How To Build A Career As A Cinematographer

IT’S NOT AS EASY AS IT SEEMS

Every job is impacted by the nature of supply and demand. Each year film schools pump out a ton of graduates who leave with expectations that they’ll go straight into getting a job as a cinematographer on movies. However, what isn’t always mentioned is that these jobs are in very high demand, with an oversupply of people vying for them.

On a film set with tens or even hundreds of crew members, there is only one head of department role of director of photography. So, in this competitive environment, what are some of the ways that you can increase your chances of landing this job, and sustaining a career as a DP?

STARTED FROM THE BOTTOM

The reason it’s difficult to give generic advice on this topic is that there is no single, straightforward path that will lead you to guaranteed success in the film industry. 

When you talk to  different DPs you’ll quickly find out that each of them kickstarted their careers in different ways. I know some who began working as a still photographer and then transitioned to shooting moving images, others went to film school and built a network of collaborators there, while some did it the old fashioned way and worked their way up through different crew positions over years or even decades.

That isn’t to say that there aren’t some commonly identifiable paths that are regularly taken by many to build a career as a cinematographer. The most traditional path, that usually also takes the longest, is to build up on set experience by working in different crew roles.

Although there is only one job of director of photography on a set, there are far more other roles available in the production, camera, electrical and grip department. Playing the numbers game by trying to land any crew role that you can is a good way of getting on to a set. 

“I always wanted to light and to shoot. I started out working at rental houses, fixing up equipment for various shoots. I was a trainee and then I was out loading, yeah. I launched myself into my career at that end. You know I was a clapper loader for four or five years. I did a period as a focus puller. It was a slow progression but a very rewarding one.” - Ben Davis, Cinematographer

Very rarely do people in the film industry become DPs overnight. More often than not it takes years to build a career.

This trajectory is kind of like a standard career where you work for a company and then progressively get promoted up the ranks over time until you land an executive job.

However, as you'll be a freelance worker, the onus is on you to gather up skills, and then, when you are able to, push to move to a higher up crew position and cease taking on jobs in your previous position. By being on set you’re not only being exposed to the more obvious things like gear, how to build and operate a camera, how to light and how a dolly works.

You’re also learning the nuances of how a film set operates: how people interact, the slang and words for certain things, what crew you want to work with, the structure and conventions of how shots are set up and executed and how to adapt your mind and body to a sometimes stressful work environment.

In this way, starting from the bottom and working up provides a valid platform to kick start a career.

FILM SCHOOL

Although getting a job as a DP often takes a long time to happen, there are always a few cases where people are able to work as a cinematographer at a fairly young age. More often than not this is achieved by film school graduates.  

“It’s so much about who you meet and the work that you put out there right up front. And I think I was fortunate enough to go to AFI and there be an amazing group of students that we continued to stay friends and, you know, my classmates would recommend me and I was able to meet some really influential people. You know I’d do a small project, maybe like a fashion film. Stuff like that. And then you start to build my reel.” - Autumn Durald Arkapaw, Cinematographer

A key component of working in the film industry is building up a network of contacts and collaborators who you can work with. For DPs this means forging bonds with directors and producers who will hire them.

Probably the easiest way to quickly build up a network of collaborators is through attending a film school where you’ll all be put in the same class and forced to work together on different projects. 

Graduates leave film school with a network of like minded collaborators who may employ them in the future. 

The second part to early success in this equation is building a body of work. Shooting something which gains traction online, or which gets accolades at a film festival is the best way of promoting yourself and will encourage new directors to reach out to you. 

SHOOTING YOUR WAY UP

“I ended up being a news cameraman through desperation. I was broke, living in England and I did know how to use a camera. In fact the first job that I got was as a news sound man and I pleaded with them and said, ‘You know, I can shoot.’ The Falklands War occurred and they were desperate for cameramen so they gave me a camera and I was given 10 years as a news cameraman to make every possible mistake you can make.” - Sean Bobbitt, Cinematographer

Another way of building up your skillset as a camera person - outside of attending film school or working on an industry set - is to find jobs where you shoot in whatever scenario you can. This may be shooting weddings, no budget music videos, your own documentaries or landing a job in TV. 

As much as you can build up theoretical knowledge by studying or watching videos online, the real training ground is actually shooting. There’s a big gap between knowing how to expose and operate a camera and being a director of photography. One of the reasons that it’s rare to find super young DPs shooting high end work is purely because you need lots of time behind the camera to sharpen your skills and build experience.

Although I think those three paths of working as crew on a set, attending film school and shooting smaller films are probably the three most common ways of building a career as a DP, they are of course not mutually exclusive. Most cinematographers will do some if not all of these things in the early stages of their careers. 

PATH TO SUCCESS

With those jumping off points out of the way, let’s go over six tips, or areas of advice that I’ve focused on and found useful when building my career - which is still a bit of a work in progress by the way.

One, it’s important to know the kind of lifestyle that working in film comes with and you should prepare to set yourself up for that. Working in the film industry means that you will be employed on a freelance basis. You must be happy with the risk of not having a guaranteed salary. This means that in the beginning you may get called up for a job the night before it happens. 

Therefore creating a life for yourself that ensures as much flexibility in your schedule as possible, so that you can take any opportunities that arise, is necessary. 

In the beginning this may also mean finding another freelance or flexible source of employment income that will cover your expenses when there is a lull in film work.   

Two, it’s important to have a clear goal and sense of direction. Being a cinematographer means being a specialist, not a generalist. Do you mainly want to shoot narrative films, documentaries, or commercial work? Or a step further, do you want to shoot car commercials, beauty commercials or food commercials? Even though you may need to take any job you can get in the beginning, try and focus on identifying and working towards your niche as soon as you can.

Three, time. Perhaps it’s because it’s not in a film school’s interest to sink dreams, but you need to prepare yourself for the fact that to become an industry level DP will take time. This may take less time for some than for others, but nonetheless you should be aware that you are setting a long term career goal, which likely won’t happen in a couple months or even a couple years.

Four, be proactive. Since you’ll be self employed, it’s on you to be proactive about seeking opportunities, reaching out to collaborators or mentors, being open to doing free work, shooting passion projects or finding an agent. You need to put yourself in the right environment for opportunities to present themselves.

Five, you will get hired based on your reputation. It’s pretty obvious, but important, to remember that however you act on set, and whatever work you produce will be what gets you hired on the next job. Film industry circles are usually pretty small, where many people know each other and rely on word of mouth references for crew. If you have a reputation for being good to work with and a reel to back that up, you’ll get more jobs in the future.

Finally, six, always get better. As you build a career you are building three things: your skills and experience, your network of contacts, and your reel. I personally have found documentaries to be a great training ground for improving my speed, awareness of light, framing and a host of other skills. You should constantly be building all three so that when an opportunity does present itself you are in the best possible position to take it.