do me a favor

Allen Achterberg · January 25, 2005

My film/video...i mean video teacher at my highschool let me jump on a school project as the "Director of Photography" and I dont think he really knows the duties and responsibilities of a DP, after I start planning how I want to shoot the little coffee shop soap opera thingy and then he tells me I'm just doing the lighting, that I'm not operating a camera, and I tell him that I know I'm not operating one of the three cameras, But my operators will be shootin' what I tell them to, then I ask him if atleast get to expose the picture...he looks at me confused and tells me that it should be well lit and it wont have any problems, he even asked if I had a light meter, we are shooting on 3 vx2100's (not bad for a highschool program ey?) but I tell him that i wouldnt use it, and even if I did it would only be used for reference, I wouldnt show up with it and see if the camera's will be getting an exposure...i mean we're not shooting 100ASA film here, but for some reason I dont think he has a clue to what a DP does, I think he's got it confused with gaffer because he thought I'd just show up pop a few lights on a grid and call it good.

Highschool drama...welcome back everybody.

Well, what I'd like to ask someone to do is write the duties of a DP so I can print it and post it in the class somewhere, the reason I am asking you and not doing it myself because I may leave something out, or may not even know something I should be doing as a DP...and my explanations of the job wouldnt be simple...maybe one of you's can help?

Thanks,

Allen Achterberg

Dominic Case · January 25, 2005

Really this is such a simple thing to do for yourself without asking someone else to do the work for you. You might guess that it is a question that has been asked before. Do a little research on the internet. Look at the archives of this and other lists - there is a long discussion in the cinematography.net archives for example. Then you can search elsewhere. Just out of interest (like I have nothing else to do?) I Googled <"Director of Photography" duties>. I found a couple of references that you can have at no charge.

Proscenia

ASC

I won't quote extensively, but I did want to highlight the first few words of one extract.

"I think of filmmaking as a collaborative art form. Cinematographers play first violin in a symphony orchestra with the director conducting, . . .

Whenever I read of squabbles over who is in charge of a particular aspect of production, I mourn the passing of the wrod "collaboration".

By the way, there are DoPs who just light. There are DoPs who light, select the lens, place the camera, and operate. The IMDB definition of a cinematographer has them processing and printing the film as well.

And if you are going to do the lighting properly, it's about a lot more than just getting the cameras to expose properly. If you demonstrate to your teacher that you can do that (it's not the gaffer's job) then he might be interested in extending you with a discussion of staging, composition, etc.

As a final question, should you also ask someone to write up the duties of a high school teacher - I don't think you understand what they are in relation to the other roles in the classroom (I mean studio).

Felipe Perez-Burchard · January 25, 2005

You can find an itemized 3 page list in The January 2003 issue of American Cinematographer (Gangs of New York cover), maybe your local library has it.

(sorry, I couldn't get a link)

As Mr. Case said, though, it's a collaboration, and it can be put in very simple terms...

hope it helps.

-felipe.