DOCUMENTARY INTERVIEW TIPS

The key to a good documentary interview is to listen. Maintain eye contact with your subject. Do not look down at your notes or settle for generalisations.

We've all seen documentaries and informational videos in which the interview material carries much of the information and much of the story.

Interviews are the backbone of most non-fiction video presentations. Interviews are powerful message carriers that you can easily intercut with other production elements in a documentary, such as actuality sequences, re-enactments, graphics, animation and scripted narration.

Typically interviews use talking heads (to camera) and voiceovers (to pictures). Don't confuse voiceovers with narration. A v/o is the audio portion of an interview clip laid over supporting visuals in editing. Narration is scripted information sometimes voiced in the field to camera (stand-up), but it is usually recorded in the studio by a narrator or a participant reading from a narration script to the edited documentary.

Interviewees are Characters

Talking heads are interviews with main and secondary characters in a fact-based story. Main characters are participants whose story you are telling and through whose eyes the audience experiences the world of the documentary.

Secondary characters represent the supporting cast. These participants provide additional information the audience needs to understand the story, such as background and historical information. You also interview secondary characters to support and sometimes challenge the themes and points of view presented in a documentary. Secondary characters can be subject matter experts, eye witnesses, official (government/institutional) spokespeople, vox populi (persons in the street) or associates and relatives of the main character.

Before you shoot an interview, consider the following:

• What will each interview contribute to the information flow of the story?
• Will you conduct a factual or a personal interview?
• How will you shoot the interview?

So, where do you start?

Research, Research, Research

When you're making a documentary or any fact-based video, you should be heavily researched and know the informational role you want each of your interview subjects to play. In other words, know what you want each of your participants to talk about before you sit them down in front of the camera. This means you really have to know what your documentary is about.

Research is collecting information about the topic of your doc and about people who might end up in it as participants. Once you've mined internet and print sources and you've pre-interviewed people, you will have a better understanding of how to shape and focus your initial idea for the documentary - what to include and what to leave out. Focusing the documentary (what's the story?) will inform your strategy for each interview and its purpose in your doc. Research gives you more than facts and background information. Research will identify the two most important things a documentary needs: characters to populate it and actual situations they will allow you to film.

Pre-Interviews

Research is also about knowing your participants. Pre-interviews are critical. Visit your main characters without a camera and get to know them - what they do and how they live. With secondary characters, such as subject matter experts, a phone or e-mail pre-interview will usually suffice.

Pre-interviews are not rehearsals for the real thing. In pre-interviews, you explain to potential participants what topic your documentary aims to explore. Ask subjects what knowledge and involvement they have with the topic. If you decide an interviewee would make an interesting character in your doc, schedule an on-camera interview. Don't feed subjects the questions ahead of time, but do tell them what you would like to talk to them about in front of the camera. This should make for a spontaneous and unrehearsed interview session.

Stylin'

Some of your interviews will be in-depth sit-down sessions, while others will be less formal.

Before launching into how to shoot an interview, be sure about the style of interview you have planned. First of all, will you include the interviewer's questions in the final presentation? If not, make sure interviewees know this, and prompt them to include the questions in the answers. Otherwise you'll end up with out-of-context and unusable one- or two-word answers like this:

Q: For how many years have you been managing this project?
A: Fifteen.

Don't set yourself up for "yes" or "no" answers. Ask people open-ended questions; have them tell you stories about what happened. If an answer is too general, ask for examples. Ask people to describe and explain things, events and feelings. "What was that like?"

There are many ways to do a documentary interview. Here are three:

• In-depth sit-down interview
• The "walk-and-talk"
• Streeters

Sit-Down

An in-depth personal interview with a main character can carry an entire documentary, as the interviewer peels back layers of the subject's life and times. A good way to approach this kind of interview is to ask your questions chronologically: "And then what happened?" Interviews with secondary characters can be in-depth as well, but they tend to be factual, as the interviewee provides context and background: "Please give us a sense of what it was like politically at that time."

The key to in-depth interviews is to listen. Maintain eye contact with your subject, and don't look down at your notes and questions. Move the interview forward by responding to what your subject is talking about rather than waiting, poised to ask your next question. Have a conversation with the interviewee. Don't let opportunities to explore emotion slip away, and don't settle for generalizations. If a subject says, "That was the worst time of my life," you need to follow up with something like, "Tell me why," or "Please talk about that."

Walk and Talk

Interviewing a subject while they are doing something can be engaging for the audience and more relaxing for some interviewees than a formal sit-down. For example, in a factual interview, consider filming an athlete talking about the importance of pre-game warm-ups while she's doing her stretches, or, in a personal interview, have a single dad talk about his domestic challenges while he's preparing a meal for his kids. Then there's the literal walk-and-talk of a handheld interview where the cameraperson moves backwards trying to keep a uniform distance from the forward-moving subject.

Streeters

Streeters or vox-pops - often known as man-on-the-street interviews in news shooting jargon - are where you park yourself with camera and microphone on a street corner, hoping somebody will stop and chat with you. These short informal interviews typically ask the same prepared questions of passersby to collect their opinions on a subject. Streeters make for short, snappy sound bites that can be cut into the doc to support (or contradict) its main themes.

The key to conducting a useful in-the-street interview is to put the subject at ease. Make it light, make it fun. Tell them what your doc is about, and ask if they would like to comment on the subject. Always give the last word to your interview subject: "Is there anything you'd like to add?"

