Working as a Director of Photography

Hello all, been a while. I graduated and finished principal photography on my graduation film, on which I worked as the Director of Photography (DP), back in early April.

The film, Brood, tells the story of how a young girl perceives her mother's trauma. The director drew from her own experience, and because of this, I felt a large responsibility to visually tell the story in a way that would be respectful and faithful to the director's experiences and ideas.

This also meant adapting myself and my attitude, and I would like to share with you some of my experience as the DP on what was to me, personally, the most insightful project I have worked on since starting my film-making journey. This is not by far an exhaustive list, but rather just the observations I've made, and I am certain there will be more things to learn further down the line.

Location recces. An important step in pre-production work.

Communicate with your Heads of Departments: This one is kind of a given, but it can take you by surprise nonetheless. Heads of Departments (HoDs), such as the gaffer, 1st Assistant Director (1st AD) and sound mixer/boom operator need to know where you're placing the camera, how many takes you've done and where to place the lights. This latter point is in relation to the gaffer, who can make or break the look of the film you're working on. Equally, it's important to ask questions to the director, things like: "What's the mood of this scene?" or "Where does [character] move?" in order to clarify anything that you are unsure of, as well as asking whether they were happy with a shot or not. It's a simple thing that keeps the whole thing going, and if you can ask the right questions, it can help elevate the productiveness and morale of the crew.

Acknowledge your own shortcomings... and don't be afraid to ask: One thing I found out about myself was that there were points when I got slightly overwhelmed by what we were doing, or where I simply didn't know how to achieve the look we were going for. Experienced DPs may not have this issue, but for an intermediate such as myself, I could feel the crippling self-doubt creep up behind me whenever I, for example, couldn't quite figure out how to light a scene or where to place the camera. This is where point 1 comes into play: your HoDs will most likely have done their research or have more experience in their respective fields than you do, so don't be afraid of asking for their advice. I know I did, and it helped solve a lot of technical shortcomings I had. So, don't be afraid to ask!

You have to make use of what's available. In this case, using a monitor daisy-chained to a large HD TV for the sake of the script supervisor and director.

Know when to keep your mouth shut: Things can get heated on set, especially for the director who not only has to communicate with their actors, but other heads of department as well. Everyone has a million questions for one person. As a DP. you are one of the director's pillars of strength, and need to assure them that they can rely on you, and you on them. Sometimes that may mean letting whatever steam being blown off by crew members bounce off of you, letting it slide and continue doing your job.

Hit a wall? Adapt to the situation: By this I mean that things don't always go as planned - especially on a short, indie student film. Things happen, man. What you may have planned in pre-production may suddenly not work in reality. So it's up to you to work things out with the crew. You take what you know, what your HoD crew knows and together solve things. Film making is absolutely a team sport.

Obviously, all of these things may seem like a given to the experienced film crews out there, but for someone, like myself, who still has much to learn, it was a valuable experience.