CONRAD HALL NAMED CINEMATOGRAPHER IN RESIDENCE AT UCLA;
FILM SERIES TO SHOWCASE HIS WORK

Los Angeles, April 8 - Conrad Hall, ASC has been named Kodak Cinematographer in Residence at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and the UCLA Film and Television Archive will present a selection of Hall's films on-campus at the James Bridges Theater.

Hall will conduct a series of workshops during the spring quarter for UCLA students focusing on the aesthetic role cinematographers play in the collaborative art of visual storytelling. "Conrad Hall is one of the most innovative and influential filmmakers of our times," says Professor William McDonald, vice chair for production at UCLA. "His body of work is incomparable and it is still a work in progress. Conrad has made an indelible impression on young filmmakers in every part of the world. This is a great opportunity for all of our students, including future writers, directors and cinematographers, to learn from one of the masters."

The UCLA Film and Television Archive's two-week film series "Conrad Hall: Art of Light" opens May 18 with a newly-restored print of Fat City (1972) featuring a post-film discussion with Conrad Hall. The program continues through June 2 and showcases the astonishing variety of Hall's work with screenings of: In Cold Blood, Electra Glide in Blue, The Professionals, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Day of the Locust, Tequila Sunrise, Wild Seed and Searching for Bobby Fischer. All events are at the James Bridges Theater in Melnitz Hall and are open to the public. Admission is $7, $5 for seniors and students.

Hall's most recent venture is Road to Perdition starring Tom Hanks, a DreamWorks and 20th Century Fox production slated for release in July. It is a renewal of his collaboration with American Beauty director Sam Mendes.

Hall earned Oscars for his work on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in 1969 and for American Beauty in 1999. There were additional nominations for Morituri, The Professionals, In Cold Blood, The Day of the Locust, Tequila Sunrise, A Civil Action and Searching for Bobby Fischer. In 1993, Hall received the coveted Lifetime Achievement Award from his peers in the American Society of Cinematographers. He also received the 1995 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Camerimage International Festival of Cinematography.

Hall was born in Papeete, Tahiti, where he was raised in a cloistered literary environment. His father James Norman Hall and Charles B. Nordoff collaborated on authoring such classic novels as Mutiny on the Bounty, Men Against the Sea, Hurricane and Botany Bay. Hall studied at an exclusive prep school in Santa Barbara, California, before he enrolled at the University of Southern California with instructions from his father to find a career.

"I noticed that the school had a cinema course, and that was very interesting to me for all the wrong reasons," Hall says. "It was an easy way of getting through school. The problem was that once I shot a film and saw it on the screen, I was deeply affected. I realized there was great power in telling stories through pictures. The fact that the potential audience was so extensive was a heady, profound concept for a young, idealistic person."

After graduation, Hall organized Canyon Films with his former classmates Marvin Weinstein and Jack Couffer. They worked on documentaries, commercials and industrial films. In 1956, they co-authored a script for an independent feature and put three strips of paper, labeled producer, director and cinematographer into a hat to determine their roles. Hall drew the slip that said cinematographer. He later apprenticed as an assistant cameraman and operator with Burnie Guffrey, ASC, Hal Mohr, ASC, Ted McCord, ASC, and Ernie Haller, ASC. Hall earned his first credit as a cinematographer on the episodic TV shows Stoney Burke and The Outer Limits. He was only 31 when he earned his first feature credit for Wild Seed.

The Cinematographer in Residence program was conceived by McDonald and is sponsored by the Kodak Student Filmmaker Program. The Cinematographer in Residence is a component of the master of fine arts specialization in cinematography major offered by UCLA. The school appoints a new resident cinematographer annually to enrich the curriculum by giving students in-depth access to filmmakers who have made a seminal impact on advancing the art form. Past residencies include Allen Daviau, ASC and Dean Cundey, ASC.

The Kodak Student Filmmaker Program provides a wide range of support for film schools, including scholarships, film grants and discounts, mentoring programs and educational materials.

"We are delighted that UCLA chose Conrad Hall," says John Mason, manager of Kodak's Student Filmmaker Program, "and that he has agreed to make time for this worthy endeavor. Hall is a brilliant artist who will be a great mentor for these filmmakers who are still at a formative stage of their careers. There is so much false hype today about technology being a replacement for artful filmmaking that it is important for students to have access to people like Conrad who will tell them the truth and also offer insights and answers to their questions."

For more information about the UCLA Film and Television Archive's film series "Conrad Hall: Art of Light", please call 310.206.8013 or visit www.cinema.ucla.edu