Cinematographer Notes

The past few weeks have been nothing but me turning down project after project because of bad rates.  As I predicted, it’s getting harder to book anything lately cause nobody has enough money to make their film safely and efficiently.  Everyone wants free crew, free gear and what’s worse is that they somehow feel entitled to this.  There is no glory or fame for the 1st A.C. or key grip and they have no reason to come on board a production other than the day rate.  Asking me to work with free crew is as good as asking me to do my job and the jobs of 3 other people as well as be an adjunct film professor on set while shooting the film.  Training and instructing everyone along the way.  The concept is hysterical to me and to those with experience but to newbies, they see nothing wrong with this scenario.   You’d have to look at it from an entirely different point of view and try to imagine assembling a crew of friends and family to build your dream house knowing that they have zero experience in construction.  It really is that ridiculous.

Anyway, I’ve finished shooting my third short this year, On The Couch and  I’m really happy with it.  Everyone turned out a great performance and the shoot went surprisingly smooth given it’s my second film where I have absolutely no crew.  I used mostly HMI’s, some flourescents and grip equipment cause it was cloudy and I needed more key in the porch than I could get from ambient.  Audio was tricky because of road noises but I definitely got what I needed and can always ADR if necessary.

It was another occasion where I felt I had to get specific tones for individual beats but I was surprised at what the actors came up with on their own.   I think I’m more of a “shopper” when it comes to directing.  I want people to show me stuff, give me options and I’ll pick from there.  I like to extract and let things emerge rather than imposing my own ideas onto the actors.   What also suprised me was how long this simple scene took.  We had 1.5 pages but I shot from 5 angles both medium and closeup and so it took about 6 hours total.  But within that time I was free to try things and develop the performances.  It’s a nice way to work.  Stress free but creative at the same time.  You don’t often get that combination in indie film.