Gale Tattersall

My childhood and education were split between the outskirts of Liverpool, England, and boarding school in Darjeeling in the Himalayas in India, my father being an engineer at a steel company in Bombay, (Mumbai).

At the age of sixteen, I left home in Liverpool, to make my life in London. The beginnings of my journey to becoming a filmmaker really started as a photographer at the Architectural Association School Of Architecture in London.

A visit by Buckminster Fuller, the renowned American architect and philosopher, 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 at the London Film School for the two-year course. At the time of Graduation, I received a grant from the British Film Institute to make a short film called “Value For Money”, inspired by a dream, and featuring Quentin Crisp, later to become famous for “The Naked Civil Servant”.

The director of the BFI Production Board at the time, Bruce Beresford, was impressed with the photography and asked me to be Camera Operator on his first feature film, “The Adventures Of Barry McKenzie”, which he was just leaving to finance in Australia. This, in turn, led to a collaboration with Bruce on many projects as 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 starting out.

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, to DP his film “My Ain Folk”. This was a 65-minute feature 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.
But it was thin times for a young upstart camera operator/DP to be in London, hoping for a career in features, so 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, shooting 2nd unit.
Stanley Kubrick asked me to operate on ” FULL METAL JACKET”, but my mind was already made up to follow my dreams and be 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 including “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, directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, and produced by Scott Rudin.

My career then moved more intensely into Directing and Shooting Commercials for BFCS, a British based company, with a satellite office in Santa Monica, but I then returned to the Features fray to shoot “Hideaway” and “Virtuosity” for Brett Leonard; “Tank Girl” with Rachel Talalay and “Pushing Tin” with Mike Newell starring Billy Bob Thornton, John Cusack and Angelina Jolie; and “The Jack Bull” with John Badham.

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

My work includes over 500 Commercials with some of the top directors in the industry, and 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”, personally shooting over 80 episodes, for which I was nominated in 2007 and again in 2009 for the coveted ASC award. During breaks, I shoot my own films, and commercials… recently shooting the Canon camera campaigns for Canon – Japan… which was shot exclusively on the Canon 5D DSLR… and the technology and learning process, was applied to the season finalé of “House”:, which was shot entirely on this platform…

“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.