ACTING & FILM SCHOOL

Film Instructor Richard Shore: How my Career in Filmmaking Began & Continues

I got my first job at the age of 15 as a darkroom printers assistant for a firm specializing in high end flattering portraits of CEO types. The printer was immensely skilled and I learned a good deal working by his side. It paid $.75 per hr.

The following year I found another job, cleaning 16mm prints. The work made me rather dizzy. It’s no wonder, as the cleaning solvent was Carbon Tetrachloride. A highly toxic chemical now classified as a “dangerous substance”.

At 17 I made a documentary film about lobster fishing called “The Lobsterman”. The film won a prize and is in the permanent collection of the Boston Public Library.

When I turned 18 I enrolled in the film department at the University Of Southern California (USC). At that time the USC curriculum included:

• Motion Picture Laboratory Chemistry
• understanding and using logarithms
• plotting H&D curves
• cinematography
• film editing
• writing film criticism and analysis
• lectures given by visiting film makers including professional cinematographers
• and watching at least one film daily in the USC theater.

Upon receiving my Masters in Arts from USC, I was drafted into the Army during the Korean War.

Following Basic Training at Fort Dix I was assigned as a cinematographer to the Signal Film Studios in Astoria, NY (formerly Paramount Pictures and now a museum) where I worked on training films and documentary films for 2 years. Four years later I was Honorably Discharged from the Army.

After my discharge I went on to win three Emmies with credits including: Bang the Drum Slowly, In the American Grain Night of the Dark Shadows, The Responsive Eye, and Three Women Alone. And after working for forty years in twenty countries and working as the Directory of Photography on hundreds of commercials, documentaries, educational and scientific films I retired.

I am currently the Senior Instructor at the New York Film Academy where I give the “Special Guest Lecture” to all our Film School classes in New York City. Please join me as I continue to live, love and teach filmmaking.

By Richard Shore