James Malamatinas Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Hi all, Apologies in advance, if this isn't the right thread please move it as necessary - I thought it should be here or Camera Assistants but might get the best response here! Anyway, I'm a camera assistant who started out just under a year ago and recently I've been offered a great opportunity to spend a week doing work experience at Panavision UK. I realise how lucky I am to be in this position and don't want to waste my time there, instead I want to make sure I make the very most of it. I am not sure what I will be doing or how involved it will be but I was hoping some of you may have advice on what I should learn, or anything else I can do to make my time their more fruitful. In addition to learning for myself I am also aiming to make a good impression with them in case there any additional opportunities in the future. I thought one way of maximising my time there is to brush up on the basic understanding I may need e.g. learn about the cameras Panavision rent and their accompanying equipment, this would mean they do not have to waste time explaining things to me. Does this sound like a good place to start? Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Dzyak Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Hi all, Apologies in advance, if this isn't the right thread please move it as necessary - I thought it should be here or Camera Assistants but might get the best response here! Anyway, I'm a camera assistant who started out just under a year ago and recently I've been offered a great opportunity to spend a week doing work experience at Panavision UK. I realise how lucky I am to be in this position and don't want to waste my time there, instead I want to make sure I make the very most of it. I am not sure what I will be doing or how involved it will be but I was hoping some of you may have advice on what I should learn, or anything else I can do to make my time their more fruitful. In addition to learning for myself I am also aiming to make a good impression with them in case there any additional opportunities in the future. I thought one way of maximising my time there is to brush up on the basic understanding I may need e.g. learn about the cameras Panavision rent and their accompanying equipment, this would mean they do not have to waste time explaining things to me. Does this sound like a good place to start? Cheers. Well, getting the most out of the opportunity really depends on what you want to do after you are finished there. Do you want to work as an AC afterwards? Or be a DP? Or do you want to continue working there? If your goal is to become an AC and work on sets, then you should be learning all you can about the gear, but mostly you should be developing relationships with the ACs and DPs and Operators who come in to the rental house. Let them know who you are and that you'd like to work with them eventually (or asap). While you're "waiting" for that opportunity to happen, spend as much time as possible learning the equipment so that when you do get on a set, the equipment thing will be old hat to you so you can concentrate on DOING the job and everything else that goes into being a great AC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Malamatinas Posted February 2, 2011 Author Share Posted February 2, 2011 Thanks for the response Brian. At the moment I am only really focusing on AC'ing, whilst I am working on some small personal projects the vast majority of my energy is going into learning as much as I can about AC'ing both on and off shoots. At the same time if there was a possibility of working there for longer I don't think I could say no given the training I would get - it could only help with being an AC in the long run! One of the goals for my time there, and the main reason I contacted Panavision in the first place, is to get some experience loading and working with film cameras. I have to date only worked with digital cameras and formats which I think is a big disadvantage despite the rise in digital cameras. As you rightly said though, it will also be a perfect place for meeting and talking to other ACs and DOPs, this is another aspect I definitely intend to take advantage of. I've started out by downloading the list of cameras they rent out and I'm just familiarising myself with them as much as possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khalid Khan Posted July 10, 2016 Share Posted July 10, 2016 (edited) I am quite late to ask but how was the experince ? Edited July 10, 2016 by Khalid Khan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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