When do you volunteer creative input and when do you stay silent?
I volunteer creative input as early in the process as I possibly can to gauge whether or not I'll be having fun on the job creatively, or if I'll just be carrying the camera around hitting marks and making the best compositions I can. I will have spoken to the DP about what's expected of me by the director if I've never worked with them before. I will have read the script several times so that I'm familiar with character arcs and critical story beats. If something occurs to me while setting up a shot that I think might improve the visual story-telling I will bring it up. This may be on day one, or it might be a little longer if I'm not pretty certain yet that my input will be appreciated. It's doesn't need to be accepted, but if it's considered then I know I can approach the director with ideas, though I usually run them by the DP first until the relationship with the director is cemented and everyone is trusting each other. Then the job is a lot more fun.
Sometimes the idea is accepted, and sometimes it isn't. But the good directors will appreciate that you're involved enough to care about telling the story in the best way you know how.
I've had vehement rejection and acceptance within an hour. I remember arguing with Michael Bay about a setup on Armageddon and he finally pulled seniority and yelled at me, "Just do it! It's my f*cking movie!" The very next setup I asked him what he wanted to do for a low angle B Camera shot that was small potatoes compared to what A Camera was setting up, and he looked at me, a bit exasperated, and said, "I don't know, make you're own f*cking movie."
Then there are movies where you have perhaps more creative input than you anticipated. A director I won't name, on a movie I won't name either, really didn't know which way was up, so to speak. At the end of nearly every setup the director turned to me and asked, "What should we do next? How should we shoot this?" The DP couldn't stand the director and left me to deal with this situation for the rest of the movie. That's more creative input than you want, especially when you think the script is terrible. But that's a rare situation. Usually you will encounter a mixed bag of directors happy to accept some input, as well as directors who know exactly what they want for a certain scene and aren't interested in your ideas. As you become more experienced, you'll be able to better judge when it's appropriate to make suggestions. That's all part of the operator's most important skill: communication.
I work primarily as a B camera operator, and my days of operating steadicam are behind me, so the scope of my work on set is typically more limited. My moments of creativity have to work within the overall style of the show, as well as to not interfere with the A camera’s shot, or the lighting.
I work mostly with DPs that have a plan for both A and B cameras, so I usually have to work within that confine. That being said, there is always room to improve a shot, and it is important to spend as much time as you can studying the shot from the moment you get the assignment, until the AD or director calls cut, in a search to make it as good as it can be.
I started in music videos, where anything went, and rules typically didn’t apply, before moving on to features. My first experience on a large film after many years of videos, was with a big-time DP, who lined up shots with a viewfinder and had the dolly grip use a tape measure to record the height of the lens. There wasn’t much flexibility for additional creativity with his shots, and if you saw a reason to alter his frame, you’d better approach him early in the process and have a good reason as to why you wanted to adjust. I learned quickly from him, and adopted this operator/DP approach to communication. If I have a reason to move the camera from my original assignment, I always confer with the DP. Not all DPs are as involved with the camera, or want to be bothered with little details once they’ve moved on to lighting, and in those cases, as long as I’m not interfering with the lighting or the A camera’s shot, I’ll make the adjustment with my team.
As with most things we do, every set is different. What works with one DP might not work with the next. The key, especially when working with someone for the first time, is to not assume it is okay to go rogue with the camera. Always talk to the DP before making a major change until you have built up a level of trust, and know what to expect his or her reaction to be. I personally prefer to play it safe, and involve the DP in any changes I’m thinking of making.
Right off the abt, every set is going to be different in this regard and every individual you work with is going to be different. The simple rule of thumb before you open your mouth with some great idea? Read the room.
Who is it going to upset? Who is it going to create work for? Who might feel that it is showing them up? Who is going to support you? All of these things come into play as to should you bring up an idea and then the question becomes how do you bring up that idea. Sometimes it’s easier to know what not to do than to know what to do.
• Don’t listen to the director explaining the shot and say out loud “But I have a better idea”.
• Don’t pitch your shot in fonrt of a group of people because then you are forcing a director or DP to react in front of them all.
• Don’t pitch a shot where the director has finally come up with something that works for the actors but you ahve a different visual idea.
• Don’t pitch an idea with 20 minutes to go before you get kicked out of the location and the Dp has come up with a simple way to do that.
• Don’t pitch an idea that will cause the DP to have to comepletely relight.
• Don’t pitch an idea that’s a great shot but doens’t tell the story. This is their movie, not yours.
• Don’t pitch a shot on the first shot of the first day. Ease into it once you know the players.
Again, read the room. If I have an idea that is a minor adjustment in my operating or framing that doesn’t change anything else, I’ll sometimes, depending on my realtionship with the DP and Director, just do it in a subsequent take. If it’s more involved, I’ll run it by the DP, quietly, to make sure they dont have an issue “Do you thnk it would be cool for me to pitch that we…”. If I do run it by the Director, again, quietly, so you aren’t forcing them to take a stand. Another situation I have been in is where I get along famously with the Director but the DP is prickly. Once I ahve established trust with the director, slowly, I might pitch to them first but with the undertsadning that I need to run it by the DP before we get the go ahead. This can be dangerous for sure, but if I have a DP who is simply saying No all the time when it’s something different, it may be the only way, beyond simply keeping quiet.
Again, read the room, know the players, use your judgement and dont htink you have to pitch every idea. An operator who pitches 5 amazing ideas in a show is more valuable than an operator who pitches 30 and 5 are good.
Feel the room. Do you know these people already? Do they trust you? Try the waters with an idea and see what happens. If it’s welcomed, keep it up. If the conversation feels cold, keep the ideas to yourself. Or if you’ve given several ideas that all get shot down, save them for your own movie. I’ve seen people become unwelcome because of over overzealous input.
