Anyone a cameraman? advice needed

RIZZEE

RIZZEE

RIZZEE

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Basically finished college, and I've had it as a plan to do something in the film industry, first 3D animation and I've grown to the idea of aiming to become a cameraman in film as its more technical/hands on and appeals to me more.

Just wondering if anyone was a cameraman in film or TV and can offer any advice about where to study or where to start?
Would a independent film college like the London film school suffice? or would going to a university be better?

Was planning on studying cinematography but not sure where, so far im taking a gap year.

I've phoned up a few places and said i should start as a cameraman trainee, but obviously is harder to find and get, so I've decided to get experience as a runner or volunteer on film sets to gain more experience and hopefully get my name noticed some what.
I've got experience with camera angles, lighting, focusing, depth of field through photography which I've heard helps a little bit

any other advice or anything would be hugely appropriated!
 
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Don't quote me on this, but I would imagine prospective employers would want to see what you can do? One this gap year, maybe make some short films or such like? Build up a wee portfolio?
 
I need to do that as well, does anyone know if they look for anything in particular?
had to make a two movie trailers for media :o

What else/how would I go about doing a beginner portfolio?
 
Trailers are good. You could maybe try making a music video. Get in touch with a local band and make a music video for them (either for free or for a nominal fee). As with most jobs, I think experience will be king, so the more you can get under your belt while you get formal training at uni or a film college the better.
 
I wouldn't bother with uni, get a job as a runner at a production company expressing an interest in wanting to be a cameraman and work your way up and keep doing what you're doing with the volunteer work. mandy.com is a good site.
 
Messiah Khan said:
Trailers are good. You could maybe try making a music video. Get in touch with a local band and make a music video for them (either for free or for a nominal fee). As with most jobs, I think experience will be king, so the more you can get under your belt while you get formal training at uni or a film college the better.
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Shoulda probably added I don't own any equipment at the moment, mainly due to me having no job, but im more interested in the film/tv side of things, but I will probably do something like that just to add to a portfolio.

Sirrel Squirrel said:
I wouldn't bother with uni, get a job as a runner at a production company expressing an interest in wanting to be a cameraman and work your way up and keep doing what you're doing with the volunteer work. mandy.com is a good site.
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I'm using Mandy at the moment, seems to be really good

I've heard a lot of people suggest that I build my way up, just finding a studio that needs a runner and does camera work as well.
Did some work experience with Framestore a while back, been trying to get a job there but haven't heard anything yet

Was also told by someone that I could try and get a job as a Cameraman trainee work work up that way, anyone done this, or know someone how has?
 
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I'm currently going down the uni route in the 2nd year so i'll try and give some advice to what I think you should look out for.
I'd suggest going for a course which really reflects what you want to do, if you want to be a cinematographer/DoP then a film production course at somewhere suchas the AUCB would be a good choice as they let you shoot on 16mm. I do television production, which could be a good option, but it's more about the producing/directing of documentary and drama than a lot of technical knowledge such as Ravensbourne (we mainly use the HD studio and mini dv cameras such as the DVX100 and Z7 for on location.) What uni can help with is building up a portfolio, and so this is why I would suggest a TV prod degree as you make more of your own work due to the smaller group sizes, in the final year everybody makes 2 of their own pieces (equals around 120+ pieces) and helps on 10 others, whereas the AUCB make a dozen or so between them.
Of course i'm going to be biased towards this route, myself and some coursemates have gotten some good results, a coursemate won an award from the BAFTA group, i've got some paid work with Fresh One this month as we have to complete 6 weeks work placement. I don't know what a film school does, but they are expensive and I don't think you could get a student loan for these courses, a uni you can of course.
The main point is building up the portfolio as this shows an interest, and making contacts, camerawork is mainly freelance, so you could only be working a couple of weeks at a time so knowing people helps you get work.
 
RIZZEE said:
Shoulda probably added I don't own any equipment at the moment, mainly due to me having no job, but im more interested in the film/tv side of things, but I will probably do something like that just to add to a portfolio.

I'm using Mandy at the moment, seems to be really good
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I absolutely would not bother with any kind of course. Unless you go to something like the NFTS and get extremely lucky with who you work with, or make some absolutely tremendous work (read: multi-award winning), I doubt very much you'd be able to avoid starting off as a Runner. I would get it absolutely engrained into your head now that you will have to make tea and lug equipment around for 6 months to a year. Therefore why not just get it over and done with, and avoid getting in debt and being a year (or 3) behind everyone else.

Mandy is good for experience and freebies, so useful for now. But it soon loses it's usefulness as it's full of people asking for the moon on the stick.. in two days.. for no money. Production Base is king, although it costs. I've never used it because I disagree with charging people to find jobs, on principle. Grapevine Jobs is ok, but more for people with experience.

Your experience at Framestore is useful because it's a big name, but as I understand it a lot of people pass through those doors. You also probably wouldn't have done anything related to production, at a post house?

For me it's quite simple -- you want to be a cameraman. So you need to get into a production company as a runner and just train yourself up. Smaller companies will be better -- don't be tempted to go for the flash bigger companies that do commercials or films. If their camera assistant is worth £250/day to them, they're hardly going to let you replace him if he's ill or whatever! Oh, from what I've heard from some of the crew we use -- Films are a completely different ball game. They look down on broadcast/tv and it's extremely clique-y. I'd forget about that for a while and concentrate on getting to grips with the main video cameras. And the posts above are right -- the more experience you gain now, the better. Make music videos, do anything you can to get a reel together. Just don't expect to get paid (especially by bands). In fact be prepared to do a lot of work for free, for a fair amount of time.

