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Career Project


MeganJasinski

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Hello! I'm a sophmore in High School and I am doing a career project. I choose a cinematographer becuase that is what I want to be when I'm older. It would be a lot of help if I could answer some questions for me! Thank you so much in advance, it would really help me on this project.

 

What are the positive and negative aspects of this career?

 

What type of education and training are required?

 

A typical day in this career?

 

Well, that you very much again!

Megan

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I was a sophmore in High School when I shot my first peice of b&w 16mm film. The moment I turned on the projector and saw my footage flickering on the screen, I was hooked for life. The questions you ask are good because they are the kind that don't get answered in film school.

 

The great things about the job are collaboration, working with other really creative people, and having the opportunity to really help tell the story and elicit emotion through light and camera composition. Being able to travel and the fact that every day you do something makes this job very addictive.

 

The downsides are LONG days, almost never less than 12 hours, lots of backstabbing due to the insecurities of many people, always having to find a new job, and being away from friends and family for extended periods of time. And because there is so much competition in the field, you can expect to constantly be haggling with producers over your fee which tends to be the highest of all crew.

 

That's all from personal experience and that of other DPs I know. Of course everyone will have different opinions on those so I tried to only mention facts.

 

I've been told I'm a bit of a unique case. I never went to film school and have had, except for film class in high school, no schooling. I didn't start off as an Assistant and work my way up as most, but rather fell into shooting short films for friends since I had a but of a background in still photography. Despite all of that I have been able to have a pretty good career so far. So I might not be the best person to ask about schooling and training. That being said I can tell you that for someone who knows absoulutely nothing about filmmaking already, film school is a good option. If you already know even a tiny bit about it, I would say save your money and put it towards a couple of your own short films and get professionals or film students to help you out. That is in my opinion the best and fastest way to learn. And while you're doing that, try to get jobs on film sets. I know many people who went to film school who tell me they would have learned more by doing what I just said. Personally I watched many many films and read many many books. That was my training. You need to trian your eye. Buy 50 rolls for film for your still camera and try to tell a story by taking pictures and them rearrange their order if you need to (edit them) then see if someone else can guess the story. I think that is an invaluable exercise in cinematography. But to sum it all up I'd say watch movies in all your spare time and really pay attention to the camera framing and the lighting and see if you can figure out why the filmmakers were making those decisions. Buy books on lighting and cinematography and read interviews with DPs talking about their work on certain films. You can learn so much. Oh and by the way I didn't finish college either. I started working in the business and saw no need to continue. I started having to choose between class and a film set.

 

A typical day gets you to set between 7 and 7:30 am, 30 minutes earlier if you want breakfast. If you are starting with a new scene, you will find the director and walk trough the scene on the set with the actors. Once the director is satisfied, actors will go to makeup and wardrobe while the you and your crew light the set/action with other people standing in for the actors. Actors come back, rehearse again for the camera, then hopefully your ready to shoot. This process continues all day except for your 1 hour lunch which comes at 1 or 1:30. It being a 12 hour day you end up leaving to go home at 8 or 8:30. That's it. Night shoots are harder because you have to switch your sleeping schedule and end up going to bed when the sun has just come up. I've also had to be on set to shoot at 4am before. So it varies alot but above is typical. At least there is rarely a lack of good food on set.

 

I hope this all helps you with your career project. Good luck.

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