Keith Massey Appointed Chair of the Guild of Television Cameramen

LONDON: The Guild of Television Cameramen announced the election of Keith Massey as chairman. Recipient of a Royal Television Society Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010, Massey is said to be a “highly experienced and well-respected cameraman based in Yorkshire.” He has accepted the post for a two-year tenure, succeeding Graeme McAlpine who has led the GTC during an active period of expansion. Massey was elected at a meeting of the GTC Council in Pinewood Studios on Sunday, July 1, at which two co-vice chairs, Dudley Darby and James Fulcher, were also appointed.

Massey’s said his career as a director of photography and lighting cameraman dates back to the 1960s.

“I started with a hand-wound clockwork 16mm silent-film camera. My first television piece was of Kelabit natives in Borneo, used on ‘What The Papers Say’ by Granada TV in Manchester. I later contributed regularly to the BBC in Manchester for its nightly regional program ‘Look North.’

“Offered a staff job on the ‘Daily Mail’ as a photographer or a two-days-per-week contract with the BBC, I chose television. Since 1970, I have worked on a freelance basis in news, documentary and drama, receiving RTS awards in all these fields. I still work occasionally with BBC News correspondents from London or the Northern Bureau, and also now film in high definition video for other programs, so fully appreciate the pressures professional cameramen are going through.”

The Guild of Television Cameramen is an independent non-profit group with more than 1,000 members in the United Kingdom, the United States, Europe, South Africa, Australia, Russia and Singapore.