Andrew Jayamanne

A felicitation ceremony was held to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his service to the cinema and Television industry, at the Russian Cultural Institute, Colombo, on 16 March 2012.

In 2002 he was called up by the Vietnam Television channels workers forum to conduct a workshop in Saigon.

During 1992 and 1993, Jayamanne was retained as a visiting lecturer at Sri Jayawardanapura University and Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, Colombo.

His wife died in 1990 after a long battle with cancer.

In 1986 Andrew Jayamanne was commissioned to train the staff of ITN network studios. During this course several practical programs were produced. The long-running ITN serial Kopi Kade is an offshoot of these training classes. "Kopi Kade" drama was designed to be a low cost a multi-camera production by shooting and editing on line within few hours.

In 1983 Jayamanne had the opportunity to attend a professional video program training offered in Taipei by Santa Clara University. Jayamanne was subsequently called up by the Television Training Institute, Sri Lanka to train video technicians for Rupavahini and ITN, the two national television channels. The courses were later extended to train video teams of the Army, Navy, Police, Education, Agricultural, health, and many other government institutes.

Jayamanne was employed by many other veteran directors, and became a favourite of new directors for their debut projects. His contribution to the films of Dharmasiri Bandaranayake, Vasantha Obeysekera and Parakrama Niriella were highly acclaimed by cinema critics and Journalists of Sri Lanka. In 1972, when the State Film Corporation called for registration of cinema technicians, Jayamanne registered as film director, script writer, cinematographer, film editor and production manager. He is the only person in Sri Lanka to have been registered in five categories.

In 1972, Jayamanne was invited to conduct classes for beginners interested in cinema and television at the Paul VI center, Fort, Colombo, organised by the OCIC Sri Lanka. He started training with Super 8 format and slide show programs. Then as VHS came to industry it was introduced to beginners. He held two short film festivals with his students at Sri Lanka Foundation Institute.

Married in 1972 To Bernadette Tissera. After marriage they moved to Eattukala, Negombo. They had 3 sons:

While working at Vijaya Studios, Jayamanne met Sri Lankan director Titus Thotawatta. In 1970, he left Vijaya to join Thotawatta in the production of Haralaksaya, marking his debut as Director of Cinematography. Jayamanne continued to work as Thotawatta's principle cinematographer through the latter's final film Handaya.

In 1962, he joined Vijaya Film Studios and Laboratories of Cinemas Limited, at Hendala, Wattala. In 1962 he started his career as an assistant cameraman at the Vijaya Studios. As an assistant cameraman and camera-unit in-charge he worked on over 40 feature films, both domestic and international. This gave him the opportunity to work under many cinematographers and to study film laboratory techniques, sound studio work, film editing, production designing and production management.

Jayamanne is the eldest of ten children born to Vincent Jayamanne and his wife Beatrice Perera. He was raised in Periyamulla in Negombo, the town on the Western sea-coast where his father was born. Jayamanne did his elementary studies at St. Anthony's boys' School, Dalupotha, Negombo. In 1955 he joined the Archdiocesan College of St.Aloysius, Colombo, with the intention of becoming a Catholic priest. But due to a health condition, on doctor's advice he had to abandon his studies and engage in manual labour.

Andrew Jayamanne ඇන්ඩෘ ජයමාන්න (alternative spelling Andrew Jayamanna, 9 November 1943 – 29 August 2014) was a Sri Lankan cinematographer, and film and television director and producer.