Filming Non-Wide Shots with Wide-Angle Lenses

[ullanta]

Go GLow!

 

[ASchear]

Well, I ended up sticking it out and going on Sunday since I didn't hear anything back Saturday night from here and I didn't want to bail on the project the night before a shoot. Sunday actually ended up being worse than Saturday, so I met with the producers last night and talked to them about my desire to resign as DP for this film.

I didn't mean to sound in my post like I expected to be treated like royalty behind the camera, but on a student project where the emphasis is on collaboration (this being one of two productions for the semester for the film club with >100 members), as the DP I was expecting to be a little bit more vital to the project than I was. Not Deakins vital, but at least more vital than, and I quote from my last post, "checking focus and setting the exposure right." I wasn't even operating the camera during the shots. If I was riding the dolly, it was to pull focus; otherwise I was dolly gripping. I was told from the beginning of Saturday that I wasn't to use any lights because we were outside and he wanted to use natural light (which would be fine if the shots weren't designed to have the actors in the shade for wides; every shot). On 50% of Sunday's shots, I was told "let me [the director] shoot this one, it will just go faster."

To the film, it's not going to make a difference whether I was there or not. I never was in charge of camera placement, lens selection, or frame. And anyone with half a brain can set the focus and exposure (especially with the director right there saying "make it a little brighter / darker"). So any mention of me being a senior was directed towards this - why ask someone with all this experience and knowledge instead of someone with very little experience if it won't make a difference? All I was ever going to do was fight for a little more input, where someone who doesn't know the difference between a good shot and a bad shot wouldn't.

I don't mean to be brash by saying so, but if this is how sets really are for DP's, then I obviously got into the wrong area. I think this is simply a gross misrepresentation of how the job really is. I think a lot more often, I'll actually be the person there looking at what the camera is recording, rather than a director that insists on being the person behind the camera (the 5D screen doesn't really support two people there, especially outside in harsh sunlight). At one point, I was shading the screen with my hands to see it, and I was asked to move my hands so that the director could watch.

I also asked the producers to credit me as AC and to say I just wasn't able to make it in two weeks due to a schedule conflict. I felt that two weeks would be enough time to find a replacement for me. They were completely understanding of my situation and reasoning behind it...so maybe there's something I'm not translating here from what happened.

 

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

I don't mean to be brash by saying so, but if this is how sets really are for DP's, then I obviously got into the wrong area.

For 'student' activities, where individuals have not sufficiently specialized, it may be more frequent than not. There may be occasions where this would happen on 'pro' sets... and there are
announcements on occasion that 'X has left the project', due to 'creative differences'... sometimes may just mean not enough money was offered... other times it may be just based on
different aesthetics of the parties involved...

From your very first post, I really wondered if you had spent any time with the director, over the script, and come to some conclusion about the 'aesthetic' of the director, relative to yours.

It really doesn't seem like that took place.

If there is an object lesson here, it is exactly that... find out what the director wants, and whether you can deliver, or want to deliver what is wanted.

 

[KahL]

For 'student' activities, where individuals have not sufficiently specialized, it may be more frequent than not. There may be occasions where this would happen on 'pro' sets... and there are
announcements on occasion that 'X has left the project', due to 'creative differences'... sometimes may just mean not enough money was offered... other times it may be just based on
different aesthetics of the parties involved...

From your very first post, I really wondered if you had spent any time with the director, over the script, and come to some conclusion about the 'aesthetic' of the director, relative to yours.

It really doesn't seem like that took place.

If there is an object lesson here, it is exactly that... find out what the director wants, and whether you can deliver, or want to deliver what is wanted.

Well said.

 

[ASchear]

For 'student' activities, where individuals have not sufficiently specialized, it may be more frequent than not. There may be occasions where this would happen on 'pro' sets... and there are
announcements on occasion that 'X has left the project', due to 'creative differences'... sometimes may just mean not enough money was offered... other times it may be just based on
different aesthetics of the parties involved...

From your very first post, I really wondered if you had spent any time with the director, over the script, and come to some conclusion about the 'aesthetic' of the director, relative to yours.

It really doesn't seem like that took place.

If there is an object lesson here, it is exactly that... find out what the director wants, and whether you can deliver, or want to deliver what is wanted.

Totally agree. It's actually something that I mentioned to the producers yesterday and something I took away from the project. I did spend some time meeting with him, but not before I was really committed to working on the film. Had I done so, I wouldn't be in this situation.