John Jopson

John Charles Jopson (born 1954) is a film director, screenwriter, and cinematographer best known for the jazz film “One Night with Blue Note” and his music videos from the 1980s.

John Jopson began his film career in automobile racing, first in 1975 as a stringer filming Formula One races for UPITN in London. He then worked as cinematographer on the Italian Formula One movie “Speed Fever” (Formula Uno, Febbre della Velocità) in 1978, and in 1984 directed the feature length film “Gasoline” featuring Mario Andretti and Gilles Villeneuve based on scenes filmed in the late '70s and early '80s. His racing footage was also used in the 1977 Al Pacino film Bobby Deerfield, and in 1979 Jopson won the Golden Quill Award for his eclectic short film “Mass Transit” based on Kraftwerk's 22 minute tome Autobahn.

During the 1980s, based in New York City, Jopson directed videos, concert films and documentaries for a diverse group of artists including, Icehouse, Willy DeVille, John Waite, Poison, REO Speedwagon, Elton John, and The Angels, and he toured extensively with Hall and Oates as both cinematographer and director. In 1985, working with cinematographer Ernest Dickerson, John directed the critically acclaimed jazz film “One Night with Blue Note”. His feature length film “Nervous Night”, a collection of short films starring The Hooters, won the Billboard Music Award for “Best Longform” in 1986. Jopson was also the cinematographer on the film “Does Humor Belong in Music?” written and directed by Frank Zappa. He lived in Australia in the late 1980s where he directed television series, pop clips, concerts and commercials.

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