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| Tadpole |
The DP has the hardest job.
From the microskill to the macroskill, I feel with the level of DV that InDigEnt uses, the hardest job on making a DV movie is really the cinematographer’s job. It is really a wonderful medium for the performers and the directors, and then you get to the cinematographer. They really need to be incredibly up for the task because of the nature of what those cameras inherently want to do, which is be on automatic the whole time.
Mistakes in blow-up equal larger mistakes.
Every time you turn that camera on, it’s so important to be able to check the exposure gauge, shutter speed and focus and make sure that you keep the image as refined as possible. Because when it does get blown up to 35mm, any little mistake you see gets magnified hugely.
Documentaries lead to DV success.
The most successful people with our films have come from documentary backgrounds. I think it’s because they’re used to not having a big crew around, so they’re used to actually having to do all those things that you have to do when you turn on a camera. In documentaries, primarily you deal with operating, so framing and composition are a big thing in these DV movies. I feel that [those with a documentary background] are more inclined to focus and be more fluid with that. And the intimacy that they’re used to sort of carries on.
Passion is key.
The number one thing is to be passionate about the story you’re telling.
Be prepared but flexible.
Be prepared to do all the preparation so that you can be able to be disciplined—and yet spontaneous enough when things change.
The best DV stories.
I think very intimate stories. Character-driven stories are best suited to DV. And then very formalistic stories where you can play with form and structure work well, too.
Choosing a medium.
It’s always like, for me, when an artist goes to paint a picture: Should this picture be watercolor? Should it be oil? Should it be acrylics? I think it’s the same approach. Should this story be done in DV? Or should it be done in film?