Sharing information?

[Daniel Mooney]

Hello all,

First time posting.

Here's my question.

Often times on an indie set, you exchange stories and ancedotes on past experiences with both cast and crew. But I've noticed alot of crew will ask me a question, something like "Hey, how were you able to ______" and I tell them all smiles and in great detail. And a little down the road or maybe even later that day, if I asked them "Hey, how were you able to do ______" I get hesitation and usually a one word answer, which leaves more questions then answers. As if their guarding their knowledge like it's gold.

So what do you do when someone asks? Tell them? Or be, what I think is kind dickish, all secertive and try not to give away any help to what, I guess could be another competitor in this already competitive industry.

Thanks

Dan

[Nicolas Courdouan]

Well, um... most of my experience actually only concerns post-production, but if you're interested in my take anyway, here's what I think:

 

Don't be a dick for the sake of being one. If somebody asks you how you achieved such and such, and you feel that it's no big deal to reveal it, then do it a

[Nicolas Courdouan]

Edit: The message above was posted by mistake... Here's the real deal:

 

Well, most of my actual professional experience only concerns post-production but if you're interested in my take on this, here it is.

 

Don't be a dick for the sake of being one. Make people happy whenever you can.

 

Chances are that no matter how much you give away or withhold, the people who really are interested about it will find a way to emulate it, by reverse-engineering your technique or discovering a new way to do it. So I don't think it's a big deal to say it.

 

Now, if you're afraid that for some reason revealing the magic trick would spoil the experience, you can always draw that line and come clean about it "Sorry pal, I'd rather not tell it because (...)" instead of beating around the bush and looking like someone just asked you to sell one of your kids.

 

Just my two cents.

Edited August 12, 2013 by Nicolas Courdouan

[George Ebersole]

Hello all,

 

First time posting.

 

Here's my question.

 

Often times on an indie set, you exchange stories and ancedotes on past experiences with both cast and crew. But I've noticed alot of crew will ask me a question, something like "Hey, how were you able to ______" and I tell them all smiles and in great detail. And a little down the road or maybe even later that day, if I asked them "Hey, how were you able to do ______" I get hesitation and usually a one word answer, which leaves more questions then answers. As if their guarding their knowledge like it's gold.

 

So what do you do when someone asks? Tell them? Or be, what I think is kind dickish, all secertive and try not to give away any help to what, I guess could be another competitor in this already competitive industry.

 

Thanks

 

Dan

 

 

I don't know what things are like down in LA, but up here around SF-Berkeley, things are pretty friendly. You share war stories and solutions to problems. Everything from how to keep the transvestites away from the craft services table when shooting on location in a bad neighborhood, to what art store has the cheapest muslim/cheesecloth.

 

I think the only real trade secrets are CGI algorithms and DPs lens and filter selection for certain kinds of shots.

[Phil Rhodes]

I don't understand why people are resistant to the idea of sharing information. In general you aren't equipping other people to compete with you, in all but the most extreme circumstances.

 

Perhaps the best example of this is when corporations do it. For instance, Red are famously tight-lipped about who makes their sensors. The answer is almost certainly Tower Semiconductor. Does the publication of that information make any difference to anyone? It certainly doesn't allow anyone who previously couldn't compete with Red to start doing so. It's pointless information to withhold. It's not useful.

 

And with most of the sort of information people ask for online and in casual conversation, the situation is the same. Even by providing a detailed breakdown of how a scene was shot (as people regularly do in magazines such as American Cinematographer), you're not telling anybody anything other than how you lit that scene under those circumstances. This doesn't equip them to compete with you because those circumstances are unlikely to arise again.

 

In the broadest strokes, discussion of any artform contributes to its growth and progress, and can only be a good thing. Refusing to answer questions is not only lacking in generosity, it also risks the appearance of self-importance - and that sort of self-importance does lead to one looking really silly if the information concerned does eventually become public, and is widely viewed as trivial.

 

P