Tip: Begin all interviews by having subjects introduce themselves on camera: full name, age and title or position, so you have that detail later for proper pronouncement during voiceovers and proper spelling for graphical IDs or even possible legal needs.

Interview by Design - Shooting Tips

Sit-down interviews are conventionally conducted in the world of the subject. Interview people in their homes, their place of work or wherever they live their lives. Interview locations should say something about the character. Your technical instincts will be to seek out an interior location where you can control the sound. But you can shoot a perfectly good interview outside in an interesting and appropriate location by using a wireless microphone.

For static interviews, consider using a unidirectional shotgun mounted on a boom stand. Bring it in from the top or bottom (great solution when you're a one-person band). Frame the interview in a pleasing way and, depending on the tone of the interview, use lighting to achieve the appropriate mood.

Don't shoot an interview with the subject sitting against a wall. You want to set up your interview shot with depth in mind. Move your interview subject well away from any background element to achieve this. In shot design, the convention is to separate the main subject plane from the background plane. In a sit-down interview, you don't want to be behind the camera. You can't have a decent conversation with the interviewee looking through the viewfinder. Get somebody to shoot for you, or lock the camera off on a tripod.

If directing, verify the framing of the interview - eye-level is best for eye contact. Make sure the shooter gives you plenty of lead or nose room in the direction your subject is looking. For the best eye-line, park yourself as close as possible to one side or the other of the camera. This way both eyes of the subject make eye contact with the audience.

Mix up your interview positions, sometimes to the left and sometimes to the right of the camera. That way, in editing, your talking heads won't all be facing the same way. Plan your eyelines so that you can cut opposing characters' talking heads together as if they were facing off with each other. Work out a cue protocol with your camera operator as to when you want her to change shot sizes. It's best to reframe during a question.

Typically, do the beginning of an interview in a medium shot when the interview is about introductory subject matter. Include interesting hand gestures. A wider shot also allows you to super a title in editing. As the interview becomes more personal and as the audience comes to know the interviewee better, it makes sense to shoot closeups, even extreme closeups, for the intimate portions of the interview.

Your shot list should include the following (if you are using the interviewer on-camera):

• Establishing two-shot of interviewer and subject
• Over-the-shoulder listening shots of interviewer and subject (shot during the warm-up chatter before the interview begins)
• Re-asks (shoot the interviewer re-asking the questions after the interview)

You can shoot the walk-and-talk interview from a tripod, but I find handheld to be the best shot for a show-and-tell, where somebody is demonstrating an activity. With practice, you can develop a fluid handheld technique for following the subject during an active interview - knowing when to slide away from the face to what the hands are doing and smoothly back again. As long as your lens is zoomed out wide, you will bring back plenty of usable dynamic material.

When shooting handheld, the beginner's instinct is to try to capture everything, zooming in and out, hunting and pecking and playing the trombone with the zoom trigger. Usually this comes back from the field as uneditable material and makes editors tear their hair out.

That's a Wrap

Interviews are privileged access to people who have agreed to share a part of their lives with the documentary maker. Entire bodies of work have piled up around the ethics and the process of conducting and filming interviews. Seek these out in libraries, bookstores and online.

Oxford defines interview as "a meeting of people face to face, especially for consultation." Your job as interviewer and director is to ensure that your audience comes as close as possible to that face-to-face encounter.

Next project

After portrait of Mogs Mogren Mini Doc. me and beck want to keep making portrait type mini doc. And this is our next traget.

learning "A chat with filmmaker Jeff Gibbs, Michael Moore’s producer on Bowling For Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11"

On The Hobbit / 4K resolution

In Jeff’s opinion, there’s been a steady decline in the quality of film prints and that the extra resolution offered by 4K should be welcomed. 48fps however, he sees as risky and ‘an experiment’.

“And I wouldn’t blame cineplexes or Hollywood. I actually would blame our artsy indie film sensibility first, confusing “the film look” with grain and darkness, muted colors. At the same time there has been I believe a slow degradation in the quality of the film prints delivered in general, something that has crept in so slowly we don’t realize what we’ve lost!

“The epiphany came when screening a print vs [a 1080p] blu-ray for our local community theater’s showing of “White Christmas.”  The blu-ray was astounding – like someone had cleaned the glass. You could see detail and color that were unbelievable. But then it occurred to me – the blu-ray was made FROM THE FILM MASTER and could be no better. THAT was what audiences were seeing in the 1950′s. Film in all its glory.

“I am in favor of what Jackson [on The Hobbit] is doing with higher resolution BUT the 48fps experiment is just that. I believe 24p is not a conspiracy or a learned thing. It stood the test of the human experience of disappearing the hand of the filmmaker, and part of that was forcing you to not have flying, sliding, wobbling cameras. I think that limitation forced directors away from tricks and into story. As “cinematic” as the filmmaker may feel lots of movements make a film look, it is also not how the human body or eye moves and however subtly calls attention to the hand of the filmmaker.”

On Timelapse / Vimeo

“Storytelling is a very, very high level skill that few put the requisite work into mastering. Easier to buy a new slider and call it good.

“Everyone just wipes out the nat (natural) sound and puts in music ala Philip Glass (and I love Philip Glass!!). What’s the point of that? Nat sound is MORE important to film/video than music – and I am a composer!  I think we’ve lost our way and ego rules the day. I guess that thought offends 99% of the people on Vimeo. Oh well.

