December 17, 2025

David Muir BSC ACS (1935-2025)

It is with deepest sadness that we learn of the passing of our colleague, David Muir BSC ACS. The below is written by Phil Méheux BSC

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David was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1935. Without the option of film school, he first learnt about film by joining film societies and was introduced to film history as an art and photography student at Caulfield Technical College. His education was augmented by screenings organised by the Realist Film Association which seeded his ambition to be a cinematographer, ‘a new Eduard Tissé for a new Sergei Eisenstein’. He was coached by left-wing filmmakers at the RFA and had his first documentary assignments at age 16. His day job, as assistant to legendary industrial stills photographer Wolfgang Sievers, offered him unforgettable lessons about lighting and composition.

David moved to Sydney in 1954 and became a cinematographer at Ajax Films, shooting television commercials and short theatrical documentaries. His expanding skills were apparent in the last film he made for Ajax, a dramatised documentary for the Department of the Interior which impressed the government’s producer, who recruited David to join what became the Commonwealth Film Unit, working for the Australian government all over Australia and Papua New Guinea, shooting everything from 16mm black and white training films to big screen 35mm anamorphic colour. This experience equipped him for his move to London in 1964, the same year in which he achieved Australian Cinematographer’s Society (ASC) accreditation.

His directional soft lighting innovations, mainly on television commercials, helped earn him cinematography awards in Europe, the USA and Britain. David was invited to join the British Society of Cinematographers in 1971. His career as DP on feature films such as The Burning (1968 d. Stephen Frears), Girly (1970 d. Freddie Francis BSC), Neither the Sea nor the Sand (1972 d. Fred Burnley), plus And Now for Something Completely Different (1971 d. Ian MacNaughton), and innumerable documentaries and commercials in 30 countries saw him win awards in America, Australia, Britain and Spain. David is most grateful to cinematographers such as Walter Lassally BSC GSC, Gianni Di Venanzo and Raoul Coutard who (typical of all great DPs) unstintingly shared their ideas with him.

In 1976 he went home to Australia to work for commercials director Fred Schepisi, and moved back to Sydney where he mainly wrote, directed and photographed documentaries, his first and most abiding interest.

Back in Australia, he served for decades on ACS committees, including four terms as Victoria President and periods on the Australian Film Institute Board, as well as judging film festivals and awards. He has taught at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, Macquarie and La Trobe Universities, along with Footscray College and The Victorian College of the Arts. His contributions, not only as a cinematographer and filmmaker, but also as a mentor, film teacher and advocate for Australian film production, earned him induction into the ACS Hall of Fame in 2012.

David retired from active filmmaking in 2020 but has been writing his memoirs, hoping that this endeavour will help future generations to understand the huge differences in equipment, techniques, creative attitudes and audience perceptions which occurred during one person’s working lifetime.

OTHER CREDITS: Separation, Girly, My Lover, My Son, Lust for a Vampire, The Exorcism of Hugh, And Now for Something Completely Different, Boesman and Lena