Curtis Clark

Curtis Clark, ASC was born to Curtis Lubin Clark, Sr. and Maxine Harris Clark in Oak Ridge, Tennessee in 1946; his younger brother is Reginald Clark. Clark was raised in Texas, and studied theater directing and drama at the Goodman School of Drama at the Art Institute of Chicago, and also studied cinematography at the London Film School. After graduation, he began his career by shooting numerous documentary and experimental films in England before transitioning to shooting feature films. His most notable documentary films as director include "Cruisin'" (1977), British Hustle (1978), "Shut Down" (1978), and Blue Suede Shoes (1980). Clark's narrative feature film cinematography credits include such critically acclaimed films as The Draughtsman's Contract (1982); Dominick and Eugene (1988); Alamo Bay (1985); Extremities (1986), Triumph of the Spirit (1989) and Talent for the Game (1991). He started shooting television commercials in the early 1990s, which put him on the forefront of the digital/film frontier. He has continued adding to his many commercial credits working as cinematographer (as well as director), working with cutting-edge directors and ad agencies. Following on the success of his narrative short film, "The Arrival", which he wrote, photographed and directed, Clark more recently completed his highly praised narrative short film, "Eldorado", which he also wrote, directed, and photographed using Sony's innovative F65 4K digital motion picture camera. Clark has just completed his latest dramatic narrative short film for Netflix: Meridian (2016), which he directed and co-wrote with James H. Brown. Clark is a Board of Governors member of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) and is chairman of the ASC Technology Committee, an important motion picture industry forum that both investigates and influences the development of emerging digital imaging technologies that impact creative filmmaking practice. Amongst its multiple initiatives, the ASC Technology Committee, at Clark's instigation, embarked on the development of a groundbreaking project to create cross platform data exchange for primary RGB digital color grading, referred to as the ASC CDL (Color Decision List). Broad based Industry acceptance and implementation of the ASC CDL is now well advanced and has been recognized by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences with a prestigious 2012 Prime Time EMMY Engineering Award. Also prominent among the ASC Technology Committee's achievements during Clark's tenure as chairman was the groundbreaking 2009 ASC-PGA (Producers Guild of America) Camera Assessment Series (CAS) which evaluated the performance of seven digital cinematography cameras compared with film. The ASC-PGA recently completed their follow-up 2012 Image Control Assessment Series (ICAS), designed to assess the ACES (Academy Color Encoding System) workflow performance of five frequently used digital cinematography cameras compared with 35mm film. Clark and the ASC Technology Committee have been active participants in the development and implementation of the innovative new Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences color management architecture known as ACES (Academy Color Encoding System). ACES has also been recognized by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences with a prestigious 2012 Prime Time EMMY Engineering Award. Clark is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, as well as the Directors Guild of America.