“How can you even know what the right music is until you understand the voice tones as well as the sound of the background?  At least that’s how I work. Nat sound, even more than what we see, is what brings us emotionally and experientially into a place. Music is in support not just of the visuals, and the story, but the soundscape.”

In my view the DSLR community does need to challenge itself more with getting the voice & opinion of the filmmaker across, through the use of natural sound and storytelling (doesn’t matter if it is documentary of fiction – it is the message that counts!). Showing a high standard of production with a slider is easy. It is easy to get a ‘wow’ effect with timelapse, the scene (nature) is directing itself. A high resolution camera pointed at something pretty. There’s no message there. Koyaanisqatsi had a firm message and made an art of the technique of timelapse. Without the art, timelapse remains just a technique.

On Michael Moore / producing Bowling For Columbine

“He is a lifelong friend, we have known each other since high school. I stumbled into filmmaking when one day they were short a field producer for Bowling for Columbine and I stepped in to help and within hours had set up two interviews that made the film. Of course Michael and I had been watching movies together since high school so I think we share the same sensibility. I am a MOVIE fan first and foremost. 2001. Alien. October Sky. Koyaanisqatsi. Woodstock. Lifelong fan of Tolkien as well. The art-house indie film world bores me to tears most of the time, but sometimes there are real gems. Troubled Waters (a film from Norway) comes to mind. Run Lola Run.”

Jeff says Michael used Super 16mm and HDCAM to shoot his documentaries on the most part. Not for him the stealth factor when approaching a corporation, rather all guns blazing!

“The very first film I ever worked on, Bowling for Columbine, really did bridge the gap between film and digital. It was a very surreal experience working on “Bowling for Columbine” in many ways. I had never worked on a film before, and the first day Michael asked me to help out on what seemed a lark just happened to be a day I had off work. Actually he instant messaged me something like “what are you up to?” and I said “not much” and he said, “you think you can help us out for a while today?”  I said sure why not, being eager to see what a film crew looked like. At this point I had no idea even what a DP was and had certainly never met one.

“As luck would have it that very first day I was able to stumble into finding what would turn out to be two key characters for the film, and by the time we wrapped up filming and got home it was 4 am. Michael asked me to stick around for the rest of the week. I faxed in my resignation to my day job, and secretly prayed that I just didn’t hurt my friend’s film. Of course as it turned out Bowling for Columbine smashed the box office record Roger and Me set by about four times, then a couple years later Fahrenheit 9/11 smashed Bowling for Columbine’s record by another four times. I guess things turned out okay.

“It was a lucky time to get involved in these breakthrough films, and a good time for some on the job training because Bowling for Columbine was shot on just about every format imaginable. We began with super 16mm film, necessitating stopping every twenty minutes, a camera assistant in the ready with fresh film, a store of films of different speeds waiting in a nearby van. I remember someone saying in a mere few days of intense shooting we had run through our entire budget for film.”

Jeff did use a GH2 on his documentary ‘Planet Of The Humans’ – mainly for interviews (where, he says, the subject relaxes far more in front of a small camera compare to an HDCAM) but is still put off it somewhat for documentary because of rolling shutter jello and a lack of headphone socket.

On DSLRs

Jeff’s current cameras are – the XF300, GH2, and 5D Mark II. A Canon Vixia camcorder was used to shoot an eviction on Michael’s recent documentary Capitalism: A Love Story.

“That an eight year old consumer product [the Vixia] should have more resolution than the Mark III is just bizarre. I have used the 5D MARK II for my film, and the useable stuff is just gorgeous. But for run and gun shooting when you want to capture every frame in a usable way, its a problem, or for wide shots of cityscapes or landscapes, where the resolution is an issue. I love the look it and wish they had given the 5d Mark III the resolution that most filmmakers need. If the 5D Mark III had the resolution of the GH2 it would be my dream camera, all I would need for a long while.”

The catch is that Canon did give us the resolution, but decided to charge $15,000 for it in the Cinema EOS 1DC, taking it out of the hands of the masses or smaller scale film projects.

“I really believe that the tools at hand, internet access, cameras, and the people that use them, play a critical role not just for you and me, but for justice and democracy around the world. They may have a lot to do with how the time were in turns out, for good or evil. I also really believe that storytelling is critical to the human condition. The arrival of affordable tools is fantastic for all us, but nor more likely to produce great films than the arrival of word processors was to increase the number of great novels. It did not. I cheer on all who try their hand at storytelling, and encourage us to understand that great storytelling is an high level, hard-won skill taking years or decades of hard work and failure. Looking for visual shortcuts or tricks or being a bit too obsessed with cameras is a wrong turn. Storytellers don’t call each other in a cold sweat over Red vs 5D Mark whatever, they call each other in a cold sweat late at night worrying about their STORY. The best that technology can do is get out of the way of the story.”

Thinking of "Filmmaking Tips and Thoughts on the Industry from Do-It-All Director Steven Soderbergh"

• Avoid Getting Branded
• Get Out of the Way of Actors
• Exhaust Your Interests and Move On
• Don’t Fake It
• Don’t Give a Fuck What Critics Think
• Characters Don’t Have to Be Sympathetic, But They Do Have to Be Interesting

One of the great things about being a filmmaker is being able to explore the lives of other people or look at a subject you might know nothing about, and that’s why number 3 is a great one for people just starting out:

In an interview last year with Film Comment, Soderbergh stated the following about what draws him to such a variety of projects: “Filmmaking is the best way in the world to learn about something. When I come out the other side after making a film about a particular subject, I have exhausted my interest in it. After Contagion, I’m still going to be washing my hands, but I don’t ever—I’m not going to pick up another book or article about Che as long as I live.”

