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Kommer Kleijn SBC

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Picture    picture    picture    Read about LEGEND loudspeakers by John Watkinson    Animoko motion control rig    Award Picture    Best 3D Feature Trophee    Halde Courant3D festival    Imago Tribute Trophee    Kommer with Lumiere Award    IMAGO Honorary Member Award    SMPTE Fellow certificate

Cinematographer, Stereographer, Researcher, Lecturer, Consultant
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Brussels, Belgium, Europe

Direct link to 3D and Stereography page

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Read about the ANIMOKO Motion Control Rig for Animated Movies

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Kommer Kleijn SBC (1959) studied in Belgium with among others Charlie Vandamme AFC and Ghislain Cloquet ASC. He became a Director of Photography, a digital imaging pioneer, a visual effects and motion control specialist, an inventor and an internationally renowned stereographer.

He is also active in education, research and standardisation, and consults for equipment manufacturers. While he learned the trade with analogue film, he has been at the forefront of the digital evolution. In 1996 he was the first to shoot digital cinematography in more than 2K, for the first digitally captured clay animation short. In 1997 he was the first to shoot digitally for a large format movie, pioneering the now common single chip large sensor digital cinematography technique using a then experimental camera system, co-developed with two friends.

He presented this technique publicly at the BKSTS Digital weekend in Pinewood Studios November 1999 and at the VFX 2000 Conference in the London Waterloo IMAX theatre. It has since become mainstream throughout the industry, replacing the previously used three-chip method.

In 2004 he initiated the Additional Frame Rates work in Digital Cinema Projection Standardisation, leading to the addition of the frame rates of 60, 50, 30 and 25 fps to the International standard of Digital Cinema distribution and Projection (DCP) in 2009.

In 2007 he shot 4K footage before 4K cameras were released using dual HDcam SR and in 2011 he worked on the first theatrical HFR feature that used a short exposure time per frame.

He participated in the development of two speciality camera systems (one Digital Cinematography, one 3D), a stereo processor for 3D live broadcast and he designed a commercial motion control rig specific for stop motion cinematography, The Animoko.

He has worked on visual effects for features, commercials, special venue movies and large format movies and he has also photographed many of those. Among them are numerous stereoscopic productions, including IMAX 3D. He has been practising stereography professionally since 1998 and as a lead stereographer has been involved in 3D productions ranging from theatrical features and commercials to stereoscopic multi camera live captures for sports and music. He pioneered stereography for the first 3DTV direct live transmissions in France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, and supervised the stereography for the very first direct 3D Eurovision broadcast.

He received the 2017 Lumiere Award - Europe, Best European Stereography by the Advanced Imaging Society, UP3D at 'Stereopsia' for his 20 years of dedication to stereography.

He is an established filmschool teacher (RITCS, INSAS, La Cambre) for decades and worked internationally as an instructor in S3D workshops for professionals.

He has chaired the IMAGO technical committee for a decade and he has served on  the board of  SBC, UP3D and EDCF for 12, 5 and 9 years respectively. He has been an IMAGO depute board member and he is a full member of the AES, BKSTS/IMIS, DCS, AIS and he is a fellow member of SMPTE where he is a participating member of the DC28/21DC/27C Technical Committee since 2006, having chaired Digital Cinema Frame Rates Groups for more than a decade.

He used to be a regular speaker on international image technology and 3D events and received the "Bert Easey Technical Achievement Award" from the BSC in 2009 for his achievement in implementing the 60 frame rate proposal as an addition to the International Standard for Digital Cinema projection. In 2016 he received an IMAGO Tribute for his contributions to IMAGO, the International Federation of Cinematographers, and in 2019 he was given the IMAGO International Honorary Member Award.

His later works include supervising stereography for the Michael Flatley movie "Lord of the Dance 3D", the live 8 camera 3D capture of the "3Dimensies" concert by Marco Borsato in the Gelredome, the Netherlands and the Dutch/Belgian full length HFR 3D feature "Above Us All" by Eugenie Jansen, which led him to receive the 'Best Feature' award at the 3D Image festival, Lodz, Poland.

As an audiovisual perception researcher his main focus for vision is on cinema frame rates and 3D perception while for audio it is on the perception of aperiodic sound and perception in reverberant environments. He participates in a development team led by John Watkinson, which is creating a new kind of loudspeakers.

