A love of cinematography and films led Dominic Case to the lab business. When he began his first job at Rank Laboratories in England, he thought he’d stay for a few months, get to know the industry, make some contacts and become a cinematographer as soon as possible. But he kind of liked it, so he stayed.

Fast forward to 2003: Dominic Case is a respected member of the international film community in several capacities. As Group Technology Manager for Atlab Australia since 1996, he is responsible for coordinating technical activities across four facilities in Australia and New Zealand. He is the chairperson of a group driving broadband connectivity for the Australian film industry called the Film Industry Broadband Resources Group (FIBRE), and has recently been appointed to the Board of the Australian Film Commission.

The technical aspect of projects has always been and is still part of his passion for the lab business. He began in the control department and in the 70’s quickly embraced computers during their early evolution. For six years between lab jobs, he was a freelance film technical consultant for filmmakers. His involvement in the development of the Colormaster color analyzer gave him a head start in understanding digital color space; and when non-linear editing swept the world, he wrote a paper about the effects of the change from cutting film to cutting on computers which was presented at a very early Avid conference. “That set them thinking a bit!” he explained with a smile.

One of Dominic’s favorite experiences was working with Director of Photography Dion Beebe on an arthouse feature called What I Have Written. About a third of the film was memory/imagination sequences that were, as he describes it “almost stills, almost black & white.” They involved a lot of freeze frames, cutting to the next freeze, where only the subject’s eyes had moved. “We did about a 90% color drain, leaving just a hint of color,” explained Case. “I got involved in that film because when I met the producer, I mentioned that I’d done the lab work for the black and white sections of Phillip Noyce’s first feature in the late 70s – a film about newsreel cameramen called Newsfront.”

His study in physics helps keep Dominic in a creative mode. When the 1927 Australian film For the Term of His Natural Life was in restoration in the 80's, he developed a technique to reproduce the original tinting and toning on color print stock. That experience led to one of his current projects, a 1919 film called The Sentimental Bloke. The Australian National Film & Sound Archive is restoring the film, drawing in part from a well preserved fine grain copy discovered at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York. “It had been filed as The Sentimental Blonde,” says Dominic, who is once again doing the tints and tones. “We presume some assistant 80 years ago wasn’t familiar with the Australian term ‘bloke!’” The film will be released in 2004 together with a specially composed score.

From Dominic’s perspective, the worldwide lab business is a very small but friendly industry and ACVL plays an important role. He finds the ACVL a great forum to meet others who are doing the same sort of work and confronting the same problems and opportunities every day. “It’s reassuring,” commented Dominic, “It’s also a good forum to meet the manufacturers and suppliers.”

“Think of the number of screens in the world and the billions of dollars of business they attract! It’s incredible to see that the ACVL regularly has all the people responsible for some aspect of the images on all those screens gathered into one room!”

His thoughts toward the future for ACVL support a continued push towards worldwide membership and a greater role in educating future filmmakers. “Looking ahead, the labs will see more clients who know everything about making “films” on video or digital, but nothing about film. ACVL can play an ever greater role in establishing common practices and making guidelines available to the industry.” Case is the author of a comprehensive book entitled Film Technology in Post Production, Second Edition, which includes expanded coverage of the new film technologies and interfaces, especially film scanning and recording, digital image capture, digital intermediates and digital cinema.

“It’s important to include modern technology but not let go of established technology, so I think it’s entirely appropriate to discuss digital developments and continue building relationships with archivists as well.”

Dominic and his wife Olga have two grown children and live only a short ferry ride from the Sydney Opera House, where they enjoy live theatre and classical concerts.