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Matthew Buick

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I knew something visual was what I wanted upon graduating HS in 2000. I went into broadcasting and jumped right out. Mulled around until working with kids and computers and finally came back to film, fell in love with the visual aspect. Realized DP not Dir. was what I wanted to pursue at the beginning of 2005. I was 22 at the time. Applied myself as much as possible. I'm a right handed kind of guy. Surrounded and appreciated the arts but never realized I'd want to pursue. Exciting, and slightly scary.

 

Anyone have tips for practicing?

Edited by Sam Kim
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hmmm 24 maybe...

 

I mean I've always been into film but thats when I started thinking about making them with a bit more seriousness - I ended up in architecture school and then engineering school though, wanting to graduate and then try my hand at production design but I bought a Mamiya RZ67 for shits'n'giggles which got me into film, then a bolex - then another bolex - then another bolex and so on - just last week I was going to buy an Arri 2c but another buyer stepped in with more cash ...

 

So it back to old project #2 >> I want to build a moco system - been working on the electronics/motor drivers and user interface for about a year off and on now - buying a welder and mill next week with my 2c money ! (the mill will be CNC also)

 

right handed but I'm ambidextrous when it comes to which eye I use in the finder

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Hi, guys!

 

Nice topic, so I thought I'd add my little story. My grandpa was a pro photographer and taught photography at school. So I kinda grew up with that. Spent hours in the darkroom, knew what an aperture was before I could read. So for my childhood it was mostly hanging around his workshop, drawing, building stuff & the like. I never watched TV before I was like 11 years old.

I got my first computer at the age of 12. From then on for a couple of years IT and electronics were my main fields of interested. But around 17 I became bored with all that purely technical stuff and found something was missing. So I started digging into HTM and websites. I needed pictures too, so it soon was Photoshop and some 3d stuff. I learned a tremendous amount about computers by constantly tuning and fiddling around. I still build my own PC systems.

At age 19 I graduated from high school and had to go before the draft comsssion. I knew I'd not be accepted (thank God) because I have a pretty serious eye problem that even prevents me from getting drivers lic here in Austria. That eye problem comes from the fact that I have albinism. OCA 2 to be precise. This would alter become another factor for doing cinematography. It's harder for me because of my eyes. And that makes it even more rewarding!

So I kinda got a free year to do what I wanted. I used the money my grandma gave for a car to buy my PD150. I moved out of my home town to Vienna and attended SAE College for 2 years doing a BA (Hons) of Digital Film Arts. That basically was 18 k Euro down the toilet. School wasn't really good and it turned out it wasn't my thing. I had grown a bit tired of sitting in front of computers. During college I started working for a music TV show on a local channel and doing sound recordist stuff for national TV.

Over the years, my focus shifted more and more towards cinematography. As of now, being 25, I think I found the "sweet spot" for me. Behind a camera. Feels good to have found something you love and could spend the rest of your life doing it. Currently I'm working as a 3D/camera op/photographer freelancer. Between my projects that I do for money I try to squeeze in a couple of shorts and docos.

I also though of returning to university and attend film school somewhere on the globe. Not sure though if i should do that.

 

That's the long version. The short version would be that my grandpa was (and my uncle is) an avid photographer and visual artist. So I had to move on by doing moving images! :D

 

Best regards, Dave

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Well, I acted when I was 3, and was into still photography when I was 11 or so, and then was into making movies about 13, and then specifically cinematography about 15. So yeah. And I'm 17 now, so I've been making movies for a while, despite my youth.

 

I'm right handed, but I make up for this averageness in other ways...

 

 

Joe

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Got interested in lighting at around age 7 for theater. Around the same time (maybe 8 or 9) I was told that there was a job that combined my interest in lighting, photography and movies.

 

I am left handed.

 

Kevin Zanit

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I was 11. I found my parents old RCA vhs camera (it was 1994) this thing was made in the early 80s, one of the first video cameras availible to the home markets.

