1. Save on food
   Budget properly for catering. The more so if your crew is underpaid. The more so, the longer the shoot is.
   Doesn’t cost much more, but does wonders for crew morale.
2. 16 hour days, 5 days a week
   Just because this film is the No.1 priority for you, doesn’t mean it is for everyone else on set. Not only does the crew have a right to a life as well, and not only do they need to be able to work on their next film, but overworking the crew makes you liable for accidents that may – and eventuall will – happen.
   If all these arguments don’t count: My experience is that 6 days with 16 hours are not more productive than 5 days with 10 hours.
3. Concentrate on the money shots
   While nice for marketing and your show-reel, the audience will only sit through your film if it is good in its entity, not just some scenes.
4. Who needs a DP – I can buy a camera instead?
   An experienced cameraman will free you to concentrate on telling the story by giving your actors good instructions. An experienced cameraman will speed up the production by knowing what to shoot, what will work visually, which lenses to use, which stock to use, and many more things that you have never heard of. more…

This weekend I got to see a fun film about the film business, The Last Shot (and don’t let the first 5 minutes of the film misguide you). Joe Devine pretends to be a movie director, and gets Steven Schats to believe that his film will be produced. At one point this dialogue entails between them:

Joe Devine: Have you actually seen a person die, watched them bleed to death, seen them take their last breath? I’ve seen that… many times.
Steven Schats: Why have you seen that?
Joe Devine: I used to produce music videos.

Which is especially funny if you have worked on music videos. Or pop promos as they are often referred to in the industry.

The types on a pop promo set

Pop promos are a totally different type of films from all the others; most notably there often isn’t a story, no one seems to worry about continuity, and generally there are 4 to 6 types of people on set: more…

One of the many pleasures of working in film is that you get to meet a lot of people. Especially when you work freelance, you constantly have to adapt to different characters, moods and ways of telling a story. You can always learn something new – and in those rare cases where you end up with a unpleasant director, you know that it will be only temporarily.

When I started working, sending out CVs, making phone-calls, I thought that ability was the most important factor when chosing someone to workon a film, and personality came in as an added bonus. As I have slowly moved up the ladder from runner to spark to clapper/loader to focus-puller and now cameraman (thus being in the position that I can chose people for my team), I have learned an important lesson. It’s that ability is simply taken for granted, and character is paramount. Sometimes you have to work under great pressure, and then you just have to trust your assistants. You cannot afford to have doubt entering your mind.

In the end it comes down to a single concept: respect. Respect the people you work for, respect those you work with, and respect yourself.

When I first started considering working as a cameraman, I had the dream that one day I might invite “my” director to my house to cook dinner and talk about the next project. As it turned out, this was to be; albeit some unexpected changes. The director I work most often with, I married 7 years ago. We try not to talk about work too often over dinner, as the kids think that is boring.

Just now I returned from a pleasant evening with another director. Drinking some wheat beer and some English ale, we listened to good music, ate sun dried tomatoes on bread and finally he showed me a great film noir, Double Indemnity.

Bottom line: know your stuff, be respectful, enjoy your job.