First Post on Should A Director do his Own Cinematography

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Zacatac927
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First Post on Should A Director do his Own Cinematography

Post by Zacatac927 »

My Vote is no, he is so busy with the actors, why busy himself with setting up all the technical aspects
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RE: First Post on Should A Director do his Own Cinematograph

Post by Kentertainment »

I disagree, Steven Soderbergh did all of his cinematography in Ocean's 11, 12, & 13 and I think it's pretty dandy. Cinematographers have camera operators, assistant camera operators, and a gaffer who do all the setting up. Mainly cinematographers will set up on smaller budget films but on the bigger ones they are achieving the vision the director wants by directing around the people who have to get it that way. If the director has knowledge in directing and cinematography then more power to him, he knows what he wants and he can get what he wants as he wants it.
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RE: First Post on Should A Director do his Own Cinematograph

Post by KultFilmsEntertainment »

I agree with Kentertainment. The director is the fellow with the big vision of how the entire film should be, and if he wants to have direct control over cinematography, he ought to. I do my own cinematography but that doesn't mean other people don't help operate the camera and get it all ready, white-balanced and whatnot, while I work on other preparations for the shoot.
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RE: First Post on Should A Director do his Own Cinematograph

Post by Knightly »

I think it depends on the Person...some people don't have the ability to communicate their vision to the cinematographer...they need to do their own...the directing will lack a bit for most directors...and the Picture will suffer a bit for most as well...

I've done both many times before. When I'm just a DP, I get better pictures as I can concentrate on just that. When I Just direct, I get better results from the actors.

Separating the jobs takes tons of trust though. It's easy to get burned by it. The pictures in your head isn't an easy thing to get transferred to someone elses effectively in detail. You need to find someone with a similar aesthetic to you to be the DP if you are a Director (by nature and necessity, an opinionated control freak).

As a DP though, you need to be able to interpret what the Director is trying to convey thorugh the shot. The ability to interpret different director's visions correctly is the key to the job...anyone can learn the technical aspects of that job...but the artistic portion is quite difficult.

The main problem (especially at the "Indie" level of filmmaking) is one of trust. We're not dealing with career professionals, so the crew we have access to can be less professional (working style, not necessarily results). The key is trust and the ability to let go of some of the control, Communication and more Communication.

Very few people can do both DP and Directing simultaneously effectively. More attention can be paid to each job, so it gets done well if you separate the tasks. Trust and Communication will allow us traditionally one-man show filmmakers to move up my filmmaking caste list!

Professional Studio Filmmaker
^
Independant Filmmaker
^
Funded Indie Filmmaker
^
Indie Filmmaker
^
Guerilla Filmmaker
^
Filmmaking Hobbyist
^
Backyard Filmmaker

Each stop on this list comes with larger casts and crews and more money, but less individual control over the product. More teamwork, trust and communication is necessary as we progress up the ladder. I'm liking the journey.
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RE: First Post on Should A Director do his Own Cinematograph

Post by Zacatac927 »

i know, all the while i was writing that i was thinking of Soderberg (SP?), i mean most don't have the chance or a big enough crew for it, luckily for me, my best friend wants to do cinematography, lucky for me i want to do directing, and we know what we both like, so its cool to not really have to care so much about it, i mean i do say i want a closeup, lights on his right side of face, but i don't have to go do it, i can deal with the actors performace
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RE: First Post on Should A Director do his Own Cinematograph

Post by foxwood »

It all depends on the director the type of movie and the budget. Like for myself if its a low budget flick I know enough to direct and do my own cinematoraphy but if I had a bigger budget I would probably get a profetonal person to do it for me so that it would actualy look good.
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RE: First Post on Should A Director do his Own Cinematograph

Post by Gyro »

The fact is, some people just can't do both. There are thousands of directors out there who have NO idea what a c-stand is, or an opal filter is--things cinematographers almost literally dream about.
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RE: First Post on Should A Director do his Own Cinematograph

Post by Ornsack »

A good director can take care of many areas of a film. Guess it just depends on what people are capable of. I'd probably need a cinematographer if I was to make a film any time soon *dreams about this... before snapping back to reality* because I don't really have any idea on how film works and what it's technically capable of, seeing as though I've learnt film making using VHS and DV all my life
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RE: First Post on Should A Director do his Own Cinematograph

Post by Gyro »

Turns out the only reason Soderbergh is able to do both so well, is because he has one heck of a Gaffer.
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RE: First Post on Should A Director do his Own Cinematograph

Post by Epsilon »

Also, he's Swedish. :)

Not only does it depend on the person, but also on the production value itself. You may not be able to seperate the tasks if you are an amateur filmmaker. You may not even be able to find a dependable producer. Knightly explained it pretty well. Basically, it is difficult to attain and effectively work with a large crew when the entire project has no clear results. Plus, you want to work with people you know are dependable at what they claim to do. Those who already have a reputation probably wouldn't do an amateur project for free. Now we're talking tricks to get into the business...
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