What do DPs wish their Directors would know?

[Dan Blanchett]

Which is why good movies are rare. (of course good scripts are too)

I think trusting and respecting your cast and crew is a big part of being successful. Letting people do their jobs while keeping the desired result in mind and the ship on course. It helps when you surround yourself with good people.

[ChrisLyon]

As a director, my biggest fear is inadequacy in communication. I know some terms in lighting ad cinematography but the DP I work with gets me really well. He is in all the meetings between myself, the writer and consultants from conception through pre-production. He listens, understands the mood of the scene and gets context clues from our general conversations. Sometimes he will remember more details than I off the top of his head whereas sometimes I have to refer to notes the night before about what I had decided. So I get on set and he knows every scene as well as I do. I feel like if I ever use another DP, I'll have my right arm chopped off.

My next project, for example, I want to use another DP. I love my DP friend, but I want to work with someone else just to see the way other people work and what their lighting might be. My DP friend would likely be a consultant and camera operator, but I'm always afraid of people not knowing what I'm going for even though actors tell me all the time that I give them plenty.

I'm a beast editor if I do say so myself. I get down with the footage and can mentally remember every take of every scene and have the damn thing roughly edited faster than you can say "chocolate chip cookies." I've just got everything already in my head which seems to be a good quality to have according to these comments.

I think my biggest problem will be communication with people who are more experienced than myself. I worry that things haven't been properly communicated and, sometimes, I have to tell people "no" or "that's not right" and I feel like one of those asshole directors people think about when they think of snob hollywood.

Any suggestions, DPs, for a director in need of better technical communication skills? I'm not exactly working with a completely guild crew yet but I will be. Help!

[Charles Angus]

Try working as a grip or electric or camera trainee on some indie stuff that has experienced people. I know in Toronto there is the Canadian Film Centre; they are often doing medium-budget shows with volunteer crews that are a mix of union, non-union, and less experienced folks. One of the best ways to get experience. Or, help out in technical departments on shows that friends direct.

I've worked with a few directors in grip and lighting who were trying to get a better understanding of the technical departments, and a better feel for what its like in the trenches.

Be prepared to be treated brusquely, to be expected to learn fast, and to remember everything. If you ask what something is once, thats fine, but try not to ask again. The technical crew is used to working quickly with experienced people, and while many are very gracious about training and guiding beginners, they have a job to do.


For the more chair-inclined, read Ansel Adam's book on the zone system, read some of those cinematography books that interview real cinematographers, there are a few good articles in the ASC bible. Watch movies shot by great cinematographers, and analyze the lighting decisions they've made.

If you want to get into the nitty-gritty:

Learn about depth of field, field of view on different formats, incident and reflected light metres, waveforms and histograms, characteristic curves, the output of different fixtures, colour temperature, the difference between soft and hard and how specular and diffuse relate to that, broad approaches to lighting scenes such as high and low key, effects of different diffusion filters, effects of different colour correction filters, the advantages of filtration vs. colour correction, the possibilities of colour correction, the use of dollies jibs cranes steadicam, the difference and intricacies of same, the differences between different film stocks, differences between HD and D-Cinema cameras, differences between film and HD and D-Cinema, the magic of rigging, the name and use of different flags, diffusions, nets, scrims, and light modifiers, power consumption...

I'm a believer in knowing the departments that work for you inside and out.

Now, before people jump on me for this, I'm not saying directors should be too specific - it's not fun to hear, "use a 1.2 over there with quarter straw, fill in with a long 4 kino, and we'll get the 16mm up." But it is good if the DP says that and the director knows what that means.

[ChrisLyon]

A level-headed understanding is what I want. I want the DP to say that and then I can confidently say "Make it so."

[Charles Angus]

Shooting stills is another good thing; try to keep in mind the limitations of motion picture, though. An interesting experiment would be to shoot stills of your DPs lighting setups with the same settings as the motion picture camera. Compare this to the dailies.

During lulls in the action, you could ask your DP specific questions about the setup. Make sure he knows you're just curious, and not second guessing.