The DP or Director comes up with an elaborate shot and before you can get in the mix someone else starts suggesting ways to do it that you know won’t work. How do you handle this?
I’ve been fortunate not to have found myself in this position often. If someone with pull is making suggestions that will limit the shot and lead to the execution not being exactly what the director/DP wanted, I will step up immediately and explain why doing the shot that way will be problematic. If my intervention is not achieving the desired effect, I’ll bring the DP into the mix and explain to them why the proposed way of doing the shot won’t get the camera where they or the director need it to be. If the DP sides with the key grip after I’ve explained why I think it will be a problem, then so be it - I’ve done everything I can do. If I was wrong, and the shot works as intended, then great. If it doesn’t, then I’ve done everything I could do, and the added time necessary to rebuild the shot isn’t on my hands.
That being said, I haven’t found myself in this situation often, and not for a long time. Part of this is being lucky enough to work with DPs who understand how things work, and that tend not to have hot-shot key grips, gaffers, ACs, and (gasp) operators on their staff – just people who do great work without making a big show out of it. This seems to allow for more communication about how to accomplish something as a unit, and the end result is that it is rare for this kind of confrontation/disagreement to arise.
Ha great question. I hate it when others chime in. Especially eager Key Grips, ESPECIALLY ones trying to rent their own or their buddy’s gear to do the shot the way they are suggesting.
Perhaps the bigger question is why isn’t the question coming to you, the operator. Building in early on in a project with your Director & DP that you hope to gain their trust so they will come to you with their ideas first. A good thing even to plant during an interview.
You can’t demand someone’s trust, you have to earn it. You have to show you are competent and able to come up with succinct and effective solutions. Letting them know up front that you are aware of this and will strive for their trust so they WILL come to you with that idea, is a good start.
And clarify with them that you hope they will trust you to involve you in ideas from the outset. A Key Grip will generally offer ideas primarily based on equipment. An Operator should offer/discuss a shot based on telling the story. In either case, the egoic “Hey, look what I can do!”, should be left at the hotel.
You’ve got to get out in front of that quick. If things are going donw a road that won’t work, you are the one who has to pull it off. Sadly there is no right way to do this. Publicly puts it out there and pretty much stops it (or can stop it) but you can piss people off. Privately you might not get the desired effect. But at the very least, don’t leave the public discussion with them thinking everything is set. A “we will figure it out we just need to iron out some bumps” at least sets up that everything is not hunky dory.
The honest answer is there is no right answer and even now, with all my years of experience I can get talked into things where I can see they are going to go wrong. It’s like imagining two neighbouring countries are going to get on and we all know how that works out in reality. Sometimes the operator vs the grip or vs the DOP is a very real thing, other people might not see it, but you as the operator can see it and feel it and I can be testament to the fact that its at times a very lonely place to be.
A lot of the time, the key grip might have been bought on way before the operator because of their involvement in other areas of rigging and safety so there is times when you turn up on the tech recces and you’re like “huh a crane here, really? What about the back pan.?” My go to approach in this area is its easier in smaller numbers, so if a decision is made in a large group, i quite often wont speak up, then I go and approach the right people in the right order, maybe take the DOP aside and explain how it would be easier for operating if I do X,Y and Z and do you mind if I move the crane/dolly etc slightly. Then I talk to the grip and then the 1st AD, it’s a game of domino’s that you have to try and move in the right order / direction and it doesn’t always work.
Sometimes you have to sit there and wonder how you got in this situation. The other thing is think ahead, if you can get the AD’s and runners moving stuff so you can can rehearse the shot, that gives you the most amount of time to rehearse with the stand ins and look good. Always try to buy yourself time.
Ultimately be nice to people, they are more likely to think about your way, if you’re constantly nice to them.
