my DP is riding me/lights are taking forever

Paul Bruening · August 25, 2005

Something else to keep in mind:

There is a whole clsssification of people we like to call, "Energy parasites". They sign on or wiggle their way into your production for the sole purpose of causing trouble. They can be insidious in their methods. Make sure you get a work contract on everyone before production begins that includes a "fire for any reason" clause.

It takes a team to acheive a movie. It takes only one devious person to destroy it. These people derive pleasure from destroying something so much bigger than themselves. There is only one solution for them. FIRE THEM!!!! Even if it is a key person. They will only make things worse the longer they are around.

On my last feature, we lost the first 17 out of 30 production days firing five principle actors. We had one crew member who showed up just to eat sandwichs. He'd make an excuse to leave and we didn't see him until the next food break. Then, he'd pit the crew against me with little fib-bombs. The crew ratted him out. I fired him and he kept showing up. I finally called the cops and had him hauled away. It was a drag in court, too. We found out later that he'd been sent by one of our competitors just to spy on us and make trouble.

We ran over budget and over schedule. But, we got the job done. If we had kept any of them, nothing could have been finished

Sam Wells · August 27, 2005

For example, I always tell the AD and the director ahead of time (during prep) that I will take a fairly long time lighting the master shot, but then he can shoot all his coverage with very minimal tweaking. I spend the time to light the world (essentially), thus I don't break the flow from setup to setup.Kevin Zanit

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I'm glad to hear you say this, it's usually been my approach too. I think it saves time in the long run.

Some directors don't get this though.

-Sam

Chien Huey · August 27, 2005

BTW, I hate talking about someone to strangers, but what really pissed me off is after I found out from my producer that he held film in his car hostage until he got the check that he needed.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Granted I'm still relatively new to the industry but in my prior IT career - blackmail was an unprofessional and unacceptable business practice. Can't imagine that it's ok in the film industry.

As others have said, there are two sides to the story but honestly is there any circumstance under which it would be acceptable to shoot footage for one's reel (let alone tell the director that's what you're doing?) Ditto with saying something like "I could haven't gotten paid double what I got paid here?" to your boss?

I second David's advice - hire people who care about your work. I've worked with my share of difficult directors and worked on films where I didn't necessarily care about the story. But for the duration of the shoot - I CARE about making that film the best possible, it's my job to and also I have pride in my work. The best compliment I can get is "you're the hardest working guy on the set".

Ron_mc_Don · December 23, 2005

It's actually "The Killing".

:)

Tony.

Mario C. Jackson · December 26, 2005

Next time you do a shoot do it with people who are your allies but will do a great job. One thing I do not like on shoots are attitudes. A movie, commercial, video, etc.. are all collabrative efforts. No one on set has the right to argue with a director in front of everyone. An adult should act like an adult. Their is not one dp in the world who knows everything about cinematography, besides Jesus. If your not him then you should not have an ego. It is also good to have atleast two people on a shoot who can back you up. As a dp I always use the same gaffer and he is wonderful to work with. He knows more about lighting than i do (just being honest). I also try to work with the same camera op or someone in the camera department that I have workded with before. You are the director so direct the film. I have never shot on 35mm before but if you want to take a chance with a first time dp on your next project then send me a e-mail. All dp's should have character because that is what makes people want to work with you.

Hope this helps

Mario C. Jackson

James Steven Beverly · January 27, 2006

Yes, it was "The Killers" now I stand corrected :) Thanks

The Killing from 1956 was Kubrick's 6th picture (Including documentary and shorts). Just thought you'd like to know.

Edited January 27, 2006 by Capt.Video

Matt Pacini · February 8, 2006

That's outrageous behavior to hold you hostage for more money, and if your DP hated the gig so much, he shouldn't have been there.

You should have absolutely refused when he said he wanted a shot for his reel.

There's no way the producer & whoever financed the film would be OK with that. He should have been told absolutely not, or at least that he had to pay for the stock, processing and extra cast/crew time. I'm sure that would have shut him up.

If the producer hired these people, and you were just stuck with them, then there may have not been anything you could have done, but if not, I think you should have taken the DP & AD aside, and said "if you guys are going to publicly humiliate me in front of the cast & crew, then you need to be on some other set".

As far as the time required to light, it does take longer than most people realize.

However, one thing that helps a bit, (IF you really know the shots and have planned them for editing) is if you point out that a particular shot is only going to get X amount of screen time.

