art & architecture    photography | 2007-2011

SHAME (2010 short feature)

gauge: HD; SONY EX3, Letus, Nikkor still primes; 1.85:1

producer: Presto Film | writer: Simon Sliphorst

starring: Joop Keesmaat, Betty van der Schaaf, Daniël ‘t Hoen, Maryam Tarami

director & editor: Simon Sliphorst | director of photography: Remco Hekker | production designer: Eva Haasdrecht | composer: Simon Sliphorst | production manager: Susanne Copini | 1st a.d.: Niels Bourgonje | lighting electrician: Dick Merx, Mick van Herk | boom operator: Marko Klungla | makeup artist: ? | assistant producer: ? | continuity: Sophie van der Klashorst | special thanks: Open Studio

Multi-talent Simon Sliphorst’s first short feature, with incredible cast and memorable crew.

BREUK (2010 short)

gauge: HD; P2, Letus, Nikkor still primes; 1.85:1

cast: Ad van Kampen, Janine Krol, Niels Jacobs, Femke Hoogeveen, Alexander Heeren

producer: Wanderlust Film | writer: Jurgen van Dorp

director & editor: Mick van Herk | director of photography: Kira Falticeanu | production designer: .. | composer: Colin van der Lei | editor: Lars Jansen | production manager: Rob IJpelaar | 1st a.d.: Jonathan Koerselman | 1st a.c.. & focus puller: Lukas de Kort | gaffer: Dick Merx | boom operator: Pim van Vugt | makeup artist: Nadja Daalder | assistant producer: Richard Wilting | continuity: Kiki van Herk | electricians: Tom IJpelaar | special thanks: Invite AV Delft, Mounttec Veldhoven, Egripment Veldhoven (set photographer)

After meeting Mick on the set of “Shame”, he asked me to gaffer his short “ Breaks”. Quite a challenge with only two working lights at my disposal. In return Mick has assisted me on many productions as best boy, and later as gaffer - I tend to arrange a little more equipment, though ;)

EGBERT (2010 short)

gauge: SD; SONY 530P, PRO35, S35MM SSMk.II; 2.35:1

cast: Wouter Zweers, Fabian Jansen, Chava voor ‘t Holt, and others

producer: R.S.V. Sanctus Laurentius | writer: Paul Bontenbal

director: Niels Bourgonje | director of photography: Jur Oster | production designer: Pavle Mihalic | composer: .. | sound designer: .. | editor: ? | production manager: Rogier | 1st a.d.: Marcelino Pistoor | 1st a.c. & focus puller: Dick Merx | gaffer: Bart Blankenzee | set dresser: Sonja Spaan | grip: Björn Schumacher | makeup artist: Emma Blok | assistant producer: ? | electricians: Alban Riphagen, | special thanks: Cam=a=lot, Schram Studio’s (set photographer)

gauge: 4K; RED Mysterium, S35MM UP; 1.85:1

starring: Eva den Hartogh, Liesbeth Kamerling, Mattijn Hartemink

producer & writer:: Lilian Sijbesma

director: Lilian Sijbesma | director of photography: Paul Caspers | sound designer: Martijn Scholte, Wib Neussen | editor: Jan van Gorkum | 1st a.c. & focus puller: Dick Merx, Gemma Probst | gaffer: Thomas Jeninga, Jelle van der Does | makeup:  | special thanks: Goldeneye, Lichtmacht | (set photographer)

Ambitious student film, that went on to win a ridiculous many awards at different festivals.

www.marijndefilm.nl

about me

An Amsterdam-born-and-based filmmaker.

I learned the ropes by analyzing movies (favorite period stretches from the early 1920s until today – I've collected about a thousand titles, many from the first half of the previous century), delving into the works of authorities in the field of optics, electromagnetism, photometry, colorimetry, photographic history and culture, stereography, and on, and by shooting some video to get an idea. Until 2008 this was just a hobby.

I aborted my stint at university to finally emerge in the industry as 2nd AC and lighting trainee (operating the slate, keeping camera rapports, wrapping cables) in the spring of 2009.
Advancing through the ranks of the Camera and Electrical dept. I gained experience with the industry’s highest standards, honed my skills and expanded my network. By 2010 I’d begun drawing sufficient income as 1st AC, Focus puller, Gaffer and Producer, mainly from corporates and commercials, while doing low budget short films on the side. By the end of that year I started receiving requests as Lighting Camera Operator and DOP. In 2011 I added on-location stereography to my belt.

After every step awaits a new horizon.  Whatever curve in the road, one thing I will always carry with me:  a filmmakers perspective.  I have fallen in love with this craft.  The versatility.  The infinite train of challenges it exposes me to.  Exploring technical and creative boundaries. Discovering shortcuts.  Meeting similar crazy, hardworking people.  Traveling.  Trotting pristine grounds. Visiting heaven and hell on earth.  Exploiting my visual talents and pragmatic think flow to the full.
Film-making is an endless oppurtunity to learn.  A job that is a reward in itself.  I plan to never cease making or contributing to the movies.

