Tony Magaletta

Tony Magaletta grew up in the sleepy little town of Keene, New Hampshire, in the Northeastern United States. His father prior to his retirement owned a sign writing company called "Cheshire Signs" which he sold a few years back. His mother takes care of elderly folks, including his 100 year old grandmother part time for the state of New Hampshire.

He moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the winter of 1990 and attended the Art Institute of Pittsburgh for the "Industrial Design" program. In the winter of 1993, he landed his first film job, where he quickly fell in love with the Camera Department. He worked on 3 features in Pittsburgh as a Production Assistant over the course of seven months. He then returned to the New England area due to lack of film industry work in Pittsburgh. It was at this time that he decided to attend "The International Film and Television Workshops" in Rockport, ME, and did so, during the summer season of 1997. He was asked to return to be a "Course Assistant" on two courses during the summer season of 1998. Tony has worked up and down the eastern coast of the United States, including the Boston, Massachusetts, and Orlando, Florida, film markets.

Tony migrated to Los Angeles, California, in the fall of 2001 and he has lived in LA since that time, minus off course the time spent on location in other states or spending time in New Hampshire with family. Tony continues to work as a freelance First Assistant Cameraperson in the film industry and has been a member of Local 600, the International Cinematographers since July of 1998.

Sometime ago Tony saw a shift in the industry he loves and works in that coupled with the advent of digital cinematography which has created a new breed of camera people know as the "Owner/Operator he began to see his craft, the technical art of "The First Assistant Cameraperson" being lost. With that observation and a steadily increasing amount of work he decided not to pursue a career as a DP, instead he chooses to remain a First Assistant Cameraman. "A Career First" as it is known by in the film industry, a rare position in these modern times.

With these changes taking place in his industry Tony has started training, in the field the next generation of young second assistant camera folks. Tony is passing on the skills and mindset of the generation that taught him and in doing so is preserving the many year old techniques and practices for the generations moving forward.

Tony has continues to hone his craft with learning all of the new camera platforms that are in the field, when he isn't working. As skill will have it he doesn't get very much time off, which we all know is a blessing and a curse.

Over the length of his career has had a special love of all things SteadiCam and has done a large amount of work as "The SteadiCam Assistant" which is an art form all to itself! More jobs on that amazing platform come every year.

In the Holiday season if 2011 Tony met the woman of his dreams and they spend as much time together as production allows as she is also in the industry.