More Movie Business Junk

Just worked on a project where the cinematographer on it had been bad mouthed by the production. He’s an old school shooter who buried his style in the movie. The way a cameraman is suppose to do. He has been shooting for decades. Big studio movies with big studio names. Now…to have to deal with this…I feel for the guy.

I mean the guy is a professional. He is hired for his “look” and how he lights women. It’s beautiful work. The fucking studio complained about his style. These guys looked through movies decided he was right for the movie, then second guessed him. Yes, they pay him a lot of money, but what’s the logic of this much trust in someone just to wrangle him in. Which is it?

To make it worse, the guys I work for side with the studio. Bah! The problem was no one could make a decision, so when the upstairs guys saw the dailies, they worried that they couldn’t remove what he had established. Yeah, you paid him for his style (as if I needed to remind them).

It drives me nuts. Because this is what you deal with on every level of the game. Unless you fund it. Then it’s all your say. That is the tradeoff.  Unfortunately, the minute you take “their money” you are at their mercy, no matter who you worked with in the past. I’m not sure you can define this level of frustration, but I’d vomit on myself everyday. It’s enough you battle weather, temperaments, bad set food, tight schedules, now you have to justify your shooting style. I have no clue as to how people deal with it. I suppose if you’re paid enough, you do whatever they say…but still. There is no well of good will that you keep filling with your talent or experience. People forget what you’ve done. On whatever level. In fact, sometimes, it turns against you. Your past may come back to haunt you. And you wonder why the small things on movie sets drives the creative type nuts. When your name in up there, random people make comments. Everyone has an opinion and it’s mostly to criticize. The only people who really are on your side is your family. Family isn’t just by blood though. Sometimes a lot of your support comes from your friends you grew up with and only have your best interest as heart. It’s unfortunate when people do move up in the world, how quickly they shed the people who care the most. Those people care more that you eat and get rest. The others are opportunist. But it’s hard to tell who is who, because you surround yourself with such desperate people.

I count myself extremely fortunate that I’ve not dealt with that. That and I’m not on the level of this guy who shoots. Or the directors he’s worked with. Again, it seems to me it is purely about discomfort level. If he has a mortgage to pay, he may have to eat some crow. Sell a certain part of himself to gain that freedom later on. My guess is that a lot of that starts to grate on their own psyche and they forget why they loved making movies in the first place. Nothing more soul crushing than putting your heart into something only to have someone starting out in the business be the person who has the final say. I’m also not sure how that works. Meritocracy does weed out the fly by nights, but nepotism drives a lot of the business.

Am I writing anything that hasn’t already been considered or mentioned in other opinion pieces. Most likely not. So I hope you don’t feel alone if you get to that place where you feel helpless and your skill is constantly questioned. In some odd way, I feel vindicated for some creative battles I fight for. No one is kind to you the way you can be kind to yourself. And most of us are very cruel. That’s just the bitch of working in the movie business.