I hope this all helps, sorry if it sounds a bit negative. I'm a technical production assistant (kinda a junior editor) for a small corporate video production company, but I've also worked for a big post facility in Soho so I know that crowd too.
 
Scam said:
I absolutely would not bother with any kind of course. Unless you go to something like the NFTS and get extremely lucky with who you work with, or make some absolutely tremendous work (read: multi-award winning), I doubt very much you'd be able to avoid starting off as a Runner. I would get it absolutely engrained into your head now that you will have to make tea and lug equipment around for 6 months to a year. Therefore why not just get it over and done with, and avoid getting in debt and being a year (or 3) behind everyone else.

Mandy is good for experience and freebies, so useful for now. But it soon loses it's usefulness as it's full of people asking for the moon on the stick.. in two days.. for no money. Production Base is king, although it costs. I've never used it because I disagree with charging people to find jobs, on principle. Grapevine Jobs is ok, but more for people with experience.

Your experience at Framestore is useful because it's a big name, but as I understand it a lot of people pass through those doors. You also probably wouldn't have done anything related to production, at a post house?

For me it's quite simple -- you want to be a cameraman. So you need to get into a production company as a runner and just train yourself up. Smaller companies will be better -- don't be tempted to go for the flash bigger companies that do commercials or films. If their camera assistant is worth £250/day to them, they're hardly going to let you replace him if he's ill or whatever! Oh, from what I've heard from some of the crew we use -- Films are a completely different ball game. They look down on broadcast/tv and it's extremely clique-y. I'd forget about that for a while and concentrate on getting to grips with the main video cameras. And the posts above are right -- the more experience you gain now, the better. Make music videos, do anything you can to get a reel together. Just don't expect to get paid (especially by bands). In fact be prepared to do a lot of work for free, for a fair amount of time.

I hope this all helps, sorry if it sounds a bit negative. I'm a technical production assistant (kinda a junior editor) for a small corporate video production company, but I've also worked for a big post facility in Soho so I know that crowd too.
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Thats one of the main reasons why I didn't go to uni, I've heard practically everywhere that I can build a way up from starting out at the bottom, which doesn't bother me at all, so long as I'm gaining some experience.
I was considering working and trying to save up for an independent film school, but now im wondering if it's worth the time and money really

I don't mind doing stuff for free at the moment, seeing as I practically know nothing, emailed a couple of students who have posted up on mandy asking for runners and what not just to get used to the set.

that last part definitely makes sense, I mean I'm still not a 100% if I want to go into film or TV yet.
Suppose now its just getting a job ans saving up for some decent camera equipment, and from what I've heard a mac w/ final cut pro. Was thinking about getting a canon that has film capabilities, or would it be better to save up even more for a decent amateur camcorder?
I mean, my main aim now is to get some place where I can, like you said, get to grips with camera equipment.

I've emailed a few post production companies asking for work experience, or a job as a runner and I'm still waiting on a couple of replies, suppose its just keep finding companies and contacting them
 
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Getting a Canon with video capabilities would be a good choice imo. a lot of the smaller companies are trying them out, simply for budget reasons. It's very trendy at the moment. I dont think it will last or replace any pro video cameras, but if you get in quick you could impress someone.

Also don't think that getting a job as a runner is where it ends. The industry is notoriously bad at in-house training. My first job I ended up doing a 40hr working week, then spending a few hours every few nights on top of that to train. That was the norm. a lot of runners who wanted to do 3d (for example) pretty much lived at the workplace. 40hr weeks plus 5hrs a night on top to do their own work. So getting a a job as a runner is all well and good, but be prepared for having to do a lot of work in your own time.

RIZZEE said:
I've emailed a few post production companies asking for work experience, or a job as a runner and I'm still waiting on a couple of replies, suppose its just keep finding companies and contacting them
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Why are you contacting post companies? You won't get anything out of working for a post production place. They'll be all about the editing etc. You need to get into a production company.
 
Scam said:
Getting a Canon with video capabilities would be a good choice imo. a lot of the smaller companies are trying them out, simply for budget reasons. It's very trendy at the moment. I dont think it will last or replace any pro video cameras, but if you get in quick you could impress someone.

Also don't think that getting a job as a runner is where it ends. The industry is notoriously bad at in-house training. My first job I ended up doing a 40hr working week, then spending a few hours every few nights on top of that to train. That was the norm. a lot of runners who wanted to do 3d (for example) pretty much lived at the workplace. 40hr weeks plus 5hrs a night on top to do their own work. So getting a a job as a runner is all well and good, but be prepared for having to do a lot of work in your own time.


Why are you contacting post companies? You won't get anything out of working for a post production place. They'll be all about the editing etc. You need to get into a production company.
Click to expand...

I suppose a good plan then is to do work as a runner and then do some free work helping around on low budget sets? then just going up from there

As for the canon cameras, it seems like a nice choice seeing as even some of the amateur camcorders are pretty expensive.

I had post production in my head at the time.
Just got an email back from someone asking for a meet up where i'd be helping them create a low budget pilot using canon dlsrs. unpaid, but still sounds fun as well as gaining some experience
 
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Just make sure you research the limitations of Canon cameras as camcorders as it can't end up being quite useless if you're expecting something else from it.
 
oh yeah definitely. If i find that its not worth getting it, and more worth while saving up for a amateur camcorder then I'll do that
 
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