Andrew Jayamanne

Andrew Jayamanne

Andrew Jayamanne at the Russian Cultural Center, before Felicitation Ceremony on 16 March 2012.
Born Andrew Felix Jayamanne
(1943-11-09)9 November 1943
Negombo, SriLanka
Died 29 August 2014(2014-08-29) (aged 70)
Milan, Italy
Nationality Sri Lankan
Education Archdiocesan college of St. Aloysius, Colombo
Occupation Cinematographer, film director, film producer
Years active 1962–present
Notable work

Kopi Kade
Haralakshaya [හාරලක්ෂය]
Mangala [මංගලා]
Maruwa Samaga Vase [මරුවා සමග වාසේ]
Handaya [හඳයා]
Palagatiyo [පලගැටියෝ]
Siri Madura [සිරි නිවස]
Hansa Wilak [හන්ස විලක්]
Thunveni Yamaya [තුන්වෙනියාමය]
Suddilage Kathawa [සුද්දිලාගේ කතාව]
Julietge Bhoomikawa

Sathipooja [සතිපූජා]
Spouse(s) Beranadeth Thissera
Children 3

Andrew Jayamanne ඇන්ඩෘ ජයමාන්න (alternative spelling Andrew Jayamanna, 9 November 1943 – 29 August 2014) was a Sri Lankan cinematographer, and film and television director and producer.[1][2]

Early life

Jayamanne is the eldest of ten children born to Vincent Jayamanne and his wife Beatrice Perera. He was raised in Periyamulla in Negombo, the town on the Western sea-coast where his father was born. Jayamanne did his elementary studies at St. Anthony's boys' School, Dalupotha, Negombo. In 1955 he joined the Archdiocesan College of St.Aloysius, Colombo, with the intention of becoming a Catholic priest. But due to a health condition, on doctor's advice he had to abandon his studies and engage in manual labour.

Career beginnings

Ataweni Pudumaya (Muhurath)

While at college, Jayamanne's teachers recognised his love of photography and assigned him to handle the cinema and audio visual equipment in the college. Later he joined the Radio & Electronics Laboratory at Kotahena.

In 1962, he joined Vijaya Film Studios and Laboratories of Cinemas Limited, at Hendala, Wattala. In 1962 he started his career as an assistant cameraman at the Vijaya Studios. As an assistant cameraman and camera-unit in-charge he worked on over 40 feature films, both domestic and international. This gave him the opportunity to work under many cinematographers and to study film laboratory techniques, sound studio work, film editing, production designing and production management.

Professional career

While working at Vijaya Studios, Jayamanne met Sri Lankan director Titus Thotawatta. In 1970, he left Vijaya to join Thotawatta in the production of Haralaksaya, marking his debut as Director of Cinematography. Jayamanne continued to work as Thotawatta's principle cinematographer through the latter's final film Handaya.

Jayamanne was employed by many other veteran directors, and became a favourite of new directors for their debut projects. His contribution to the films of Dharmasiri Bandaranayake, Vasantha Obeysekera and Parakrama Niriella were highly acclaimed by cinema critics and Journalists of Sri Lanka. In 1972, when the State Film Corporation called for registration of cinema technicians, Jayamanne registered as film director, script writer, cinematographer, film editor and production manager. He is the only person in Sri Lanka to have been registered in five categories.

Instructor

In 1972, Jayamanne was invited to conduct classes for beginners interested in cinema and television at the Paul VI center, Fort, Colombo, organised by the OCIC Sri Lanka. He started training with Super 8 format and slide show programs. Then as VHS came to industry it was introduced to beginners. He held two short film festivals with his students at Sri Lanka Foundation Institute.

In 1983 Jayamanne had the opportunity to attend a professional video program training offered in Taipei by Santa Clara University. Jayamanne was subsequently called up by the Television Training Institute, Sri Lanka to train video technicians for Rupavahini and ITN, the two national television channels. The courses were later extended to train video teams of the Army, Navy, Police, Education, Agricultural, health, and many other government institutes.

