Aiming High

Posted by admin on Apr 30, 2010 in News Archives, People | 2 comments

Ryan Mooney, Full Member of OZCREWS
Cameraman /DOP – Sydney, Australia

Start as a mail boy and work up.  It sounds like one of those theories that drive parents nuts as they try to convince you that qualifications are the route to a good job.

Twenty years ago Ryan Mooney, two weeks into a course at Swinburne – the prestigious Melbourne School of Film and Television, had to make that choice.

Continue at the school or take up the offer of a job as mail boy at Channel Nine, one of the television networks. Mooney chose the mail boy job and these days is able to describe himself as a busy freelance cameraman.

“The teacher laughed at me, but now he’s asking me to come and give a talk,” says Mooney,  “it shows what can happen if get you foot in the door don’t give up.”

all harnessed up

“After talking my way into news sound at Channel Nine, one day I got my chance behind the camera,” he recalls. “I practiced in the car parks then off I went.”

It was during his ten years at Channel Nine that he picked up the name Rhino – the name that everyone still knows him by.

“When I first went freelance I started my company Rhinovision, only to have a mate point out later that rhinos have bad eyesight!

“After freelancing in Melbourne for a year or two I came up to Queensland for a holiday and I’m still here,” he says from his Brisbane base.

According to Rhino the most important thing about freelancing is developing contacts. He points out he didn’t even own a camera at first, opting instead to invest in equipment like tripods and lights that wouldn’t date so quickly.

“I had to rent cameras for a long time, but around that time no-one knew which way the industry was going format-wise.

“It was very similar to the position with HD in Australia right now,” he explains, “we’re waiting for the major networks to make a call.”

When things became clearer and he could afford it, he purchased an industry workhorse, the venerable Sony Digital Betacam DVW709, and today he hires whatever for

tiga cubs

mat HD camera is needed for HD shoots.

But Rhino’s didn’t need to wait before updating his compliment of lights with new Litepanel 1×1 lights adding LED technology to his kit of Dedos, Kinoflows, and HMIs.

“The Litepanels are a fantastic piece of new technology,” he says, “They are quite small and versatile.  I run them off camera batteries for a quick set up, and if I have do a quick trip I just put two of them in a Pelican case with three or four Dedos,” he says.

The ability to travel light and work hard has taken Rhino on all sorts of productions.

“Lately I’ve been doing the World’s Strictest Parents. It’s an observational show. You basically get a couple of wayward Aussie teenagers

and send them off to an overseas country like South Africa or Singapore,” he explains. “They are sent to a so-called strict family, so not only do they get the culture shock they get the get-your-act-together shock.

“It’s a single camera job, there was myself, a couple of producers, a soundie but occasionally one of the producers will be there at night with a handy cam as a safety,” he says.

“The most difficult thing with a show like that is that you’ve got to remain neutral, but when you spend a good 12 hours a days with these kids you don’t get close to them, but you feel like you know them, and you want to be a bit of a mentor.

“You think you know them more than you really do because you are filming their body language and every move they make. It’s not that I’ve liked them – but you do feel for them.

“The good thing about that particular job is that it’s not a set up, most reality shows are can-you-do-that-again, can-you-say-this, type of shows but on this job things were left to go – it’s a different style,” he says.

Topside Lift

It was the search for a different style of history documentary that lead Rhino down the path to producer, although he continues to insist he is mainly a cameraman.

“I love history,” he says.  “I asked myself how I could do what I love to do and combine history and the whole reality phenomenon.

“One of the first docos I did was down in Tasmania with half a dozen backpackers from all parts of the world. They were dumped on an island in the middle of Bass Strait between Victoria and Tasmania where 150 years before shipwreck survivors had survived for six months.

“I put up a challenge for these kids, I said here’s some bread, some flour, some matches and some fishing line, can you survive for ten days?

“Then I let them go and simply followed them and it worked very well. I sold it to one of the major Australian networks and it rated well.

“Once again it was observational so without knowing it or being preached to you were actually learning a bit of history in a fun way.”

Working the roles of producer as well as cameraman has given Rhino keen insights into what creates good product.

“We are all trying to make this product so you’ve got to get on with everyone, with no bullshit,” he says.

“My news background showed me that one minute you’re meeting street kids and the next minute you’re meeting royalty. You’ve got to learn to get down or up on to people’s level quick smart otherwise you just don’t get what you need from them.

“People skills are 90% of the job,” he says, “if you don’t like teamwork you shouldn’t be in this industry.”

Click here to view Ryan’s full professional bio