Soderbergh is a versatile filmmaker specifically because he sees the filmmaking process as a path to discovery. This is probably why Soderbergh doesn’t have a clear thematic thread connecting his films: while the director certainly imbues his work with a perspective, he sees filmmaking as a learning process rather than a given outcome. Thus, Soderbergh’s films are free from “statements.” Even his portrayal of a figure as politically divisive as Che Guevara is more ambivalent than didactic. Still, this statement doesn’t explain how he ended up making three Ocean’s films.

MISE-EN-SCENE

Mise-en-scène is a French term and originates in the theater. It means, literally, "put in the scene." For film, it has a broader meaning, and refers to almost everything that goes into the composition of the shot, including the composition itself: framing, movement of the camera and characters, lighting, set design and gen eral visual environment, even sound as it helps elaborate the composition. Mise-en-scène can be defined as the articulation of cinematic space, and it is precisely space that it is about. Cutting is about time; the shot is about what occurs in a defined area of space, bordered by the frame of the movie screen and determined by what the camera has been made to record. That space, the mise-en-scène, can be unique, closed off by the frame, or open, providing the illusion of more space around it. In Travelling Players (1975), a film by the Greek director Theo Angelopoulos, a group of people move into the past by taking a long walk down a street in one shot; time moves backward as they walk. There is a sequence in the film Grand Illusion (1937) by the director (and son of the Impressionist painter) Jean Renoir in which a group of World War I POWs receive a carton of gifts. Among the gifts is, unaccountably, some women s clothing. One of the soldiers puts the clothing on, and the rest stare at him in stunned silence. Renoir creates their response by gently, slowly, panning across the men staring. The movement yields up the space the men inhabit, suggests that it extends beyond the frame, and delicately emphasises their confused sexual response to this sudden appearance of a man in woman s clothes. Had Renoir cut from face to face, the effect would have been quite different, suggesting the isolation of one man and his emotional response from the next person in the group. If he had offered only a wide shot of all the men together, their individual expressions would have been lost. The pan joins individual to group, making the revelation of space not only physical but emotional and communal, and the response more generally and genuinely human. It allows us to understand the response and not lose our perspective. Closeness and comfortable distance remain.

Editing is a way to form a narrative temporally, both in the making and the viewing of a film. Editing speeds up the shooting process in ways outlined earlier it speeds up the viewing process by creating a rhythm of forward action. Even the over-the-shoulder cutting of a dialogue sequence, which creates an event that takes place in one space over a short period of time, is moved along by the rapid shifts of point of view between the participants.Mise-en-Scene filmmaking directs our attention to the space of the shot itself. It slows down production, i.e., where care must be taken in performance, lighting, and composition. If a long take is involved, careful planning is required to make sure that actors and camera move synchronously. In a long take actors must act. There s no chance to save a performance by cutting away to someone or something else in the scene. If a mistake is made, the entire shot has to be made again. The economics of Hollywood production frown on such methods. For the viewer, a film that depends upon mise-en-scène and long shots makes special demands. Without editing to analyse what s important in a scene by cutting to a closeup of a face or an object, the viewer is required to do the looking around in the shot, to be sensitive to changes in spatial relationships and the movements of camera and actor. Even a film that uses a lot of shots and cutting may still depend on the mise-en-scene to articulate meaning as each cut reveals a different spatial relationship. Perhaps a general rule is that films made in the classical continuity style point of view usher the viewer through the progress of the narrative. Films that depend on mise-en-scene ask true viewer to pause and examine the compositional spaces of the narrative. The classical continuity style is directive the mise-en-scene style contemplative.

This is save time to do the camera work before shot it.

Here’s the basic rundown of what the free version of the app allows you to design (and why it’s so cool):

1. Camera placement and angle of view
2. Character placement and angle of orientation
3. Animation of camera/character paths — multi-step blocking, akin to storyboarding ‘keyframes’ in a moving shot
4. Shotlists — items are easily connected to points in the diagram
5. Importing storyboards — also easily connected to points in the diagram
6. Director’s Viewfinder — uses your mobile device’s camera to visualize various focal lengths
7. Built-in Set Designer — customization of floor-plans
8. Lighting Designer — light type/placement and orientation
9. Pre-made Plots — easily load and modify common setups
10. iOS and Android compatible — includes smart-phones (where ‘Pocket-Blocking’ truly applies)
11. Mac and PC compatible — but not in direct connection with your mobile (see Pro options below)

These videos demonstrate how elegantly each of these features is implemented, and in a design perfect for mobile situations. I gave the Mac desktop version a shot, and it is indeed as intuitive, simple, and easy to use as it seems (although, for a computer with a keyboard, it may be too simple — more on this below).

1. If all of this seems too good to be true, here’s the list of things you can only do with the Pro version:
2. ‘Scene Freeze’ — allows you to snapshot a configuration you can return to if you want to, say, experiment and revert
3. Exporting to PDF, MS Excel, or JPG, plus emailing your layouts and shotlists
4. Unlimited Folder Structure to get as complex with your planning as you need

That’s right — you can’t export to any of those formats without purchasing the upgrade. In fact, with the free version, you can’t actually save your scene in any traditional sense (short of taking a screen-cap of it). So even though you can run Shot Designer for free on both your PC and your mobile, you can’t transfer files back and forth between them — and again, you can only work on one scene at a time.