Ever since I embarked upon filmmaking, I’m doing ‘pro-bono’ gigs for the love of the art, because I believe otherwise many great ideas (including mine) die prematurely due to budget issues.
Filmmaking isn’t rocket science, yet the bottleneck is to combine commercial sense with true cinematic vision.
It’s a tough world to survive in when you don’t wish to sacrifice your vision or integrity. Yet I know, without doubt, that good things come to those who stay true. In the end real film makers will remain standing.

Best,

D


Full resume and/or reel upon request.

Contact/booking:

Company name : Anak Campur

CoC/KVK : 50027581 (Amsterdam)

VAT/BTW : NL131425638B01

VAR : wuo

Phone : +31(0) 636 121 932

E-mail : dmerx[at]anak-campur.com

IMDb  : www.imdb.com/name/nm3855837

LinkedIn : nl.linkedin.com/pub/dick-merx/b/98b/382

Technical proficiency :

Can calibrate, configurate, rig and operate any camera, from digital SD to 5K, to analog. If I don’t know it, I’ll learn it quick and thoroughly.

Also familiar (although without professional ambition) with DIT and secure data handling digital (post-)workflow and knowledge of high-end post-production suites (e.g. FCS, CS, RED, XDCAM, ARRI, etc.)

Experienced with elaborate Film lighting equipment in studio and on location.

I carry setbelt and bag, including Leica D2, 50’ Tape measure, markers, var. camera tapes, compressed air, Sekonic L-758CINE, pan glass (for b/w), gaffer glass, Leatherman, utility knife, clamps, and various other tools within hands reach...

Other:

1. •Dutch Driving license B
   

2. •Advanced Open Water Diver license up to 100ft (PADI)
   

3. •Favorite filmmakers: Buster Keaton, Lau Kar-leung 劉家良, Teshigahara Hiroshi 勅使河原宏, Henri-Georges Clouzot, Stanley Kubrick, Gosha Hideo 五社英雄, Orson Welles, Ingmar Bergman, Fritz Lang, Alfred Hitchcock, Kurosawa Akira 黒澤明, Max Ophuls, Carol Reed, Jules Dassin, Jim Jarmusch
   

I’ve devoted a website to filmmakers:

www.anak-campur.com/ac.html (bit out of date, though; runs best on Firefox 4.0)

Prime examples :

George Barnes, Günter Rittau, Arthur Miller, Georges Périnal, Nakai Asakazu 中井朝一, Segawa Hiroshi 瀬川浩, Gregg Toland, G.R. Aldo, Miyagawa Kazuo 宮川一夫, Stanley Cortez, Robert Burks, Erwin Hillier, Douglas Slocombe, Sven Nykvist, Conrad Hall, Haskell Wexler, Gordon Willis, John Alcott, Vittorio Storaro, Roger Deakins, Yanagijima Katsumi 柳島克巳, Claudio Miranda, Robert Elswit, Darius Kondji, Wally Pfister, Emmanuel Lubezski, Matthew Libatique

Recommended literature :

1. •A history of the Photographic Lens (Kingslake, 1989)
   

2. •Lens Design Fundamentals (Kingslake)
   

3. •Applied Optics and Optical Design, Part I & II (Conrady)
   

4. •Introduction to Modern Optics (Fowles)
   

5. •Basic Photographic Materials and Processes, 2nd Ed. (Stroebel, Compton, Zakia)
   

6. •The Book of Photography (Hedgecoe, Knopf)
   

7. •Photography: A Cultural History (Marien)
   

8. •ASC: American Cinematographers Manual, 9th Ed. Volume I & II (Burum)
   

9. •Hands-On Manual for Cinematographers (Samuelson)
   

10. •Optics and Focus for Camera Assistants: Art, Science and Zen (Hershey)
    

11. •The Five C's of Cinematography: Motion Picture Filming Techniques (Mascelli)
    

12. •Cinematography, 3rd Ed. (Malkiewicz, Mullen)
    

13. •Film Lighting: Talks with Hollywood's Cinematographers and Gaffers (Malkiewicz)
    

14. •The Grip Book, 4th Ed.  (Uva)
    

15. •Light Measurement Handbook (Ryer)
    

16. •BFI: The Image (Aumont)
    

17. •The Theory of Stereoscopic Transmission and Its Application to the Motion Picture (Spottiswoode, 1953)
    

18. •Foundations of the Stereoscopic Cinema: A Study in Depth (Lipton, 1982)
    

19. •3-D Filmmakers: Conversations with Creators of Stereoscopic Motion Pictures (Zone)
    

20. •3-D Movie Making: Stereoscopic digital cinema from script to screen (Mendiburu, 2009)
    

21. •SR-04C / Optical Engineering Vol. 22 No. 2 / March/April1983 (Smith, 1983)
    

22. •The Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook, 1st Ed. (Jolliffe, Jones)
    

Film Vocabulary (snippet):

