Problem with DOP Crediting

K

Kenneth Lau

Active member
Hey guys, I am currently dealing with some crediting issue on a film I shot. This might be a rare case but I just wanted to hear your thoughts.

3 years ago I volunteer to DP a short film and now found out that the IMDB credit of DOP is somebody else. Called up the producers and I was told that they decided to make that short film into a feature film and they hired somebody else to do it. Therefore, I only ended up shooting less than half of the film and can only credit me as a 2nd Unit DOP.

This sounds stupid but I probably wouldn't have volunteer if I knew I wouldn't be credited as main unit Director of Photography. But of course, they are saying they wouldn't have known that they wanted to make this as a feature at first place.

In a situation like this, do I still have the right to fight for the credit as main unit DOP or I just have to live with it ?

I'm pretty confused since I have never have anything like this happen.
 
Yeah I think that is the problem

I was still new at the time and because it was volunteer, I don't recall signing anything
 
Then don't worry about it. Since you were so new, it likely was far far from the best work you'll ever do - in fact you'll look back in a few years and think it downright sucks. You don't want that early effort following you around forever.
 
Is it any good? Do you even want to be associated with it? Some feature films based on a short film have been great but shorts stretched into a feature rarely are. The ideas that are suited to shorts usually don't have enough steam to carry a feature length and the bodge job of inserting an extra 45 minutes or more into what should have been a tight little single concept script will inevitably be cack-handed.
 
Whether or not you would have volunteered without the DP credit is beside the point.

The fact is, another person did the majority of the DP work on the finished film. That person deserves DP credit.
 
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