7 Tips to Help You Succeed as a Freelance Filmmaker by Cinematographer Ryan E. Walters

Tip #1: Know Your Budget and Have Savings

If you haven’t done so already, I highly recommend reading the article I wrote on determining your day rate. Knowing how much you need to make down to the penny will enable you to realistically put a plan into action. In addition to knowing what your minimum budget needs to be, I recommend having at least 3 – 6 months of savings. Not only will this enable you to make it when work is slow, but it will give you the financial security you need to have to be able to say “no” to jobs. There are a TON of low-to-no paying projects out there, and there are just as many people clamoring at the chance to fill the role. But that doesn’t mean those projects are any good, or worth your time. If you have savings to fall back on, you’ll know where your next meal is going to come from, and you can be more selective in the jobs you take (even the well-paying ones). If you have decided that taking low-to-no paying work is acceptable to you, then it would be best to develop criteria that will help you decide if the project is a good fit.

Periodically, I will take on low-to-no paying work if it falls within the criteria that I have decided on. For example, some of the questions I ask myself are: Will I be working with people I enjoy working with? Am I interested in the project/does it excite me? Will I get the opportunity to learn something new? Will I get the chance to be creative and push my limits? Will the project get completed? Do I trust the people I’m working with to follow through on their commitments? How will this impact my current workload/schedule? Will I have the tools and time I need to deliver results I will be happy with? The answers to these questions directly inform my choice to say yes or no to any project that comes my way, and especially those projects that have little-to-no pay. By knowing your budget and having savings you free yourself to make smarter business choices that will further your skills and career, rather than just taking any job that comes your way because you need to pay the rent. (Side Note: Having savings has allowed me to also turn down well-paying work where I was less than confident in the people behind the project. You will be better served if you make choices that are not purely motivated by money.)


Tip #2: Give 110%

Every project you work on is an audition for the next project. That is why it is essential if you say yes to a project, that you show up and give it your all regardless of the circumstances. As soon as you start using excuses like low pay, long hours, and less than ideal circumstances, and it impacts how you perform, people will notice and they will be less likely to work with you in the future. So be professional. If you say yes to something, follow through on that commitment no matter what. If you do good work, and give it your all, you will get noticed, and people will want to work with you.

Tip #3: Network, Network, Network…

It is all about numbers. The more people you know, and the more people who know you and what you do, the bigger your referral stream, and the more potential you have for work. So get out there and develop relationships with people in the industry and film community who could be sources of referrals. I have had referrals from PA’s, actors, editors, other cinematographers — you never know where your next job might come from.

I admit that this is not something that I am naturally good at, or inclined to do. This means that I can’t offer you any solid advice at how to get the most out of networking opportunities. (I can point you towards this hour and a half interview with Owen Klaff on How To Sell Your Work.) But what I can say is that the more you do it, the more comfortable you get, and the more relationships you’ll build. The less you do it, the longer it will take to develop your referral stream. So get out there and do it even if it feels uncomfortable.

Tip #4: Be Adaptable

This industry is full of change; it never stands still. If you don’t believe me, just take a look at the new cameras that have been released since NAB 2012… If you decide to remain stuck in your ways, fighting to keep things the same, eventually you will be passed over for someone else who is adapting and keeping up with the ever-changing landscape. Be open to doing things differently than they have been done before. I think a quote from Alvin Toffler’s book “Future Shock” sums it up best:

“Change is not merely necessary to life – it is life… The illiterate of the future will not be the person who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and re-learn.”
Tip #5: Don’t Rely On Secrets Or Complexity

Technology is a double-edged sword. It allows us to do our job, and at the same time it is making it simpler and easier to do. I have encountered people who rely on the complexity of the technology they use to propel the mystery of their craft, as if that is the thing that defines an artist or professional. If what you do hinges on this complexity, it will just be a matter of time before technology replaces you. You will be obsolete. I believe that today, and even more so in the coming years, technology has arrived at the point where anyone can step in and do just about any role. The few complexities that remain in software or hardware will eventually be ironed out. Additionally, if you are relying on a “secret sauce” workflow, or a specific way of processing your work in post, it will only be a matter of time before someone else figures it out and posts how to do it on the internet. You better have something more up your sleeve than relying on secrets or complex tools.

Going forward, the things that will separate people will be their vision, talent, and their style. Tools should be just that – tools that allow an artist to create without getting in the way. As an artist, I’m all for simplicity and ease of use. I want to create, not be encumbered by the tools. I can go into any art store and for under $20 buy some brushes and paint. They are affordable, accessible, and easy to use. But that doesn’t mean that I can paint the Sistine Chapel. What separates me from Michelangelo is our vision, talent, and style. (It would be a VERY bad idea to hire me to paint even a bathroom ceiling.) If the affordability, accessibility, and simplicity of todays filmmaking tools worries you, good. Use that to motivate you to hone your talent, craft, & your vision so that you stand out in the marketplace. The tools are abundant, but there is only ONE of you!

