The life of a DP

[Guest]

Long hours are fine, so long as there is residual income in it for you. Otherwise you work like a dog to make people who are already rich, even richer.

 

R,

[Ram Shani]

its hard its sametime not rewording you work long hours or crazy hours or not working at all .

its hard on the family. you miss a lot with the kids

but:

102 posters here and not one of us is going to do something else (i think)

 

its in the blood in the veins

 

for me i cant see my self doing something else as long as i live

Edited March 29, 2007 by Ram Shani

[Brian Dzyak]

its hard its sametime not rewording you work long hours or crazy hours or not working at all .

its hard on the family. you miss a lot with the kids

but:

102 posters here and not one of us is going to do something else (i think)

 

its in the blood in the veins

 

for me i cant see my self doing something else as long as i live

 

I'm writing a book with the goal of switching careers into publishing. :) I also may begin gravitating toward producing. My last xray showed my spine being pulled to the right and there is a pain in my shoulder which recently began extending into numbness in my right hand. It can be fun career but it also can take its toll in many ways.

[Brad Grimmett]

and at some point if you wake up in the middle

of

the night and you become conscious of a night light flaring or something your first thought is

somebody get a flag on that?

When I was a P.A. I used to hear phantom radio chatter for a day or two after a long job. I would grab at where my radio mike was to try and respond and realize I wasn't on the job anymore. When you work those incredibly long hours your brain gets accustomed to it I guess.

Now I just wake up sweating in the middle of the night wondering how I'm going to pay for all the new gear I'm constantly buying.

[Matthew Parnell]

My best catering was when touring around the UK shooting a doco with Status Quo at the end of last year. Two months of Resturant quality food! We had an amazing chef and catering team on the tour, who pulled an average of working 18 hours straight.

[Satsuki Murashige]

I shot a low-budget short back in December on which we were supposed to have catering. A few days before the shoot, I heard from the producer that the caterer had discovered his wife in bed with another man and that there would be no catering after all, since the guy was too emotionally distraught to work. So that's my sole experience with catering.

 

I guess I've been very lucky so far, but on most of the low-budget projects I've worked on, the food has been pretty good. On the one feature I've worked on, the director's wife cooked dinner for the crew every night (it was a small, mostly unpaid crew), with vegetarian dishes. And we only worked 10 hour days, so I guess it's all downhill from here.

[Dan Salzmann]

While I have some problems with certain production dynamics here in France, the food thing is usually very well sorted.

Wellington said, "An army marches on their stomachs" and I guess that is one other lesson they learned from him.

[Sam Kim]

student films here in the SF bay area a lot of students have successfully gotten a lot of food for free. cafes, local restaurants, sandwich shops, coffee places, bagel shops even freaking red bull donated a butt load of drinks once. i guess it's all how they work it and agressive they get.

 

the worst was my shoot yesterday. 9 hours, no dineer like promised and only oreos and sodas as snacks... bleh.

[Brad Grimmett]

the worst was my shoot yesterday. 9 hours, no dineer like promised and only oreos and sodas as snacks... bleh.

I can understand a student film being a bit disorganized, and sometimes meals might be late, but 9 hours!? That's ridiculous. After 7 hours I would walk, and I would encourage everyone else on the crew to come with me. If you can't manage to get food to set in 9 hours you shouldn't be shooting a film. Staying and working under those conditions only encourages the people responsible to keep doing the same things on their next shoot since it wasn't a problem the first time.

I'll bet that if you had walked with some other crew members there would have been food there within a half hour and they would have been calling you begging you to come back.

[Tony Brown]

Wow!! Sounds awesome! I'm looking for another project, any chance you know any of these writers or have a spare script laying around?

 

Can't wait!!

 

R,

 

Me too Richard.... i'll do 2nd rate 2nd Camera 2nd unit 2nd AC

 

:D

[Andrew Brinkhaus]

Thanks for the insightful comment Richard. I am new here on these boards, but am I young cinematographer and it's great to finally find a place where professionals talk about common issues and concerns. Its a great way to get a head start on my future plans.

