Dan Collins

Thank you to all who gave genuine advice. While I get Richard's example he was attempting to make about begging anyone for work, it missed the point. I already have work with plenty of little productions. This post was about how change the way people view me with the big network shows I also work on. I appreciate the advice of having my skills ready for when the opportunity presents itself where I can show them what I can do. I'll stay persistent and keep working to show what I can do.

Over the last 5 years years I've been cam op'ing on low budget docu-reality shows and Ac/utility on higher end reality. I've been pushing to operate on the bigger projects but have been met with reluctance. It's tough changing how people view you. I have a lot of camera and lighting experience and have even occasionally had to teach the people I assist how to light an interview. I've paid my dues, gotten plenty of experience and am ready to make a name for myself. My question is about how to make the jump successfully. I know I have the technical skills down. Selling myself as an DP/operator is what I need to work on. Many people are reluctant to give advice to those moving up for fear of competition or whatever. Is there anyone on here willing to share their experiences and give advice?

Who elese has been dealing with the issue of classification by productions on union jobs for the data management? This has been an issue for me on certain projects. I get that producers will always try to be cheap save money, that's their job. Local 600 hasn't clearly defined the difference and roles for each clasiffication enough and that gives them loopholes to exploit. I'm union as a loader. On many digital jobs I'm digital loader basically media managing and assisting the department as a loader always has (chariging, running gear, video village, rental, inventory, etc). Some shows do everythign right, but more and more I'm getting calls that are looking for a loader because the production can't afford a full fledged DIT. I'm finding they want a lot of the DIT work still done, such as transcoding, one light color correction, etc. They want 80% of the DIT work done, but want to pay a loader rate or worse yet, want to pay a camera utility or digital utility rate. Sometimes I turn the gigs down and others I negotiate a substantial bump in kit fee for the extra work load if they won't classify me right. Ironically non-union jobs tend to be the opposite. They call people DITs who are only downloading. I draw the distinction that a loader downloads and checks media from cards. DIT is anyone who is doing more than that; live capture, syncing sound, transcoding, coloring, or making dailies. I am want to know where others draw the line between digital loader duties and DIT and their experienced with union jobs calssifying DIT duties as something else.

Lacie has an eSata hub. There are several companies in addition to Sonnet who you mentioned, that are coming out with thunderbolt docks to offer many more ports of varing types.

I worked at a rental house years ago and learned a lot, even thoough I got little to no time hands on with gear because I was an agent taking orders. Still, it was great and very valuable training on how to compile and prep a complete order. A few people I've worked for have told me that they valued that I have the rental house experience. I got one job merely because of that experience. The last AC they had said he knew about equipment but did a poor job checking it out so they ran into problems when on set. I have made very few connections directly from working there. I only worked there for 6 months and the manager who worked for years eventually went freelance and had a lot more connections after years of getting to know people, but my goal was to make a steady paycheck for a little while and learn equipment. If my networking skills were better, maybe I could have made more of it. If you have connections already to working in bigger budget productions where, as a 2nd AC or loader, you can attend a prep done by an experienced 1st, you can learn how it's done. If you're like me and are starting from low budget productions, often you'll be in video and the only ac. The DP made the order, but production would rather pay an AC rate for prep than the DP's rate, or the DP is not available. Then you are going to be thrown into preping on your own and that's where the experience comes in. I've picked up orders at pretty pathetic indie rental houses that leave out important items, like specific items asked for, correct cables, spare cables or batteries that hold a charge, etc. How can you trust their advice on what you might need if they didn't do it right in the first place? You need to know how to prep even if you're order is put together by an idiot.

I recently worked on a reality show and my shooting was criticized for lack of quality coverage (however the director was not very helpful in telling me exactly how I need to improve). I already understand the concepts of getting masters, wide mediums and tights, but apparently I'm not putting it together right when shooting on the fly. The vast majority of the time it was 2 cameras shooting and I shot by coordinating with the other op to get coverage from different angles for conversations, however often we had 3-4 people to be covered by 2 cams, so sticking to one person each was not feasible. I've been taught in the past to be careful when breaking up a shot and not to jump around too much, but I'm doubting my sense of when and where to reframe and when to switch to another person. If their are any reality shooters on here that could give some advice on how and when you decide to reframe or how long to hold on one person/thing, I would appreciate it greatly. I could also use advice on when having to cover a 2-3 person interaction as a single camera. Again, this is all for docu shooting when I don't know much about what will happen and getting the talent to repeat themselves is not possible.

Can some list the full phonetic alphabet that is most commonly used in film slating. Im aware there can be many variations. I have typically used thr military version (alpha bravo charlie delta) but have noticed many film people think Im making it up out, when it has just never been an issue before. Since it is one now, I figure i ought to learn at one of the morr tradituonal ones foe the industry.

How did you cut the slots? Is there is a specific tool or technique used?

Double post, deleted.

We've been shooting a few days a week now and I'm getting better and more comfortable but I'm still noticing my camera work is a lot more shaky than it should be for a full-size, shoulder-mounted camera. I've had to shoot for 1-2 hours in a static position where I'm a human tripod, not moving except for framing from wide to tight. I find it much more fatiguing to not be able to take a step without causing shakiness. I'm trying to breath through my stomach, not my chest, but still I seem to see my breathing effect the steadiness of my shots. Is there something different I should be doing? Thanks!

Thanks for the tips Satsuki

I've just been given a great opportunity to be a camera operator for a new TV show. I have not done handheld on real, full-size ENG cameras in about 4 years, and even that was merely short 1-2 hours a day for my college. It's going to be almost 100% handheld because it's documentary. Even most interviews I'm told will be OTFs handheld. I'm worried because after an easy day of test shoots, my shoulder is killing me. At one point I even got dizzy because the camera was weighing down too much toward the inside of my neck. I have very narrow, thin and bony shoulders so I bought a shoulder pad, but I'm wondering if that made it worse falling in toward my neck and putting weight on on places. Should the camera be centered on my shoulder or more on the outside resting on the bone of my shoulder? Any other tips for a newbie on how to manage the weight better? I'm shooting again tomorrow, so please help quick!

Daniel, Your response is more apt that you could have ever know because it was actually a female grip that had called for the beaverboard in this particular case. The DP was probably overly cautious because of her, but since she's the one who used the term, she didn't have a problem with it. I don't get some of the "old timers" out there that can't just act normally and have normal expectations with women working. Actresses and similar types maybe the more sensitive, but grips are grips. Female grips wouldn't still be grips if they had a problem with it. I've heard what has been said around them and to them directly and none have ever been suprised or outraged in the least bit.

I was told on set today that we are not allowed to say beaver board any more because of the negtive origins of the term. The DP wouldn't explain what those origin are and I have to say I have no idea what the origin is ( I do know WHAT I is though). Now I'm really really curious to know. I'm aware that many terms were once derogatory, like best boy, but that is no longer the case for most, at least in my experienc and that is far from my intention here. I'm just looking to learn and understand what the problem with it is.

Can anyone recommend some good companies that I can look into for buying insurance on my own equipment? I need something that will cover lost, stolen, and accidental damage.