Cinematographer Career Information: Salary, Education, and Duties

1. Cinematographer Kayte Carter Laura Petite Lara Dewolfe

2. Career Information: Salary • A Cinematographers income all depends on their experience, and how talented they are at what they do. • Some cinematographers work within a union. Those people have wage guidelines set out in the particular unions agreement. • Cinematographers working part-time or full-time earn between $16,200 to $108,800 a year. • The average salary of a cinematographer is $46,800 a year.

3. Career Information: Education/Training • Cinematographers need a strong grounding in both the technical and theoretical aspects of the work. • It is still possible to enter the field with no experience and training, but finding work would be very difficult. • Not many schools in Canada offer specific courses teaching only cinematography, but there are many courses offered around Canada that teach things that are related to cinematography.

4. Career Information: Education Requirements • Cinematographers need these characteristics to do well in the cinematography field: creativity, talent, the ability to visualize finished product before its completion, an appreciation of the composition and feel of visual images, a willingness to put in long hours practicing their art, developing their own style and keeping up with technological changes, the ability to learn by doing, good communication and leadership skills, the interpersonal and networking skills required to successfully market their work, and the ability to work with others. • They should enjoy directing and co-ordinating camera and lighting work, finding innovative ways to do things, and working with equipment.

5. Career Information: Common Career Paths • Film Director • Lighting Designer • Photographer • Producer • Television Camera Operator

6. Pre-production Duties • The Cinematographer is involved in both the pre-production and production stages. They are also responsible for designing the sets, and is a huge part of the pre-production. The lighting, and overall look of the film is also in the hands of the cinematographer. Getting everything ready to be filmed is very important, and the cinematographer in in charge of it. • Cinematographers have many roles in the pre-production stage.

7. Production Duties • The cinematographer is involved in the production stage of making a film. Since the lighting changes throughout the film, it always needs attention. The cinematographer is in charge of that. The cinematographer works closely with the director, and other important crew members. Therefore, they need to be present during the production.

8. Best Suited . . . • Talented and creative. • Has good communication and leadership skills. • The interest in having hands-on learning. • Is willing to keep up on technological changes. What kind of person is best suited for a career in Cinematography? How do you know someone is doing their job exceptionally well? • They have made many successful films. • They are known in the industry. • Directors want them to be involved in their films.

9. Examples • Andrew Lesnie- Cinematographer of King Kong. • Robert Elswit- Cinematographer of Punch-Drunk Love. • Dean Cundey- Cinematographer of Jurassic Park. Provide 3 examples of people and their films in which this role was done particularly well.

10. What goes wrong, and how to fix them • The budget is often a problem for cinematographers. With a small budget to work with, some cinematographers find it very difficult to achieve the look they want for a film. This is usually very disappointing, and causes the cinematographer to get stressed in certain cases. This could be fixed by either receiving more money, or planning ahead and taking more time concentrating on what their budget allows them to use. • Many things happen to go wrong with the technology cinematographers use in the process of production. Not all technology allows them to do exactly what they want, and since the production process uses so many different types of technology, it is common for things to go wrong. This can be fixed by getting used to the technology as much as possible, and learning a lot about it. Give examples of what tends to go wrong, and how to avoid or fix these difficulties.

11. Equipment/Technology • Cine Tape Measure System- measures and calculates the distance between a scene and the camera. • Night Glow and Speed Control- 16 SR camera with a viewfinder image and night glow. • Cine Check- identifies frequencies of AC power sources which produce flicker on the film when using HMI lights or fluorescent lights. • 35-3 Crystal High Speed- wide range and easy to use while it sits below the camera, it provides the proper configuration for all balance plates and support rods. What kind of equipment or technology is associated with this job? What exactly does each kind of gear do?