Seeking a Talented Director

Wave of Light

Wave of Light

Carbonite Member
I'm seeking a Director to help put together my DP reel. I intend on putting considerable amount of money into it so it looks beautiful. The money is going to pay professional help, gear rental, locations and meals. My initial thought was to just shoot a few random shoots, but I if short narrative could be developed it’s a plus. All shooting will be done in NJ, unless another location is too hard to refuse.

Does a forum exist where Directors gather like DPs do at the Landmine Media, Inc. sights?
 
While there is a certain logic to this, you could save a lot of money by just shooting other people's films (and maybe make a little bit while you are at it)? While it might take a longer to gather enough footage, the experience you gain by "real world" shooting rather than delicately constructing images just for the purposes of a reel will be more helpful once you start doing what the reel is for, i.e. getting hired to shoot other people's films!

Back in the day I built my reel by shooting a lot of shorts. There were times that I thought the script was all but worthless but I would get a little something out of it for the reel. One short in particularly had a four-shot opening sequence that was much more stylized than the rest of the film, and I took the project expecting to get nothing more out of it than those four shots. And that's exactly what happened. That was 12 years ago and two of the shots remain on the reel to this day (but will likely get the boot on the next revision...their time has come)! Even though the rest of the film wasn't reel-worthy, the experience of shooting the project taught me a few things that were valuable in other ways.
 
I have never heard of any Dp planning shoots to make a reel, Every dp I know just takes their favorite shots from projects they worked on, and then cut it together and form a reel. I guess what your doing is ok, kind of seems like a fraudulant way of compiling a reel. But thats just me.
 
I don't think there's any moral implications to it; if you lit a scene, you lit a scene regardless of whether or not it was on someone else's dime (now: having a gaffer do the lighting for you, that to me borders on fraudulent--but there's more than a few established DP's who work in that paradigm, so who am I to point fingers). It's pretty similar to a director building a reel by shooting specs. Where I see THAT as fraudulent is when they then list those on a resume--no people, just because you submitted to the Doritos contest does not mean you shot a commercial for Doritos.
 
I don't think there's any moral implications to it; if you lit a scene, you lit a scene
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I understand what your saying, I guess it's just that the way I see it is that there's a difference between dp'ing a film project, and dping a few random scenes. If I were gonna pick a dp that took his shots from actual films that he shot vs a dp that setup a few random scenes to make a reel, I would pick the later first, providing the work was similar in the end. My reasoning behind this is experience, working with a crew, compiling a shot list for entire film, deligating authority to the camera crew and working with gaffers, ect.... shows the dp has real world set experience. It shows he can start and finish a project. It shows he's been in the game long enough to aquire enough material from his jobs to actually make a reel. That in itself shows a lot as far as character goes.

Now if you make a reel with different types of scenes giving the impression that you shot a lot of different projects, it kind of seems wrong, as if it's like saying" yeah, I dpd all these different projects" when in all actuality you didn't, you dp'd some random scenes.

If your really haven't done the work, are you really worthy of having a reel in the first place? I think thats a big problem with the market today, everyone that has a camera and shot a few small scene's considers themself a dp, making it harder to weedout the real ones. I'm not trying to be hard on the op, i'm sure he's a great guy just trying to get in the game, and find some paying gigs. Maybe I have an old school warped outlook, which i'm sure is a part of it.
 
Listen, I agree with you 100%. When went freelance more than 20 years ago, I was being hired by various production companies as a DP but it took me two years before I felt comfortable calling myself one (I preferred "lighting cameraman") out of respect for the position. Seems like a quaint and overly humble concept these days. Do I wince a little when I see signatures of college (or high school!) students with "Director of Photography" in bold below their name? Sure. But this is the era of self-promotion and it is what it is.

As I suggested above and you expanded on, the job of a DP is far more than making pictures. Many new shooters have only a rudimentary understanding of this. I regularly work with directors who tell me horror stories.

Your point, "if you really haven't done the work, are you really worthy of having a reel in the first place?" is largely a solid one. There are those who "get it" out of the gate, that have a natural talent for the various aspects of being a working cinematographer who are perhaps saddled by working in a small market or getting the good jobs because of their thin resumes. For them, having a few extra pieces of eye candy on the reel can't hurt. For most, though, the experience of working with multiple directors and production environments is crucial to their development and they may find themselves in over their head if their reel suggests more experience than they can deliver.

Ultimately though, and this is why I didn't come into this discussion with guns blazing: today's economics and technology have made it possible for a much wider range of ability and experience to work in this field. And to be frank, there are a lot of directors and producers out there who have precious little experience themselves, so perhaps they all deserve each other...
 
While there is a certain logic to this, you could save a lot of money by just shooting other people's films - CharlesPapert
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I would love to, if I could find one or more.

If your really haven't done the work, are you really worthy of having a reel in the first place? -maranfilms
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If you have a reel you have done the work, don't be silly. A reel simply shows that you are competent at proping, framing, lighting, exposing and recording moving pictures. You are reading way to far into it. I'm not seeking to be a Producer or a Director.

My reasoning behind this is experience, working with a crew, compiling a shot list for entire film, deligating authority to the camera crew and working with gaffers - maranfilms
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"compiling a shot list for entire film" is the job of the 1st AD, not a DP. Would you say that 'working with a crew' and 'deligating authority to the camera crew and working with gaffers' to be redundant? Also, how many gaffers do you work with on set? I haven't been on set with more than one gaffer. I think you may be a bit of a charlatan.

I have been working with Charlatans (a DP once asked me what film stock he should use while we were on a scout) for almost 20 years, they get the work and repeat work. Not being a Charlatan, and not particularly charismatic it is very hard to get work. Am I willing to wait any longer for the right job to come along? NO! I am going to make it myself. Did you notice that I would be highering Professional help? A professional, like myself, makes all his income form the film/video industry. I will not screw these people around, because I have been screwed around in the past.

My problem is that I am too fat and comfortable being a gaffer. I need to put some skin on the line in order to move up. I don't know where to find the people who want to make all these short films and all the ones that I have, want to see a reel (even the yahoos on Mandy.com), which is one of the reasons I made this post to begin with. I shot 1 short film, I have footage from a Day Spa, and a few interviews, not really adequate for a serious director. I have been the gaffing/lighting department for 20 years.

Getting back to my original post I am seeking a Talented Director. Does anybody know where to find Directors?
 
A lot of people in the biz shoot demo-specific reels to show what they are capable of, kind of how Honda will shoot a commercial to show you how their cars perform.
 
I think it's a smart way to approach making a reel. Obviously working on real films will be more advantageous, but if you don't have the luxury of working on good projects, this is probably the next best way to go about it.
 
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