In 1986 Andrew Jayamanne was commissioned to train the staff of ITN network studios. During this course several practical programs were produced. The long-running ITN serial Kopi Kade is an offshoot of these training classes. "Kopi Kade" drama was designed to be a low cost a multi-camera production by shooting and editing on line within few hours.

Jayamanne organised another 6 months course for "Television Program Production Training Institute" for Media Centre at Deans Road, Colombo. Six of these programs were conducted.

During 1992 and 1993, Jayamanne was retained as a visiting lecturer at Sri Jayawardanapura University and Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, Colombo.

He extended the video production training classes to remote areas like Trincomalee (three programs), Horuwpatana (one program) and Negombo (two programs). These were conducted as one week full-time courses. The students were trained to use available still or mobile phone cameras for creating short films.

In 2002 He was called up by the Vietnam Television channels workers forum to conduct a workshop in Saigon.

Filmography

Producer and director

Cinematographer

Director name Film(s)
Titus Thotawatta Haralakshaya [හාරලක්ෂය] 1971
Athithayen kathawak [අතීතයෙන් කතාවක්] 1972
Sihasuna [සිහසුන] 1974
Mangala [මංගලා] 1976
Sagarika [සාගරිකා] 1974
Maruwa Samaga Vase [මරුවා සමග වාසේ] 1977
Handaya [හඳයා] 1979
Vasantha Obeysekara Palagatiyo [පලගැටියෝ] 1979
Parakrama Niriella SiriMadura [සිරි මෑදුර] 1989
Dharmasiri Bandaranayake Hansa Wilak [හන්ස විලක්] 1980
Thunveni Yamaya [තුන්වෙනියාමය] 1983
Suddilage Kathawa [සුද්දිලාගේ කතාව] 1985
Jakson Anthony Julietge Bhoomikawa [ජුලියෙට්ගේ භුමිකාව] 1998
H. D. Premaratne Mangala Thaegga [මඃගල තෑග්ගය]
Sayelama [සෙයිලම] 1995
Visidela [විසි දැල] 1997
Mohan Nihas Yasoma [යසෝමා] 1997
Eka Malaka Pethi [එක මලක පෙති] 2006
Wimal Ranjith Fernando Sathipooja [සතිපූජා] 1984
Christy Shelton Fernando Thahanam Gaha [තහනම් ගහ] 2002
Aragalaya [අරගලය] 1994
Indrakeelaya [ඉන්දකීලය] 2000
Ranjith Kuruppu Pavna Raluviya [පවන රලුවිය] 1994
K.A.W. Perera Dhawala Pushpaya [ධවල පුෂ්පය] 1994
Cyril Wickramage Sihina Lovak [සිහින ලොවක්] 1972
Domi Jayawardana Singapooru Charlie [සිංගප්පූරු චාර්ලි] 1972
S.G. Samarasinghe Aasa [ආසා] 1976

Television director

Television producer

Miscellaneous

Awards and recognition

Cinematographer awards

Other recoginition

Personal life

Married in 1972 To Bernadette Tissera. After marriage they moved to Eattukala, Negombo. They had 3 sons:

His wife died in 1990 after a long battle with cancer.

A felicitation ceremony was held to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his service to the Cinema & Television industry, at Russian Cultural Institute, Colombo, on 16 March 2012.[5]

References

  1. ↑ "Veteran cinematographer Andrew Jayamanne passes away". apisrilankan.com. August 29, 2014. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
  2. 1 2 Fernando, Susitha R. (11 April 2007). "'Rankiri Soya' gives kids a hand". Sunday Times. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
  3. ↑ "කෝපි කඩේ". sunday observer. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
  4. ↑ Fernando, Susitha R. (15 June 2008). "Daring Journey on Documentary". Sunday Times. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
  5. ↑ See Video < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHl04py2Qwc&feature=colike> "Tribute to a legendary cinematographer". Ceylon Today. 15 March 2012. Retrieved 28 June 2012.


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