I’ve noticed pattern in low budget filmmaking (whether it’s a short, a music video or whatever) in that there are certain mainstay roles from a typical (read: paid) production that seem to be overlooked when putting the team together.
Usually the first two elements to come together are the producer and director, who almost always know each other before the project starts. ¬†They know they need a DoP, partly for the ‘cinematography’ side of things – the more aesthetic part of the job – but more because they have little to no technical experience themselves and the DoP can help with putting together the camera package, crew and so on.
At this point the producer and director have been talking to their friends and colleagues from the day job, so there’s a whole bunch of people who’ve offered to lend a hand – about three or four of these will actually end up turning up for the shoot; probably less if you can’t shoot on weekends or out of office hours. ¬†And whilst these guys are willing; enthusiastic even, they don’t have any particular skills so they end up being runners of some sort.
Meanwhile, the DoP has persuaded the producer to use the best camera available for the budget, and hopefully this means something that uses 35mm film lenses. ¬†That means a focus puller, and it’s almost always the DoP who’ll call up some of their previous FPs to see who’s willing to pull a freebie or very low paid job. ¬†They’ll then try for a second camera assistant but that’s often a bit harder, so the producer will suggest the most enthusiastic runner be assigned to the camera team.
There always seem to be loads of good sound recordists with their own kit around, so that’s not usually a problem even if it means a small fee.
But here’s the roles that always seem to get missed out… (More …)