Shinichi Yamamoto

Here are a few ideas: 1) have a few snippets of your work online, easily seen on YouTube or Vimeo or your own website. Make sure your stuff is really good. If it's not good, don't use it. Having absolutely nothing is better than having something terrible. 2) make sure you have an internet presence, via LinkedIn or IMDb or your own website, giving info about what training you've had, what experience you've had and what type of job you're seeking. If you have a Facebook account or Twitter account where you voice your nasty little opinions about certain movies and shows, take that account down! You absolutely cannot afford to be critical of ANYONE. Ever! 3) write a VERY brief email introducing yourself and send it to various production companies in town. Don't email any one single company more than twice a year, out of courtesy. 4) find out who the Line Producers and UPMs are in town and offer your services to them; if they think you're too green, then you should offer yourself for free, or as a PA, once. Just once! 5) you can research line producers and UPMs by using IMDb Pro of HCD Online 6) Scour craigslist for opportunities as a DP or AC on small projects. Check Mandy, too. 7) The goal should always be to network with DP's, Directors, UPM's and Line Producers. 8) Spend $30 or $40 printing up business cards AFTER you've established your web presence. 9) Try to schmooze at industry events around town. They're everywhere. 10) If you don't know the basics of how to shake someone's hand and be on time and be friendly and say polite stuff about projects... then learn the basics! Read a book on the basics of being professional. So many people destroy their chances by violating the most basic rules of professionalism. *) Get a decent camera and start shooting your own stuff in the meantime. Always be improving your skills. good luck, HG

Came across two decent apps for both androids and iphones. Both apps seem to do roughly the same thing, except the Artemis version is a little beefier with a higher cost. I just wondered if anyone has experience with either one and can offer a recommendation. Artemis Director's Viewfinder https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chemicalwedding.artemis&hl=en vs SL Director's Viewfinder https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.SRLFilmTools&hl=en thanks, HG

That's a brilliant point, David. Opportunity cost. Duly noted.

Thanks, Phil. I agree with a lot of the points your making. In that sense I wasn't truly wanting anybody on this forum to "out" their colleagues and expose bargaining chips that had been private up until now. I was more asking about info that was already in the public domain. For example, with actors, it's fairly easy to note which celebrities will do indie films and which celebrities won't. It's easy to spot these patterns we because we, the general public, devote so much attention to star actors and star actors outnumber the DP at a rate of 3 to 1 or even, let's say, 15 to 1 on any one project. What I'm saying is that there is only so much obvious "sampling" to distill a pattern from; that's why we're able to make conclusions about actors in this way. And that's why with DP's there simply isn't as much data to work with. And it's not as readily covered by various online forums and fan sites. So... I'm just asking if anyone has spotted a pattern in publicly available databases with particular DP's, noting that, hey, Joe Schmoe hasn't done an indie film in 20 years. He just does top budget stuff. Whereas, it looks like Such-and-Such guy does an indie film every three years or so. In that sense, if anyone has spotted some patterns in publicly available info, I'd love to hear about it. Or maybe you've even read an article or something where a DP actually comes out and says, "Sure, I will work on smaller stuff if the story speaks to my heart, etc." HG

Hey Y'all, I'm needing to know which established DP's will take a steep paycut once in a while. In other words, if there are DP's in Hollywood who generally work on the bigger budget movies... between let's say 10 million to 50 million... which of these guys n' gals will take a paycut and work on an indie flick every once in a while? Specifically, which of these guys and gals would work on a project budgeted just over 1 million? I'm trying to sift through IMDb on my own and piece together a list but the process is like shooting darts in the dark... in a windy room... while wearing oven mitts. Anyone out there happen to know a few good names on this topic? much obliged, HG