Award-Winning Australian Cinematographer Matt Wood

Does the old saying “Practice makes perfect” really ring true? Well, as we have all seen time and time again, maybe perfect is too strong of a word in some cases but when someone practices something long enough enough, one does get better at it. If one is truly inspired by what he or she is practicing then that skill becomes second nature to them -which then appears to be perfect in their hands. Matt Wood the Australian Cinematographer, makes his job of shooting movies look so easy because he has been dealing with the art and craft of cameras, photography and cinematography since he was 12. That’s when he had finally saved up enough money to buy his first movie camera -a super 8. He had always loved movies but from that point on he was not only hooked on storytelling and film making but one could say that he was a bit obsessed with those two things -and lucky for us, it shows!

Matt went out and shot short films, studied film making at school and produced and photographed countless more shorts, which gave him even more experience and ‘practice’ so to speak. He attended Footscray City Film College and then went on to study at the Victorian College of the Arts where he worked his way up through the different levels of the camera department from clapper/loader to cinematographer. While he was still enrolled in school he won his first professional job on a real feature-length film called, Mr. Average, under the guidance and mentorship of well-known Australian Director of Photography Alex McPhee ACS.

Matt went on to win award after award for his cinematography including the coveted Gold at the ACS National Awards for Student Cinematography in the early 2000's. He shot tons of short films along with music videos for groups such as, Gotye, You Am I, and Eskimo Joe and worked on a great deal of television commercials during that time. Then he got his first independent feature film as a cinematographer in 2010. Since then, Matt has continued to evolve as a first-rate cinematographer and has traveled the world working on all types of projects from commercials, music videos and short films. His body of work has not gone unnoticed by the Australian Cinematographer Society, which not only proudly handed him the ACS Golden Tripod in 2016, the ACS’s highest award for excellence, but also officially gave Matt the formal accreditation and honor of allowing him to place the letters ACS after his name.

When you see those letters after a cinematographer’s name you will know that he or she was one of only a handful of people ever to receive such an accolade. You will also know that Matt was nominated for it and voted unanimously by its members to be so designated; a real honor in the film making world. Matt also received the prestigious VIC/TAS Gold Award in Commercials — National/ International for his work on ‘Atomos’ commercial. We can’t wait to see what awaits next for this talented film maker from down under!