We are very excited to announce David Claessen as Master Instructor at the Film Training Company’s 2010 Advanced Cinematography Workshop and will also facilitate a clinic within the Introduction to Professional Grading. David Claessen will bring his immense experience and invaluable industry insights within the high-end commercial and music video world providing an inspiration source for the participants to draw from for their upcoming projects.

Instructor Bio

It all started in the late 1970´s when David Claessen got introduced to the Film Community in his native Amsterdam, The Netherlands by accident. After graduating from Nederlandse Televisie & Film Academie in the early 1980´s he worked in the vast Television Documentary market in Europe traveling all over the globe shooting film for Dutch, French and British Television.

He later worked as a Camera Operator under the legendary French Cameramen Henri Alekan [La Belle et la Bete by Jean Cocteau, La Belle Capitive by Robbe-Grillet, Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders] and Sacha Vierny [Hiroshima Mon Amour, LÁnnee Derniere a Marienbad by Alain Renais, The Cook, His Wife & Her Lover by Peter Grenaway]. David started working as a Feature Film Director of Photography in 1984 when he got the opportunity to photograph the French Film Haute Mer for the Argentinean director Eduardo Cozarinsky. Since settling in the USA in late 1986 he photographed The Telephone [Whoopi Goldberg] for Rip Torn [The Gary Shandling Show], Getting In [Matthew Perry, Callista Flockhart] for Doug Liman [Swingers, The Bourne Identity, Mr & Mrs. Smith].

In 1995 An Evil Town directed by Richard Sears won Best Short Film @ the Film Festival of Cannes, France. A few years later David won the Kodak Achievement Award for Best Cinematography for his work on Marc Chiat´s Every Dog Has It´s Day. While primarily focused on commercials [Sony, Nike, Mercedes, Jaguar, Heineken] and Music Videos [Britney Spears, Snoop Dogg, Aaliyah, Xhibit, Destiny´s Child, Eve, India Aire, Brandy, Jay Z] over the last 10 years Claessen has completed several films with director Julie Dash [Daughters of the Dust] including The Rosa Parks Story for which she was nominated by the DGA for best direction. Angela Bassett won an Emmy and an Image Award for her performance in this movie. With Diary Of A Mad Black Woman Claessen reunited with director Darren Grant with whom he has collaborated for years in the Commercial/Music Video Market and managed to score his first # 1 Box Office Hit.

Visit the official site www.davidclaessen.com