] HD (ARRI ALEXA XT/p)-to-35mm scope (+ D-Cinema)/c; 2uc: Alan Stewart; aph: Jeremy Braben; vfx ph: Aviv Yaron
2015	13 Hours/13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi [Michael Bay] RED Epic Dragon/p+HD (GoPro Hero 3 + Sony a7s)-to-35mm scope (+ D-Cinema)/c; aph: Steven Desbrow
2016	The Snowman [Tomas Alfredson (replaced attached dir Martin Scorsese)] HD (ARRI ALEXA XT)-to-35mm (+ D-Cinema)/c; 2uc: John Andreas Andersen; plate unit ph: Pål Ulvik Rokseth
2017	Mary Poppins Returns [Rob Marshall] HD (ARRI ALEXA SXT/p & Mini/p)-to-D-Cinema (scope)/c; 2uc: Alan Stewart
2017	The Legend of Red Hand [Stefano Sollima] HD/c; comm short/16m; 2uc: Massimo Hanozet; for Campari
2017	The Little Mermaid [Rob Marshall] announced (live-action version of anim film)
2018	Gemini Man [Ang Lee] HD (? + Phantom Flex 4K)/c; aph: Hans Bjerno; uwph: Pete Romano

TELEVISION
1992	The Journey [Christopher Tuckfield] doc/53m/16mm
1997	My Own Country [Mira Nair] tvm; add 8mm ph: Phillip Barker
2006	Tony Bennett: An American Classic [Rob Marshall] tvm/42m/HD; 2uc: Sion Michel