Things to know about working film.
I was on a small studio shoot the other day working as Lighting Cameraman, the oh so British term for a DOP, when a rather intense, overly excited runner asked me what I did to get to where I am today. He had only graduated nine or so months ago, so was still very fresh faced and completely oblivious to the fact that as he’s already working in the industry nine months after graduating means he’s actually doing rather well for himself. Film and really media in general is such a relentlessly difficult industry to get into. The competition is insane, cruel even, and this got me thinking about my career progression and what parcels of advice I could give to any aspiring DOPs out there, and when I say advice, I mean genuine nuggets of truth that are actually useful. Things you can apply to your situation without copy/pasting exactly what I say. If you google ‘how to get in to film’, ‘how to become a cinematographer’ or anything similar you will be bombarded by thousands of career websites, posts, blogs and videos telling you, confidently, how to become the next sensational DP, the next Tarantino or the next Deakins. Well, I’m here to tell you……..I don’t know. I don’t know how you can become a DOP because there isn’t a set path, or anything that is guaranteed to work, but I can tell you what I did, what not to do and how to prepare yourself and give it a go.
A loose association of artists.
The first thing you need to realise if you want to work in film (this applies to all of media, but I’m going to refer to film), is that everything your careers officer at school told you, or the professional practice module you studied in uni went over, is wrong, and here’s why. The media industries have no structure, it’s a loose association of creatives, artists, technicians and nerds, it bears no resemblance to other industries (side note, this is why you will perpetually have to explain your career to your family and they will never understand). Sure there are companies involved with MDs and CFOs and the usual corporate positions, but that’s a very different side of the industry, most of these people have never been on a film set. They’re business people, doing business things, with their briefcases and suits, shaking hands in meeting rooms, and using words like synergy, solutions and implementation. But they’re not the ones that will hire you. The producer will hire you……through a facebook post that they put up last minute……on a Friday……and need an answer by 2AM on Saturday………for Sunday. What I’m trying to get at is your CV is not quite as important as you’ve been told it is. It’s asked for as a formality (and probably for some legislative reasons), but there will come a point, fairly quickly, when you won’t need it because it won’t be asked for or it will be replaced by your showreel, which again doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get work. Getting jobs early on is just about fighting your way through the mass of applications, grinding it out until a producer decides to take a punt on you and as you progress it’s about the people you’ve met and the relationships you’ve developed. Film is ultimately very casual so that’s how you should approach it. Be easy to work with, laid back but serious about your job.
Chill out, it takes time.
OK, so we’ve established that film is casual, so what does that mean? Chill Out. Getting work in film is much like making friends, it can take a while, it’s more difficult for some people than others, and ultimately is built on trust. If you want to work with a particular DP, message him on instagram. Say you like his work, be honest about what you want, where you are in your career and ask if he’d consider taking on as a trainee. Are you already shooting, maybe jumping from assistant camera to camera operator? Find a local video producer whose work you enjoy and message them. Say what you liked about the work and that you’d like to stay in touch. Maybe you could meet for coffee and talk about a certain project or interests you’ve got in common. Check in every now and then, see how they are. Genuinely build a friendship. That either sounds impossible or too simple, I know, and it’s not guaranteed to work, but if you approached making friends like a formal arrangement, sending out CVs, writing in that overly formal way you were taught in school, people would be a bit weirded out and the same goes here. Sure, if you’re applying for a full time job, there’s the company process and everything else so it will be a bit different, but I guarantee the work environment or at least your potential colleagues will be very chilled out people, so the same approach applies. Ultimately just be yourself and nice….I can’t stress that one enough, be nice, be genuine. People will respect that and see it for what it is.
The biggest reason to chill out though, is building a career in film takes years and lasts a lifetime. I’ve been working in film production as I write this for over a decade. I’ve done some incredible things but I’m far from my ultimate ambitions. I’m not freaking out about it though, because I’ve probably got another 40 years ahead of me. I’ve got so much time to learn, to meet people and to grow. You do too, so don’t worry if you're 26 and you’re not where you want to be, you’ve got your whole life to figure this out. This is really why advice for working in film is so terrible. It's because everyone is in the same position, all the time just at a different level and because the industry is so casual there’s no set career path. How you go about building your career is up to you, so focus on what you want to work on. When you work in film it becomes your life and what a life it can be. By 25, I had travelled more of the globe than most people will see in their entire lives, I often had to pinch myself and I could hardly believe it was work. People outside the industry often accuse you of lying because it sounds too good to be true, but the fact is, the world is weird and when you work in film you get to experience the weirdness full force so it’s well worth being patient, slowing down and building a career step by step instead of trying to rush ahead. If your earnings aren’t growing as fast as you want, so long as you can get by and save something, you’re doing fine.
Be confident in who you are.
Another important factor is confidence. You know what you want and in film you really have to go out there and get it, because there are thousands of people wanting the same as you. It takes guts to step into such an uncertain industry. As most of us are freelancers there’s no safety net, it’s all on you so you have to be sure working in film is what you want and to go for it. Never give up and just keep going, even when life gets a bit shitty and you’re eating spaghetti hoops out of the tin. You don’t have to be glued to your computer screen applying to jobs and sending messages 24/7, indeed that would fly in the face of what I’ve previously mentioned, but you need to be committed and sure of yourself. This also extends to what you refer to yourself as.
