Directors who do camera

jambredz

jambredz

Veteran
Hey guys, i;m aware that in the indy world alot of directors do their own camerawork...well i guess on superlow budget or something. Anyway, i luv doing my own camera work, but i also like to direct my own stuff..then again i'm superlow budget where i am . Are there any big budget directors that do there own cam? I mean Rodriguez did..but he's not a low budget nobody anymore by any means...I duno if he still does it.
 
I've worked on a lot of low budget features, no budget features, and some sorta gotta budget features...Still haven't run into a director that shot their own films. I dunno, it seems like a lot of work to me. Not to mention hard.
 
I do it all the time. Michael Mann does it a lot. John Cassavettes did it constantly. I understand why it's not a good idea but I barely have people to act in my films. Besides which, it's good training.
 
I think it's good for a director to know how to operate the camera and in many cases, shoot, but to be perfectly honest I believe that by directing and shooting one or the other suffers as a result. at least, in my experience that is how it works.
 
I agree it can be difficult to do both, but it depends on the type of project and size of the production and crew (think Michael Moore). In general, it helps if a director ALSO excels behind the camera; sort of like the foreman who wouldn't ask a tradesman to do something he hasn't done himself.
 
Well, Kubrick was a shooter, as well as Cassavetes. I do a lot of shooting myself. It's ironic, though, I asked for shooters on this forum and nobody volunteered even for one day. LOL So I guess I'll have to shoot all of FELLINI DIRECTS AGAIN! by myself.

There are advantages to shooting a movie and directing oneself and there are disadvantages. It all depends on the style of film one is making. My movies are increasingly felliniesque, avant garde, cinema verite, so shooting ala one-man-band style suits me very well.

If you have a movie that is heavy on directing actors, you'd better have somebody else shooting for you. It's ok to do a few shots yourself; but overall, concentrate on directing actors. That's the main job of a director. Well, the traditional Hollywood director (99% of the movies you see in theaters).
 
Robert Rodriguez, whom might be credited as the DP has operators, assistants and a full G&E team at his disposal. And many of these directors whom are also shooters in a DP sense, have the same strong backing. As you said, in the low budget, indy world... it's more common to find Directors and DPs filling those two roles simultaneously, but as Finnegan mentioned, something will suffer, your time will be split upon two large roles that demand a ton. Not that it can't be done and done well right, you just need the right support team to allow it to happen. With a large enough camera team with the right skillset, they'll be able to handle 90% of the grunt work while you step in last minute and do the final 10% tweak to get the look and feel you want to achieve with that shot.

WIth bigger budgets, you have access to those resources and you can afford those teams. Yet, as a Director/DP myself... when I finally get the opportunity to direct something at a large scale, I'll be happy to go find someone much better than myself to DP :) Though I'm sure on certain inserts, little beats, certain action scenes, I'll want that camera up on my shoulder. I think that's why Michael Bay does it, Mann too... they know what they want in the edit... so they sometimes shoot just to get that right moment and not have to sit there talking into a radio, explaining the little nuance they want to a camera operator.
 
the only way I've been able to direct and DP simultaneously is to do two things -- scout exterior locations and schedule the shoot according to when the light is ideal there, and to pre-light the interior spaces so we can move freely within them. I do very little tweaking from setup to setup. I also operate sometimes too, but not always. I prefer to stand beside the op to watch the performances first-hand. i don't like watching from video village either and usually keep the editor on set to watch the monitor because she is the only other one thinking about how this stuff will cut together.
 
jambredz said:
Hey guys, i;m aware that in the indy world alot of directors do their own camerawork...well i guess on superlow budget or something. Anyway, i luv doing my own camera work, but i also like to direct my own stuff..then again i'm superlow budget where i am . Are there any big budget directors that do there own cam? I mean Rodriguez did..but he's not a low budget nobody anymore by any means...I duno if he still does it.
Click to expand...


I have actually seen RIDLEY SCOTT on set of Gladiator, and he shot B CAM himself. He's my hero! ala Blade runner!
 
i shoot my own stuff, only because i have no choice. it's great training, but i long for the day when i can put the camera down and only focus on the actors and other things that fall by the wayside on larger shoots. i'm not trying to prove anything by directing and Dp'ing, lol. thas for the birds. i just want to write and direct and later produce. period.
 
COOL THREAD AND SUBJECT,

As both a Director and a DP, a direct example i could share would be, using a Cartoni dutch head on a two shot with dialog. ( F 900 ) As the actors were doing their dialog, we were pushing in and as each actor said a specific line i could tilt and turn to each actor as the conversation got more intense or twisted adding an erie feel to the scene right at the moment it needed it. I could jump to a two shot and zoom in to a single , twist and dutch back to a two shot, etc . You know the dialog you want singles and two shots on and you can burn out a performance doing multiple takes.

I do not know if i could have communicated that complex of a scene to an operator without many takes, we did this in just two takes and the second was a safety. So i believe a director at the hand of the camera has an unique intimacy , when he thinks the shot, he gets the shot!
But i can certainly agree when there are times to just direct as well!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top