Eric Coughlin
Veteran
I typically read the script before shooting, just not necessarily before an interview prior to being hired. But there have been some movies where I didn't read the script. For 48 Hour Films, I often am the sole producer and the DP, and have someone else directing, who is sort of working both above me and below me. But in any case, I'm not getting fired since I'm funding and running everything. He'll sometimes hand me shot lists which I'll often ignore, I may or may not have read the script. How long does it take to figure out a scene? Here is how it goes...
Me: "Tony, what scene are we filming next?"
Director: "Outdoor night conversation at the bottom of a hill of two people as the robot and her lover confront each other before she kills him."
Me: "Okay, cool. I'll have the gaffer setup the 1200D on the top of the hill to simulate moonlight, we'll have one or two battery powered panel lights on the reverse side for fill, I'll do all Steadicam using 24mm or 16mm Ultra primes for the master shots, 32mm for the over the shoulder, and 85mm for the tight shots."
Director: "Sounds good."
I may or may not say all this, but I'll think it and do it. The director and gaffer may of course input their own ideas as well, just depends. But either way, I don't feel it slows down production to an extent worth worrying about.
To a large extent, is it really rocket science? Did we really need to meet a week earlier to shot list the scene, talk it over, think about it, think some more about it, and then likely come up with very similar results to just making it up on the spot the day of?
A DP doesn't necessarily need to know every detail of the script in order to film a scene well; they can get a quick summary of what they're about to film may just be all they need to know.
I'm not really advocating DPs to not read scripts prior to filming, but I am saying I've filmed movies without reading scripts and you can do it without it turning out bad or majorly delaying production, as long as someone can take 10-20 seconds to quickly summarize the scenes you're about to film. And even if you had read the script, you often still need that summary to know which part of the script you're about to film. So, perhaps I'm just saying, the importance of DPs having read the script (particularly prior to a phone interview) is in my opinion considered more important than it needs to be.
Regarding shotlisting, Roger Deakins often chooses his shots on the day of the shoot as he likes to have the actors and set in place to get the best idea of how things will go. Feel free to read through his thoughts on Shotlists here: https://www.rogerdeakins.com/forums/topic/shot-design-in-prep/
Of course for more VFX heavy scenes like Bladerunner, shot lists become more important. For a low budget filmmaker such as myself who doesn't do VFX heavy films, it's not as important.
To me the real kicker is when I've done shot lists as I sometimes do, and the cinematography turns out no better than other films which I chose shots on the spot. I won the Best Cinematography Award at the 48 Hour Film Project at the worldwide level competing against 4000 teams (granted, this is small time compared to Academy Awards, Primetime Emmy's, etc.), and for that film it was mostly filmed going, "Let's try this angle, now this angle, let's move the light here, now there." What is the guiding force of my cinematography? A combination of technical knowledge and an artistic mind that basically thinks, "Let me try stuff until I'm happy with how the shot looks." The rule of cool.
Then the movie shows and people say stuff like, "The cinematography seemed so meaningful with the themes. What inspired you to use the purple and blue lighting in that scene?" Me, "I turned dials on the RGB light until I found some random colors I thought looked cool. *shrug*" I personally don't mind admitting I'm mostly just trying to find things I think look good with not much deeper thought into it than that, but for some filmmakers, that may sound like heresy. The problem is, many of those DPs would have done a worse job even if they had tried assigning thematic meaning to every shot. More talented DPs may heavily use the script and themes to guide their choices and I'm not going to put that down. I guess the only thing I'm saying here is that you can still come up with quality work without basing a lot of your cinematography choices off of the script, and while everyone has their own process, one way isn't necessarily always better than another way.
Charles, I'm sure our financial maths are very different as far as narrative work goes, but let me break down some rough numbers here. Say I get 50 narrative offers per year, say it takes an average of one hour to read a script (a mix of feature and short scripts, plus I tend to be a slow reader), so, 50 hours per year if I read every script for every project that someone reaches out to me for. Now since I'm only doing about one paid narrative shoot per year, and as far as my narratives have gone, they overall I'm guessing average three days of shooting per project and $1000 per day, so, $3,000 per project (and year). Let's assume 10 hour days here, so 30 hours, $100 per hour. But, if I'm reading EVERY script sent to me, now we have to add 50 hours of time just to get that $3,000, so now the hourly rate drops to $37.5 per hour. Now factor in that at least half of a typical DP owner/op's income goes towards equipment expenses, insurance, travel, etc., that drops the hourly rate of profit to $18.75 per hour, which is not far off from minimum wage in Los Angeles. Now you see the math doesn't make much sense.
Cut out the excessive script reading, be picky about who I reply to, and for the most part read the script AFTER the phone call and AFTER I've been hired for the shoot, and now we're back at a more reasonable wage, as at that point I'm only reading one script per year. And granted, as my rates have gone up over the years (and inflation) the more recent narratives I did were at higher rates, but I'm talking averages over the past 15 years, and I wasn't always getting as many narrative inquiries per year, which may further skew these biased rough numbers I'm throwing out.
But it is a real problem if we can't even discuss rates to see if we're in the same ballpark before I've read the script and given for free all of my ideas when 95% of the narrative clients reaching out to me couldn't afford my rates in the first place. That's why I mostly ignore narrative clients these days, saves a lot of time. A lot of them want you to read the script prior to discussing rates, thinking their script is so awesome it will make you willing to do the movie for cheap.
What annoys me is the concept that a DP has to read a script and start offering unique ideas to get hired for a job. Say I've got a movie and I want to hire either Charles Papert or David Mullen. What is my primary criteria for choosing between them? I would say their list of credits, reels, and the quality of cinematography in the work I see. Sure, a phone interview may help me determine who I personally get along with better, who sounds more pleasant to talk to and potentially work with, but in that initial phone interview, is hearing their unique ideas for how they'll shoot my particular script the real selling point to me hiring them? I'm not necessarily thinking so. If both hadn't read the script prior to the call, I already know either way that I've got two talented choices with a long list of credits to back up their talent and am not that worried that if they later read the script, they'll show up to set and say, "I read the script and I have no idea how to film this so I'm pretty sure everything will turn out terrible, but it's too late to hire someone else at this point so let's make some garbage images." Realistically, I'll basically expect similar quality as their previous work assuming the production is able to give them similar level of resources, so them having some random brain fart after later reading the script is not really a concern for me.
There's a similar problem regarding unpaid script reading where actors are often required to spend large amounts of time doing unpaid auditions in order to get parts. Let's just say while I actually act quite a bit, it's mostly for my own productions, and I'm just glad I've never had to do an unpaid audition for myself.
I had a client recently say they wanted to schedule a Zoom video call with me to interview me to get to know me to see about hiring me for a corporate shoot. I told them my info is on my website and if they'd like to do a quick phone call to discuss details of the shoot, there would be no charge for that, but if they wanted to do a video call to get to know me, there would be a charge for that. I've had that happen multiple times. Most of my clients hire me based on the quality of my work and my gear list, not based on how an interview goes. Clients who want free interviews I don't tend to take as seriously; sometimes I'll do it, other times I'll tell them there will be a charge for it which they practically never go for. My time is not free, and I'm not going to waste a bunch of time offering excessive free interviews. I'm too busy with work as it is and need a vacation.
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