Gale Tattersall

My childhood and education were split between the outskirts of Liverpool, England, and the boarding school I attended in Darjeeling. Located in the Indian Himalayas. My father was working as an engineer at a steel company in Bombay, (Mumbai) at the time.

At the age of sixteen I left home in Liverpool to make my life in London. The start of my journey to becoming a filmmaker really began when I became a photographer for the Architectural Association School Of Architecture in London.

A visit by Buckminster Fuller, the renowned American philosopher and architect, in the summer of 1967, caused me to pick up a Bolex to document his visit.

I became so enchanted by the film making process that I enrolled in a two-year course at the London Film School. At the time of Graduation I received a grant from the British Film Institute to make a short film titled, “Value For Money.” The film was inspired by a dream, and featured Quentin Crisp, who later became famous for his work on “The Naked Civil Servant.”

The director of the BFI Production Board at the time, Bruce Beresford, was impressed with the photography on “Value For Money,” and asked me to be the Camera Operator on his first feature film titled, “The Adventures Of Barry McKenzie.” Bruce was just leaving to finance the picture in Australia. This led to a collaboration with Bruce on many projects as his Camera Operator, and occasionally as his DP.

More by luck than design I arrived in Australia at the rebirth of the Australian film industry. Directors such as Bruce Beresford, Peter Weir, George Miller, and Fred Schepsi were all beginning their careers.

I really cut my teeth as an operator working on many feature films during that period.

Returning to England, I teamed up with Bill Douglas, a fellow student from the London Film School. I worked as his DP for the feature, “My Ain Folk.” This was a 65-minute film that was made on a tiny budget of $15.000.00. It earned me the Cork Film Festival “Director Of Photography Award” in the features category.

Nevertheless, these were thin times for a young upstart camera operator/DP to be in London hoping for a career in features. As a result I turned my attention to advertising.

Again by chance, the Golden Age of British Commercials was in full swing, directly spawning talents such as: Alan Parker, Adrian Lyne, Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, David Bailey, and Hugh Hudson.
I was working and learning from some of the great DP’s in London at that time, such as David Watkin, John Alcott, Roger Pratt, Michael Seresin, & Peter Bixiou.

“The Emerald Forest” was my last major feature film as camera operator, working with John Boorman (director), and Phillipe Rousselot (DP) for eight months in the Amazon.
After 14 years as an operator I finally made the move to DP on a picture called “LINK.” Directed by Richard Franklin, and produced by Rick McCullum, I was the 2nd unit DP.
Shortly afterwards Stanley Kubrick asked me to operate on “FULL METAL JACKET,” but my mind was already made up to follow my dreams as a Cinematographer.

My next feature assignment was “Commrades,” a wonderful film about the “Tolpuddle Martyrs,” (which sparked off the Trade Union Movement in England).
The next few years saw me in an intensive period of shooting commercials and several features. These included “VROOM,” Beeban Kidron’s first film, “WILD ORCHID” with Zalman King, “HOMEBOY” with Michael Seresin, and eventually “THE COMMITMENTS,” with Alan Parker.
I then moved to Hollywood to take over the last half of “THE ADDAMS FAMILY” from Owen Roizman. This was directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, and produced by Scott Rudin.

My career then moved more intensely into directing and shooting commercials for a British based company named BFCS. I worked part of the time out of their satellite office in Santa Monica. Eventually I returned to the features fray to shoot “Hideaway,” and “Virtuosity” for Brett Leonard; “Tank Girl” with Rachel Talalay; “Pushing Tin” with Mike Newell which starred Billy Bob Thornton, John Cusack and Angelina Jolie; and “The Jack Bull” with John Badham.

In addition I shot all 12 episodes of the HBO mini-series, “From The Earth To The Moon,” with Tom Hanks and Ron Howard. I was nominated for an Emmy Award for my work on this series.
More recently I shot two Warner Bros. productions in Australia “13 Ghosts,” and “Ghost Ship” for Steve Beck, Gil Adler & Joel Silver.

My work includes over 500 Commercials with some of the top directors in the industry. These include high profile spots such as First National Bank, Gatorade, Nike and Coca Cola.

I also earned a name for myself as one of the most sought after car shooters.

For the last few years, and to spend more time with my sons, I took over NBC/Universal’s “House.” I have now personally shot over 100 episodes of the series. My work on “House” has earned me nominations in 2007, and again in 2009 for the coveted ASC award. During breaks I shoot my own films, and commercials. I recently shot the Canon camera campaigns for Canon – Japan. We shot the campaigns exclusively on the Canon 5D MKII. Shooting these on the 5D MKII is really what gave me the motivation to go ahead and shoot the season finalé of “House,” with these cameras.

