Anna Carrington

Good grief, you turn away from your computer for one moment and……. Dan Parkes and myself have been communicating via email privately about this matter and he assures me that I need not be upset nor offended by his Ambleton Delight blog. It was not written to insult me or other DOP’s and is merely suggestion into lighting kit available to hire. The main points that I was offended with were that I thought he had named the blog “http://bit.ly/noDPhere” when in fact he hadn’t…the link to the blog is actually named “http://bit.ly/bwtl2w” another comment that I was unhappy about was quickly removed from the blog by the moderator, as was my retort. Dan Parkes has since made it clear as to my role on the production: “The key scenes of the film were lit by a professional and dedicated (not to mention hard working) DP, Anna Carrington. Some secondary and supplmentary scenes were DPed by myself and the camera team (including two lighting cameramen) mainly due to budgetry reasons. Anna advised us on this and even provided some materials (gels). The blog is not about Anna, the DP, but about our experience with lighting those secondary scenes ourselves.” Parkes Productions recently stated on Shootingpeople: “The quote you take from the blog regarding "several different Directors of Photography" was definitely not referring to the film in question but over the course of various previous productions -from short films to corporate- during which we have worked with several different DoPs. There was, as you know, only one dedicated DoP on this film, who, as has been stated so many times, lit the main key scenes, while a scaled down version of the camera team lit smaller and second unit footage (two of whom were lighting cameraman, so this was never going to be a huge stretch) upon whose experiences the blog was based. We maintained continuity, stayed on schedule and almost on budget and received very positive feedback on the look of the film, so I would say this was a success.” “You mention the deleting of comments on the blog -and yes this is unfortunately true, as the blog is moderated. There have been some offensive comments posted, and also some insensitive and unprofessional remarks, including one from the director, that had to be removed as we insist on a high standard of behaviour at all times.” I feel that these statements draw a line under the matte. Neither myself nor Dan Parkes wishes to carry on casting a negative light on the production. The shoot itself was great fun and a positive experience. The film has already won a number of awards at film festivals and I hope that DVD sales are high when it is released later on in the year. Anna Carrington DOP on Ambleton Delight www.annacarrington.co.uk

I think that when there is an acceptable alternative to using "Man" at the end of my job title, I'll do it; e.g "Camera Operator" But when there is no alternative it's better to have an "industry approved" job title rather than something that doesn't exist.....e.g "Lighting Cameraman" is regularly used but "Lighting Camerawoman" is not. Please remember that the film industry started as a male dominated business...with terms such as "Clapper Boy" until "Clapper Loader" became the acceptable norm and I'm sure over time the same will become of other terms. In regards to digital cameras taking over and being lighter and therefore there being more women camera operators....I don't think this is true. If you look at some of the great women DOP's of our time they came into the role before the invention of digital cameras for film use. It is also a misconception that women cannot handle the weight of a heavy camera. On the contrary women are anatomically more adept to putting a heavily weighted camera on their shoulders; this is because women's hips are as wide as their shoulders therefore making the "base" much stronger when a heavy weight is put upon their shoulders; e.g the weight is distributed evenly down body to the hips and then down through the legs. Men on the other hand have shoulders that jut out further than their hips and therefore the weight of a camera "tips" them off balance; thus putting more strain on the body. Taller Camera Operators (male and female) are also at a disadvantage in terms of risk of injury as compression of the spine and twist/curvature is more common when putting a heavy weight onto the camera. Anna Carrington Cinematographer London

I will be issuing a statement about the Ambleton Delight blog in due course, but please note in the meantime that I usually refer to myself as a "Cinematographer." This is because most of the work I do, I Light and Camera Operate myself. I feel that "Director of Photography" is a better term for working with a separate Camera Operator. On feature film "Ambleton Delight" the Camera Operator was Roger Marshall, who did an excellent job. I studied Cinematography at Surrey Institute of Art and Design and graduated in 2002 but I did not feel that I could come out of University and call myself a "Cinematographer" or a "DOP" so I started working as a Clapper Loader. It was a DOP who then wanted me to work as his Focus Puller and re-trained me as a Focus Puller. I then worked as a Focus Puller for years before being offered the opportunity to re-train in Cinematography on The Technical Change Scheme run by WFTV where I was mentored by Henry Braham BSC during the making of The Golden Compass in 2006. I have recently been noticing that "Cinematographer" is not a term that gets used all of the time (even on Cinematography.com there is no drop-down option for "Cinematographer") and therefore I use the term DOP instead. I am currently in the process of re-doing my website and have been thinking about key words, can anybody advise me as to whether or not using the term "Cinematographer" rather than "Director Of Photography" might be detrimental to my website traffic? Anna Carrington Cinematographer London mail@annacarrington.co.uk www.annacarrington.co.uk

You forgot to mention the free beer! Which unfortunately I didn't get to sample as I had to drive off to a pre-light :( but I was assured by my gaffer friend that it was very good! Anna Carrington Cinematographer London UK

What a first day! - Good that you survived OK - unfortunately you get all sorts of weird things like this happening as a loader - I'll never forget the time when we had some S16mm stock which was physically too wide and therefore the top of the film was being shaved off in the magazine - creating "furballs" of emulsion - scared the s**t out of me - obviously I told the 1st and other crew members about the problem as I didn't know whether it would effect the image quality - luckily it didn't and I subsequently found out (through a similar cinematography forum) that there was a certain batch number that was too big and other loaders all over the world were having similar problems! Anna Carrington (Now 1st AC) UK

Hiya - I did my dissertation on Fight Club and Seven - I could post you it on CD (its in word document format) or email it to you - it is very large though and I don't know whether your/anybodies email address could handle it (it has loads of image files in it!) - Other than having loads of info on Darious Khondji it has a list of books/magazine articles that I used for research at the back of the dissertation. Email me direct if you are interested as I don't always look at this site. Anna Carrington AC UK youwhatfilms@hotmail.com