Bryan is one of approximately 50 current and former members of the film and television industry working with Georgia Film Academy. Their goal: to develop a talent pool so vast and enduring that the Georgian television and film industry never has to look elsewhere for on-screen or behind-the-scenes expertise.
Bryan currently teaches the basics of his craft to students at Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville (the town where he and his wife Maureen have lived since 2006).
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Retired motion picture cinematographer Clyde E. Bryan works with camera and lighting equipment at Trilith Studios in Fayetteville. He came out of retirement to work with Georgia Film Academy teaching students his craft. PHIL SKINNER FOR THE ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION.
Credit: Phil Skinner
Credit: Phil Skinner
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Retired motion picture cinematographer Clyde E. Bryan works with camera and lighting equipment at Trilith Studios in Fayetteville. He came out of retirement to work with Georgia Film Academy teaching students his craft. PHIL SKINNER FOR THE ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION.
Credit: Phil Skinner
Credit: Phil Skinner
“We make his knowledge, his skills, his experience and, quite frankly, his passion available to the students,” said Jeffrey Stepakoff, a veteran writer, producer, writer and first executive director of Georgia Film Academy.
Since 2007, the Georgian film industry has exploded from a $25 million deal to a $4 billion industry. And Georgia Film Academy, which began in 2016 with 193 students at three partner schools, has enrolled more than 10,000 students at 20 technical schools, colleges and universities in the state, Stepakoff said.
“There’s no story like this anywhere in the world,” he said.
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Retired cinematographer Clyde E Bryan works with camera and lighting equipment at Trilith Studios in Fayetteville. He came out of retirement to work with Georgia Film Academy teaching students his craft. PHIL SKINNER FOR THE ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION.
Credit: Phil Skinner
Credit: Phil Skinner
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Retired cinematographer Clyde E Bryan works with camera and lighting equipment at Trilith Studios in Fayetteville. He came out of retirement to work with Georgia Film Academy teaching students his craft. PHIL SKINNER FOR THE ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION.
Credit: Phil Skinner
Credit: Phil Skinner
Bryan’s credits are impressive: Back to the Future, American Beauty, Sea Biscuit, Meet the Fockers, Apollo 13, Indiana Jones, hit TV series Ozark, and more. One of his proudest works is 2002’s Road to Perdition, starring Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Jude Law and Daniel Craig, an Academy Award winner and four nominees.
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Bryan (left) and cinematographer David Dunlap in front of the High Museum of Art in Atlanta while filming “Insurgent.” (Photo courtesy of Clyde E. Bryan.)
Source: Photo courtesy of Georgia Film Academy
Source: Photo courtesy of Georgia Film Academy
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Bryan (left) and cinematographer David Dunlap in front of the High Museum of Art in Atlanta while filming “Insurgent.” (Photo courtesy of Clyde E. Bryan.)
Source: Photo courtesy of Georgia Film Academy
Source: Photo courtesy of Georgia Film Academy
Set for a career as a mover in 7th grade, Bryan made sub-budget 8-millimeter films and cast his high school classmates as actors.
Still, family members—especially his father—were skeptical. And that was only reinforced by a careers counselor in the small Alabama town where Bryan attended high school. The aide told Bryan’s parents that he “wasn’t grounded in reality,” was aiming for a career that “wasn’t attainable,” and “needed to get a grasp of reality,” Bryan recalled.
He had the last laugh. Probably several. In 2007 he received a lifetime achievement award from the Society of Camera Operators. The presenter was his girlfriend and Hollywood eye-catcher Annette Benning, with whom he had worked on five films.
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Clyde Bryan (far left) on the set of ‘Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,’ a war film directed by Ang Lee and starring Kristen Stewart, Steve Martin, Vin Diesel and Chris Tucker. Filming for the film began in 2015 at Locust Grove near Atlanta. Photo courtesy of Clyde E. Bryan.
Source: Photo courtesy of Georgia Film Academy
Source: Photo courtesy of Georgia Film Academy
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Clyde Bryan (far left) on the set of ‘Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,’ a war film directed by Ang Lee and starring Kristen Stewart, Steve Martin, Vin Diesel and Chris Tucker. Filming for the film began in 2015 at Locust Grove near Atlanta. Photo courtesy of Clyde E. Bryan.
Source: Photo courtesy of Georgia Film Academy
Source: Photo courtesy of Georgia Film Academy
But getting to this point took real courage and was hardly glamorous. He tried college for a few years, then worked as a portrait photographer before moving to Hollywood in the mid-1970s. He slept on friends’ couches, lived on a tight budget, and jumped when an unexpected stroke of luck came his way.
A movie was being shot in Los Angeles. Extras were needed on the set, and “I needed $50,” Bryan recalls. “Someone in the camera department made a mistake, quite a radical one, and got fired on the spot.”
The lead cameraman, in a rage, wanted to know if anyone on set knew how to load film.
“I stood 10 feet from him. I said, ‘I do.'” Bryan said. “And I ended up with the rest of the film [the not-so-memorable ‘Jet Set Disco’ with 1960s teen idol Fabian].”
His second breakthrough came when he proved his skills in Roger Corman’s Piranha and in Rock ‘n Roll High School with Dean Cundey. Cundey and Bryan went on to make more than 30 films together.
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Clyde E. Bryan prepares to take a shot high up on a ladder during filming of The Hunger Games at OFS Studios in Norcross. Bryan retired after nearly 45 years in the film industry. He is currently a professor at the Georgia Film Academy. Photo courtesy of Clyde E. Bryan.
Source: Photos courtesy of Georgia Film Academy
Source: Photos courtesy of Georgia Film Academy
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Clyde E. Bryan prepares to take a shot high up on a ladder during filming of The Hunger Games at OFS Studios in Norcross. Bryan retired after nearly 45 years in the film industry. He is currently a professor at the Georgia Film Academy. Photo courtesy of Clyde E. Bryan.
Source: Photos courtesy of Georgia Film Academy
Source: Photos courtesy of Georgia Film Academy
Bryan and his family moved to Milledgeville, Middle Georgia to pursue their goal of having a lakefront home while he continued to work primarily in Hollywood. A year later, the state passed a tax break for the film industry, and there was enough work in Georgia that Bryan rarely had to leave the house.
“I retired in 2017 because I’ve done this for 42 years,” he said. “And I didn’t have to prove anything else.”
