CameraPro On The Couch with Andy Taylor

Photo taken from Instagram: @andy_taylor_acs

Andy Taylor ACS is a multi-award-winning Australian cinematographer with over 30 years of filming experience. He’s won six prestigious Walkley Awards for Cinematography and 30 Australian Cinematographers Society Awards. His distinguished and varied career has taken him worldwide, filming documentaries and significant news and current affairs stories in 118 countries. While on assignment, he’s been shot at, kidnapped by the IRA and confirmed dead. He’s filmed underwater, at former nuclear testing sites and on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. We caught up with Andy to chat about how he built a career with such diversity and how he transitioned to freelance after 30 years of working for the networks.

When he was 18, Andy went to see Oliver Stone’s political drama Salvador about an American photojournalist. Already interested in news and photography as a teen, a career as a news cameraman with its broad scope of work opportunities appealed greatly. Resolute on getting a foot in the door with any network, Andy applied for work with all the major channels but to no avail. Meanwhile, he enrolled in a Film and Television course at TAFE, and in 1986 his persistence paid off when he landed a traineeship with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) as a studio cameraman. 

 Photo taken from Instagram: @andy_taylor_acs

Andy fondly recalls the ABC as a brilliant place to learn with unbelievable training. The network offered a rich career path with many studio crews, OB crews and a cine-camera department, and an excellent range of programs to work on. Andy cut his teeth as a studio cameraman, working on shows like Play School and Mr Squiggle for the first three years. He then secured a position in the cine-camera department, where he continued developing his skills in shooting news and nightly current affairs at home and abroad. 

"Moving into news and getting out in the field was a bit more exciting for me. You have to light everything yourself; there's a lot more to think about, and you're on the move. It was a big step up to go from a studio camera to a news cameraman."

After a few years in the cine-camera department, Andy transferred to the ABC's Moscow bureau to work as a cameraman. While working here, he was mistakenly confirmed dead by the Australian Government after a plane he was thought to be on was shot down over the Black Sea. Andy filmed in numerous conflict zones and dodged more than his fair share of bullets while working in the field in Moscow, including being caught in the crossfire that took the lives of several reporters and camera people covering the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1993.

"If you're working for a network, they're looking after you … and you've got a better support network as opposed to freelancing on the ground on your own. For example, at the ABC and 60 Minutes, we'd do hostile environment courses and battlefield survival courses. I did a nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare course before the first Gulf war. So they prepare you and give you the right gear - flak jackets, chemical suits, the right boots and all the kit. But in the end, you've just got to go with people you trust; senior respected journalists and producers who know what they're doing."

 Photo taken from Instagram: @andy_taylor_acs

From there, Andy moved to the London bureau, working on longer format programs such as the 7.30 Report and Foreign Correspondent. He covered assignments throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa before returning to Sydney to work on Four Corners. Andy stayed with the ABC for 25 years until 60 Minutes called and offered him a job over at Channel Nine. The eight years he spent traversing the globe with 60 Minutes brought a whole host of extraordinary experiences filming in the air, on the ground, and beneath icy water.

"I'm not really interested in working in massive crews with a lot of people where there are streets of grip trucks and gaffer trucks, and you’re a small cog. I'd prefer to work in a small team. Normally there's three or four of us: a producer, maybe an on-air reporter or presenter and a sound recordist if I'm lucky."

Eventually, the excitement of living out of a bag for weeks and months at a time wore off, and Andy decided to leave the relative security of his full-time network job and go it alone as a freelance cinematographer. Decades of experience and a reputation of being reliable and easy to work with made it pretty easy for him to find work. He quickly built a good client base, primarily working with ex-ABC and Channel Nine staff who have also branched out and are working in small production companies. Now he effectively works fewer hours while making the same amount of money, and he can pick and choose the work and trips he wants to do.

 Photo taken from Instagram: @andy_taylor_acs

One recent project earned Andy his sixth Walkley Award. Created by the ABC, EXPOSED: The Ghost Train Fire is a three-part series investigating the 1979 Sydney Luna Park fire that tragically took seven lives. Filming of the three 90-minute episodes took place over 18 months. As Director of Photography on the docuseries, Andy was responsible for filming primary footage, B-roll, re-enactments and deeply sensitive interviews. Throughout the series, Andy skillfully employed various cinematic techniques such as lighting, composition, camera angles and shot sequencing. The result was brand new imagery harmoniously interwoven with 40-year-old photos and archival footage, the different pieces blending so seamlessly that you barely register the transition from re-enactment to archival footage. 

Of course, going freelance wasn’t just a case of finding the work; it also meant buying all the high-end gear that would meet the needs of producers, networks and streaming platforms. Andy now has a Canon EOS C500 Mark II, which he pairs with Canon CINE prime lenses and uses 95% of the time. He also has two Canon RF mount cameras that come in super handy on multi-cam shoots. The EOS C70 is excellent as a second camera for a locked-off alternate angle in interviews. At the same time, the Canon EOS R5 C full-frame cinema camera is handy for a third angle or to mount in space-restricted positions such as on the windscreen of a car for a driving piece to camera. 

"When we did multi-camera shoots … just to get the pictures to match was very difficult in the early days. Now the colour science with the Canon cameras especially is so good. I can match up a c500 mark ii and a c70 and an R5C … and the menus are easy, and the colour science is fantastic."

To learn more about Andy and his extraordinary career as a cinematographer, check out the full interview here.

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