Erkan Umut
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Erkan Umut (born March 04, 1967 Istanbul) is a Turkish cinematographer (Director of Photography DoP) and lecturer of cinematography at Istanbul University (cinematography courses) and Yıldız Technical University (specialized lighting courses).
He was a technical consultant at a film company (Dirlik Film, Istanbul) dealing with film equipment rental and lab, and an importer. Also he was a trial representative of some cinema projector makers in Japan (Tokiwa, Tokyo), China (Dong Feng, Tianjin) and Czech Republic (Meopta, Prerov).
Since early school years (ca. 1979) he has dedicated himself to home movies, filming and film equipment. He began to collect the catalogues of home movies and equipment brochures on amateur equipment. Projecting films with a simple plastic silent projector CINE MAX K5 (Super8) -which always were giving trouble- led him to explore the cinematographic process. His first film camera was a LOMO 219 (Super8).
In his high school era, despite his family had insisted to have a degree on engineering or medicine, he decided to be a film cameraman. These were the times of the transition to the interest on professional filmmaking and equipment.
First, he wanted to become a cinema engineer by studying precision engineering, but then he decided to study photography as he had understood his artistic ability. He is graduated from the School of Photography at Mimar Sinan University, Faculty of Fine Arts in Istanbul (1984).
After a very short camera assistant, dolly and sound operator period he began to act as a film cameraman, and worked for many music video, commercial and documentary projects. During his military service he worked as a cameraman and shot some military educational films which gained him an official admiration by the TSK Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri (Turkish Armed Forces).
He was the senior cameraman for Turkey’s longest run and popular TV show project 7den 77ye (from 7 to 77) made by Barış Manço (famous Turkish pop singer), and have been in more than 50 countries.
Although his first music video shot on film material was 35mm, he is the first DoP in Turkey to lead the music video industry shooting on 16mm film instead of 35mm due to the screening resolution of music videos is limited to TV screens. After that old 16mm cameras are replaced by the most advanced ones rapidly, and a wide variety of 16mm film stock became available in Turkey.
He has been a collector of technical documents on cinema, audio and photographic technology and techniques in many languages, as well as equipment for more than 20 years. He is the curator of film equipment of Communications Gallery of Istanbul University.
He visited many enterprises and museums dealing with cinema technology, and was an active member of the Society of Motion Picture and TV Engineers, New York (SMPTE). He created some technical papers for Journals (especially on ex-Soviet and Chinese technology, enterprises and equipment), and knowledge base for websites (some are owned by himself).
[edit] Some of his credits
- Documentaries (mostly on Video & 16mm Film):
Turquie, le volcan cracheur de lames - Dir.: Jacques Saurel - La Compagnie des Taxi-Brousse, Paris/France 3 Sud, Toulouse - 2000
Barış Manço ile 7den 77ye (from 7 to 77 with Barış Manço) - Dir.: Barış Manço - Manço & Manço Sanat Eserleri, Istanbul - 1992-1999
Le Grand Tour of Europe - Dir.s: Shirley & Kenneth Richter - Kenneth Richter Productions, New York/National Geographic Society (Lecture Tours), Washington, D.C. - 1991
- Music Videos (Clips) (mostly on Super16/35mm Film):
Three Fishes - Dir.: Frank Suffert - Frank Suffert Productions, Hollywood, CA - 1995
Sherif Mekamy (Ezay Habetny?/How did you love me?) - Dir.: Marwan Eltouny - 2k Productions, Cairo, Egypt - 2003
Amal Wahbi (Chocolata/Choclate) - Dir.: Marwan Eltouny - Cinegram Cairo Film & TV Productions, Cairo, Egypt - 2003
"C o u n t l e s s" Turkish Music Videos for most famous Turkish singers directed by very popular Turkish directors: ERHAN CEYHAN, HAKAN YONAT, MUSTAFA MAYADAĞ, KEMAL BAŞBUĞ, KUBİLAY KASAP, TARKAN & CEM ÖZEL, DENİZ AKEL, TAYFUN DİNÇER, KÜRŞAT KIZBAZ (The director of "The Epic of Gallipoli 1915") & EMİR KHALİLZADEH (dna film).
- Selected Commercials (on Super16/35mm Film and Digital Video):
(Award-winning, Winner of KRİSTAL ELMA by Turkish Society of Advertisers in its category) A LA TURCA "KEYF" Snacks (FRITO LAY) - Dir.: Süleyman Yüksel - POZİTİF Productions for ALICE BBDO, Istanbul - 2006
QUANTUM Watches - Dir.: Tarkan Özel, SFX Dir.: Cem Özel - Beyazperde Productions, Istanbul - 2004
ORKIDE Sunflower Oils - Dir.: Kemal Başbuğ - Öcü Yapım, Istanbul – 2003
dyo Paint - Dir.: Ömer Arakon - Beyazperde Productions/MIRAGE MXM, Istanbul - 2001
EMLAK Bank - Dir.: Hakan Yonat - TMC, Istanbul - 2000
Istanbul METRO (Underground) - Dir.: Mustafa Sandal (popular Turkish pop singer) - Kültür A.Ş. (Municipality of Istanbul) - 2000
ANATOLYA Drinks - Dir.: Dr. C/K - HİT İletişim, Istanbul - 2000
MIGROS Shopping Centre - Dir.: Ufuk Mağden - Böcek Yapım, Istanbul - 1999
LYKIA WORLD Holiday Complexes - Dir.: Ufuk Mağden - Böcek Yapım, Istanbul - 1999
[edit] Countries visited for 7den 77ye (from 7 to 77) TV show made by Barış Manço, and other projects
Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Crimea, Croatia, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, French Guyana, Georgia, Germany, Greenland, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Mauritius, Mexico, Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, The Netherlands, Panama, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Tatarstan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkistan, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, U.K., U.S.A., Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Yugoslavia, Zanzibar, Zimbabwe.