He has been late-diagnosed with the "Asperger Syndrome" (like happened to Elon Musk and others), a form of neurodiversity on the high functional end of the autism spectrum. Combined with a "Savant Syndrome" this may have contributed to his research and inventor performances.

Beginning the nineties he contracted progressive chronic systemic disease, cutting down on his energy levels. This is an unfortunate combination as living in our (unadapted) society with Aspergers requires more energy than normal. Kommer managed to continue an active career for about twenty years spite the progressing illness, but by 2013 shooting pictures or teaching classes had become impossible. Since then he lives as a disabled person.

More personal interviews with Kommer Kleijn about his cinema career were made in 2010 by the NSC (Netherlands Society of Cinematographers) and in 2019 by the SBC (Belgian Society of Cinematographers). The NSC inteview can be read either in it's original Dutch version or translated to English. The SBC interview was written in French and also translated to English.

Kommer is fluent in Dutch, French, English and German.

His web page is at http://www.kommer.com
  • Curriculum Vitae - Resume
  • Specific Fields of  Interest
  • Equipment Development
  • Electronic Preview Screening Theater
  • Links
  • Pictures

  • News  (16/6/2023):
    - I was a speaker at the IMAGO - FNF Digital Cinematography Conference in Oslo, Norway, on June 16, 2023. I presented about Laser Light sources in Cinema Projection, Consequences for cinematographers. Due to health issues making travel more difficult, I presented from home via Skype. My good friend Morten Skullerud FNF kindly send me this picture from his position in the room.

    News  (10/11/2020):
    - During the SMPTE fellow Luncheon also know as the Fellows Induction Ceremony on Nov 10, 2020, I have been named an SMPTE fellow. This normally is a red carpet event in Hollywood held yearly during the annual SMPTE conference but it has exceptionally been held virtually this year. A 5 minutes excerpt from the ceremony, with former SMPTE president Matthew Goldman introducing me, then followed by my acceptance speach, can be seen by clicking here.

    News  (31/08/2020):
    - SMPTE has announced I will be elevated to SMPTE fellow status. I have been representing IMAGO in SMPTE for 14 years, chairing SMPTE 21DC Frame Rate standardization Groups, creating new artistic choices for cinematographers, directors and stereographers by adding additional frame rates to the international standard for DCP. There are also announcements of this on the web sites of IMAGO and SBC.
     
    News  (22/11/2019):
    - I will be a speaker at Cinematography Standards round table, organised by CITO in Brussels, Belgium, Januari 29, 2020. I will present about Frame Rates, Movement and Image Sharpness in Cinematography.

    News  (16/9/2019):
    - I will be a speaker at the IMAGO - FNF Digital Cinematography Conference in Oslo, Norway, October 18 - 20, 2019. I will present about Frame Rates, Movement and Image Sharpness in Cinematography. Also, the HFR 3D movie "Above Us All" Directed by Eugenie Jansen, a movie actually using these new techniques in storytelling, and won the 'Best Feature' award in the '3D Image' filmfestival, will be shown in it's entirety at a conference evening. Some more about this movie and the use of these new techniques in storytelling can be found in my recent SBC interview.

    News  (15/9/2019):
    - The Belgian Society of Cinematographers SBC published an Interview with me on their web page. They did a very nice job and for the first time I talk about how my disablility influenced my professional career. You can read it in English by clicking here. Une version Française est disponible ici. There is also a second part that talks mainly about research into higher frame rates (HFR) in cinema.

    News  (4/4/2019):
    - I will be a speaker at the Symposium on Audio Research and Practice in Belgium in Ghent, Belgium, on May 14th, 2019. The symposium is organised by the Belgian section of the AES. I will present about "The importance of precise reproduction of time-domain information in Loudspeaker Systems". Entrance is free and also does not require AES membership. Registration is mandatory however. Click on the title or here to see an abstract for my presentation. Or take a look at the conference program.

    News  (16/3/2019):
    - I was given the 2019 IMAGO International Honorary Member Award during the IMAGO International Cinematography Awards Ceremony in Belgrade, Serbia, on Saturday March 16th.

