"'It's nice to see someplace that doesn't ask you if you like it up the ass, when they are SUPPOSED to be asking you about your art'- Ugly Shyla, dark artist"
lost out on another feature
Thu, 04/30/2009 - 19:40
This evening I heard from a producer in Austin that they (the producers and director) had decided to hire another DP to shoot their film. Losing this one really hurts - they were looking for someone who could recreate an 80's John Carpenter look, and as fate had it I'm a Carpenter fan and have recreated an 80's look on several of the features I shot. Plus they really liked my demo reel (which show my ability to work with actors) and I interviewed extremely well. However, they found a DP who had actually shot 80's action flicks to DP it for them (which means he has 20+ years experience) and willing to shoot it despite the really low pay they were offering.
Aarrrgggghhhhh!!!!!! Why am I always everyone's second choice, but never the first choice?
Jessica
Fri, 05/01/2009 - 09:52
#2
jessica...your ears should have been tingling about 3am EST today. i was talking about you and how these movie producers are morons for not having you shoot their films. though i realize i'm a nobody in the grand scheme of things, and i also realize i tell you this all the time - you'd be my first choice.
Fri, 05/01/2009 - 11:01
#3
Thanks guys. I saw an article recently stating that film production is down 50% from last year, which was down 25% to 30% from the previous year which is not making it any easier to get a feature.
Usually, when producers and directors do hire me, they love the work I do - making a feature with a very limited budget look like a feature with a much larger budget, plus working very quickly on set and being very low drama/easy to get along with, but it's never translated very well into referrals or getting hired on their next projects.
Like the one director I worked with who I became friends with. I shot several award winning shorts for him, but as soon as he lined up financing for a feature, he stopped returning my phone calls & e-mails and hired someone else to shoot his film.
Or another director for whom I shot a period feature for $35,000 and was able to make it look like we had a budget of $750,000 (as listed on the IMDB) and that it was shot on film (as reviewed by Variety) even though we didn't have a 35mm DOF adapter or did anything to the image in post. She basically went psycho afterwards (she drank a lot on set) and told me I was forbidden to use any of the footage on my demo reel or include the movie on my resume. Fortunately, one of the actresses gave me a copy of the film. You'd think shooting a movie like that would open a few doors for me, but it ended up just making me look bad.
I can list a lot more examples like this, but won't because it's too depressing.
Jessica
Mon, 05/04/2009 - 00:10
#4
Some good news (finally) - there's a 50/50 chance I'll be shooting a horror feature in Louisville KY this summer, another horror production in Cleveland OH is interested in me, and I got two e-mails this evening from female directors interested in having me shoot their shorts. The director of the $3.5 million feature I'm attached to called and said she called the two time academy award winning cinematographer she had been considering instead of me and told him she was no longer interested in him for the project. And the California Labor Commission has scheduled a hearing against the director who didn't pay me for the last feature I shot, so maybe there's a chance I'll be able to collect what he owes me (as well as for the other crew members who didn't get paid and filed a complaint).
Jessica
Mon, 05/04/2009 - 09:01
#5
Mon, 05/04/2009 - 09:34
#6
I hope all four jobs don't end up happening at the same time. Something like that happened to me once where I was offered three different features but they all shot at the same time and I could only do one of them.
Chances are the director in question won't show up in court and he'll go into hiding to avoid paying us.
And now that I'm finished with the documentary, I still want to do a film of my own. The horror pseudo-documentary would be my first choice, but that'd cost at least $50K to do. So I'd have to come up with a story idea that could be shot basically for free.
Jessica
ya know, I go through this a lot. Well, not the same thing, but pretty close.
I have to tell myself something quite a bit. "My time will come". It sounds corny, but I knwo I've worked too hard at my craft to not make it.