Tip #6: Diversify

Have as many different sources and types of revenue as possible. By having multiple revenue streams, as well as a diverse variety of revenue, you will be able to better weather changes in the market. For example, in addition to the referral system that I have built through networking, I also have revenue that comes from stock footage, as well as from affiliate programs with companies like B&H and Amazon. I’m also developing a training series that I will be selling to add to my revenue stream. But don’t limit yourself to just the examples I have here. This is where it will pay off to think creatively. Additional revenue could come through investments you make,gear rentals, additional services…

Tip #7: Own Content

The world of freelance work is essentially the world of constantly losing a job and looking for more work. In the film industry, all the below the line people (that would be us crew members), get paid to do “work for hire.” We show up, do our job, collect our check, and then move on to the next job to get another paycheck. There are others in our industry who get to continue to collect an income on work they have already completed. These people are the above the line people (typically producers, directors, actors, the studio, etc.). Personally, I’m a huge fan of creating work that will continue to generate an income for me while I am off on other projects, or when work is slow. For me, this has come through owning content, specifically stock footage. While it doesn’t make me wildly rich, it is nice to have an income stream that continues to come in even while I sleep.

Louise Rosen:How to Fund Your Documentary

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“There is no question that in today’s marketplace, funding is very incremental. It is relying on small building blocks being pieced together, one by one. There are very few large lump sums, and when they do come, they tend to be close to the end of your process. So the question is how do you begin establishing these building blocks? I would say you have to first look locally, and I don’t mean your Uncle Dan the dentist, I mean even the smallest historical societies, arts councils. You may start in $500 – $1000 increments and build your way up. But that is the way we all have to do it now. And you don’t need to apologize for it, because this all helps build your credibility, and that is the thing, ultimately, the critical mass of credibility that gets you to the next step, and the next step.”

"35mm Lens Adapter"

Redrock Micro has launched their M3 35mm Lens Adapter, billed as “the definitive 35mm lens adapter for achieving remarkable film look with your existing video camera.” However, the first question that comes to my mind is why anyone would spend $1,320 on a 35mm lens adapter when the same amount of money could get you a quality DSLR with an actual large sensor (like, say, the Canon 5D MKIII). No matter how good a 35mm adapter is, it is not going to offer you the low-light sensitivity of a true large sensor. Seeing this reasoning, Redrock has attempted to answer this HDSLR question:

The popularity wave of HDSLR cameras has come with a realization these cameras come with a host of shortcomings. Among them, lack of good integrated audio, a limited recording codec, lack of full manual controls, and rolling shutter issues. Combined with a video camera, the M3 delivers the highly desired HDSLR “film look” while eliminating the drawbacks of HDSLR cameras. An M3 rig and HDSLR cameras can be used together for a high quality multi-camera solution that brings the best of both worlds together in an incredible affordable package.

learn "How to Set the Back Focus on a Video Camera"

One of my more embarrassing on-set moments happened when, years ago, I had been hired as a camera operator on a multi-camera shoot. Sometimes talking your way into a position can you get you into trouble, and I wasn’t really qualified to be operating a full size camera, which I discovered when the backfocus was off. I didn’t know how to adjust it, given at the time I’d only shot on Sony DV camcorders, and had to call on another camera operator to do my job for me. The horror! So here is a tutorial for setting back focus from The Complete Guide to ProHD Volume I , which applies to many videocameras (not just the JVC on which it’s demonstrated). But first, what is back focus?

Back focus refers to focal flange length, which is the distance between the rear lens element and the camera’s sensor. On cameras with interchangeable lenses, sometimes changing a lens will also change the focal flange length, and the discrepancy can cause an image that’s sharp when zoomed in to be soft when zoomed out. If that’s the case, you need to adjust the back focus. Here’s how to do it on a JVC Pro camera, but the process is similar on many cameras.

thinking about "The Future of Cinematography is Here, and It's Digital: But How Do the DPs Feel About It?"

We live in a time of unparalleled choice. The number and types of high-powered tools of our trade has never been this great, nor have advancements and price thereof been in such aggressive opposition to each other before. We’re definitely at the midpoint of a truly glacial shift – that’s glacial in magnitude, not time elapsed — and we’re all pretty well aware of the technology available to us. Something we don’t get to hear about half as often, though, is what the men and women in the creative realm most directly tied to this technology,cinematography, have to say about it, or their view of the brave new world in which we all work and strive to remain relevant. Film and Digital Times has just posted some fantastic pamphlets of short essays written by a number of working cinematographers, and the perspectives within are a must-read.

The documents contain honest and in some cases confessional testimony from American, British, and French cinematographers. Here is an excerpt from one of the essays, written by Oliver Stapleton, B.S.C. (Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark). His words here represent just one of the many truly pertinent concerns, issues, and insights raised by these posts:


If everybody is purely measuring cameras in terms of how many stops of latitude it has got, what’s the resolution, and you throw everything else in the ditch, that is wrong. I certainly welcome these new devices to add to our armoury of tools for making moving images, but I don’t see why one has to take technical parameters (that are so subjective and specific to a given movie) and make that the criteria for choosing how we make a film.

We need to learn how to work with digital and learn what to protect and who needs to be involved. If we don’t lay down those ground rules very rapidly at this point, the opportunity will be lost for the habits to form. It’s a very important time in the next few years for the established cinematographers who have the clout to set some rules and standards, because if we don’t speak up now, our job will be seriously diminished.

Topics range from reluctancy to begin shooting digitally, the potential pit-falls of the DI process in taking controlling of the image out of the DP’s hands, dissatisfaction with the qualities of digital acquisition over those of film, the dangers of relegating too much power to DITs who may have to coach DPs who are new to a certain system, the moments in which it’s okay to lose some highlight detail because something just plain looks right, the abilities in low-light digital can have, the problem of archiving something that will never exist in a tangible physical form — the list goes on and on, but at this point I’ll just let you guys read the goods for yourselves (or click on the links below). The value of all this candor really can’t be overstated, nor can how well the materials covers the full gamut of pros and cons, possibilities and problems, the good, and the bad.

