Director of Photography / Senior Editor John Golden Britt won the Best Cinematographer award for the HDV film "I Am" at the 2005 Duke City Shootout annual digital film festival held this summer. “I Am” was also runner up for the overall best film of the festival. It was the winning script entrant in a unique category aptly named “The Common Man,” where scripts don’t have to be in script format. Only the work of non-professionals with good storytelling abilities was accepted.
Photo: KNME Director of Photography / Senior Editor John Golden Britt
The festival gave seven teams of volunteers one week to make a 12-minute digital film. The judging was done one week after crews began filming, and the films were shown later that evening. Judges included renowned singer/songwriter Tom Waits, New Mexico State Tourism Director Jon Hendry, Albuquerque Film Office Director Ann Lerner and five others.
“Winning the award was gratifying,” Britt said. “KNME was very supportive of me and the KNME camera crew. This was a long, four-day shoot. I had the assistance of two other KNME employees on this project: Antony Lostotter was key grip, and Danielle Bauer was first assistant camera. Their help was invaluable, as was the equipment support we received from KNME-TV,” he said.
This is another example of KNME reaching out into the community, Britt explained. “We couldn’t have done it without the good graces of the station – and the technical and human resources support. (Director of Engineering) Jim Gale is the wizard of high definition in the Southwest. Having him behind us was important. This is another great way for employees to become familiar working with a HD format. I have been working in HD for three years now, so when KNME begins active HD production, we will be that much better prepared.”
“It was a rare opportunity to work on a silent black and white, narrative film -- I’d never done that before. It was a real growth experience. Working with the film’s mentor, Christopher Coppola, was an exercise in artful economy, mainly due to a hard and dirty location and record heat wave in the Southwest.”
Britt, who has worked for KNME-TV for more than five years – one year as a freelancer and four as a fulltime staff member – has also worked as a freelance director of photography shooting commercials, music videos and short films, with two Sundance Film Festival screenings to his credit. Britt won a Telly Award for a pilot of the cable music series “Sounds Good,” which aired in the Los Angeles market.
Receiving most of his training on the job working in film as an assistant cameraman for nine years, Britt received his B.A. in English from the University of Louisiana, Lafayette. He is married with two children.
This was the Duke City Shootout’s sixth year and first as a full-on collaboration with EARS XI and Christopher Coppola, who is the nephew of Francis Ford Coppola and brother of Nicolas Cage.
Contact: Evy Todd, (505) 277-1218