These days to make it in TV, Self-Shooting (operating the Camera and Directing) is becoming more and more important.
What’s really worrying is that DV Cameras are often thrust into the hands of inexperienced people, the risks are huge as in most cases of Reality TV and Observational Documentary (Ob Doc) there is no second chance.
A whole scene or even a whole series can be ruined by poor self-shooting, at worst it could fail the Broadcasters technical requirements and be untransmittable but more likely will just seriously annoy the Commissioning Editor and damage the image of the Production Company. If the shoooting is weak throughout you had better have good content and stories to get away with it.
It amazes me that people are sent on shoots without proven ability. If someone is junior then they won’t have a reel or even a solid shooting reference but if you need them to film they could be asked to shoot a couple of test scenes under pressure.
Rushes (raw unedited footage) are a great way to see if someone can really shoot, a showreel with a minute of footage in a finished show can be deceptive as footage can be drastically improved in the online and the scene could have taken ages to edit around the errors.
As a PD (Producer/Director) who supervises other shooters in the field and then sits in the Edit with the rushes I rarely get called to give a shooting reference. Editors are also a good sounding board for how easy a shooters rushes are to cut.
Once filming begins, no matter how hectic it gets during a Series, it’s always important to spot check the footage when it comes in at the start and throughout the shoot to ensure the quality threshold is being met.
I have to admit when I was an inexperienced Researcher I was desperate for a chance to show I had an eye for shooting, I would volunteer to stick by neck on the line and shoot anything that might make it onto the screen.
But the fact people are desperately keen doesn’t always mean that have the skill yet, so the onus is on the person sending them out to check their ability.
Sensible companies invest in training up their staff to shoot before they leave the building with a camera. One Indie (Independent Production Company) I worked at ran different levels of Z1 and DSR courses, audio courses and lighting courses for their staff.
I could visibly see my my teams shooting ability raise a few notches in just a couple of months.
However, as the project was a new TV channel people were on long contracts and therefore perceived to be worth investing in. For shorter freelance contracts staff are often seen as too temporary to be worthy of training.
At another company they brought in a Cameraman for a morning to take the shooters through the likely filming scenarios they would face.
Great shooting is put second below great content, and I think this is right, but how about great content AND great shooting, it can be done if the right training and safety barriers are put in place. A TV show is after all only as good as it’s weakest link.