It’s truly fascinating, not to mention enlightening, to read of such a well-rounded variety of experiences, and I think great value can be derived from checking it out regardless of what side of the fence you stand. Many kudos to Madelyn Most for the work, and to the cinematographers in the trenches out there who, regardless of how they feel about it, really make each of these new technologies shine.

Learn "Using Color Temp to Create Depth and Dimension with your HD Video"

I have been asked this question many times, “Do you white balance your camera?” I respond with one word, “Never.” White balancing a video camera is a holdover from the days of Ikegami cameras, the tubes inside that would burn if you shot a bright light. AWB is your enemy. Period.

When I shoot film, I use specific stocks that are either daylight or tungsten based to react to blue daylight color temp at 5500 Kelvin or 3200 Kelvin for tungsten. I never set my digital camera to either one of these settings. On some cameras, it is your only choice. One reason I have gravitated towards the Arri Alexa and Canon cameras is not only for their incredible sensors, but also because they understand this fact. You can rotate the wheel in WB mode on a Canon or on the Alexa in a sub menu to scroll to your look.
 

While working with one of my favorite directors, Maurice Marable, we were doing a spot in an underground parking garage. When you went with the color temp of the lights that existed in the space, the mood was blah, no depth, no dimension. I got on the scroll wheel of the Alexa and cranked it down to 2700 Kelvin, and Maurice was like “Wow, that looks bangin!!!” Just the simple use of this tool can create a whole other chapter in the way you light.
 

2700 Kelvin on the Alexa to take something that looked ordinary at 5500 Kelvin because that was what AWB gave us.

 

“Embrace Every Color You Can”

In Hollywood, for decades we have “Hollywooded” every night scene on streets. We went in there and re-globed all the street lights with tungsten 500 watt globes on a street which typically were HPS (High Pressure Sodium) and hung 2k open face tungsten lights to the street lamps so that the color was correct.
 

Typical Cobra Head street lamps

2K Open Face Tungsten Light

 
Then, all of a sudden, moonlight would show up in urban areas. I am not a big fan of moonlight in urban areas. This is my creative choice. I feel that in reality, moonlight would never reach into these lit areas. I sit at home and really observe moonlight in my pool at night. It is all powerful when it is full and it has even created shafts in our woods, but there is not an HPS street light for miles, let alone a hundred. But I did not always have this view. I followed what my mentors were doing and they were changing lights out in stores so that all the floʼs were either daylight or tungsten. They were balancing all their color. They were using moonlight as a very blue source and making all street lights white, tungsten. THAT WAS THE 80′S and 90′S. So I did the same.
 

Night exteriors in Macon, GA on Need for Speed

On location in Macon, GA for Need for Speed

“John Stockwell Changed Me Forever”

When I was selected to lens Crazy/Beautiful for Touchstone and Disney, Director John Stockwelltold me that he wanted this to be a real film. Not Hollywood. He wanted the audience to feel like two teenagers from different sides of the tracks who slowly fell in love. What that feels like, the emotions and inconsistency of being a teenager in love. Not calculated, never planned, just going for it. He wanted to do it with a small crew. He wanted to do everything practically. This changed me as a cinematographer overnight. I love when a director has this power. He opened my eyes to doing things completely differently, not how it has always been done in the past. I was the past, and I was jumping on board with this mindset and throwing everything that I had been taught out the window. Now this was scary, but I wanted to test myself as an artist.
 

“The Power of a Reference Book”

When John and I sat down to discuss the look and feel of the film, he said that he wanted this film to show Los Angeles in a different way. Everyone had shown the glowing beaches, warm, poppy colors, etc. Letʼs show East LA how it is and letʼs lens Pacific Palisades the same way. Well, if you have ever been to this region of the west coast, you know that warm, poppy colors, and high contrast has never touched the Pacific. It is bald, gray blue skies, foggy, filtered sun and an ocean that is gray and cold. He gave me this very small reference book that he felt was the movie in 80 pages. It was called HiroMix.
 

HiroMix: inspiration for the color palette of Crazy/Beautiful

I have used this book for reference on about eight of my movies. It was written by a young Japanese female photographer who takes self-portraits using very unique composition. This is because she never looks through the eyepiece of the camera. I was like, WHAT!!? Her composition was off, but beautiful. It was haphazard, inconsistent, yet fragile. Exactly like a TEENAGER. I have a teenager at home and that is spot on. This was our inspiration, a teenage Japanese photographer who never looked through the lens. I AM IN!!!
 

“With My Marching Orders”

So with these marching orders, I set out to deliver just that. We tested different types of film stocks and lenses and came up with a ridiculous cocktail. We used a tungsten based film stock for all day exteriors and interiors. It was rated at 320 ISO and I exposed it at 32 ISO. The over exposure delivered the look that John and I wanted. It was difficult at first to get my head around this stock being stretched the way we did. But after the first week, I really understood its power and how its look was just so unique. It was how LA looks to John and me. The blue, green, cyan color palate worked incredibly well.