[Matthew Buick]

Me too Richard.... i'll do 2nd rate 2nd Camera 2nd unit 2nd AC

 

:D

 

And I'll be the DP!!! :lol:

[Alexander Joyce]

I feel as though I have been extremely lucky when it comes to where my career has taken me, but there was a time when I was less certain if I would ever make it. However I never would have gotten anywhere if I had decided then to give it all up and take a new direction... I even went from Norway to New Zealand for a while to seek out better fortunes, but ended up coming back :rolleyes:

 

I find there are really two things that get you work in this industry. Who you know and what you have done. Logical yes, but if no one knows you they can't hire you, so networking is the absolute top priority when starting out(and even afterwards....). Then there's the reel. They most likely won't hire you unless you have something to show for. It's a bit like the hen and the egg. You can't get work until you have done something, but you can't do anything until you get work. Until(and still after...) filmschools came along one would go the old fashioned way of starting out as a runner and climbing your way up the ladder.

I have no idea and I'd rather not think about it either, but the amount of money I put into music videos and such just to build a reel could probably have been spent on a really nice degree at some prestigious school. Instead I have no degree, but i have a job that I love more than anything and I wouldn't change it for the world.

By love I mean I work 15 hour days almost every day of the week(including Sundays!) and when I'm not at work working I'm at home working. I'm 24 now, so if I can do this for another 46 years until I'm 70 I'll be pretty happy. That is if 3D hell doesn't take over the world and all of us "camera" people get put in a museum. We'll be right next to the "actors" and the "new ideas". Ok enough of that :rolleyes:

[Daniel Smith]

I can understand a student film being a bit disorganized, and sometimes meals might be late, but 9 hours!? That's ridiculous. After 7 hours I would walk, and I would encourage everyone else on the crew to come with me. If you can't manage to get food to set in 9 hours you shouldn't be shooting a film. Staying and working under those conditions only encourages the people responsible to keep doing the same things on their next shoot since it wasn't a problem the first time.

I'll bet that if you had walked with some other crew members there would have been food there within a half hour and they would have been calling you begging you to come back.

Unfortunatelly in the U.K, there's no choice in that matter. It's like it or lump it.

 

To people in America, working in the film industry is a job. Like any other job to a degree.

 

In England, everyone's so desperate to make it, they are willing to work their butts off for free.

[Matthew Buick]

Yep, Danny. You've probably hit it right on the nose. :(

[Daniel Smith]

Worst I've had was a 14 hour day. Although we did get food... nice hot food at that.

 

But man was that shattering... Although I'd still of got up and done it again the next day ;) Great experience.

[Guest]

Unfortunatelly in the U.K, there's no choice in that matter. It's like it or lump it.

 

To people in America, working in the film industry is a job. Like any other job to a degree.

 

In England, everyone's so desperate to make it, they are willing to work their butts off for free.

 

Well as has been pointed out MANY times before being in the USA is not the panacea for having a film career.

 

Yes the US industry is of course the largest in the world, it's also the most competitive in the world.

 

Do you have any idea how many "starving" film people there are in the USA?

 

Do you have any idea how many thousands of US film school grads never spend a day working professionally in the film industry? Those that do get a shot, often drop out of the business after five years. You can only live in your parents basement eating ramen for so long. It's fine when you're 23. Trying doing it at 33 or 43.

 

Look at the vast bulk of people on this board, young, male, and single. Few have homes, wives, houses, cars, children, etc etc etc. Like "normal" people do.

 

Have you seen the costs of living in LA or NYC? Check out house prices on the web.

 

Compare this to Peter Jackson for instance, how successful has he been launching his career in NZ and staying there? Of course he's had US money behind him. But he didn't move to LA and attend USC. He has talent and determination, which will get you far whether you're in the UK, NZ, CAN, or the USA.

 

R,

[Tony Brown]

Unfortunatelly in the U.K, there's no choice in that matter. It's like it or lump it.

