In December last year, which is the peak of commercial shooting season in South Africa,
while frenetically bouncing from one commercial shoot to another, a big job came up.
When my agent called I knew it was big because it was an 11 day shoot for a TV commercial.
It involved travelling throughout the country and it was also a car commercial. So upfront
I knew that meant a big budget. I immediately confirmed the booking.
I was curious who the DOP would be, as I always am for larger scale jobs. So closer to the
time I talked to the focus puller I’d be working with and he told me that the cinematographer
on the job was Jeff Cronenweth: Fight Club, The Social Network, The Girl With The Dragon
Tattoo, Gone Girl. David Fincher’s DOP. That Jeff Cronenweth.
Here’s a little background on me. I currently work in the film industry in Cape Town, South
Africa. I alternate between working as a Director of Photography on smaller projects such as
independent feature films, documentaries and music videos.
However the primary work which I use to sustain myself financially is through working as a
Loader or 2nd Assistant Camera on TV commercials, Feature Films and any other freelance camera
assisting work I can pick up.
Through working as a 2nd AC I’m lucky to be on set with an array of international DOPs
all of whom I’m able to learn different techniques and approaches to cinematography
from by observing how they work. Today I’ll be going over the three main things I learnt
from working on set with Jeff Cronenweth.
As cinematography is such a technical and creative profession I think that often students
of filmmaking overlook studying the kind of personality and mental state that the best
professionals in the industry are able to adopt.
At the forefront of what I picked up from working with Jeff was his everyday persona
on set. I’ve worked with many DOPs on many sets, all with varying levels of experience.
I’ve found though that the most successful of them tend to have similar character traits.
Being on set, particularly on a commercial set, is inherently stressful. Each hour of
shooting is very costly: from paying crew, to locations, to large production design builds,
on screen talent and gear rental.
All of these costs add up very quickly. This means that on a set there is always enormous
pressure to maximise shooting time so that all the required shots can be achieved as
best as possible, as quickly as possible.
On this particular car commercial it was no different. There were an incredible amount
of shots required, most of which involved various grip rig setups and camera builds
which are timely to set up over many locations.
I’ve found that different DOPs handle this time pressure in different ways. Some begin
to shout at crew or get visibly frustrated or anxious. But, overwhelmingly, the cinematographers
who handle pressure and stress the best are those who are able to maintain a state of
complete, almost meditative calm throughout shooting.
Jeff on set was always calm, thinking and communicating clearly with a sense of understated
authority and confidence.
This created a positive work environment for the crew, where, even under tough conditions
and very long hours, the technical crew were willing to work deliberately and work hard
to get the shots as quickly as possible without feeling the need to rush - which inevitably
slows down shooting rather than speeding it up.
Less haste, more speed.
From a more technical point of view what I admired about the way that Jeff worked was
the proficiency of his technique.
He’s an incredible camera operator whether using wheels to operate a stabilised Libra
head, operating the camera on an arm car, or simply operating on a fluid head on a dolly.
His movement was always spot on. This transfers to needing less takes to get a shot right,
so that the director can focus fully on performance, knowing they don’t have to worry about incorrect
camera movement or mis-framing.
Being able to operate like this takes work and is built up over a lifetime of operating
a camera. The key is constant practice and, again, being calm and deliberate. A calm operator
who isn’t visibly stressed out will always operate better.
The same could be said of his lighting technique. He always placed lights in a deliberate way
and never had to go back on his decisions or tweak too much. He knew exactly what each
light he placed on set would do, which sped up setup times while never sacrificing maintaining
a beautifully crafted image.
Another core skill required to be a successful DOP which I feel often gets overlooked in
film education is scheduling and time management.
It’s not an easy skill to build. It comes with experience and shooting a variety of
setups in a variety of conditions over a long period of time, eventually becoming accustomed
to the time needed to accomplish different tasks. This skill doesn’t appear overnight.
Key to time management is having an experienced, trusted crew. Experienced DOPs will quickly
establish how fast and efficiently their technical crew is able to work, and will try to give
them just enough time for setups. Again, cutting down setup time maximises shooting time.
Jeff was great at giving the technical crew the time that they required to set up the
shot. He understands the gear very well, and as such knows how much time is needed for
setups.
His calm persona on set combined with his technical knowledge meant that the crew was
happy to push hard to get shots, working quickly under expectation, rather than pressure.
Crew are always happiest following a leader who has a definitive plan, experience and
knowledge. Something Jeff has in abundance.
In the world of film schools and on set education there is always ample focus on the technical
side of things.
I think something that we as budding cinematographers should also consider is the psychological
approach we take, as well as the mental state and persona we adopt on set.
Filmmaking is a team sport. The crew are the players. The heads of departments are like
coaches and the DOP is like a team manager.
How the manager carries themself, treats their staff and controls the team using their experience,
will ultimately define their success.
Thanks for watching. This was a bit of a different video from the usual content, if you enjoyed
it and would like to see more please like and subscribe and share your views in the
comment section. Until next time, thanks for watching and goodbye.