Erik Baczay

@Tyler Purcell, Thank you for being so honest and sharing your personal story. It cannot be easy to reflect on good and bad times. Money is not guaranteed, and it was made clear to me when I started. Many get uncomfortable about this question, at least when I ask fellow camera operators and creatives. It's not easy, and it's been made clear by everyone. It's not swaying me at all. Personal projects are cool, and I hope to work on them more with my friends. We're just about to run our first indie short. It hasn't been easy, and it's the first time I will fully control the camera and lighting. (Nervous and excited at the same time) Can I ask what you mean by "results weren't good enough"? I hear this from other DPS, some gaffers, and producers at the time. Does this mean failing to meet the quality of the client or marketing results? Does it vary from case to case? People will come and go, and I am used to it. I don't believe I have ever met the "ride or die" coworker, colleague, teammate, client, or boss, but I am glad you found your path. I wish you success. I think you guys make it clear that in this career, you need to combine saving, trying to plan, having a backup plan, or a secondary job to back up in case the brown chocolate hits the fan. Thank you for your advice, sharing your story, and taking the time to answer my question. It has offered me a lot of insight.

@Albion Hockney, Thank you and the same to you.

@Albion Hockney. Yes, it's a complex industry to get into and even more challenging to deal with in the long term. Having finances is in order. I believe most DPs who specialize are definitely in the few hell. Even the greats often work on commercials and other projects to pad their expenses. Right now, I think I am working toward blocking sure sides of my work and creating the "eat sh** projects" and trying to do narrative work on the side with low-budget or no-budget indies with friends where we all are attempting to build our careers so we all want to make it look good and not to put this pressure on my more limiting client work who just like a standard video rather than something "cinematic" or more original. Sure, events are not the most fun, but they have enabled me to set aside money that I can use to grow my skills and gear and take time off to do a project now and then (not always). Thanks for the reassurance that this isn't only a problem and how the industry works. It is essential to have safety careers or backup plans. Let's face it: as much as we believe we are suitable or can afford to bet all on red, we will rarely succeed the way we think we will at first. But with each hit, we will improve, grow, and strike better, right?

This works really well! Thank you for the suggestion.

Hi everyone! I recently have been getting into this as a career. I am based in Vegas, so production work is a little slow; my long-term goal is to become a cinematographer for documentaries and films, but currently, I am trying to make ends meet and upgrade gear. I have taken on some event work. Videography jobs for some small events, corporate shoots, and online courses. It's not the "dream work" or the place where I have the most artistic control but I still try my best to give the clients the best work possible. This side of my freelance has been growing as I get recommended to others, and it seems I am starting to gain ground on a videography job. I am working with a friend to create passion project films, as Vegas is pretty dried in the indie film corner. Very rarely do we have films made by people who haven't traveled in the crew, or there are usually people with much more experience being picked up. Is there any advice on balancing the need to make money and building a career with a body of work that could get into more features and documentaries? Should I separate these bodies of work to create an altered identity, reel, and portfolio for events and then one for more "artistic" work? I really don't want to do event videography for the rest of my life. I love being behind the camera and creating images; I hope they will last. Any advice is appreciated, and I wish to learn how to balance these two seemingly very different worlds.

Hi @Mark Dunn, Thank you for getting back to me. It should work. I got a set of zip ties and test it out!

Hi Everyone, Recently, I started building a run-and-gun ENG-style documentary shoulder cam build. I got my first "EVF" from Zacuto, and I loved it until I used it outside on my first production. While filming, we had to follow a moving subject on foot quickly. I take the camera off the tripod, throw the tripod over my shoulder, and hold the camera in my right hand from the top handle running. The eye cup cover was closed, and by the time we got to the next spot, the eye cup had fallen off; since we were in the direct harsh sunlight, the diopter was also exposed as the cap was only able, slightly damaging my EVF's screen (a small clump of pixels affected nothing horrible.) I wanted to avoid this, so I returned to the location, found the eye cup on the ground, and put it back. Recently, it happened again. Luckily, it was over, so there was no new damage, but it is a risk I would like to avoid from happening in the future. Does anyone have any recommendations or ideas?