“Photography is my life-blood… from my collection of enormous large format cameras to the latest digital technology, to even my iPhone… the image creating possibilities are infinite…”

Gale Tattersall.

Website: http://galetattersall.com
IMDB Listing: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0851320/

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Résumé

Feature Films

GHOST SHIP * (Julianna Margulies – Gabriel Byrne) * Dir. Steve Beck * Warner Bros.

13 GHOSTS * (Tony Shalhoub – F. Murray Abraham) * Dir. Steve Beck * Warner Bros.

PUSHING TIN * (John Cusack- Billy Bob Thornton- Cate Blanchet- Angelina Jolie) *
Dir. Mike Newell * Fox/Regency

VIRTUOSITY * (Russel Crowe – Denzel Washington) * Dir. Brett Leonard *
Paramount Pictures

TANK GIRL * (Lori Petty – Naomi Watts – Ice T ) * Dir. Rachel Talalay * MGM

THE ADDAMS FAMILY * (2nd half of shooting schedule) * (Angelica Huston – Raul Julia – Christopher Lloyd – Christina Ricci) * Dir. Barry Sonnenfeldt * Scott Rudin/Paramount

THE COMMITMENTS * Dir. Alan Parker * Prod. David Wimbury * Fox.

WILD ORCHID * (Mickey Rourke – Jacqueline Bisset – Carré Otis) * Dir. Zalman King * Vision Entertainment/Sony

HOMEBOY * (Mickey Rourke, Christopher Walken) * Dir. Michael Seresin * Prod.Alan Marshall

COMRADES * Dir. Bill Douglas * Channel Four Films

MY AIN FOLK * Dir. Bill Douglas British Film Institute * (Cork Film Festival, Winner, ‘Best Cinematography – Feature Films’ Award

Television

CSI * (Episode 1- Pilot) * Dir. Danny Cannon * Jerry Bruckheimer/Touchstone TV/CBS

FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON * Dir’s. Frank Marshall, Tom Hanks, Ted Demme, Jon Tuteltaub * Ron Howard/HBO/Imagine * Emmy Nomination – ‘Outstanding Cinematography’

THE JACK BULL * (John Cusack- John Goodman – L.Q. Jones) * Dir. John Badham * HBO Films

HOUSE MD * (100+ Episodes) * Dir’s. Deran Serafian, Katie Jacobs, Greg Yitaines, (Best Director Emmy, 2008), David Platt, Juan Campinella, David Straiton, Andrew Bernstein.
ASC Nomination 2007, Best Cinematography, Episodic Television.

Commercials (partial list)

GATORADE * Dir. Steve Beck * ILM Commercial Productions
DODGE * Dir. Steve Beck * ILM Commercial Productions
PONTIAC * Dir. Steve Beck * ILM Commercial Productions
PEPCID * Dir. Dave Jellison * Tool of North America
UPMC * Dir. Doug Romoff * Camelot Communications Group
M&M’s * Dir. Thom Higgins * Green Dot Films
RICE CRISPIES * Dir. James Wahlberg * Visitor
DIRT DEVIL * Dir. Greg Strom/Doug Magallon * Strom Magallon Films
FINESSE * Blue Highway
RIGHT GUARD XTREME * Dir. Graham Hayman * HKM Productions
TOYOTA * Dir. Steve Beck * ILM Commercial Productions
DURACELL * Dir. Brian Scott * Weber Atherton and Associates
FIRST UNION BANK * Dir. Steve Beck * ILM Commercial Productions
COORS LIGHT * Dir. Scott Burns * Tool of North America
RITE AID * Dir. Bruce van Dusen * The Bridge
DIRECT WEB * Dir. Steve Beck * ILM Commercial Productions
VECTRA OPEL * Dir. Danny Weisberg * Orbit Entertainment
IKEA * Dir. Chris Hooper * Tool of North America
NIKE * Dir. Dominic Senna * Propaganda Films
PONTIAC * Dir. Michael Utterback * The Artists Company
OLD SPICE * Dir. Danny Boyle *Atlas Pictures
COCA COLA * Dir. Dominic Senna * Propaganda Films
FORD TRUCKS * Running Footage * IPS Productions
BARBADOS TOURISM * Dir. Jim Manera * Bedford Falls
SAMSUNG * Dir. Jim Manera

Music Videos

Kate Bush
David Byrne
Peter Gabriel
Tina Turner
The Police
Ultravox.