Nic Sadler


Nic Sadler is a British/Australian cinematographer, photographer and inventor, living in Los Angeles.

Early life

Sadler was born in East London in May 1965, to an Anglo-Indian mother and a British-Roma father. His mother Elizabeth "Betty" King emigrated from India in 1956 with her mother Mavis, siblings Aubrey and Angela "Angie" King, shortly after their father died in Madras. At age seven he moved with his parent to Perth, Western Australia.
While at North Lake Senior High School he developed an interest in photography from Daniel, his photolithographer father, supported by then teacher at NLSH, John Longley.
Sadler graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from WAIT, later known as Curtin University, in Western Australia in 1985, studying under filmmakers Bill Constable and Steve Jodrell, and renown cultural theorists John Fiske and John Hartley.
Sadler began working in the film industry in 1986, first as a production assistant on Shame, directed his former tutor Steve Jodrell. In 1997 he got his first job in the camera department as main unit 2nd assistant camera on television film A Waltz Through the Hills, then as second unit 1st assistant camera on Australian miniseries Jackaroo.

Cinematographer

After moving to London in 1989, Sadler began working primarily as 1st assistant camera to John Mathieson (cinematographer).
By 1992 he had begun working as a cinematographer on music videos, then later on television commercials.
In 2005 Nic moved to Los Angeles to begin principal photography on his first feature film, the low budget independent film Intellectual Property. Among his projects was the short film Pirates of the Caribbean - Tales of the Code: Wedlocked, filmed in 2006, and directed by James Byrkit.

Inventor

Sadler formed the company Chemical Wedding in 2007 with Toby Evetts and Simon Reeves, was formed in 2007 to produce software tools for filmmakers on the newly established iOS platform. Helios, an early Apple iOS application for filmmakers to pre-visualise the effect of sunlight on locations and people, was released in 2008. This was followed by the release of Artemis Digital Directors Viewfinder in 2009, the first digital directors viewfinder on a mobile phone platform.
In 2016 Chemical Wedding began production of the Artemis Prime, a hybrid hardware / digital director's Lens finder system. The system is in wide use, notably by camera operator Jim McConkey with cinematographer David Mullen on the television series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Sadler & his partners at Chemical Wedding were awarded both an Emmy and the British Society of Cinematographers Bert Easey awards for the development of Artemis and Helios.
From 2017 to 2024 Sadler was Consultant to Caldwell, an optics company based in Glendale, California, in their production of the Chameleon Anamorphic motion picture lenses, used on the production on The Mandalorian from Disney Studios.

Photographer

In 2014 Nic began a creative photographic partnership with Julia Sandberg Hansson under the name SHSadler. Working closely with LA Make-up artist Satya Linak, their award winning work has been widely published in art magazines and journals.

Other Professional Interests

From February 2014 until June 2018 Nic was a co-host on over 200 episodes of the political podcast From the Bunker with, and, daughter of Carol Burnett. Jody is currently Executive Producer of the .
Nic lectures in Cinematography at numerous institutions, including the American Film Institute, CSUN, and University of California, Santa Barbara.

Photography

in partnership with Julia Sandberg-Hansson as SHSadler
YearPublicationArticle
2013Triple J magazine
2018
2018
2019
2019
2021SH/SADLER, Fresh Meat,2018
2023
2023

Awards

Australian International Film Festival
YearAwardCategoryTitleResult
2006Silver Spotlight AwardBest CinematographyIntellectual PropertyWon

Emmy Awards
YearCategoryForNotes
2018Outstanding Achievement in
Engineering Development
The Artemis Digital Directors Viewfinder SystemWith Toby Evetts and Simon Reeves
Partners in Chemical Wedding

Tokyo International Photo Award
YearTitleCategoryResult
2020Fresh MeatGold
2020Fresh Meat1st Place
2020---

British Society of Cinematographers Awards
YearForCategory
2024Artemis Pro & Helios Pro