Working with a DP

Well, it is a little late to be writing about what it was like having a DP for Portrait of a Place, but, in the spirit of making up blog posts, I must!

Working with Mclean was a pleasant experience, I'd say. Having a DP made it easier to focus on what to get shots of instead of worrying about how to use the camera. Still, I wound up using the camera myself a good bit, especially when there was something I wanted a shot of that I was worried would not be available for long. An example is the owl we saw and got a zoom reveal of. I am guessing that that happens with many director/DP teams. Even when he wasn't using the camera, Mclean was a valuable source. For example, with the shot I just mentioned, it was Mclean that suggested I do the slow zoom that turned out to be the money shot, until I bumped into the camera of course.

Having a DP is cool. It lets a director be more imaginative. At the very least, it creates a resource for advice and ideas. Two heads are better than one.