Pacific Palisades: Filtered sun and blue/gray tones

Interior shot: Tungsten film stock 320 ISO exposed at 32 ISO

“Urban Lighting and Using It to Help Tell Your Story”

We had a lot of nights on Crazy/Beautiful and John wanted them to look real, not that Hollywood thing that I have been talking about. He wanted to use what was there and augment it to be able to expose the negative. He wanted it to feel like it was happening right then and there. This was a daunting task in 2000. We did not have the arsenal of lights of many color temps at our disposal. The idea of lighting a movie from Home Depot was looked down upon. So to turn this negative to a positive, I pulled from my parents’ inspiration.
 

Kirsten and Jay in the car driving. Love the off frame. Teenager style.

“The Farm was my Training Ground

for Cinematography”

I look back on my career and so much of my Mom and Dadʼs fearless nature, along with my Dadʼs incredible common sense, flows through me on every decision I make as a cinematographer. My Dad worked at Cornell in the agronomy division. He worked as a professorʼs assistant in bringing all their creations to life. Whether it was sweet corn, field corn, wheat, red kidney beans, soy beans, you name a plant and he had a big part of building all the hybrids that farmers plant today. He could make anything work, stuff that just blew my mind as a kid. You would look at the situation that he was up against, whether the plow broke, combine jammed, truck stuck in the mud or that tractor that needed a makeshift winter shelter so that he did not freeze his tail off while he blew snow out of the driveway. Most of the time, you would never conceive his cocktail of different materials to create what he did. Remember how I told you that your PUNT or plan B needs to be better than plan A that you had eight weeks to figure out? Well, this is where I got my training. He was a master at the“Cob Job” as he called it. It worked, was built like a brick house, not sexy, but it did the job. You probably think I am side tracked, but every story has a reason.
 

“Building your Own Lights Because They Didnʼt Exist”

The problem was that I needed an exposure increase from the HPS street lights that lit most of LAʼs streets. My light meter said .07. That was three stops under what the lenses that we selected could deliver. This is when I channeled my Mom and Dadʼs training and went to a very good friend for help.

David Pringle owns and operates Luminys Systems. It is an amazing company that has helped me tell my stories for over two decades, back to when I was a budding gaffer slinging cable and setting lights. I asked him if he could build some wacky lights for me. He was all in. “What the hell do you want to build, Shane?” He has my passion and reminds me so much of my Dad, the way he just makes it work. I want to build these lights that donʼt exist. “OK, what are they?” I want to mount lights to street lamps that are the same wattage and color temp and do it in a way that you cannot see it.
 

David with the 200 watt HPS

The mad scientist’s table. I was so funny. David would just pick them up with bare wires while they were on and make adjustments with a metal screw driver. He is so my Dad!!!

The WTF look soon came across his face. Then his engineer Ashot Nalbandyan, who is just as crazy and as passionate as David, pipes up. We can do that. Let me throw something together. They built this incredible light that was a 400 HPS light that hid right behind the Cobra head street lamp and it delivered a 1.4 on my meter from 25 feet away. I was in the pocket. I could not go crazy with the light being too powerful because the area would look over-lit compared to the background streets, so we had to keep it close. These lights were so kick butt. I use them on everything I do. They weigh less than 3 lbs and crank out the light in the exact color temp of the street lights.
 

“Why Stop There?”

Letʼs keep creating. “Well, what else do you want?” How about Mercury Vapor and Metal Halide? He said that shouldnʼt be a problem. So two weeks later, I showed up at his shop and he had all of the prototypes laid out for me to analyze. It looked like Frankensteinʼs lab. David and Ashot were like mad scientists. They developed the first strobe that could truly be used in motion pictures. They were called Lightning Strikes. They are so user friendly and look exactly like lightning. Then they started to make lights that mirrored the look of the sun as a source, which when you see them is exactly that. They call them SoftSuns and when they strike on, itʼs HOLY SMOKES – that is a beautiful light. I could go on and on about his company but here is their website. Now I am getting sidetracked.

 

 
Based on our creations from Crazy/Beautiful, he made all types of these fixtures so that you can tell your stories with realism and accurate color temp. I have tried for years to match them with tungsten and HMI sources HPS (High Pressure Sodium), MH (Metal Halide) and MV (Mercury Vapor) with gel from all of the manufacturers to no avail. Nothing matched; it was always slightly off. It killed me.

200, 400 and 100 watt HPS Urban Practicals at Luminys Systems

“Need for Speed”

My next film has a ton of night street racing and I knew I would need to call on Luminys Systems again to build more lights. I wanted to take the ones we built and make them a little better, more focused, more compact.
 

The design of MH 800 watt fixture at Luminys Systems

The way the lights work is that they are all color coordinated with plugs and Pelican cases that house the ballasts. You buy the lights from Home Depot. The ballasts are in the head, so it makes them very heavy and hard to grab, hard to use, and hard to focus. So what David and his engineering team did was to take the ballast out of the head and put it into a waterproof Pelican case. Then from there, they add a 50 foot head extension, which connects to the light source. The light source is put in a lightweight aluminum reflector that pushes the light out in an open face spread.

All the ballasts and connectors are color coded so that you cannot plug a 1000 watt HPS ballast into a 400 watt HPS light. Dummy proofed!!! HA HA!!!
 

Color coded labeling system for the lights and ballasts

 

“Keep it Light”

What makes these lights so powerful is not just their incredible color temp and design, but the fact that they absolutely weigh nothing. They are all made out of lightweight aluminum that also acts as the reflector. So you can mount them with gafferʼs tape if you have to and I have. I photograph them all the time, never hide. They are practical and give you the punch required with little power consumption.

Honda 2000 watt Putt Putt Generators