Ben Allan ACS

Operating the Steadicam

My earliest memories are of living in a former gold rush town in the Australian outback and a small island in the middle of the South Pacific.

I wrote, directed and edited my first 60 minute science fiction film when I was 11 years old and soon found myself earning money shooting wedding videos, and then teaching customers of the local electronics store how to use their new video cameras.

I discovered the craft of cinematography in high school by chance when I stumbled upon an old copy of American Cinematographer in a second hand bookshop and started in the industry through regional television eventually becoming a Senior Cameraman and Online Editor at Channel Ten in Newcastle.

As a freelance Director Of Photography at the age of 27, I became the youngest person ever to be awarded Accreditation by the Australian Cinematographer’s Society.

My work as Director of Photography has has brought numerous cinematography awards and I had the good fortune of being one of the people able to pioneer in digital cinematography from 1999 onwards.

Taking A Light Reading

In 2001 I was selected as the editor of the ACS journal, Australian Cinematographer, succeeded in 2002 by Butch Calderwood ACS OAM.

My projects as Director of Photography include the TV drama “Albert’s Chook Tractor”, the pilot for the documentary series “The Entrepreneurs”, the digital IMAX documentary “Knights Of The Sea”, episodes for the TV series “All Saints” & “City Homicide”, the short drama “Sexy Thing” which screened in Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival, and the short film “Desperate Deeds” which screened in the Hollywood Film Festival.

Over the years, I have accumulated over 1,500 TV commercials credits.

Since 1998 I have enjoyed presenting guest lectures at AFTRS, KVB Academy, Metro Screen, the University of NSW, Australian School of Business, International Film School Sydney and have written articles about filmmaking and cinematography for such publications as Australian Cinematographer Magazine, Inside Film (IF) Magazine, Digital Media World and presented several technical papers at Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE) conferences.

To gain more freedom with colour grading I created The Grading Sweet™ an award winning set of colour grading tools used by film makers in over 45 countries around the world.

I take projects on a freelance basis and recent work has ranged from TV Commercials to Corporate Videos and Feature Film.