Latest / Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast / BPS 476: The Cinematographer’s Secret to Making Actors Trust You with Jared Hess
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: You are listening to the IFH podcast Network. For more
- 0:07Speaker 1: amazing filmmaking and screenwriting podcasts, just go to ifahpodcastnetwork dot com.
- 0:13Speaker 2: Welcome to the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast, Episode number four seventy six.
- 0:17Speaker 2: Your dream doesn't have an expiration date, Take a deep
- 0:20Speaker 2: breath and try again.
- 0:22Speaker 1: Ktu Witten broadcasting from a dark, windowless room in Hollywood
- 0:26Speaker 1: when we really should be working on that next draft.
- 0:29Speaker 1: It's the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast, showing you the craft and
- 0:33Speaker 1: business of screenwriting while teaching you how to make your
- 0:35Speaker 1: screenplay bulletproof.
- 0:37Speaker 2: And here's your host, Alex Ferrari. Welcome, Welcome to another
- 0:42Speaker 2: episode of the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast.
- 0:44Speaker 3: I am your humble host Alex Ferrari.
- 0:46Speaker 4: Now.
- 0:46Speaker 2: Today's show is sponsored by Bulletproof Script Coverage.
- 0:50Speaker 4: Now.
- 0:51Speaker 2: Unlike other script coverage services, Bulletproof Script Coverage actually focuses
- 0:56Speaker 2: on the kind of project you are in the goals
- 0:59Speaker 2: of the project you are, so we actually break it
- 1:01Speaker 2: down by three categories micro budget, indie film, market, and
- 1:05Speaker 2: studio film. There's no reason to get coverage from a
- 1:07Speaker 2: reader that's used to reading tempole movies when your movie
- 1:10Speaker 2: is gonna be done for one hundred thousand dollars and
- 1:13Speaker 2: we wanted to focus on that. At Bulletproof script coverage,
- 1:16Speaker 2: our readers have worked with Marvel Studios, CIA, wm E, NBC, HBO, Disney,
- 1:22Speaker 2: Scott Free, Warner Brothers, The Blacklist, and many many more.
- 1:25Speaker 2: So if you need your screenplay or TV script covered
- 1:29Speaker 2: by professional readers, head on over to covermiscreenplay dot Com.
- 1:34Speaker 2: Enjoy today's episode with guest host Dave bullis my next
- 1:39Speaker 2: guest on this show, and I actually met by accident.
- 1:42Speaker 3: I actually reached out to him originally because I thought
- 1:46Speaker 3: he was the Jared Hess from Napoleon Dynamite, and he's
- 1:49Speaker 3: actually a another Jared Hess who's a cinematographer. So we still,
- 1:54Speaker 3: you know, we talked and uh, you know, we agreed
- 1:56Speaker 3: to come on. So you know, Jared's on location in
- 1:59Speaker 3: this so a few segments are going to be a
- 2:02Speaker 3: little noisy, so just bear that in mind, but it's
- 2:04Speaker 3: still very, very audible and without further ado with cinematographer
- 2:09Speaker 3: Jared Hess. Jared is a cinematographer based out of Orlando, Florida,
- 2:13Speaker 3: and Jared has worked in the indie film television market
- 2:16Speaker 3: for over ten years and has produced content for such
- 2:18Speaker 3: clients as Bellatour w E and ESPN. Jared, how's everything.
- 2:23Speaker 4: Going, Buddy good Man out here in sunny Orlando?
- 2:26Speaker 3: So I can't complain.
- 2:30Speaker 4: About an eighty degree? So another rests the United States
- 2:33Speaker 4: happier quota right now.
- 2:34Speaker 3: So you know, it's it's here in Philadelphia. It's been
- 2:37Speaker 3: such a warm winter. It's been unbelievable.
- 2:40Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I've heard that. You know.
