Interviewing your DP

R

ronin99

Active member
Hello,

I will be directing a low budget music video and will be interviewing DP's soon. The video will include greenscreen, crowds, and other music video elements. I have some ideas, but what questions should I be asking my potential cinematographers?

Thanks
 
Ask him about their opinion on how to execute the treatment.
What ideas they have about format?
What crew will you need?
What will you need for prep?
Do you have the time for prep and shoot?
What is your rate for 12 hours?
What do you think will be the biggest challenge for the budget?
What ideas do you have to maximize the budget (ie. two cameras, one day shoot, etc)?
What ideas do you have for coverage?
Can you work fast?
Are you comfortable working at this budget?
Can you pull a crew together for the rate?

I think asking them whether they like the artist or song is irrelevant if he's a professional. I've shot a lot videos where I'd never listen to the music and based on watching it you'd think I were their biggest fan. In an ideal world you'd only shoot content you love but that's just not everyday reality.

Also, I'd get at least four references based off you reviewing their resume. Get at least two producers and two directors for refs.

In fact, the questions you ask the references are as revealing or more than what you ask the DP.

I'd ask them:
Budget of what the DP had shot for them?
Did they commit to prep?
Were they high maintenance?
Did they work fast?
Did they bring in good crew and ideas?
 
hmm

hmm

I think it kinda is everyday reality. The music video industry sucks. If they can't afford to pay enough, they certainly can't afford to pay me to direct songs I hate or for that matter songs I only sorta like, but don't really like. This isn't 1999 or 2000 again. It's 2008 and the budgets are awful. If I'm going to waste my time on a music video it better be a good song at least. Don't get me wrong, I'd make a music video for a not-so-great song if the pay was great, but otherwise? No way. Not worth sacrificing your name for a few bucks. If you want to make it big one day, certainly it's not worth it for your reputation. Only work with good artists and good songs unless the pay is too good to deny.

I'd ask the DP if he is up for working more than 12 hours if that's what it calls for, but then again I'm not union. The answer to that question is very important to me. I don't like people who only want to work 12 hours and aren't team players. I need to know my crew is excited about the project and if it takes 16 hours to finish, they're all onboard. Now that should be figured out before shooting and pay adjusted accordingly, but I don't want a lot of groans about that either. This is film. If you want a 9-5 job work at Denny's.

I also would get a sense of what the DP thinks of different shooting formats, and if he's one of those, "Well I only like to shoot on film" people, then make sure you have the budget to do that. I wouldn't work with that guy if I was shooting digital, because now he's already making me self-conscious about the way we're doing the video for no reason at all, since film won't look ANY better than an HVX200 on YouTube or for that matter any other video site online, and honestly even on MTV it still probably won't look any better. It's a gigantic waste of money filming a music video on film, unless it's going to show in 1080p and in that case you should be able to tell the difference a bit. Too bad about 1% of your viewers will see it that way. Seems like a big investment for all of about 1000 people if you're really lucky watching it in HD, lol.

I like to get a sense of how dedicated to projects a DP is, like whether he's really committed to pre-production or if it's just something where he wants to walk on the shoot, do his job, and get paid. Very few professional DPs are this way, but you'd be surprised that a lot are actually. Then there are the others who are really devoted and they meet multiple times before the shoot, even if it's a one-day shoot, and have extensive notes about the lighting setup, the camera movements, etc., they have all sorts of ideas.
 
Haha, boy isn't that the truth!

I just got off the phone with my DP about this upcoming project, he had 100 questions, seriously. I could answer 75% of them. The problem is a director on set better be able to answer every question thrown his way. So... I'm at a C level right now, haha. The problem is we're still planning and a lot of his questions are great, necessary, valid questions that must be answered, but I just didn't have those answers yet for various reasons. Plus the concept is still changing. It's almost locked, because we'll have no options to change it soon enough, but there have been a ton of additions in the last few days. In fact I'd say it wasn't even a real concept until about the last three days, with the additions I've made (the band had an initial idea) and the ones the DP suggested.

