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Having studied with the Master Photographer Ansel
Adams and photographing scores of motion picture
productions for the major Hollywood studios, I have
learned an awful lot and still enjoy each and every
production. A Motion Picture Still Photographer
should do what he can to sell the film, protect the
actor and be silent, stealth and invisible. He
should shoot as much as he can, knowing when to
shoot, when not to shoot, what to shoot, what not to
shoot and leave the set at the end of the day
looking forward to coming back to do it all over
again.
Try shooting an actor racing down an alley at night
in a black car, 60 miles an hour and the publicity
department wants to see detail in his eyes. Try
photographing a scene in a six foot square room with
a Panavision camera on a Chapman dolly with a dolly
grip, the camera operator, two camera assistants,
one director of photography, four actors, one script
supervisor, three friends of the producer, one sound
mixer, one boom man and an actor complaining that
the still photographer is in his eye line causing
him to blow his lines. The boom man wants your
spot, and the mixer who can’t hear a 747 buzzing the
set, hears your camera which is encased in a $700
ten-pound lead lined blimp. An extra wants a few
shots, no more than a roll or two, with the star.
Or better yet, can you shoot it on your digital
camera and e-mail it to all of my friends! Don’t
shoot the rehearsal so they can learn their lines
and whatever you do don’t shoot the take because
you’ll break their concentration. Then the Studio
wants to know where the pictures are. To the sound
department, you’re a Nikon motor drive and to the
publicist, you’re a go-between between him and the
talent. |