 

I took it and made 'Attack of the Killer Vaccuum Cleaner' next came a fake documentary of the making of appolo 13 (the set used for the lander was my parents mini-van) for elementary school. Then a million stupid shorts, then one on ancient rome for history class (I used a hockey vest laden with aluminum foil-cardboard for the uniform)

 

After that I settled into doing snowboarding videos professionally (at 14) and eventually pitched a 30 minute weekly documentary for a camp I went too. That lasted 4 years and in the offtime I made more shorts and stuff. Now I am doing 4 or 5 shorts a year, and a few features every now and then. I love having projects in the works, so now I have two shorts in post, one feature waiting for release and another short in early pre-production, I am feeling good. Next year I move to LA to try and hang in the industry league (though I predict rising up to the ranks of Cinematographer will take at least a decade, and lots of growth and learning).

 

oh, and I am right handed.

 

(it was mentioned before that sometimes people attribute the work of the cinematographer to the director, this was true of me. I wanted to be a director until I got a copy of Kris Makewitz's book 'Cinematography' early in highschool and realized thats what I thought directing was, and what I wanted to do.)

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I was 18, only a few months into film school. Like most people in film school I thought I wanted to Direct. Then I made friends with an upperclassman who was studying cinematography. I was gripping on a show he was first ACing and they were short a 2nd AC. He knew me and asked me to second for him for the day. I never looked back after that and have only wanted to be a DP since then.

 

I'm right handed.

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Guest Mike Andrade

I have had a passion for it since I was taking apart my dad's Nikon cameras that were worth more than my life. I'd say 10 years old. My father is a painter and a professional photographer and discouraged my interest in this field as he suffered for several years at the beginning of his career. I had the medical field shoved up my $^% for years so I gave up for a while. A few years ago in my last year of the Air Force ,I had the opportunity to work on a very gruesome training video for the armed forces which rekindled my love for the field. Long story short I took my last GI Bill payments and threw them into some equipment and have been shooting and studying cinematography ever since. Now 29, I really wish I had gotten an earlier start since I am having so much fun with it but still have tons to learn.

 

Also my first films at 12 involved fire ants, gasoline and matches. Which looking back...may have been a reason I wasnt "pushed" by my parents to do this.

 

Right handed

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I got my hands on a Pixelvision around the age of 10, but didn't have the forsight to organize stagings of Star Wars or Richard III, so I shot random bits and pieces of nature footage and shot from moving vehicles. The heavy image compression in that camera made everything sort of abstract, so I suppose that's what kicked off my interest in experimental filmmaking. A couple of years later I got a hold of my parents' VHS-C camcorder (they still haven't gotten it back!) and began working on stop motion videos. After a couple of years of this, I finally began to collaborate with friends to make narrative videos, which were usually comedies or Tarantino-esque crime capers involving car chases and pimps. Kept doing this throughout high school, editing on two VCRs and earning my geek wings in the AV Club (neeeeeerrrrrrd!).

 

Went to college for graphic design, thinking that nobody would ever pay me to make movies (which is only half true...), then got frustrated with that and went full steam ahead into a film school where I focused on doc/indie-style production. Worked a few crap jobs post-college and eventually convinced some gullible suckers, er, producers to put me into cam. dept. Now I'm working as an AC full time.

 

I also didn't know the difference between the director and, well, anybody else in production when I was a young'un. I was lucky enough to find a copy of Ascher & Pincus' Filmmaker's Handbook when I was 15 or so, which really prepared me for shooting film a short time later. Eventually realized that I'm way better talking to equipment than I am with actors, so my tech skills pretty much sealed my fate.

 

I was also lucky enough to grow up in the '90s, when "Indie Film" was blowing up. Robert Rodriguez told me I could make Die Hard in my backyard (and I believed him...) and Kevin Smith had shot Clerks 30min away from where I grew up, so everything seemed really possible to me at that age. I'm glad I stuck with it. Realizing that I've been applying myself to this for 15 some odd years now is incredible, and there's no other field I'd rather be in (other than International Playboy, but its really hard to break into that industry)!

