Directors Behind The Camera

A

adaml

Well-known member
Out of curiosity, I'm starting to look into directors who do their own camera work, whether as DPs (Satyajit Ray, Soderbergh) or as a wild camera (Cassavettes). Any recommended films, interviews, commentaries, etc, would be appreciated. I'm not so interested in those cases where the films or camera work suck ;)
 
Check out Luc Besson: The fifth element, the professional, La femme Nakita, Subway, Joan of Arc. Of directors that do their own camera work, I think he is the best by far. While Cassavettes did a lot of his own camera work, not exclusively so. I'm so glad you mention Cassavettes. So many young filmmakers credit opeing the doors of independent film to more recent directors, like Rodriguez (and no, that's not a dig to you Joe!), and are completely unaware of Cassavettes and his contribution.

Dan Selakovich
www.DvcameraRigs.com
 
I too think that Luc Besson has the best eye and composition for a director behind the camera. I assume you are referring to non documentary type films.
 
Kubrick operated camera for his handheld shots.

Ridley Scott likes to operate.

Nic Roeg was a DP before becoming a director, and DP'd his first two directorial efforts ("Performance" & "Walkabout").

Satyajit Ray, did not, as far as I know, DP his films. His frequent DP was Subrata Mitra.

Peter Hyams has DP'd a lot of his directorial efforts.
 
"So many young filmmakers credit opeing the doors of independent film to more recent directors, like Rodriguez (and no, that's not a dig to you Joe!), and are completely unaware of Cassavettes and his contribution." -danslak


I agree, my focus was on "digital" cinematography since this is a forum dedicated toward digital. As far as any filmmaker being his own DP, they all were at one point!

Joe
 
Thanks everyone for the leads. I find it facinating why some directors would chose to DP and/or operate camera on their own films and others not. Of course many directors aren't competent to do so but I'm thinking of the ones who are. Everything has its price though. I'm hoping to find comments by these directors on what they consider to be the pros and cons of the practice. I'm also curious how many of the DP's responsibilties they assume. For instance, it's hard for me to imagine that Soderbergh doesn't have some extra help which compensates for his lack of DP experience.

According to the Satyajit Ray sites, he did, later in career, prefer to DP himself. I'm not sure which films and I haven't seen any of them. Only the incredible Apu trilogy, which he didn't DP, is out on dvd.
 
I think it can be hard to trust someone to get it the way you want it. The reason some directors run the camera and make DP desicions is because they want control, not a bad thing, but they want it the way they want it. Plus it can be so much fun. The project I'm working on now, I've cast myself in one of the major roles, so it's hard for me to trust someone else to get it right when I'm not behind the camera. But you got to do what you got to do!

Joe
 
What's the problem, Joe? Can't you act and run camera too? If you're using the DVX, just hold it as far away from your body as you can (for that shallow depth-of-field) and flip the lcd around so you can monitor the shot. ;)
 
adaml said:
Thanks everyone for the leads. I find it facinating why some directors would chose to DP and/or operate camera on their own films and others not. Of course many directors aren't competent to do so but I'm thinking of the ones who are. Everything has its price though. I'm hoping to find comments by these directors on what they consider to be the pros and cons of the practice. I'm also curious how many of the DP's responsibilties they assume. For instance, it's hard for me to imagine that Soderbergh doesn't have some extra help which compensates for his lack of DP experience.

According to the Satyajit Ray sites, he did, later in career, prefer to DP himself. I'm not sure which films and I haven't seen any of them. Only the incredible Apu trilogy, which he didn't DP, is out on dvd.
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When Soderbergh or the others here "get behind the camera" they have full camera, grip and lighting crews. On the camera crew that would be at least a First Assistant Camera, Second Assistant Camera and a Loader. I would image that they also have on payroll, for union regulations, a camera operator. This individual probably eats doughnuts during the shoot. I would imagine that Mr. Soderbergh dosen't touch the camera unitl it is time to shoot.

On a mini-DV shot to direct and DP, I would advise having at least an camera assistant plus a couple of grips.
 
While Cassavettes did operate his own camera quite often, he was also known to hand the camera to just about anyone on set. I think he enjoyed seeing what other people would come up with for him...shooting angles and compositions that he never would have thought of on his own.

My point is, even those who do it "all on their own" are never truly doing it all on their own.
 
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