    News  (8/3/2019):
    - IMAGO has announced that I will receive the 2019 IMAGO International Honorary Member Award during the IMAGO International Cinematography Awards Ceremony in Belgrade, Serbia, on Saturday March 16th.

    News  (11/2/2019):
    - I will be a speaker at the 3rd International Conference on teaching and researching Cinematography in Brussels, Belgium,  April 4 - 6, 2019. I will be speaking about "Movement and image sharpness being mutually exclusive at usual cinema frame rates". Please click on the title or here to see an abstract for my presentation. Here is also a copy of the Conference Program.

    News  (20/2/2018):
    - I will be a speaker at the HdM International Cinematography Days 2018 in Stuttgart, Germany,  March 15 - 17, 2018

    News  (13/12/2017):
    - I was given the 2017 Lumiere Award - Europe, Best European Stereography by the Advanced Imaging Society, 'Stereopsia', UP3D and BARCO for my 20 years of dedication to 3D as a stereographer, researcher and educator. I received the award during the Awards Gala Dinner in the BOZAR art palace in Brussels, Belgium. Click here to read on.

    News  (14/9/2016):
    - I was bestowed the IMAGO TRIBUTE AWARD by the board of directors of IMAGO during the Imago General Assembly (IAGA) Bitola, Macedonia, on september 14, 2016 for my contributions to IMAGO among which the Chairmanship of the Imago Technical Committee for about 10 years.

    News  (20/9/2015):
    - I will be a speaker at the IMAGO - FNF Digital Cinematography Conference in Oslo, Norway, October 30 - Nov 1st, 2015

    News  (15/11/2014):
    - The short S3D movie "Northern Lights Over Mount Halde" by Morten Skallerud won the Second Prize in the Courant3D festival for short 3D films, Angoulême, France. I collected the prize on behalf of the director having served as stereographer on the project.

    News  (26/10/2014):

    - The feature film "Above Us All" by Eugenie Jansen won in the 'Best Feature' Award in the 3D IMAGE festival, Lodz, Poland. I actually received the prize myself as the lead stereographer on that movie.

    News  (28/6/2014):
    - The feature film "Above Us All" by Eugenie Jansen will be released (in full 3D HFR 50 fps/eye) at the Eye institute Amsterdam and other cinemas in the Netherlands on Sept 11th 2014. I served as the lead stereographer on this movie.

    News  (22/1/2014):
    - The feature film "Above Us All" by Eugenie Jansen will be premiered (in full 3D HFR 50 fps/eye) at the Berlinale Festival on februari 12th and 16th, 2014. I served as the lead stereographer on the project.

    News  (20/8/2013):
    - I will be a speaker at the IMAGO - FNF Digital Cinematography Conference in Oslo, Norway, September 6-8, 2013
    - I will be presenting at the IBC conference in Amsterdam on  tuesday morning Sept 17th (session EDCF D-Cinema Update, Free Session, Room E102, 10h00-13h00)

    News  (8/6/2013):
    - I will be a speaker at the "Dimension3 EXPO" on What's new in my movie theater ? - An EDCF conference at  the Dock Eiffel, Paris, France, June 18, 2013
    - The short S3D movie "Northern Lights Over Mount Halde" I stereographed will be premiering on the opening night at the Grimstad Short Film Festival, in Grimstad, Norway on June 11th 2013

    News  (11/2/2013):

    - I will be a speaker at the "FilmFrame Symposium" at the Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland, May 3-4, 2013
    - I will be teaching on 3D HFR at the International 3D-Stereo (3DS) Forum, by Internationale Film Fernseh und Musik Akademie (IFFMA) in Munich on March 15th 2013
    - I will be participant and speaker at the CILECT/GEECT conference on "Teaching Cinematography" at La Femis, Paris, France, febr 25 and 26, 2013

    News  (25/10/2012):
    - I will work as an istructor for the 3D Academy oganised by 3D stereo Media, Liege Belgium, 3 and 4 December 2012
    - I will be presenting at 3D stereo Media Pro conference in Liege Belgium, 5 and 6 December 2012

    News  (1/08/2012):

    - I will be presenting at the IBC conference in Amsterdam on monday morning sept 10th (The New Grammar of Stereoscopic Filmmaking) and  tuesday morning Sept 11th (EDCF D-Cinema Update)
    - I will be part of a UP3D panel on 3D and HFR at CINEC CineCongress Munchen on sept 22nd 15h00

