Cinematography : Big questions. by David Damen

Busy as I want to be. About half? Depends. Word of mouth is really where the useful gigs appear. Only you can answer that question. Is there enough union work in your area to keep you busy? Do you have enough union contacts?

I am not really asking for myself. I can go union at anytime I just choose not to. But there is certainly enough union work in my area. I am not really a fan of working in the same area. My craft has taken my to more states than I would have ever seen on my own and overseas a few times as well. So that should lead to another question. If you don't need to go union, is it really that important?

This year has been particularly slow--though I am sure moving 3,000 miles hasn't helped in the work department. If you need more work; then you have to network like mad, and always keep an ear out on all the usual suspect job sites, I think. or at least that' what I'm doing. The best time to go union is when you have to go union; as in you're finally up for a big union DoP job and you happen to have the thousands of dollars sitting around to pay the dues (if you're talking local 600)-- and assuming you have enough days to clear since they will generally throw out a good deal of them unless you were paid through a payroll company. But, if you're working a lot right now then the time to go union will come when it comes.

If you're completely happy with the level of job, insurance, and workplace conduct that you're operating on, no. I joined because I was tired of chasing down checks and fighting for basic things with unscrupulous feature producers.

Nepotism is the established and proven best way to succeed in the industry. Without that, finding shoots is, with few exceptions, an outgrowth of who you know. Work comes from personal contacts. People you know who have seen what you' do are the best. Continued networking is the key. but in person making that personal contact. I know more about a person within 5 minutes of meeting them than in months of using the web. Most internet sites seem to be primarily people locking for freebies for their projects. The size of the project is not my first parameter in choosing. Instead, choose projects because they are interesting to you on some level. We make pictures to please ourselves, others are merely allowed to share. Of course, budgets do play a part in choosing. Bigger budget means more people and gear to get the images from my imagination to the screen. Low budget pictures require far more creativity and skill to achieve excellent results because of limited resources. The images created in my imagination seem to be budget agnostic so having to throw creativity at problems instead of money to achieve the same artistry is fine with me. Features? Big? Which is bigger a 3 month feature that yields 2-3 hours of entertainment or a 9 month television series that yields 10-15 hours? "Feature" has effectively lost it's meaning of implied quality. Since there are no longer B or C film showings there should not be a feature. Nobody wants to face the fact that they are doing anything less than the best. The difference in shooting theatrical releases and television releases is the viewing venue and experience which dictates the differences in shooting. I've been a DP in the International Cinematographers Guild, IATSE 600. the Hollywood camera union, for over 2 decades and a DP in a different union before that. Go union when there are union projects you want to do. In Los Angeles there are no big or medium budget non union pictures. Most low budget pictures are union as well. Ultra low is where there are non union productions. Remember that non-union only refers to people below the line. Think about why writers, directors, and actors unions are always part of almost every picture. Be prepared for sticker shock when you see the initiation fees as a union DP. Also consider our changing industry. Pictures are made everywhere these days, largely because of tax incentives providing kick-backs for the greedy. If you think there is enough work in an area and that work is there because of tax credits, ask yourself how long it will continue to be there. It has been demonstrated time and again, that as soon as the payola ends the industry moves on. One additional benefit of the unions is training. I typically spend 20-30 days per year in courses, not counting subjects I might be teaching. Incredibly valuable.

"We make pictures to please ourselves, others are merely allowed to share." what a profound statement. I agree with so much of what you are saying.

Use every job, large or small, as a building block to where you want to be. You might want to take some risks on things that make you stretch...grow.

with not having the ability to make my projects full time I found that small projects are a good filler. While I was developing my recent short film I shot a 13 episode web series in my house.