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  • 2 weeks later...

i was 15 when i got into high school with film&TV program i went there with 2 best friends

 

we made tens of films commercials and documentaries

 

at age 16 i so "Apocalypse now" at cinema then i know that's what i want to do i my life

 

at age 18 i got drafted to the army i served at IDF video unit there i discovered the cinematography i learned from the best cinematographers that came to do there "miloim" (every man here goes for at list 28 days year to the army until the age 40)

 

at that time i discovered the holy bible of cinematography the AC magazine

 

after that i work for 2 years as gaffer and go to film school (SAM spiegel film and TV at Jerusalem)

 

i am writhing with left hand but do everything with right hand right leg:)

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Guest sonickel

I was considered the natural musician in the family, my brother the natural artist. However, I could "see" the stories and characters unfolding in my head as I played the piano. Also, I was very sensitive to the weird colours on archival segments on TV, thinking that the sky must have been a different colour in the 1960s (Kodachrome has a lot to answer for).

 

My family was fairly poor and there were no photographers in it, we only had the most basic camera, no video cameras, VCR, movie outings, etc. I always thought that you had to be rich to own a Hi8 camera, or be in the film industry.

 

Finally, at the age of 26, I realised I wanted to make movies, and that it wasn't as "off limits" as I imagined. I discovered Super 8 and fell madly in love. From there, I started a community college level film course.... (I am in the second year), messed around with my beloved Bolex camera, and took up traditional B&W photography, in the age of digital.

 

My class mates think I am a total film nut, nostalgic, "strange", but I am determined to shoot my short film on 16mm this year.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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I have been making short movies since I was about 11, but didn't seriously get into filmmaking intil I was in my early 20s. I wanted to be a writer/directer when I went to film school, but I kept finding myself drawn to cinematography. I was 23 when I decided I wanted to be a cinematographer.

 

I am left handed.

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  • 2 weeks later...

shot my own movies with neighbor friends around 8.. used GI- JOES for a makeshift animation video.. got into music around 14 and didnt do much with video anymore.. wento go community college.. needed a extra credit class so i picked film 1... got hooked again.. went to film school (wasted money) and ever since i have been doing cinematography. 24 years old now

 

RIGHT handed

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I wanted to be a photographer since I was 7. When I went to prep school (St Neots, Hampshire UK) we studied fine art and my tutor placed great emphasis on light and how artists use it to tell a story. For some reason I listened to him, probably because art was like a break from everything else. By the time I went to college I was set on being an equestrian photographer. I took a course in film studies and I was hooked.

 

Right Handed

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I've been interested in movies from very early on. I can remember seeing "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Jesus Christ Superstar" as a child of 3 to 5 years of age. My Mother always took us to movies. I guess it was our primary form of entertainment. The movie "Breaking Away" in 1979 had a huge impact on me. I loved the cinematography but I didn't yet know that word existed. Anyway I bought a bicycle and some Mozart tapes and rode around trying to recreate the feeling of those camera shots!

 

The first time I shot something on film was making 8mm stop motion, animated, edited in camera, shorts featuring massive battles between the forces of Good and Evil of the Lego Medievil Empire. Shot entirely on my brothers bedroom floor in 1983. Though continuity suffered when our dog got into the room and quickly decimated the forces of Good.

 

Around then I'm sure I must have found my first American Cinematographer and discovered that the Director and the Cameraman were two different people. After that the first movie I can recall seeing where I went and specifically looked at the cinematography was "3 O'clock High" I guess that was 1987. Shot by DP turned director Barry Sonnenfeld. Who subsequently shot "When Harry Met Sally" "Millers Crossing" and "Misery." So I was 17 in 1987.

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