How many direction for your DP are too many?

Ask_the_dusk

Ask_the_dusk

Member
I'm making my first short and looking for a DP. I wrote it myself and now I'm preparing the shooting scrip with all camera directions. As a cinematographer do you prefer to read the shooting script or prefer to be given the original one first.

Is it o.k to give him every single camera angle and direction for the shot and suggestions for the camera lenses ?
 
You can give him whatever you want, you are the director after all. However, often times your DP will come up with some interesting ideas that you may have never thought of, and it's usually best to just give him a little direction and stand back.

Of course this only works if you trust him, if not, maybe you need to find a new DP or consider just looking for a camera operator.
 
A good DP can offer you ideas and insight into shooting your story that you probably couldn't come up with by yourself. I'd suggest you give him the script with no direction to start with and let him formulate his thoughts and ideas and go from there.
 
For me, it really depends on the director and the person. I shot one short where there were close to no camera directions at all and I basically got free hands. But I just now shot a trailer which was completely storyboarded (very well too) which meant that my work became to recreate that.
But for me it really depends on the director. Some has a lot of technical knowledge and tend to be more involved. The nice thing there is that you often have a similar technical level.
The total opposite is nice that you can really turn the picture into yours when it comes to cinematography.

But there are risks. The people who has no knowledge can cause too much confusion and end upp bogging the production down, while the others could start to compete with you who is the DP.

What I prefer is to have a director who is involved and gives me directions, feeling that it is his picture, but that always listens to me and what I have to say. After all, this is my area of expertise.
But I always want to read the film as a clean slate whenever I first read it first, to see what my own ideas are.
For a shooting script I'd give simple directions. For example write the general picture (close up), what's the subject (character A) and perhaps some basic composition (framed on the right side with a piece of a shoulder of another person in it) and possible movement (camera tilts down to reveal the shot). When it comes to lighting, stick more to feeling than technicalitites. Say something like "low key lighting" or perhaps mention the light source if it's important (a street light provides a hard, strong light, contrasting the otherwise dark scene). For lenses, don't say "28", but the feeling you want. Instead perhaps more along the lines of"big field of view with deep focus". Or desired effects (long tele lens to enchane the feeling of being watched) should go there.
Instructions like that provide me with the ultimate direction. This way I know what the director wants to see in the scene, but also what to say with the scene. Here I can easily tell what the director wants, but the risk of having too "technical" instructions is that they perhaps won't fit and get the scene how they actually want it, but you don't get any free hands to do anything about it.
 
Gabel said:
For me, it really depends on the director and the person. I shot one short where there were close to no camera directions at all and I basically got free hands. But I just now shot a trailer which was completely storyboarded (very well too) which meant that my work became to recreate that.
But for me it really depends on the director. Some has a lot of technical knowledge and tend to be more involved. The nice thing there is that you often have a similar technical level.
The total opposite is nice that you can really turn the picture into yours when it comes to cinematography.

But there are risks. The people who has no knowledge can cause too much confusion and end upp bogging the production down, while the others could start to compete with you who is the DP.

What I prefer is to have a director who is involved and gives me directions, feeling that it is his picture, but that always listens to me and what I have to say. After all, this is my area of expertise.
But I always want to read the film as a clean slate whenever I first read it first, to see what my own ideas are.
For a shooting script I'd give simple directions. For example write the general picture (close up), what's the subject (character A) and perhaps some basic composition (framed on the right side with a piece of a shoulder of another person in it) and possible movement (camera tilts down to reveal the shot). When it comes to lighting, stick more to feeling than technicalitites. Say something like "low key lighting" or perhaps mention the light source if it's important (a street light provides a hard, strong light, contrasting the otherwise dark scene). For lenses, don't say "28", but the feeling you want. Instead perhaps more along the lines of"big field of view with deep focus". Or desired effects (long tele lens to enchane the feeling of being watched) should go there.
Instructions like that provide me with the ultimate direction. This way I know what the director wants to see in the scene, but also what to say with the scene. Here I can easily tell what the director wants, but the risk of having too "technical" instructions is that they perhaps won't fit and get the scene how they actually want it, but you don't get any free hands to do anything about it.
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Hey, thanks! That was a great answer.
 
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