Justin Hayward

I'm often amazed how a sound designer can really hurt a movie in some cases, but can also elevate a movie to another level in others. There are so many creative outlets for people working in film production. Filmmaking includes every art form there is; image, performance, music, writing...

It's funny, my whole life I've wanted to be a director, but lately I've been envious of cinematographers if only because they get to work on so many more projects than I do. But more than that, they get to dig into a very specific aspect of filmmaking and put a 100% of their energy toward that one thing. They're more like painters. Whereas directors have to worry about every freaking thing, including managing a large number of very different personalities which can be quite distracting. I often feel like a director is more of a craftsman and leader of people and a cinematographer is a real artist.

The blame game and gossip that go on in color rooms can be brutal. I wish I could say I've never taken part.

For sure. "The Turin Horse" is on iTunes. Gonna have to check that out on the projector. Thanks Miguel.

Well, here I go... Great article, thanks. One thing I find interesting with the rise of home viewing over going to the movie theater is shooting 2:35 scope is now a "smaller" image as opposed to "wider" because it's letterboxed on 16x9 televisions. So, when shows leave headroom on a 16x9 frame, the image actually feels larger, wider, and more open on a small TV. Funny thing is more theatrical movies are shot 2:35 nowadays than are not, but there isn't a very noticeable difference in framing than if they shot 1:85. Directors don't seem to use the wide frame and get wider with more negative space and dynamic compositions with more area for your eye to wander. Instead they stick with lots of hand held close ups and generally tighter framing. It almost feels like they're only shooting 2:35 to counter television.

I don't know that they do (especially the producer that would likely love a DP that only shoots natural light :), but consistency can be an issue. If we start shooting at a location with big windows at 4pm and we plan to shoot the same scene until at least 9pm... the natural light at 4 probably won't work for the scene no matter how good it looks. Of course, like the others said, this is where experience comes into play.

Looks great! Really nice work, Satsuki.

Especially in commercials where, after production wraps, I likely won't see anything until I see it on television. "Ya know that window is pretty blown out." "Yeah, I want it to be." "But there's no information there." "Good, that means they can't darken it in post."

Sounds about right...

You're not going to scare me away Richard :lol:

I guess I took the question as the first "big job" to be a significant leap toward the career you ultimately want to do for a living. If my dream was to be the head chef of a restaurant, I would consider my first big job to be the job where a restaurant owner put me in charge of the kitchen. Whether it was a Michelin three star restaurant or a small local diner, being the head chef would be the leap. I went from being an intern on my first job out of college to being a PA, but I don't consider that much of a career leap. That's just having decent work ethic. I'm sure anyone that wants to be a professional DP would consider their first job as a DP, no matter what the budget, to be a big leap toward that goal, but I also think someone that's been DPing low budget features for ten years would consider their first bigger budget studio job to be another huge leap. So of course it's subjective.

Yes, for sure. I didn't mean to diminish moving up. We all have line-in-the-sand moments.

My first big job was director/Dp on the 2nd unit of a McDonald's commercial. I was only 24 or 25, but I had been working with the main director for a couple years and after some "helpful" suggestions here and there the producer told me they were going to put me in charge of 2nd unit on the next job. I was nervous, but it was a blast. Truth is, the instinct and ideas are already there, so it's not like you're flying blind. I knew what worked and what didn't, so it was just a matter of execution and taking the time to get it right. Funny thing was I had been working with the same crew for a few years in other capacities, so they were pretty quick to chime in with their ideas when they saw I was put in charge. Ya know, one of their buddies. It's funny, I actually didn't notice how many people were talking in my ear until the 1st AD screamed at everyone to leave me alone. At the end of a day like that, you can really kick back and feel like you accomplished something (even if it was just a McDonald's commercial :). It was a really good time and a fond memory of mine. I'm actually glad you asked because it was nice to relive it for a moment. It was a really great feeling. Congrats on the gig. I'm sure you'll have a blast.

I will check that out. Thanks

I heard that too. My friend told me it reminded him of a clean and safe New York.

Right on fella's, thanks. I do like the in camera effects, but this one was pretty easy to replicate in post, so it was hard for me not to think we wasted a little time on set. But like I said, it was a lot of fun. Miguel, sounds like your suggestions would be harder to do in post. If I ever do something like this again, I'll definitely try something like that. The still frames were actually from a test day that wound up making it into the movie, so I think we were a little less aggressive on the actual shoot. But I will say, Satsuki, I've certainly never been accused of being too subtle :lol: I'll PM you for sure, Richard. I would love to meet up if you got a sec. I've heard the city is great, and I'm really looking forward to checking it out. You'll have to tell me the best dinner spots. Thanks again guys!

So something unusual recently happened, I was hired to direct a short film. It was a lot of fun and I was given lots of freedom to do what I wanted. It recently got into the children's section of the Toronto film festival, so I'm planning a small trip to Toronto in April, which I'm excited about. I didn't realize it at the time, but I lifted the idea of shooting through smeared glass in the movie "The Assassination of Jesse James..." I wanted the images to feel like illustrations in a children's book that faded off the edges of the frame, so in several of the wide shots we put 4x8 sheets of clear plexiglass about seven feet in front of the camera and smeared out the trees and things with Vaseline. Because we had a budget and time we were able to play around with stuff like that. It was a really fun shoot. Unfortunately we quickly found out this technique was pretty easily replicated in post, but it was still fun. Here's a trailer to the movie and below are pics with the plex and Vaseline... Tiny's New Home

I think it's also common for some of us to judge others work more harshly than we judge our own. If we were as hard on ourselves as we are on others, chances are we'd be too depressed to ever shoot anything again. I know I'm guilty of blasting something I just saw in theaters while patting myself on the back for some simple blocking I came up with for a tiny pharmaceutical commercial. I'll bet many of the people that blast the Transformers franchise (including me) have a hard time admitting they will never be capable of creating anything as rich as a single frame from any one of those movies. There have been jobs in the past where I feel like even though I gave it my best, my best was a failure and it shattered my confidence for months. It's a crummy feeling. I think we need a healthy level of self delusion or we need to get into another business.

Oh, Bill and Ted.... Funny hint.

Winner!

I'll hear the last possibility, then give you a hint.

No, but I can see where you'd get that.

This is a childhood favorite of mine...

Yeah, it's tough. The worst is when it doesn't even look familiar. Like the above one for me :(

I cheated and looked it up, so I won't answer, but that's a good one.