Film/​Television Camera Operator

What's going on guys? It's Cooper, and today I'm gonna be talking you about the role of a DP.

DP is the director of photography, also known as a cinematographer with people that paint light and camera movement to create moods and shapes for our story. The great part about being a DP is coining your own style.
There are rules to light and camera movement but once you learn those rules you can take them, break ‘em maybe, and then make ‘em your own. It's all about style and having fun with it and shooting from the heart.

As a DP it's also important to remember: story first. Don't shoot just to shoot something, don't shoot just because it's cool shot. It's got to do something for the story to help move forward or it doesn’t need to be shot.
There are some DPs that lean more towards just getting a lot of coverage for certain scenes. Personally that's not really my style, I like to shoot with heart. I like to shoot with purpose to make sure we don't waste time and we’re getting only what we need for the scene. When you're shooting let your story guide the cinematography.

Another side of being a DP that is really, really important is remembering you have to paint these images and create these beautiful shots under time and under budget. You don't have all day to set up the shot so having a good technical knowledge and really understanding your script is important to hitting those shots and getting those crucial lighting setups done within the allotted amount of time.

As a DP you'll be collaborating with the director really closely to really set up moods for how the scene looks. Every DP-director relationship is different because every director is different. I've worked with directors who are really, really hands-on and who want to touch the camera, who have a really, really good vision for what they want. I've also worked with directors who are really hands off and trust my vision to pull off certain shots and to set up certain lighting schemes based on my intuition.

As a cinematographer it's important to remember that we are image-makers, we're not athletes, we're not competing against each other. Everyone has different styles and shapes things through different lenses. Something that may look great to you may not look great to the next guy, and that's okay because that's the way you're telling your story.

You're never done learning. You learn something new every single shoot. Even the great DPs shooting million-dollar films will tell you that they learn something new every single shoot and the fun part of that is you always learn something new.

So YES I love being a DP, I love my job there's nothing else I'd rather be doing. It's so much fun and it just feels so great to continue to grow every day in my craft and create beautiful images and I tell amazing stories so yeah, you know. I feel like I'm here to stay. I hope this video is helpful and if you're interested in becoming a DP and cinematographer you know I hope these words really affect you and hopefully encourage you to continue moving forward with your growth.

Thanks for watching!