unique. It doesn't help the world for somebody to be able to copy John
Schwartzman's work. What is important is that you bring your own
sense of authorship to what you do."
Advice for Someone Seeking This Job
"Everybody comes to filmmaking by a different route," says Crudo,
"which makes it so interesting, but you have to study and apply yourself
constantly. It's not an easy thing to do, so you have to have a certain
amount of passion just to get through the process. You need to make per-
sonal connections with people that are in the industry, so that they will
help you get work. Learn from them. Learn something new every time
you're on a set, regardless of whether you're a production assistant or on
the camera crew.
"I came up through the system as an assistant," Crudo says, "so I have a
certain bias toward that route. When I was an assistant, I worked with some
of the best cinematographers in the world and that was an education that
you couldn't afford to pay for . . . Many young people get out of school and
want to start at the top as a cinematographer. It doesn't quite work that way.
People forget that on every set the cinematographer is going to be the most
experienced person there, almost without exception. You are much better
served to start out as an assistant, work up to operator, and learn the job
from the inside out. Otherwise, you shortchange yourself."
According to Crudo, you must be tenacious to succeed as a cinematog-
rapher. "Tenacity, more than anything--more than anything: tenacity. I
really do mean that. I cannot emphasize enough to people how difficult a
pursuit this is. Unless you're born in it or touched by a silver spoon, it is
an incredibly, incredibly difficult pursuit to get the work and keep the
work going. The opportunities are fleeting and it's a capricious process.
In many ways, it doesn't have anything to do with you personally or
your abilities. It's a very capricious process, the way jobs will come to
you, and there is no rhyme or reason."
"Contact people whose work you admire and ask their advice," says
Daviau. "Come and watch them on the set. Come and be an intern when
you can. Work a lot for free. You need to find allies . . . It's what I call the
art of being persistent without being a pest."
"Try to support yourself and just go out and shoot," advises Mathis.
"In the absence of having trucks full of lighting and actors, when your
resources are limited, take still photographs. Pick a movie whose visual
style you like and try to emulate a few frames. I used to pause the VCR
on certain frames and try to diagram what I thought the lighting was,
then set it up with the crudest household lamps.
User Comments Add a comment…