Studio Shoot #12: Cinematographer Role Evaluation

with this projects, I initially wanted to be a part of the direction team or with the cameras. However, I thought it was probably best I try a completely new role so I had the experience of knowing what its importance was first hand. When taking on the role of the Director of Photography (Cinematographer) I was very excited to learn more about the role itself and how my position would work along with all the other departments. During my researching, I learn more about the importance of colour and lighting, how this worked with the look and feel with the film. I really enjoyed looking at different DoP's and their styles and methods of working, particularly at the Italian cinematographer, Vittorio Stararo's work and his theories.  One of the things he said was important within cinema, was to be conscious of the decisions you make and don't just make them for the sake of doing so. He believed in the words of the poet Attilio Bertolucci; cinema lost its poetry the moment sound was introduced to it. This was because when there was no sound you had to be conscious of everything you did when portraying your story and to ask questions like "should we do it like this or should we try it a different way?" I thought this was very applicable to my role, especially with the film we were doing as there is no dialogue to tell our story. 

The beginning process of this unit was a bit strenuous due to the ever-changing scripts and all the ideas that were thrown in at once, but through it all, I began researching different styles and how they could be achievable. I suppose in the industry there is a finished script which is pitched to the crew and you work from there. But obviously its tough work being told to come up with a whole concept from scratch on the spot. However, I loved the final script outcome. As a DoP it gave me a lot to work with, particularly because the set was a metaphor to the protagonists brain which meant nothing had to be realistic or logical but only applicable to the character. This gave me a lot of freedom to explore ideas. One of the key ideas that we came up with was to have the bulbs hanging which was kept throughout the script changes this was inspired by a photo I mentioned at the beginning of the unit, Jeff Wall's 'The Invisible Man'. 

I did find it hard to have some control over what colour and lighting was going to be used as we were never able to go in and experiment with the lighting. However, we were able to research a lot and talk through ideas with the gaffer, Ieva and Flora who assisted. During the preproduction of the shoot, I found that a lot of my role required working closely with the director, Vicky, talking through ideas and how this could be depicted in frame, developing and then relaying back to the camera crew. It was very useful to be able to talk ideas through and its logistics with the camera crew. We organised weekly meetings to keep every one in the loop and updated and to always get and give each other feedback which was useful. 

As I live with the director, Vicky (which was very beneficial), I was able to sit in on meetings and take notes on her ideas, recording them. From here I worked closely with her to help create the shot list. From here we organised a few meetings with the camera crew ( Flora, Ieva, Laura, Lili)  so we can go through the it shot by shot and work out what needed to be adapted and how realistic we had to be if we were to proceed with shooting. It was hard at points with communication between red and green teams and the set design as both stories were very different so our ideas had to be firm but able to adapt with the set. This meant there was a lot of talk of different lighting scenarios which we ran through and ended up being very successful in planning. 

The camera crew were amazing at working together and always keeping on top of the work as we prompted each other and were able to learn things and share it with each other in our meetings.

 I found that because I went in to the role not knowing completely the process of making a shoot and how my role was needed, I did a fair bit of research on it and also found my self learning a great deal as I went along. I realised a lot of my role involved being on set during the shoot and it was a shame we didn't get to put all the hard-work we did to the test. At times i found it hard to keep motivated especially as we soon found that a lot of the planning and research we did with the director and camera crew would never be put to use. However, it was great getting time to plan in such depths and and come up with ideas that can enhance the feel and look of the movie we were going for and really perfect it

During this whole process I learnt a lot in terms of the role itself but also how to work and communicate as a whole crew. I quickly came to realise that a key skill needed to work on a set was to listen to others ideas and also to focus on my own roll. I have a habit of pushing my ideas but I learnt that sometimes I need to just listening and then talking through ideas so I get a better understanding as my roll was to make the directors vision come alive.