Keynote Speaker (Saturday)
Frankie DeMarco’s interest in lighting for the screen began when he was only seven years old. By the time he was in college he knew he wanted to work in film. After graduation he started working in the Baltimore film community as a grip, electrician or AC on various projects directed by John Waters. He then began working in the New York City production scene first as an AC and then a DP on commercials and documentaries and later features and television shows.
With credits that include The Enemy Within, Five Feet Apart, Sneaky Pete, How To Talk To Girls at Parties, Madoff, Mad Men, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Frankie De Marco became a member of the ASC in 2019.
Keynote Speaker (Friday)
Tinx Chan is a cinematographer from Brooklyn, New York with over 15 years of experience in feature films, commercials, TV and documentaries. He has traveled the world bringing award winning directors’ visions to screen. His work has been featured in American Cinematographer Magazine and in festivals worldwide. His work on the short film Empty Skies was honored with a 2019 Emerging Cinematographer Award.
His other credits include No Traveler Returns, Whatever, The Lions of Chinatown, Mantis, In New York, Dark Waters, It Must Be Heaven, Titanic: 20 Years Later with James Cameron, and Billy on the Street.
Check out his website at tinxchan.com and follow his Instagram: @tinxchan
Academy Award-nominated Luke Geissbühler has filmed challenging and diverse projects, including Borat, Fahrenheit 11/9, Buck, Helvetica, a Muppets movie, an OKGo video, and Patrick Stewart’s dramatic feature Match.
Luke received a BFA in Film and Television from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts before starting his career at R/GA doing visual effects and tabletop photography. Since then, he has traveled the globe many times over to orchestrate shoots for Adam McKay, Katherine Bigelow, Doug Liman, Barry Levinson, Sacha Baron Cohen, Michael Moore, Jim Gaffigan, David Wain, Joe Berlinger, HBO, Netflix, Showtime, PBS, Universal, 20th Century Fox, and many others.
Check out his website and follow him on Instagram!
Jerry Ricciotti is an Emmy nominated Director of Photography. He spent most of the last decade crafting looks for multiple non fiction series at VICE Media, notably Vice on HBO and Vice News Tonight. For the acclaimed docu-series, Jerry has traveled to some of the world’s most extreme locations and conflict zones, where he captures compelling footage that is both dramatic and beautiful to watch. His other credits include Fyre, Black Market with Michael K. Williams, Noisey, Woman with Gloria Steinem. When he’s not shooting he’s flying planes or sleeping under the stars and when he’s on a really good job he’s doing all three things at once!
Check out his website at @jerryotti
Rick Siegel is an award-winning Director of Photography who has worked in film and television for over 30 years. Siegel was DP on the Emmy-nominated HBO Special Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill starring Audra McDonald. His narrative film work includes the feature films Bomber directed by Paul Cotter, Trust, Greed, Bourbon & Bullets directed by Scott Kawczynski, and the short films The Shovel, The Dare Project and 20 Dollar Drink.
Siegel’s most recent work includes the concert film, Bill Murray, Jan Vogler & Friends; New Worlds and Utopia concert film, Romeo Santos at MetLife Stadium. Siegel won an EMMY Award for Outstanding Achievement for Single Camera Photography for his episodic narrative work on ABC’s Crash The Curiousaurus. He has designed and photographed over 200 televised music and comedy shows, ranging from several seasons of A&E’s Live By Request series, PBS’s In the Spotlight series and other programs with Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga, Brad Paisley, Thomas Hampson, Sheryl Crow and The Weeknd and comedy specials for John Oliver, Craig Ferguson, Lewis Black, Kevin Hart and Wyatt Cenac.
He has lit and photographed many of Diane Sawyer and Barbra Walters’ Celebrity interviews for ABC’s PrimeTime and 20/20, as well as Walters’ annual Most Fascinating People Specials. Siegel’s commercial and infomercial clients include MTV, Nicoderm, Reebok and Time-Life. In his fashion and fragrance work, he has worked with many of the top designers such as Kanye West, Donna Karen, Calvin Klien and Ralph Lauren.
Rey was born and raised in The Bay Area, CA. His professional experience in the entertainment industry started in 1996, both in front of and behind the camera. He has had the privilege of studying under the tutelage of the world’s most renown instructors and working professionals in several aspects of entertainment.
Rey’s work includes independent and theatrical features, live broadcast, commercials, industrials, and music videos. He is the former Steadicam® Director of Technical Sales & Services and Lead Instructor of Bronze and Silver workshops for all of the Americas. His experience training and consulting operators spans a multitude of clients in the motion picture and television industries, including ABC, NBC, CNN, FOX, ESPN, NFL, Disney, DreamWorks, Marvel, Netflix, HBO, Showtime, and more.
Rey’s passion for Steadicam and its historical lineage is a “continuous commitment to explore and share the knowledge, ingenuity, and artistry of this craft”.
Industry veteran Mitch Gross is the Cinema Product Manager at Panasonic USA. He is a respected voice on industry blogs & discussion boards and has been working in the New York film industry for more than fifteen years. Formerly Applications Specialist at AbelCine, he was also the Director of Photography on more than two dozen features, plus hundreds of commercials, music videos, industrials, documentaries and other productions. His work has been screened and has won awards at festivals including Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, Edinburgh and New York.
Megan Donnelly is the Training Manager at AbelCine Chicago. Megan joined the AbelCine team in 2015 as the first Camera Technology Specialist based out of the company’s Chicago location. Prior to joining AbelCine, Megan was the Technical Manager at Fletcher Camera and Lenses / CineVerse in Chicago, where she provided technical and workflow support for multiple features and television series. She also developed the curriculum for the International Cinematographer’s Guild Digital Loader Workshops, which she taught nationwide. Megan is an accomplished Director of Photography for commercials, music videos, and narratives. One of her television pilots was a finalist in the New York Television Festival in 2013, while another television pilot won the Chicago Television Pilot Competition in 2014. Most recently one of her commercials won a Midwest Emmy in 2014. View her work at www.megandonnelly.net. Originally from Mesa, Arizona, Megan Donnelly graduated summa cum laude from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Media Arts with a concentration in Cinematography.
Geoff Smith joined AbelCine in 2015 as a Camera Technology Specialist with a focus on workflows from capture to post-production. He has been a technical editor of AbelCine’s blog since 2017.
Geoff has a background in technology from web development to content management at companies like VMware, Lucasfilm and Silicon Graphics (SGI). He has also worked as a DIT and Assistant Editor. A passionate photographer, his editorial and fine art work has been published in newspapers and magazines, and exhibited in New York City and online.
He graduated from California State University, Chico with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Design with an emphasis in Media Arts.
Follow his Instagram at @geoffsmithphoto