Luis Villalon Meunier

Unfortunately, that's the way it works a lot of times. If there's no money "you are the best there is", "Next Academy Award", but when they get a budget, big or small, they always hire someone with a name "Better than you are". Of course, that person will have a full crew and all the goodies to make the film look good. When you do it, is a case with 3 1ks and your brother in law as crew.

My question is..why did you hire a DP in the first place? Why not shoot it yourself? As per your assesment, these are things that are discussed in pre-pro...the mood, the color scheme etc. I am now in the process of CCing a feature I shot almost 2 years ago and I am being paid for something I'd done eagerly for free then. The Director decided to do it himself. One scene...a rundown tenement apartment in NYC in the winter at night looks like it was shot outside in a sunny day. No mood whatsoever to go with the story. The film is going to be bought by an European distributor under the condition that the DP (That's me) does a better job of timing and CC.I think there should be only one director on the set running the show, and I am always willing to contribute to his/her vision with my experience of 40 years shooting high end commercials and independent films. So, let me help you, I know I am not hired to work on my new Demo Reel. The main problem for DPs is that people don't look at a crappy job of CCing and say "It's the Director's fault", it's always your name that comes up.