Are you a jack of all trades?

[Rocket]

Okay, I'm interested to see how many of you out there, either dabble in or would consider yourself pretty capable (even expert) at more than one of the above. It's multiple choice so you can choose more than one (that's the whole point).

[Bruce Allen]

I've done all of the above for nationally broadcast stuff...

How about adding directing to that list? Definitely not the same as shooting.

Also sound? Music / mixing / sound design?

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

[Rocket]

That's a good point, but I can only put up 10 options, can you add more to a poll once it's posted? I guess I was thinking in terms of simply shooting + post.

Rich

[Paul Hazlett]

you forgot get coffee I did plenty of that...which reminds me.

[Curran Giddens]

I can only claim Compositor for now, but this includes vfx, paint, rotoscope, superclone, and all the rest that goes along with stop-motion animation and live-action greenscreen post-production. Next year I hope to add Shoot, Edit, Color Grade, and (3D) Animation.

[Gavin Greenwalt]

Not quite specific enough on the VFX options end of things:

Modeling*
Animating
Compositing
TD - optional

I'm a terrible animator but very good modeler.

[Brad Hawkins]

Bruce brings up a good point, because 95% of people are going to "try" to wear multiple hats for their personal projects, but very few will actually be good enough at those jobs to warrant a paycheck.

[Kevin Halverson]

I have done some post work (edit and audio mix) but if the criteria is getting paid, then for me it would just be shooting.

[Kurt A]

Hmm... budgetting and accounting? I know, I know. 10 options only.
(I'm not even talking about marketing and distribution deals and about every job there is in the craft of film making.)
Does everybody have an agent here?

[Gavin Greenwalt]

Agent? I've never even sent out a resume. My cell-phone # is my agent and it's amazing at finding work. :D

[Bruce Allen]

Does everybody have an agent here?
Nope. And my reel is about a year and a half out of date. In LA at least, jobs come mostly via referrals. So far, I've never been out of work (cross fingers). Also, I like the company I work with at the moment.

By the way, some directors have agents, but a lot of them have the production companies they work for be their "agents"... in a way.

Of course, although I get paid work for all of the above categories, I'll honestly say that 90% of my income for this year has come from title design / animation (combination of your animation and compositing categories, I guess? I generally take things from start to finish). But 2 years before that, it was mostly editing...

The music / sound / shooting stuff is mostly for fun. I just happen to get paid.

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

[Rocket]

Similar story to mine. I started out editing, I was self taught with Adobe Premier and was cutting a bi-monthly surf/skate magazine DVD in Cape Town (most of which I also shot). After 18 months or so of doing that off my own back (the DVD's were sold in local surf and skate shops), I had enough of a reel put together to get myself a job at a local production company editing inserts for a weekly kids TV show on SABC. They trained me up on Avid, and that was it, I've been an Avid editor ever since.

A couple years ago I picked up Max and started learning it from tutorials (and a lot of trial and error), after a year or so I had enough material to show to get paying work as an animator. Compositing was a natural bridge between my editing and animation, and now the bulk of my work involves it all.

Now I'm building a 2K/4K DI post facility, which I never would have imagined five years ago.

Anyone else have some interesting stories of how you started doing whatever you do?

[Craig W. Bickerstaff]

During the shoot I'm OK with handing out the work to other people but I'll still jump on the camera now and then when I direct.

In post I like to do a lot

[Zakaree Sandberg]

camera operator, DP, audio (production sound recording, Post dialog edit/sound design) orchestral composition.

[Jack Wester]

I can't help being a jack of all trades or a jack of whatever for that matter

/ Jack

[Russ Fill]

Interesting poll, I see there are a lot more of us that composite than I thought would.
I have to say that working with Time Lapse and having to post them and working on a few animation projects and working on a daily basis compositing has made me a better DP. And added to my creativity.

