Don Angus was the editor of the CSC News, the publication of the Canadian Society of Cinematographers, for 12 years.

The founders of the Canadian Society of Cinematographers were trying to make cinematography a profession rather than just a job, and, according to CSC president Joan Hutton, they did very well.

A golden anniversary is a milestone to be proud of, she says, adding that the focus of the anniversary celebration is as much about preparing for tomorrow as it is about celebrating yesterday.

‘An achievement like this gives us a good reason to anticipate the future,’ she told the CSC Awards gala on March 31, ‘while at the same time respecting the past.’

Hutton, whose own lensing credits include The Newsroom and Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows, has been president for 15 years, during which time she has helped the CSC strengthen its status as a respected and influential association of professional image makers. The organization, starting with about 40 cameramen in 1957 and now boasting a membership of nearly 500, has stayed true to its original objective: ‘To promote and foster the art of cinematography in Canada.’

Hutton, the first of five women to be made a full CSC member, tells Playback: ‘I think [the CSC] is more relevant than ever before. I think we’re just getting into our stride now – we’re actually getting to the core of what the CSC is about.’

She calls the organization a binding element among Canadian cinematographers.

‘Now that the film industry has expanded so much, it’s really difficult for people to know everyone in the film business,’ she says. ‘The CSC brings camera people together. You get to know them through the CSC, even if you don’t know them from working with them.

‘Whenever you have a problem, you can always find someone who will give you some advice or answer a question. When you’re first coming up, that’s fantastic, and then once you’re at a meeting among your peers, you get to actually talk to someone else who shoots. We work alone on our films… so it’s nice having the society, where people can meet as equals and chat about what they’ve worked on, what they’re doing and how they’re doing it.’

She notes a quote in the CSC News from member Barry Stone (Lie with Me, Hollywood North): ‘The CSC is always there to answer your questions, feed you new information and pat you on the back from time to time.’ Stone refers to the CSC’s regular meetings, workshops, seminars and symposia, its 10-times-yearly magazine, and the CSC Awards.

The CSC was conceived in the lobby of a film studio at Woodbine and Danforth in east end Toronto.

The studio – a former movie theater – was common ground for several cameramen who came to believe in the need for an organization dedicated to their special craft. Their paths crossed in that old theater lobby, and they proceeded to exchange ideas and sharpen their focus on the future.

It was the mid-1950s. Domestic theatrical features were scarce, and Canadian television was still a toddler, although starting to generate a fledgling commercials industry and some homegrown drama. Film cameramen – portable video cameras were not even on the horizon – had limited places to sell their skills. There was the National Film Board, continuing to turn out world-class documentaries; newsreel companies, quickly becoming obsolete; CBC TV news, with ‘film at 11’; TV commercials; and only a couple of out-of-studio series.

Just as plans for the CSC were taking shape, the first major dramatic television series produced on film in Canada aired on both the French and English networks of the CBC. The show was the pioneer adventure series Radisson. Then there was the trucker drama Cannonball, a weekly, half-hour Canada/U.S. production that was shot in Ontario and ran for 39 episodes through 1958 and 1959.

Most CBC dramas and series, such as the téléroman La Famille Plouffe/The Plouffe Family, were shot live in studio.

The idea for the CSC originated with Herbert Alpert, the first pro-tem president, while Fritz Spiess, Bob Brooks, Maurice Jackson-Samuels and Grant McLean helped nurture the fledgling association from day one. Brooks was the first elected president, followed by Spiess, and Jackson-Samuels served a presidential term in a later year. Only Alpert, now in his 90s, survives.

‘The CSC gave cameramen a name, it gave us respect in the industry, and it told the industry what we did,’ Jackson-Samuels said in an interview on the CSC’s 40th anniversary.

Alpert, who came to Toronto from New York in 1955, said it was ‘mostly out of pride’ that he felt the need to establish a group similar to the American Society of Cinematographers, despite the small size of the film community in Toronto and in Canada in general.

‘Britain had the BSC; the Americans, of course, were the prime movers in that area with the ASC, and I think Italy was beginning to talk about having something similar,’ he said. ‘I thought it was time, in spite of the fact there were only about a dozen cameramen around whom I knew, that we, too, should have some standards and a fraternal association.’

Alpert added that a parallel objective of the society was ‘to enhance and raise the standards of film processing, if we could. At that time we could get a picture out of the emulsion, but there weren’t too many labs in town who could do it consistently.’

‘If the CSC had not been formed,’ said Brooks in a 1997 interview, ‘I think the industry would have gone on, but I think it’s a better industry because of the Canadian Society of Cinematographers.’

He cited the early days of the Canadian Film Development Corporation (now Telefilm Canada), which felt ‘the CSC was important enough to be recognized and to serve on their advisory committee. When the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television was organized, the CSC represented the cinematographers.’

But besides its professional influence, Brooks stressed the CSC’s importance as the ‘fraternal association’ to which Alpert alluded. ‘The CSC allowed us to get together.’

‘Bob and I worked a couple of city blocks apart from each other,’ Spiess agreed, ‘but we would have never met otherwise.’

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