Focus Pullers / 1st ACs

Here is how this works in practice. We supply focus pullers and first ACs who keep the image sharp and the camera department running on Austrian shoots. Our focus pullers manage focus through the take, build and keep the camera package, manage lenses and batteries, and support the DP and camera ops. We brief them on your camera package, schedule and the demands of your shots, then confirm openings against your shoot dates.

Here is the short of it. Pulling focus on Austria's shoots can be demanding — handheld documentary, Steadicam work in Vienna's palaces, action in the Alps — and our first ACs are skilled across all of it. They work fluently in English and German and integrate seamlessly with global and DACH-region camera departments. We contract under the Kollektivvertrag terms set by the Fachverband der Film- und Musikwirtschaft within the WKO.

Set up the focus puller with the DP, camera ops and second AC so the camera department works cleanly.

Here is the breakdown. The focus puller sits at the tech heart of Austria's camera departments. The country's exacting cinematography custom sets the standard the role works to. The precise, controlled images of Christian Berger for Michael Haneke — work that earned an Oscar nomination for 'The White Ribbon' — and of Martin Gschlacht for Jessica Hausner depend on flawless focus, above all in the long, held takes Austrian auteur cinema favours.

Here is what that looks like on the ground. The Filmakademie Wien, the film academy of the mdw, trains camera crew to a high standard, and many first ACs move up to operating and cinematography. Austria has hosted in tech demanding camera work — 'Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation' at the Wiener Staatsoper, the alpine action of the James Bond film 'Spectre' at Soelden — that places real pressure on the focus puller.

Austria's central position lets shoots draw camera-department talent from across the DACH region. The resulting work is recognised at the Oesterreichischer Filmpreis.