[KETCH ROSSi]

As in my signature,

Producer, Director, Screen Writer, Director of Photography, 3D Specialist, Operator, *CinePhotographer, (I like this term), and Broker, I do at a Professional level and earn very good money at it... ;)

Philantropist, is my nature of life as Human being and proud of what I do... ;)

There is then Photoshop Retoucher, DIT, Data Manager, and a bunch of other ones I do here and there as paid work, but do it all the time as part of the work we do... ;)

SO yeah I would consider my self a jack of all trades, an Expert at several things while, very good at others, and Highly Specialized at none... ;)

[Eki Halkka]

I'm definitely a jack of all trades, master of none kind of guy (i even say so in my sig). I think i've been at some point or another paid to do every one of the tasks mentioned so far - plus others, from boom operator to VFX supervisor to live broadcast tape op to storyboard artist to system designer (i set up quite a few edits back in the time) to R&D guy, prototype builder and coder... except two: i haven't composed for orchestras, just bands - and i try to keep away from producing anything.

[Robert Frank]

:zombie_smiley: Zombie thread! :blink:

haha!

I used to joke that I was a "JOCK of All Trades, Master of Fun".

[Eki Halkka]

Anyone else have some interesting stories of how you started doing whatever you do?

How i got where i'm now... well, i had two favorite hobbies as a kid, playing music and making super 8 mm films. I kind of preferred music, so i made the deliberate decision to try to make filmmaking my job (so i could keep my dearest hobby as a hobby).

The plan worked out pretty well. I went to a film/video school for a few years, and was an allrounder already - my own final piece was making audio for one of the short films, but i also shot another one of those, and co-edited third. After school i freelanced for a few years, mainly doing audio and lights - but as usual, having no contacts in the business meant i was mostly unemployed. I took every gig i could get.

My first full time job was doing audio post for TV commercials for a small (one-man) company, for whom i had filled in as a freelancer a few times. When the company expanded to video editing, i migitated to that, ran the edit. We hired more people. Then we started shooting stuff, bought the first betacam. I was always interested in special effects, and when i saw the first PC version of LightWave 3D at IBC i managed to convince the owner to buy a license. Kudos to the owner, he gave me plenty of time to play and learn the software before taking in first 3D clients.

The company grew, moved to a bigger place with it's own studio, had three edit bays... and i migitated again, now also to directing, writing scripts etc. About at this point, we kinda had had enough of each other with the owner - he was a great post production wizard, but maybe not-so-great at managing a company full time. I was overworked and overstressed. I quit, simply walked out the door one day. I guess that was a bit of a shock for the owner, but luckily we're still friends.

My freedom didn't last too long... one of the clients we had done a bit of work for was about to set up a new production company, and hired me a few days after i had quit. My first task was to set up the edits and a small greenscreen studio. I was the king of the hill of the main edit, where we mostly worked on commercials, show opens and the like, and i also shot and directed commercials etc.

The other edits were more geared towards program editing. It was all about sports, and the main client was the largest commercial TV channel in Finland. We did all their sports programming as subcontractors. Again, the company grew rather rapidly, and at it's biggest, there were around a hundred people there, half of which journalists. The company even had it's own radio channel. Then, out of the blue, the TV channel called off the deal. The company went belly up in a blink.

This was kind of a blessing for me, as i was (again) overworked and overstressed. I started freelancing again, set up a post prod. system at home, and with the contacts i had gathered over the 15-20 years time the above events took, i'm now quite well employed.

And i love the freedom - so far, after 5 or so years of freelancing, i've turned down every full time job offer that's come my way. Plus, i get to do a wide variety of stuff, from feature film work to game cinematics, from music videos to TV commercials to documentaries - shooting, directing, editing, animating, compositing, mixing, recording... which suits me excellently. I'm not the absolute best one out there for any of these jobs, but it seems (knocks on wood) i'm good enough to keep the phone ringing ,-)

I'm easily bored i guess, it seems i need to learn a new job every few years. Next up, it looks like i'm going to try manufacturing gear. I have quite a few bits and bobs in a prototype stage, the plan is to make rather affordable jibs, tracks etc., mainly for prosumers (and Scarleteers). I've made the stuff for my own use (and entertainment), but it looks like it may become a real product line one of these days. It's interesting to see what the future brings...

...and as far as the plan goes, i still do music, mainly as a hobby, but i guess i could call myself semipro. We have (together with a handful of old friends) a small audio/greensrceen studio / band practice room that's being used frequently.