    News  (11/3/2012):
    - I will be teaching at the international 3D-STEREO (3DS) FORUM, by Internationale Film Fernseh und Musik Akademie IFFMA in Munich on March 16th 2012
    - I will be presenting during "Dimension 3 Expo" in Paris, on High Frame Rates (june 14th 17h00) and participate in a panel on "European 3D" (June 15th 2012 11:15h)

    News  (11/12/2011):
    - I will be presenting at IDIFF, Paris, januari 18th 2012 on "High Frame Rates for 3D and 2D digital Cinema"
    - "Marco Borsato 3Dimensies Concert" was released in full 3D on 3D Blu-Ray this month. I was the lead stereographer on this show
    - "Lord of the Dance 3D" (Dance Show by Michael Flatley) was released in full 3D on 3D Blu-Ray this month. I was the lead stereographer on this show

    News  (11/11/2011):
    - I will be speaking on the 3D stereo media conference in Liege Belgium on december 7, 8 and 9
    - I will work as an instructor on the 2 day 3D academy in Liege Belgium december 5 and 6
    - I will work as an instructor on the 3D campus in Paris from november 29 to december 2nd
    - I will be presenting on 3D projection, frame rates and silver screens at the Cameriage festival in Bydgoszcz, Poland on November 28
    - I will be participating in a 3D masterclass in Warsaw, Poland on november 24th
    - The feature shoot "Above Us All" went well and finished beginning of oktober.

    News  (31/08/2011):
    - I am working as a stereographer on the shooting of the movie "Above  Us All" , a full length feature film by Eugenie Jansen, photographed by Adri Schrover NSC. We are shooting in 3D at 50 fps per eye.
    - I will be presenting at the IBC conference on tuesday morning Sept 13th
    - Aardman Animations in Bristol U.K.have bought two additional ANIMOKO rigs and now own a total of three.

    News  (17/03/2011):
    - I will be participating in a 3D panel in a Euro MEDIA conference about AV education on monday 21 march.
    - I will be participating in a 3D session in Tampere, Finland on friday 11 march and saturday 12 march.
    - I will be participating in a 3D info evening in Amsterdam on monday 7 march.
    - The movie Lord of the Dance 3D, capture of Michael Flatleys' show "Lord of the Dance" will premiere in London on march 10 and will be released in cinemas in the UK, the USA, Ireland and Canada on March 17th.

    News  (20/11/2010):
    - I will be participating in 3D Stereo Media. This is an Expo, Conference and 3D film festival that will take place in Liège Belgium, Palais des Congres, 8, 9 and 10 december. There will also be a 3D training course on monday 6 and tuesday 7 december. I will be one of the trainers in the course, I will speak on the conference and there are a few pieces I stereographed in the festival as well :-)
    - I was hired to supervise stereography on Lord of the Dance 3D the capture of Michael Flatleys' show "Lord of the Dance". We shot five nights total in London and Dublin. The movie will premiere with a rich choice of cameras, rigs, technocrane, steadies and a furio. I also did a live 3D transmission of  international Rugby in Verona Italy, reported by "La 7" as the first 3D live broadcast in Italy.
    - In oktober I worked with Morten Skallerud shooting his 3D short film on the pioneers of northen light studies in Haldde on a mountain top not too far from the north pole. We had to transport all crew and equipment by helicopter.

    News (30/08/2010):
    - Aardman feature animations have ordered an ANIMOKO for use on their present feature shoot.
    - Learn more about Kommer in this article (in English) recently published by the NSC (Netherlands Society of Cinematographers). Dutch Language version also available.
    - Take a look at the preliminary slides for the free IBC workshops here (Rigs, 5Mb) and here (Challenges, 100Kb). If you feel like hearing the talk that goes with it then reserve a place on  the Production Village reception in Hall 11

    News (30/07/2010):
    IBC international expo and conference:  10 - 14 september 2010   AMSTERDAM  RAI  Center
    ---> See the ANIMOKO on stand 11.G21 of Mark Roberts Motion Control
    ---> Meet Kommer at one of the  4  3D workshops at IBC production village on saturday and sunday, or in one of the  two conference sessions on the IBC main conference on monday and tuesday. See lower for prelimanery presentation slides.

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