When you start you will be a runner. No exceptions, this is because you are an unknown, you haven’t earned anyone’s trust yet so obviously you won’t be allowed near the camera, you’re going to go to Starbucks to pick up the coffee’s and the actors’ dogs’ puppuccino. That trust will develop over time but there’s no shame in being a runner, everyone was there once so call yourself a runner, own the title and don’t be ashamed.
Some of the most important networking opportunities on a film set are the quiet moments between the chaos, when you’re on a unit move to the next location or waiting around for another department to finish their setup. If people ask you what you do, don’t beat around the bush or try to sound more impressive, just say what you do. I’m a runner. I’m a camera assistant. I remember when I graduated from university, my uni actually told us to put our career ambition on the business cards we had to make. So obviously everyone put Director, Producer and DOP. None of us were any of these things. It was such terrible advice I still can’t believe a university would suggest that, what we should have put was Film Graduate. There is this notion to hide who you are in the world of work to be professional. A true professional is not afraid of their personality, of who they are as a person, and where they are in their career, so don’t call yourself a DOP when you haven’t done the job yet, don’t call yourself a videographer - it’s too vague and does too many things. Certainly don’t call yourself everything under the sun, no one is a DoP/Filmmaker/Drone Pilot/Writer/Director/Producer/ Editor. If you’re a multi-hypenate creative, Filmmaker or Creative Strategist is fine. You may as well carry on and put Driver/Son/Cat Owner. And please don’t call yourself a Shooter, the police will be called. If you introduce yourself as the role you are currently doing and have been paid to do, if you remain realistic, people will warm to you much quicker which will mean they want to work with you again. Being confident and honest really is the best approach.
Glamorous it is not
Whenever I go home for the Christmas holidays and visit family, I’m constantly asked about what I’ve been working on and with whom. People have this assumption that working in film is this glamorous experience filled with parties, premieres, exotic locations and famous people. Yes, all those things can be part of the job, but usually the experience is a 6AM call time to film in the freezing rain, or an early flight to a random part of Europe, an interrogation by customs officers, terrible hotel coffee and the worst office space imaginable as the interview location. Film days are also long. Standard hours are ten hour days but it’s not uncommon to work much longer. This used to be a lot worse and has gotten better, but a 9-5 call time is unheard of. The reality is that most of production is waiting, repetition, and unglamorous problem-solving at odd hours in difficult conditions. Newbies often romanticise the on-set experience and are underprepared for the culture, the hierarchy, the pace, the physical demands of long shoot days, and the expectation that you'll anticipate needs rather than wait to be told. If you want to survive in film, then you need to fall in love with the craft and process of filmmaking, not the access it can grant you.
You’ll Need a Thick Skin
This one is tough. One of the hardest things about working in film is the fact that unlike in other industries where you will be turned down jobs, in film you will be rejected as a person - your taste, your vision, your presence on set. You weren’t the right fit for the job and that can hurt and it doesn’t really get better with time, you just become better at handling it. To survive in this industry you need to be open to a lot of different opportunities, figure out whether they are a good fit for you and move on swiftly if you’re rejected. Sometimes it can feel like nothing is going your way, but the important thing to remember is not every opportunity leads anywhere and you don’t need to constantly succeed to be successful. Success is measured across a career rather than across a year.
Just get out there and make stuff
When I entered the industry there was still somewhat of a rigid hierarchy you needed to climb. I started as a camera trainee, worked my way up to camera assistant, then camera operator and finally starting DoP work on projects. There wasn’t really any way around this at the time, but things were slowly changing and I was able to catapult myself higher up the ladder by making my own work and showing it to people. These days, the hierarchy has all but evaporated. If you want to be a DoP or a director, you should start creating your own work and collaborating with other creatives as soon as possible. You can climb the ladder as well but it’s not the only route anymore. Get a camera, find some filmmaker friends and just start making short films.
Gear isn’t everything
A lot of new entrants, and even established professionals obsess over gear. If you look online it won’t take long for you to find endless comment sections and forums filled with people debating over which is better, the FX3 or the FX6 (they’re fundamentally the same camera sensor), Canon or Sony, Blackmagic love or hate.
Here’s the thing, gear is meaningless. It defines nothing, a professional with an FX30 will produce better work than an amateur with an Arri Alexa 35 every time. The thing to realise early on is that buying gear, owning it at all has no effect on you as a filmmaker. If you think having 4K is necessary, you’re focusing on the wrong things. The truth is if you work in branded content, most projects can get by in 1080p and clients won’t notice or care. If you're working for a broadcaster, there are certain delivery requirements that are actually fairly easy to achieve these days. If you’re working on a feature film, you won’t need your own gear anyway, everything will be hired in. Should you start down a career path that is technical, at some point you will need to buy gear but don’t feel pressured to own something just because it’s trending and only buy things if you actually need them. If a piece of kit will genuinely help you do your job more effectively, buy it. If a piece of kit is just a nice shiny thing to have, you probably don’t need it.
If you go into the film industry starry eyed be prepared to get punched in the face, repeatedly. It can be a harsh, egotistical and often cruel industry. In the UK we have our own charity to support freelancers, the Film and TV Charity. Think about that, a charity, to support working professionals in a high paying industry. Isn’t that insane? I don’t want to dissuade anyone from following their dreams, the world needs art now more than ever, but you need to be grounded and realistic. If this blog has given someone a shake and removed the rose tinted glasses then it’s done its job. The last thing I’d say is the key to surviving in this industry is to find people you genuinely like, not as employers or colleagues, but as friends. Work with them, build those relationships, shoot spec ads and do crazy stuff together, support each other and you’ll build your own little corner of the industry where things aren’t so bad.