- 2:43Speaker 5: I was just out west and doing some cheering also,
- 2:46Speaker 5: so the you know, the weather's been great, like uh
- 2:49Speaker 5: for the most part. So nobody's getting hit too hard
- 2:53Speaker 5: by snow winner So so you.
- 2:55Speaker 3: Know, you know, Jared, just to begin, you know, the
- 2:57Speaker 3: question I always ask everybody is, you know, how how
- 3:00Speaker 3: did you get started? You know, you know, and what
- 3:02Speaker 3: does act? Who's your background?
- 3:04Speaker 5: Well, my dad was actually a screenwriter, you know, before
- 3:09Speaker 5: I was born, and he had a business partner, Wayne Beach,
- 3:14Speaker 5: and he you know, my dad went into other things.
- 3:18Speaker 5: Wayne Beach kept going at it and he sold a
- 3:21Speaker 5: couple of films to Westers nine Yard of Quarterer sixteen hundred,
- 3:26Speaker 5: and then he directed Vetter on Slow Bird. You know,
- 3:29Speaker 5: so I kind of always looked up to him, and uh,
- 3:32Speaker 5: you know, I was always into doing telling stories and
- 3:38Speaker 5: thought I was going to be an actor for a while.
- 3:41Speaker 5: When I went to college, I decided to kind of
- 3:43Speaker 5: pursue the kind of film elment doing digital media video
- 3:50Speaker 5: putout Sheen and h Then the birth of the D
- 3:53Speaker 5: ninety came out, so I wasn't chasing down the film
- 3:56Speaker 5: stock and running expensive equipment and started making my own content.
- 4:01Speaker 5: I'm doing Gruller style filmmaking, producing some short films, and
- 4:06Speaker 5: then I started getting picked up, you know, primarily by
- 4:10Speaker 5: ESPN and then uh Spike Television shooting a lot of
- 4:16Speaker 5: their feature content and what have you.
- 4:20Speaker 3: So, so how did they discover you at first? Did
- 4:22Speaker 3: you send them a real or did they maybe you know,
- 4:25Speaker 3: happen upon your content online.
- 4:27Speaker 5: Well, I've worked with a couple of individuals w i'd
- 4:29Speaker 5: know I with and they kept pushing me and kind
- 4:33Speaker 5: of exposing some of the things that I've been shooting,
- 4:37Speaker 5: and you know, I get a couple of short films
- 4:39Speaker 5: and was always looking to kind of self promote, and
- 4:44Speaker 5: you know, there came up with a couple opportunities where they
- 4:47Speaker 5: needed some people to d kind of a film style
- 4:51Speaker 5: look for some of the feature content and so kind
- 4:56Speaker 5: of created kind of that niche or fellow into that
- 4:59Speaker 5: kind of sure kind of doing the film look for
- 5:04Speaker 5: you know, features.
- 5:05Speaker 4: For different clients, you know, whether they're usually short form.
- 5:09Speaker 5: I've done a couple of long you know, long form
- 5:12Speaker 5: hour long projects as well outside of features. And when
- 5:18Speaker 5: I meet features, I meant like, you know, short form
- 5:20Speaker 5: features for you know, different whether.
- 5:24Speaker 4: It's fight or you know, a big events, those kind
- 5:28Speaker 4: of things.
- 5:28Speaker 5: The story, the backstory and the storylines that are primarily
- 5:32Speaker 5: used without within the actual live event.
- 5:34Speaker 3: So now you know you've got to work with w W.
- 5:38Speaker 3: Uh you know, so so you know, what what did
- 5:40Speaker 3: you do for them? What did you shoot for them?
- 5:41Speaker 5: Then a couple of you know, they've asked me to
- 5:45Speaker 5: do a couple of different things where I've shoot e. G.
