Dp and director relationship

Damon Tidwell · August 1, 2009

Fellas,

I've begin to noticed that both cinematographers and editors don't stay with the directors too long. I have been with the same director since college and we produced three shorts. He wanted to produce a feature but it never happened. When I moved to New York City in the year 2000... I worked with 2 talented directors but they're not moving fast enough, but I was patient (tooo long). I started to realizes that it's my time to move on and look elsewhere.

I'm a kind of person that is LOYAL to my director. It doesn't matter if budget or no budget but I'm a true friend and true believer in the project. I want us to be SUCCESSFUL together, but it is sad that we're not going the same direction.

" it's business not personal"

Not everyone can be successful as : Spike Lee / Ernest Dickerson, Darren Afronofsky / Matthew Libatique, Coen Brothers / Barry Sonnenfeld or even Kevin Smith / David Klein etc

Shall I move on ?

David Mullen ASC · August 1, 2009

Not everyone can be successful as : Spike Lee / Ernest Dickerson, Darren Afronofsky / Matthew Libatique, Coen Brothers / Barry Sonnenfeld or even Kevin Smith / David Klein etc

Even most of those pairings didn't last... a lot of it has to do with timing, it's hard for a director and DP to sync their separate careers together since a DP usually shoots five times the number of features that the director does. For example, I've done six movies with the Polish Brothers out of 33 features total, but getting our schedules to fall in sync can be difficult. Directors often have to shoot based on actors' availability since that drives the financing, not their relationship with the DP.

When a director is extremely popular and prolific, it's easier for the DP to just tag along one project after another, but if the director has a gap of a couple of years between features, the DP is obviously going to find other work during that time, and if they get onto a feature or TV series, they are committed for a couple of months to that so may be unavailable if their main director suddenly wants to shoot something.

Dan Salzmann · August 1, 2009

Even most of those pairings didn't last... a lot of it has to do with timing, it's hard for a director and DP to sync their separate careers together since a DP usually shoots five times the number of features that the director does. For example, I've done six movies with the Polish Brothers out of 33 features total, but getting our schedules to fall in sync can be difficult. Directors often have to shoot based on actors' availability since that drives the financing, not their relationship with the DP.

When a director is extremely popular and prolific, it's easier for the DP to just tag along one project after another, but if the director has a gap of a couple of years between features, the DP is obviously going to find other work during that time, and if they get onto a feature or TV series, they are committed for a couple of months to that so may be unavailable if their main director suddenly wants to shoot something.

It is of enormous benefit to both you and any director for you to gain experience and hone your skills by working in many different situations since making a film can be approached in many different ways.

David Rakoczy · August 1, 2009

It is ALWAYS time to move on. Just because you have one Director you work for doesn't mean you can't have another... and another. It is your duty to your survival in this industry to network at all times. What do they say... the best time to look for a job is when you already have one ;)