Stevie Sneddon

No I don't think I'm able to make a living at it just yet. I get some work as a cinematographer on shorts which pays something but not much. I am considering film school but either way I think I'd just rather do my own thing and see where it takes me. I'm not after any prizes or great success just the chance to make creative work I get personal satisfaction from. Still I need to live so it would be nice to earn enough to get by on. I see you are based in LA, that must be great. I would imagine you have a lot of oppertunites to do varied work out there?

In a previous post I expressed my negative experiance with assisting and I am 27 and personally reluctent to assist again even though I know it is a great way to learn. I have considered film school to study cinematography but even then ultimately I would still be faced with the decision to start at the bottom as a 1st AC & work my way up or to just attempt to get work as a DOP as I am. I do get some work shooting on 16mm and I shoot my own stuff on DV and Super 8. I am not really that bothered about making a lot of money and am happy to work for free of the project allows me to be creative although I do feel I miss out on experiance with lights in particular as I always use the same low budget equipment. Anyway what do you guys think is it possible to eventually become a cinematographer without going through the standard system?

I know that camera assisting offers great experiance, a chance to learn about the kit and to observe experianced DOP's at work but if I am really honest I never enjoyed camera assisting apart from with one particular DOP. I have shot on film and digital a lot and I love shooting and lighting myself but always found assisting so frustrating. I think this may be in part to living in a small european country where there is very little work available and so the same small group of camera assistance were always trying for the same jobs. If you actually were able to get an assisting job other members of the camera crew were often unhelpful and did not want to provide training to camera trainees in order to protect their jobs which is understandable and of course there were some exceptions, people who were very helpful. I think this would have been okay if I had felt that I was learning about lighting but on most of the pro shoots I worked on the dop's did very little lighting and it seemed that the gaffer would just always come in and do a bog standard lighting set up the same as the one they did for the last TV drama they worked. It just did not seem creative at all and I felt I learnt a lot more shooting low budget or student films. Perhaps things would be different in a place with a more diverse and vibrant film industry and of course I know that the failure to get much out of assisting is a personal fault. I come from a fine art / still photography background and hated not to be having a creative input especially when the work being done although far technically superior to anything I could do was so dull. So I wondered if any other camera assistants feel the same as me, do you ever find it frustrating or do you love assisting? Do you feel you learn more doing your own work or assisting? Do you assist in the hope of one day becoming a DOP? Note: Please do not see this as an attack on camera assisting in general and I know it is a respected route into cinematography. I think I personally just do not have the correct temperment to assist well and that is a short coming on my part, I just don't have it in me. I just wondered how many others felt the same?