Aaton, ABClicht, AJA, Altman, Ambient, Angenieux, Anton/Bauer, Arri, ASC magazine, Barco, Basler, BECTU, Blurb, Bolex, Blackmagic, David Brewster, Buster Keaton, Canon, Chimera, Chrosziel, CIE, CineAlta, Cinemaelec, Cinematechnic, Cineroid, Cinetechnica, Cinevate, Cité du Cinéma, cmotion, Convergent Design, Cooke, CPG, Dedolight, Easylook, Eyemo (Bell&Howell), Fermat, film noir, Fofic, Fujifilm, Fujinon, Gemini, German expressionism, Genus, Glyph, GoldenEye, GoPro, Graflex, Gripwise, Hasselblad, Heliopan, Hurlbut, Christiaan Huygens, Huygens-Fresnel, Hydroflex, Ikonoskop, Japanese avant-garde cinema (e.g.勅使河原宏), 時代劇 (ちゃんばら), Kata, Keson, Kinoflo, Kodak, K 5600, Lastolite, 劉家良, Leica, Leatherman, Lexar, LiteGear, Mamiya, Manfrotto/Avenger, Marshall, Martin, James Clerk Maxwell, Mitchell, Moleskine, movies, Multi-lite, NAB, Niépce, O’Conner, Olight, optics (e.g. Kingslake), Osram, Panasonic, Panavision, P+S Technik, Phantom, Photo-Sonics, Panther, Photozone, Max Planck, PRG, PVC Blog, RED, Rosco, Røde, Scheimpflug, Schneider (B+W), Schram Studio’s, Sekonic, Sennheiser, SI-2K, Sigma, Sinar, Snellius, Solid grip, Sony (Konica Minolta), Steenbeck, stereography (L.Lipton, C.W.Smith, B.Mendiburu, Spottiswoode), Tangohead, Tiffen, T8 (Lumapanel), Viper, Weisscam, Wilhelm Wien, X-rite, Zacuto, Zeiss, 21st Century.

FOOTPRINTS OF LIGHT / DICK MERX

+31(0) 636 121 932

Welcome to  F O O T P R I N T S   O F   L I G H T .

In order to capture the fastest and most fundamental force of nature (a quantized portion of it),  you would require someone that understands its very spirit. One that can track, control and properly break it. FOL represents the kind that hunts light by instinct, from any space or time.

FOL is my home, based in Amsterdam and operational worldwide. I render service on a gamut of things.  Some are quite innovating concepts. Particularly those in collaboration with the mysterious ‘Hooded Hombre‘ and those blessed by the ’Chapel’   (creating and developing formats on behalf of NGO’s and companies that embrace corporate conscience – including some major campaigns ).
Next to that, I took on the challenge to create stereoscopic 3-D for the silverscreen.  Shot on unique locations in East-Asia amongst other.
I’m working hard to complete the  documentary “Inheriting Liu He Men”, produced pro-bono together with some other great filmmakers, that will hopefully include a chapter in Northeast China.
Mentionable stuff is already in the offing for the months to come :  as DOP I’m honored to be signed to an exciting  new detective series  for Dutch national television and also looking at  a couple  feature length films,  including a  British comedy  packed with car chases through the stunning Algarvean scenery of Southern Portugal. ( Stay around for updates! )

Filmmaking, to me, is  a mode of life beyond cultural geography.  If literature is vocabulary,  film is light.  People may have individual interpretations, our brains share the same spectral sensitivity.  We employ its  sources  ( the sun, filament, arcs, led, fire, reflective surfaces )  in very similar ways.  Direction moves people.  In the visual world that we create, fiction and reality become interchangeable.  What we ultimately project on a screen are only footprints of light – nobody can truly tell its cosmic path.  It doesn’t matter anyway; we only see what we choose to believe.  If we manage to capture without killing it, if we create immortality in that other dimension, our job as filmmakers is done.

I would be nowhere without my colleagues, so I did my best to provide links to IMDb or their respective websites. Most are alumni from the Dutch Film Academy (NFTA), HKU, WDKA, or other (foreign) film or theatre schools. And some autodidacts.  A passionate and hardworking professional family either way.

Below you find a selection of my most recent and/or more personal projects. Feel free to look around to get an idea of my style of work.

More information about me (personal motivation, list of technical proficiency, showreel, etc.)  at the page end.

Hope to see you for  a brainstorm session  and/or  on set!

LTR: Sliphorst, me, Alexa, Hermannsdottir, Kool, Schreuders on the set of “Signs”.

Photo by Kees van Welzenis

phone: +31(0) 636 121 932    e-mail: dmerx[at]footprintsoflightdot]nl

CoC/KVK:50027581 (Amsterdam)    VAT/BTW :NL131425638B01    VAR wuo

www.imdb.com/name/nm3855837     nl.linkedin.com/pub/dick-merx/b/98b/382

Footprintsoflight.nl is part of Anak Campur registered at the Dutch Camber of Commerce.