I really think a great DP, like the one I'm working with to me is a great DP, is also a storyteller and has a really keen eye for how a story should work, what works visually, what messages are being conveyed, etc. My DP raised a bunch of questions related to story and concept that I hadn't thought through well enough, and through our discussions we built on each other's ideas and came up with a stronger concept that's less murky and much more understandable to viewers. So having a guy like that to bounce ideas off of is fantastic, it really helps me as a director. It's an example of where if you saw "Directed By Jonathan L. Bowen" on one music video with him, and another without, and the one without didn't turn out as good, the normal person might just assume it was a lower budget or thrown together or something else went wrong, but in reality it could have been because my DP gets more creativity out of me by being involved in the story, too. If you don't have that, I think you lose out on a lot of that relationship that's really meaningful. At least for me, that has been one of my biggest surprises going from knowing very little about the film industry to knowing at least a little about a lot of things. I used to believe the DP was just the camera dude, basically, who told people where to put lights and was responsible for making aesthetic decisions, but that he was just a technical guy in many respects. Now I don't think that's the case at all. I see the DP as an artist and storyteller, the cameraman may be more of a technical guy, but the DP at his best is every bit the storyteller the director is, he just works with the visual aspect more than the acting side of things.
 
There is. If your budget is $10,000 for a one-day shoot, you make it $50,000 instead. Then you film the same thing 5 times and see who passes their audition. ;)
 
Hahaha! Very true.

What I don't like is when someone sends me, "Hey this is a short film I directed, edited, shot, and did the music for!" Uhh, sorry, that doesn't count as a reel. I don't know what was going on there, but if you did it all I don't want to see it. I just want to see what you actually were DP for.
 
JonathanLB said:
I'd ask the DP if he is up for working more than 12 hours if that's what it calls for, but then again I'm not union. The answer to that question is very important to me. I don't like people who only want to work 12 hours and aren't team players. I need to know my crew is excited about the project and if it takes 16 hours to finish, they're all onboard. Now that should be figured out before shooting and pay adjusted accordingly, but I don't want a lot of groans about that either. This is film. If you want a 9-5 job work at Denny's.
Click to expand...

If you asked me if I could work more than 12, I'd say yes, but then I'd ask to see a schedule and make sure that it wouldn't happen. 95% of the time, there's no excuse for going over 12.

The DP who is fine with going to 16 hours if that's what it calls for is not one you should hire. It's just asking for a poor product and will only reflect poorly on yourself and your crew. No one can function to their full potential after that long of a work day.

Sorry, not to be all :( and everything, but I've been put through far too many death marches to not give my 2 cents on that one.
 
I would normally agree with you, but that's just not always the case. Ask anyone doing music videos. It's not at all abnormal for music video shoots even for major record labels (especially?) to go to 18 hour days. I think it's insane too. But we did a 24 hour day on my first music video. That was just because it took 3 hours to drive to the location and 3 to drive back, and there was loading and unloading equipment. I did that with my business partner so we were the ones working the longest day, but the actual filming was definitely only about 12-14 hours if you take away the meal breaks. There just wasn't any other way to do it. We couldn't afford to rent hotel rooms in that tiny town before the shoot unfortunately. The DP also worked incredibly slowly, though, we had no budget for a 1st A.D. and he really needed one.

In retrospect it was horrible abuse to the crew, haha, we paid the few grips we had $100 for what was a 20 hour day for them. I feel bad now for paying my grips $200 for a 10-12 hour day, just because I think they're worth $300 for that time period even if they're not union grips or really experienced grips, but still I'm not operating on large budgets so I do what I can to be fair. At the time, we didn't know anything, and were just doing our best to make the project happen, without really being very professional. I cannot believe we got such good people for what we paid, it just shows it's really competitive and ridiculous around here. Honestly I wish we lived in a world where if you offered $100 pay for a day, you'd only get film school students and total n00bs, because at least then the real professionals would be paid fairly. But every day on Craigslist I see more of the same BS, like today, someone offering $40 for a camera guy for the day, another wanting PAs for $10 plus food per day. I see about 1 in 20 posts with a decent offer whatsoever. And decent is like my offers, $200/day, not very good, but at the low end of acceptable.

It's easy for crew to say you can just do this or that, but it's not that simple. I had a few people suggesting for my last video that we could make it two days, and be more relaxed. I was like, uhh, I don't think so. We were spending $10,000 for one day of shooting, and if we had two days it would have been twice that. We were getting such a good break on equipment that came with a grip truck and generator, they wouldn't have given us two days for one even though it was the weekend. We would have to pay extra. Double crew pay, double meals, etc. But that shoot was 12 hours, including breaks, so it wasn't bad at all. We did a LOT in 12 hours.

This music video I shoot Sunday I think should be 8 hours, but that doesn't include for most people probably about 2 hours of driving to and from total. Maybe 2.5 hours. For me it'll be a 15 hour day probably. Drive to Burbank from downtown L.A. Load the U-Haul with my driver and the BTS camera guy if I can get his help. Ride in the U-Haul to Riverside. Shoot. Ride the U-Haul back to Burbank where the storage is, unload, drive back to downtown. Probably 7 a.m. start for me, I wouldn't expect to be back home before 8 if I'm really lucky, 10 if not.

