ASK & DISCUSS
INDEXWhat is the best way for a graduate to get work?
9 years, 11 months ago - Ben Gwyther
After recently graduating from Falmouth University, im starting to look for jobs as part of a camera team. What is the best way to sell myself to people for work? Im Reading based and able to train to London or Bristol easily.
Only members can post or respond to topics. LOGIN
Not a member of SP? JOIN or FIND OUT MORE
9 years, 11 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin
Ask anyone you know who is already working in the department if you can come in as a 'camera trainee'. It's hard work, it's long hours, it's the entry grade, it's probably expenses only, but it gets you used to working on set and how a professional camera department works on a movie.
Learn from the 2AC how to do their job, then sometime you'll get a job as a 2AC and work up to 1AC, then operator. It takes time, but it is worth taking time to learn your trade properly. Too many fresh graduates think they know it all, and are shocked when they compare the theory with the reality!
Response from 9 years, 11 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin SHOW
9 years, 11 months ago - Dan Selakovich
Tons of good advice from everyone. I got my start in the camera department in the late 70s (realized I was a pretty good editor in the 80s, and never looked back). But here's where I started, and it may have not occurred to you: commercials. And the thing about commercials is that even no-nothing grads get paid. There are lots of agencies and commercial production companies--tons more than feature films. So you might look into that. I can't imagine the industry has changed all that much since then, but hey, I could be completely wrong. Still, something to think about.
Response from 9 years, 11 months ago - Dan Selakovich SHOW
9 years, 11 months ago - John Lubran
Good points Paddy, What also helps these days is the excellent live monitoring and instant playback available. Good eyesight, with glasses if required, is essential together with a knowledge of what's possible and how to get it. Monitoring needs properly calibrating to reflect what's actually being shot so that what you see is what you get. A mega leap on waiting for the lab to provide those anxious dailies and an instantaneous teaching aid.
Response from 9 years, 11 months ago - John Lubran SHOW
9 years, 11 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin
Oh, one more tip - get out your GCSE physics handbook and learn how light works. Light and lenses haven't changed no matter what other technologies have moved. Pinhole cameras are dark, but sharp - add more pinholes and they're brighter, but fuzzy. This is at the very core of everything to do with camera department, and it means you stand a chance of not being a camera fetishist following folklore, but understanding the reality. Very rarely do you need that hyperfocal of half-an-inch, more likely you want most of your subject in focus, so you don't need a f.95 lens which you then stop down with a bunch of ND (or whatever). Some camera dept listen to folklore as if it were science. I have had lenses rejected as 'too soft for what we need', when in the tech test they were superior to what was requested (and more expensive). Many feel the need to have toys for their own sake - resist this. Instead, learn how light works, and it'll stand you in good stead - it isn't going to change any time soon.
Response from 9 years, 11 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin SHOW
9 years, 11 months ago - John Lubran
Good point Dan. Many a great movie director began with commercials. It's significant that in terms of cost and effort per minute it's high end commercials that hold the records. A million pounds for a 30 second advert is not unusual. Don't know what the current record is but at one point at least five years ago it was £3m, or equivalent to £6m per minute! The point is that the effort and application of creative and technical skill from commercials production teams is every bit as skilled as it is for movies. As Dan says, there are additional opportunities for career development in movies via that sector too.
Response from 9 years, 11 months ago - John Lubran SHOW
9 years, 11 months ago - Dan Selakovich
I know, John! Those commercial budgets are insane! Here in America, and perhaps it's the same in the U.K., ad agencies are paid a percentage of the budget (cost plus contracts I think they're called). So they try to spend as much as the client can possibly pony up! That's why everybody gets paid, and paid really well. I loved doing those commercials!
Response from 9 years, 11 months ago - Dan Selakovich SHOW
9 years, 11 months ago - Jamie Kennerley
Paddy has that one nailed Ben. Trainee is the way forward. And often it's the 2nd AC (Clapper loader) who would be the person to approach about that role as they have to work with them most directly. Most serious productions have a trainee, so you just need to start knocking on doors, and you'll even find that on the really good productions it's paid!
Alongside that, look out on sites like this for no-budget productions that are working with proper camera crew. That's also a very good ways to meet camera department folks on shoots that are possibly a little less pressured, and where you might also end up doing a bit more than on a professional shoot. Hopefully then those guys could then take you onto a real shoot with them. It's as much about knowing people as anything really.
Response from 9 years, 11 months ago - Jamie Kennerley SHOW
9 years, 11 months ago - John Lubran
Jamie and Paddy's advice is very well founded.
Ben's aspirations are not entirely clear, though I imagine he's into feature films; however camera work covers a broad range of applications. The differences between shooting a feature movie and much documentary can be huge, as are the uniquely individual pathways to developing a career.
What makes an excellent feature film cameraman is often quite inappropriate for documentary, and vice versa. Skillfully and creatively 'painting by numbers' within a preinstalled structure or skillfully and creatively responding to the unexpected, with minimal support, is of the essence. I'd suggest that shooting high production values docs can be a useful pathway to shooting features, which might be a preferable pathway for some.
How long does it take to master camera skills? How long is a piece of string? The shift from celluloid to digital is significant in that digital is technically less demanding, cheaper and more tolerant and consequently much more helpful to the process of speedy learning.
As a veteran multitasking producer and production skills teacher over the last three decades I have to reiterate my oft stated observation that career paths and skills development processes are not carved in stone by anyone. I have seen almost instantaneous blossoming from rank beginner to top notch excellence in months, and even weeks. camera skills are increasingly creative and decreasingly technical. Certainly it's not as easy as falling off a log, but It's not quantum physics. The ever increasing user friendliness of production technologies allow much greater integration of production skills and those who possess multitasking abilities are going to have more opportunities to be professionally employed, and indeed self employed, in the future. The days of the one trick pony are numbered in my estimation.
Often it's the difference between learning by rote and learning through innate ability. Glass ceilings only exist in the minds of the former.
Response from 9 years, 11 months ago - John Lubran SHOW