As much as I wanted to write about the artistry or the technical side of the role as a cinematographer working on my second feature film, sometimes the other side of the industry which I think has been neglected or not as prevalent in conversation in film school or the general space of the internet is the business and politics side of filmmaking in which I believe we should raise awareness on.
The “not so sexy” topics which may not be as thrilling to talk about from a pure art standpoint but are equivalently as vital to grasp or at least understand to some extent in order to sustain oneself in the profession is the other side of the coin, dealing business and the uncomfortable management of on and off set politics. For example, more generic or general questions that may arise in the day-to-day work life of a filmmaker include how to find your next job, how do I build on an existing connection with a director or producer, how to build a relationship with a gear rental company, etc. And the ones that I specifically have to ask myself and deal with on this project are:
How to negotiate a contract e.g. day rate, working hours, etc
What conditions to include in a contract e.g overtime pay, shooting days, travel, etc. (so it doesn’t bite you later down the road)
How to deal with difficult crew members or how to motivate and lead them to be on the same page.
How to compromise given limited shooting time.
Despite my hopeful and naive thoughts that I wish to operate only within the creative side of my role as a cinematographer and hope that a producer for example would carry the load in dealing with some of the business and political side, I’ve come to realize of how ignorant that belief may be especially in a low budget film where a lower work standard of some departments might not match the quality I demand on myself.
In high sight, it is necessary to take active steps and not rely upon others (may not hold true or as much in a higher budget film) to mitigate risk for others to take advantage of or lower my work standard just because others won’t live to mine.
The takeaway of my experience working on my second full-length feature film compare to the first one differs massively, While the comments and introspection on my first full-length feature film blog were focused on self-improvement, particularly the technicality and skills of cinematography, this second blog is more focused on business and politics which thinking about it may be as important or even more valuable in a longevity career standpoint. The business skills and abilities to maneuver in politics give you a ticket to the dance floor venue and your creative cinematography skills allow you to flex your dance prowess. Both knowledge plays an important role in one filmmaking journey and gives you the advantage to sustain yourself.
That being said, I can’t leave this off without holding on to my daydream of purely thinking about the creative side of the work as a cinematographer and talk about the artistry and technical aspects. The following are a few of the bullet points I made while working on the project.
Light bigger. Don’t neglect the background.
Control mood and tone using Analogous colors.
Communicate well with gaffer/grip. Inform them of the things that you expect them to do autonomously on every new setup e.g. place flag as negative fill for day exterior before even placing the camera down.
Some building windows tend to shift color when shining light through.
Avoid placing light fixtures close to the subject due to light falloff. Placing the light fixture further away will looks more natural.
Control brightness hitting the subject relative to the background (stop of light shouldn’t be too far off)
Handheld look on a tripod (by loosening friction on the tripod head) on an emotional scene can portray the subject emotional state more naturally than fix off frame.
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