 

 

In England, everyone's so desperate to make it, they are willing to work their butts off for free.

 

I'm sorry that's simply not the mainstream industry here. Anyone who works to those conditions merely fuels the problem and deserves to work on those productions. Sometimes its tough to put your foot down but it has to be done. Its down to only one person to do so, the DoP. A 2nd AC should never have to stick his neck out and start calling the shots to production, the DoP will have far more experience on how to handle a situation (usually by himself going thru the AD). If you have no faith in your DP then go direct to the AD but do it in a reasoned and structured manner.

 

Most productions worth working on work to an agreement (even if that agreement is currently out of the window yet again). I'm not against a 14 hour day in isolation, its what we do, sunrises, sunsets.... what DoP wants to work 8 til 5? But when there is no valid reason then it shouldn't be done. I'm always looking for ways to wrap electrical or 2nd camera early if its been an early start or we face an early call in the morning. Its just good working practice. Its a business we all need to be flexible in.

[Daniel Smith]

Well as has been pointed out MANY times before being in the USA is not the panacea for having a film career.

 

Yes the US industry is of course the largest in the world, it's also the most competitive in the world.

 

Do you have any idea how many "starving" film people there are in the USA?

 

Do you have any idea how many thousands of US film school grads never spend a day working professionally in the film industry? Those that do get a shot, often drop out of the business after five years. You can only live in your parents basement eating ramen for so long. It's fine when you're 23. Trying doing it at 33 or 43.

 

Look at the vast bulk of people on this board, young, male, and single. Few have homes, wives, houses, cars, children, etc etc etc. Like "normal" people do.

 

Have you seen the costs of living in LA or NYC? Check out house prices on the web.

 

Compare this to Peter Jackson for instance, how successful has he been launching his career in NZ and staying there? Of course he's had US money behind him. But he didn't move to LA and attend USC. He has talent and determination, which will get you far whether you're in the UK, NZ, CAN, or the USA.

 

R,

 

 

I'm sorry that's simply not the mainstream industry here. Anyone who works to those conditions merely fuels the problem and deserves to work on those productions. Sometimes its tough to put your foot down but it has to be done. Its down to only one person to do so, the DoP. A 2nd AC should never have to stick his neck out and start calling the shots to production, the DoP will have far more experience on how to handle a situation (usually by himself going thru the AD). If you have no faith in your DP then go direct to the AD but do it in a reasoned and structured manner.

 

Most productions worth working on work to an agreement (even if that agreement is currently out of the window yet again). I'm not against a 14 hour day in isolation, its what we do, sunrises, sunsets.... what DoP wants to work 8 til 5? But when there is no valid reason then it shouldn't be done. I'm always looking for ways to wrap electrical or 2nd camera early if its been an early start or we face an early call in the morning. Its just good working practice. Its a business we all need to be flexible in.

I'm not saying America is plentiful of jobs. And I'm not saying England hasn't got any. But when you say it's not true in the 'mainstream', breaking INTO the mainstream is the challenge.

 

But getting paid in America is certainly a lot easier in America than in England.

 

And as for Peter Jackson, compare the prices of things in NZ to England.

 

But I will agree that it's down to the talent and determination that will get you where you want. That's exactly why I'm not selling out to America. I'm staying in England and hope to compete with the best of what we've got.

 

Sounds far fetched I know, but it's the ONLY thing that keeps me going for film. The thought that one day I might just be one of the best. It's the reason why I'm rushing so much to learn as much as possible so that by the time I'm 30 I should be able to compete with some pretty good DP's. And by the time I'm 40, I should hopefully be making cinema releases.

 

I've been told not to worry, and that I am young and there is plenty of time. When actually it's the complete opposite.

Edited May 7, 2007 by Daniel Ashley-Smith

[Daniel Smith]

But getting paid in America is certainly a lot easier in America than in England.

Ok.. that was a mistake.. I'm pretty sure getting paid in America IS a lot easier in America than it is England..

 

But you know what I meant.