HSU 2022 Workshop

Stories from the Trenches of TV & Film: 

Surviving the Industry

Philosophical approaches, with dashes of practical

Learning is Forever

"You want to be a carpenter, you gotta make a lot of tables." - Joe & Anthony Russo

• Don’t be scared of not knowing. Learning is a lifelong process. There is no “finished”

  • Keep learning. You will never know everything. Stay Curious. Stay Hungry.

    • Be cautious of the eternal YouTube hot-to video spiral. I catch myself often watching videos about how to do things and not enough time actually doing them.

  • Reading American Cinematographer in library. I had no idea what they were talking about. Give it time.

• Understanding the technical so you can then break it.

  • I learned (and keep learning) the technical aspects that I needed. It was unnatural to me, but I kept plugging away. At some point it started to make sense to me and I now feel very comfortable and confident, but it’s taken me years. As I’ve gotten comfortable with the technical, I’ve started to hone my emotional responses to things that people generally refer to as technical- the way a certain camera sensor looks, the way lenses look. I hunt for my emotional reaction to it, which takes time and paying attention, but that’s what I now let be my initial guide when making those choices. Starting to embrace emotional reactions to images feels more like me. For other people, the order might be reversed. Keep honing, keep following your curiosities.

• Craft is what helps you when you are exhausted/ distracted. If you’re not feeling it- personal life, health, nightmare coworkers- craft is what allows you/ helps you do your job when your heart isn’t there.

  • Albania sample. I had happened to read a blog about a lighting setup. A week later I was asked to do something with a different look and so I decided to try that. Felt so lucky that I had read that article, but the director pointed out to me that it is part of what makes me good- I stayed curious and was reading an article about lighting, even though I was in the middle of a show.

  • Learn techniques that you like. Learn them, use them, abuse them, move on.

    • Shadow side of the face

    • Book light

    • Shallow depth of field

• Make it and move on to the next. Don’t linger (Pop Shots!)

• Experience is one if, if not the, most valuable educational tools, so make things, help other people make things, make mistakes, find your tastes, exorcise some creative demons. You need reps. Go get them. Work on shitty projects. That will often be the best place to learn.