Looking for industry proffessionals to give advice on cinematography and directing.

[BigmacJack98]

Hi I'm currently studying film and television at a college in London. One of the tasks in my assignment is to produce a career file and get in contact with people that might have experience in the industries that you might want to go into. I was just wondering if anybody had any experience and advice when it comes to these roles e.g. progression routes, daily tasks and what sort of skills you need to fulfill these roles.

[Quality]

Well, I'm not industrial. I can only tell you from an independent standpoint, which is a lot less tedious.

[film_autre]

you need talent and hard work.

[Quality]

I think he's looking for something more in depth.

[indietalk]

One thing you can do is go to a site like http://mandy.com, and look for the full-time jobs available for directing and cinematography (camera operator), and see what is listed for their duties.

[BigmacJack98]

Thanks a lot for the responses guys! I'll take a look at Mandy.com and hopefully get some useful information from that. Do you guys think it might be worth trying to contact professionals via their social media pages?

[indietalk]

You can ask here but it's best you ask more specific questions. Plus a lot here don't work 9-5 studio jobs, so it depends what you're looking for.

[BigmacJack98]

Okay well mainly I'm looking to find what the fundamental aspects of these roles are, for directing what is the traditional progression route to finally get to a directing role? Is a degree seen as being beneficial in this process? How does a director manage to keep their team happy as well as them selves, is it good organisation, people skills, experience or respect?

In terms of cinematography how important is having knowledge about the equipment you could be potentially using? Are there any particularly great pieces of cinematography that you like? If so which ones.

Any responses are welcome and would be greatly appreciated!

[Sweetie]

for directing what is the traditional progression route to finally get to a directing role?

The most direct progression line to directing is directing.

Editing and Acting. For a lesser degree, producing & writing. After that, you see speckles from all over the map of those who have progressed from one department to directing.

Is a degree seen as being beneficial in this process?

No and Yes. That depends on you. There are plenty of threads and articles that have discussed this to death. I'd guess Film School would be good for you. Those who do well without film school are those who can research and come up with their own conclusions. Those who require spoon-feeding should attend.

How does a director manage to keep their team happy as well as them selves, is it good organisation, people skills, experience or respect?

All of the above and more. It's summed up by being a leader. Everyone has their own style and their own way of doing things. It should also be noted, as a director, it's not your job to keep people happy. Trying to keep everyone happy is a fools errand. The cast and crew are there to do a job. First and foremost, you need to know your job. If you fail in this department, morale will be tough to maintain. If you can, learn to inspire your team.

In terms of cinematography how important is having knowledge about the equipment you could be potentially using?

As a director? It's both important and not-important, depending on the directors style. Some are intricately micromanaging the camera where others leave the DOP to do their job. In reality, you'll find a balance that is right for you, somewhere in the middle.

[Alcove Audio]

The demands made upon the director, as well as any of the dept. heads in pre-, production and post, will vary depending upon the budget level.

I do lots of work at the low/no/mini/micro budget level. I do all of my own cue sheets for dialog, Foley, sound effects, and score/music. I do all the dialog editing & clean-up, perform all of the Foley, create from scratch and pull from various sources all the sound effects, edit the score & source music as needed and mix the results. I very rarely get involved until the final cut (or close to it) is complete.

At the "Hollywood" budget level the supervising sound editor oversees the teams for each of those categories (DX edit & ADR, Foley, sound FX) so that everything comes together as a cohesive whole during the mix. Sometimes the sound designer is also the supervising sound editor, but not always. The sound designer and/or supervising sound editor may or may not be deeply involved in preproduction. Sometimes the sound designer and/or the supervising sound editor will mix, sometimes not.

And there are many shades of gray in-between.

Production sound is the same. At the indie level it's one person with a basic kit; at the mega-budget level it's a production sound mixer, a boom-op and an audio assistant with all the variations in-between.