June / 2006

Old Cameras Link Michel Bisson csc with His Roots

by Don Angus

Michel Bisson's suburban home north of Toronto is a veritable film camera museum, a testament to the 49-year-old shooter's passion for cinematography and his emotional connection with his late father and mentor, Jean.

This 16mm Éclair NPR was Jean Bisson's field camera of choice for many years, the cameraman's workhorse on assignments all over the world. The mantelpiece photo shows Bisson with the Éclair on his shoulder during one of his three trips to the war in Vietnam. He covered stories in various hot spots, including the Middle East. The camera had no crystal sound synch; the soundman had a light on top of his headset to synch with. There is still a stain on the lens from the blood of a boxer spilled during a fight Bisson covered, with his teenage son shooting wide shots on an Auricon Pro-600.

The eclectic collection of the younger Bisson, a full CSC member, houses dozens of personal and professional still and film cameras - many in a large display cabinet, others on the fireplace mantel or original tripods. Some of the small, consumer cameras came from family, friends and neighbours, but the central focus for Michel is the Crown Graphic his dad used to photograph celebrities in hometown Montreal at age 17 and, of course, the workhorse movie cameras that sustained both father and son during overlapping careers.

Today, Michel, with his own Sony HDW F900 CineAlta camcorder, is a successful DOP of commercials and corporate videos (see CSC News, February, 2005), with recent forays into independent features as director of photography. His father was a hard-nosed, old-school cameraman who loved action and adventure, not unlike his mountain-climbing, scuba-diving son.

This 16mm Bolex has a special place on Michel Bisson's fireplace mantel next to a photograph of his father, Jean, and his mother, Irene, taken before Michel was born. Jean taught his son how to shoot under water with the Bolex, protected by a Plexiglas housing, when Michel was only 11 years old.

As a teenager, Jean Bisson started out working in a Montreal photo lab all night and shooting the rich and famous during the day with his Crown Graphic. On the day before his wedding, he was laid off by the lab, but his new wife wrote letter after letter to the CBC in Jean's name seeking freelance employment as a film cameraman. Persistence eventually paid off, and Jean worked for CBC Montreal for the rest of his long career.

Michel Bisson's first shoot with his father was at a boxing match; he was given this Auricon Pro-600 and told to take wide shots of the fight while Jean did tight shots with the Éclair. "All I had to do was keep it in frame. That camera is very special to me."

That career took him to stories in hot spots all over the world, including the Middle East and Vietnam, with his trusty Éclair NPR. Risk was just an unflinching part of the job. "Wherever there was conflict, he loved that stuff," Michel says.

Once, while shooting army parachute training, he asked if he could suit up for a jump and was given the thumbs up by an officer who assumed the cameraman had jump experience. He went up, jumped, got some great footage and landed, exhilarated. The commanding officer was aghast when Jean admitted he had never jumped before.

A favourite from Michel Bisson's camera collection, this 35mm Bell & Howell Eyemo 71 is equipped with motor and 400-foot magazine, which is made of wood. Freelancer Jean Bisson used this camera to shoot "spots." J.B.F. stands for Jean Bisson Films.

Michel remembers his father as a tough but fair teacher, who believed in the sink-or-swim method of instruction. Only 17, Michel's first job with his father on a dual-camera shoot was at a boxing match in the old Montreal Forum. He was given an Auricon Pro-600, part of the present-day collection, and told to take wide shots of the fight while Jean did tight shots with the Éclair.

"Dad set the iris and f-stop. All I had to do was keep it in frame. He showed me how to focus, but that was all. That camera is very special to me."

This 16mm Bell & Howell was the first camera that CBC Montreal cameraman Jean Bisson taught his son, Michel Bisson csc, how to use. From age 10, Michel shot home movies with it, and at 17 his father sent him out to shoot a ski race for CBC Sports. Michel received $75, his first paycheque as a cameraman. Next to the Bell & Howell is an 8mm Holiday II.

When Michel was about 10, Jean taught him how to use a Bell & Howell and "I shot home movies with it. Then, at 17, my father sent me out to shoot a ski race for CBC Sports. I remember bringing home $75 for that job."

Jean, an avid and skilled diver who helped design a single-stage air regulator that is still popular, taught his son how to scuba dive and shoot under water when Michel was only 11, using a 16mm Bolex in a Plexiglas housing. "He literally stuck me under water and told me to breathe out on the way up. That was my lesson. Learning with my father . . . there were no textbooks."

Michel worked with his father at Expo '67 and other news projects, both as an assistant and cameraman, and learned that the senior Bisson "always allowed you to make one mistake. The second one - you were in trouble."

Michel Bisson csc

Michel says all of his motion picture cameras have a story, which is told in the caption of each photo shown on these pages. They are a select few from the collection, all of which are pretty much in working order.

One of the many interesting cameras in Michel Bisson's collection is the Trinka, which had 400-foot, reel-to-reel daylight spools - no magazine - and could record sound. With a modified Auricon movement, the "ugly as sin" camera was designed by a German immigrant living in Ottawa, Lou Trinka. He made only three of them, as far as Michel knows, and Jean Bisson owned all three. The model with the CBC logo was used by Michel when he landed his first CBC contract; the other was his father's. The story goes, says Michel, that Lou Trinka had been an engineer who helped build Germany's V1 "buzz bomb" rockets in the Second World War.

The first indie credit for DOP Michel Bisson csc was the killer thriller Teddy Bear, shot in 13 days in March, for producer/director Yuval Daniel and producer/lead David Sparrow. His latest project is the indie Hammerheads, written, produced and directed by Ursula Cafaro. The story revolves around the culture of street-riding bicyclists.
(Photos courtesy of Michel Bisson csc.)

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