I've had this problem, where I knew that I only had a certain amount of time in a location, and I had some shots that I knew would only be quick cutaways, so I would say "this is going to be onscreen for literally 1.5 seconds, and we're running out of time, so let's spend time on the important shots on not this".

MP

Stuart Brereton · February 9, 2006

A good friend of mine was directing some spec commercials. Her DP refused to take direction, insisting on deciding on his own angles and coverage. He refused to white balance the camera (" It's not the way I work..."). He also virtually refused to talk to anyone except the 1st AD (they were friends) and when he did so they spoke only in Portugese (they were both Brazilian). The rest of the crew were amazed at this behaviour. When he was eventually fired, he got so mad he almost had to be forcibly removed from the set.

In every trade there are prima donnas and people who have far too high an opinion of their own ability. Everyone meets one sooner or later. Hopefully, you won't have to deal with another one in the near future.

Jamie Metzger · February 10, 2006

Use contracts, and there will be no complaining.

Jeyow Evangelista · February 10, 2006

you know now what to do next time

Tenolian Bell · February 10, 2006

I suppose lighting times are pretty subjective. But honestly unless you are doing something really complicated I can't see lighting taking 3 plus hours. Being in LA is actually the first time I've seen DP's taking 3 or more hours to light a simple scene.

In New York low budget and student film's are generally not spending a significant portion of the budget on lights or camera toys. Plus we are usually shooting in real locations, so there isn't much room for large lights. And many buildings in NY are 80 to 100 years old have old electrical wiring, so you don't want to overwhelm the circuit breaker. All of this leads to having a small lean lighting package.

When I first got to LA I visited low budget and student film sets with freinds of mine just to observe. I noticed low budget and student film sets in LA seem to generally have much larger lighting packages and many more camera toys. What seems to happen is these young DP's or their crew really don't have enough experience to deal with all of that equipment. One thing I noticed is they really have more equipment than they need, they want to use all of it to justify the producer paying for it. The other thing I noticed is they will often take a big light, spend hours softening or flagging it down to a smaller light. When a smaller light would have done the job in the first place and would have required less time to set up. All of this leads to inefficient use of time and lighting taking 3 to 5 hours.

When I get hired for films in LA, producer is often shocked that I am not automatically asking for an expensive lighting package. Really it comes down to the needs to the production, organization, and planning. I do request to visit all locations (which doesn't always happen) when I look around the location I'm looking at the natural light of the space. What practiclas are there, how will practicals play in the shot, how large are the windows, where is the sun coming from. I ask the director to have a shot list prepared as soon as possible (which doesn't always happen) I use this to anticipate where my key light will come from, how large of a key do I need, and the number of small fill lights I may need.

I've heard a young DP in LA tell a producer the only way they could get a shot was with an ArriSun 18K. When they could have used the natural sun, with a large diffusion frame. An LA producer once assumed I would want to use an expensive light for a shot, and I told her no I could get a cheap light from Home Depot that will do the same thing.

I have shot short films with rather large budgets in contrast to their running times. I lit a house from its exterior using ArriSun HMI Par's s for a dolly shot from a bedroom to the adjacent living room. I lit a club scene with 50 extras using banks of Par Cans hung on speed rail frames. I've shot a large art gallery, admittedly the art gallery was already well lit, and had large windows with direct sun exposure, so I only had to use kino's to highlight faces.

My point is none of that took 3 plus hours to do. Because I came prepared with a plan, or quickly made up a plan, I generally only have the equipment I need to the job so I feel no pressure to use unnecessary equipment to justify its rental.

Stuart Brereton · February 10, 2006

When I first got to LA I visited low budget and student film sets with freinds of mine just to observe. I noticed low budget and student film sets in LA seem to generally have much larger lighting packages and many more camera toys. What seems to happen is these young DP's or their crew really don't have enough experience to deal with all of that equipment.

I've seen this happen many times, in fact I was probably guilty of it myself a few years ago. You get given a lighting budget and so you take a look at the Lee Lighting catalogue and go hogwild! You hire all the toys you've never had before, regardless of whether you need them, or whether they are appropriate, and then you waste valuable time trying them out just because they're there.

I've seen "DP's" hire Dedolight kits and Redheads for a DAY EXT car shoot with no genny. Why? Because they've 'heard a lot about Dedolights' and really want to try them....