I think a long day is probably harder on the crew than the director, maybe I'm wrong, but it seems that way to me. When I went 24 hours, I was really tired by the end but I was running on adrenaline and excited about what we were doing because it was my project and it was turning out great, it did turn out great. Plus even though I spent a lot of prep time on that shoot, it's probably not the same as working crew members who are on and off so many productions that they get worn down after a while. It depends, though, I work my butt off before a shoot, so if some of my crew have struggled to find work in the last week, they got to relax while I was working. But for those of them who didn't, who have been working hard, and will work hard after my shoot on other sets, then it's tougher for them in my opinion because no matter how much they like their jobs, they don't care about each project as much as the director does. My DP might really enjoy what he did, but how much ownership can a grip take in the project? Best case scenario he enjoys the day, had fun, got a paycheck, and on to the next project. That would certainly be my attitude. I'd remember the shoot I suppose but I would move on quickly. Whereas for the director, it's a big deal.

No matter how successful you are as a director, you will never be on as many shoots or even close to it as any working crew person. A good grip can be hired for so many projects per year, so many one-day shoots here and there, whereas for a director he might work on one or two small projects per month, but has to help plan them, prepare, shoot, and be involved in the editing one way or another, from start to finish of the project. So that's why I imagine it'd be easier for me to push myself really hard on shooting days compared to the crew because I have so much invested in the shoot, mentally and physically and sometimes financially.

Also if you're the average indie crew person around L.A., you need to keep working regularly to pay the bills, so if a shoot works you for 18 hours one day that screws up the next few days in some ways, ruins your sleep schedule, etc. Unless you really got paid well it's a pain in the butt. I, however, can afford to take the next day off and just sleep the entire time and not feel bad at all about it, as long as my shoot went well.

So I get your point, I think those really long days can be brutal. It's why I don't like to ask my crew to do that. Plus when you are more experienced, and work with better professionals, they are usually not going to be pleased if you tell them you want to shoot for 18 hours. I wouldn't ask my DP to do that now, wouldn't ask him to go over 12 honestly, unless it was completely necessary that we go 13 or 14 and he agreed. That being said, I really would like to know that if some screwup happens on the shoot, we have an emergency and the shoot has to be paused for two hours because we have to fix something or solve a crisis, that my crew is going to be cool about it and want to help me make this work. Rather than, "Well, 12 hours is up, screw this, I'm out of here!"
 
You work good people too hard and they won't want to come work for you again. I think that's that.
 
Yeah that's why I usually pay full-day for any decent portion of the day. I paid my DP his full $300 day rate for a 3-4 hour total, including driving (it was like 75 minutes on the shoot, lol), reshoot we needed for a training video. It was just a quick pickup of someone who had said the wrong lines, and nobody had noticed, I wouldn't have noticed because it was the company representative who had to watch for the exact wording from his employees, etc. So even though it was only 3-4 hours I paid the full day rate because what else can he do that day? Probably nothing.

If someone told me their day rate was 10 hours I'd assume they lived in Texas or Wisconsin or insert other state here. Nobody in Los Angeles works that way. You work 12 hours if the shoot calls for it and that's the deal. But there are shoots less than 12 hours, of course. The training video was basically one 12-13 hour day (with breaks it was not even close to 12, haha, we had so many breaks because we had to wait around for the location to clear), then another 6-hour day, and everyone had been paid for 3 days!
 
HAHA, so true...

You have to somehow love the abuse. Every time the week before a shoot, even when it's just a one-day music video shoot or whatever, I spend all of my time preparing. I have to make tons of phone calls, arrange all sorts of logistics, check equipment, talk with a bunch of people about ideas and what we want to do, what we can do for the budget, etc. I end up working 12-15 hour days just in pre-production, then the shoot is stressful and nerve-racking usually. But somehow it's still a blast and at the end of post-production you have your baby. ;)

For this music video shoot Sunday I believe a total of 850 man (and woman) hours will have gone into the completed project, for a 5 minute video. Pretty amazing for an indie video too, haha.
 
I'm always willing to put in the extra hours to get a project done, but only if I see that the director/producers have used their time wisely. When the crew sees that they're going into OT because the bosses have been goofing around the whole day, yet still demand that the crew go the extra mile, it's quite difficult to respect that request. Even if I as the DP agree to pull a 16-hr day out of commitment to the project, there's no excuse to deny G+E their overtime pay.
 
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