- 5:47Speaker 5: Or do like some of their backstage kind of things. Yeah,
- 5:52Speaker 5: I really wasn't able to commit to them because of
- 5:55Speaker 5: bellatur And then now I do Premiere Boxing Championships, which
- 5:59Speaker 5: is too shows on Spike Television, so you know, I've
- 6:03Speaker 5: been on there. I do a lot of elements them
- 6:05Speaker 5: almost thirty weeks with Spike and then uh, you know,
- 6:11Speaker 5: so I do a.
- 6:12Speaker 4: Lot of their stuff.
- 6:13Speaker 5: Right now I'm shooting the project with Hoys Gracie Ken,
- 6:17Speaker 5: Shamrock and can both slice for they're doing an upcoming
- 6:24Speaker 5: kind of fights that they're doing an hour long project
- 6:28Speaker 5: with those four guys. Are those three guys primarily you know?
- 6:31Speaker 3: And then that's that's really cool?
- 6:33Speaker 5: Yeah, it's it's you know, actually, I'm I'm not really
- 6:36Speaker 5: a violent person at all. It's funny that I actually
- 6:40Speaker 5: end up doing a lot of fighting.
- 6:42Speaker 4: Kind of stuff.
- 6:42Speaker 5: So I've I've kind of become just the go to
- 6:47Speaker 5: guy when it comes to setting up shoots in some
- 6:52Speaker 5: you know, undesirable locations. But some of these gyms aren't
- 6:55Speaker 5: always the most flattering of places to be setting up
- 6:59Speaker 5: very on location shoot.
- 7:01Speaker 4: But since I've.
- 7:02Speaker 5: Shot in so many of them and become known a
- 7:05Speaker 5: lot to the fighters, some of the more prominent ones
- 7:08Speaker 5: that I guess you could say, I've kind of created
- 7:11Speaker 5: a name in that environment.
- 7:14Speaker 3: So, you know, are some of the more popular gyms
- 7:17Speaker 3: are they are like I mean some of like the
- 7:18Speaker 3: rougher neighborhoods, And you know, is that maybe a challenge
- 7:21Speaker 3: of itself.
- 7:22Speaker 5: Yes, recently, It's funny you mentioned that recently I have
- 7:27Speaker 5: shot in a.
- 7:29Speaker 4: And it's pretty uh, I mean, Miami.
- 7:32Speaker 5: Florida has got several locations where you don't want to
- 7:34Speaker 5: be caught after dark. But recently I did a shoot there,
- 7:39Speaker 5: and uh, when I was addressing my crew before we
- 7:43Speaker 5: got started, and I mentioned the first thing that we
- 7:46Speaker 5: want to make sure we do not do is get shot,
- 7:49Speaker 5: and that safety was number one issue because we were
- 7:52Speaker 5: clearly could be considered trespassing into enemy territory. It wasn't
- 8:00Speaker 5: a safe neighborhood by any need. So yeah, I mean
- 8:03Speaker 5: recently I also shot at you know, Mayweather's Gym, which, uh,
- 8:08Speaker 5: you know may arguably be one of the greater fighters
- 8:11Speaker 5: of our lifetime. And you know, are you going to
- 8:14Speaker 5: like locations like that? And people have shot so many
- 8:16Speaker 5: times dps have left in.
- 8:19Speaker 4: The photo ball.
- 8:21Speaker 5: Sometimes you go into places and they're barely any electricity
- 8:26Speaker 5: you've got, you know, it's you've got a garage door
- 8:28Speaker 5: that opened, So you're often surprised pleasantly or not on
- 8:33Speaker 5: what you're going to walk into, you know.
- 8:36Speaker 3: So you know, on those locations, you know, I guess
- 8:39Speaker 3: you know, a really challenge also comes because you can't
- 8:41Speaker 3: do a real tech scout, right, so you basically, I mean,
- 8:44Speaker 3: I'm sure the location scout, if even there is one,
- 8:47Speaker 3: is basically probably just them just showing, you know, taking
- 8:49Speaker 3: a photo with their cell phone. You know, probably somebody
- 8:52Speaker 3: from like you know, an entourage or you know, an
- 8:54Speaker 3: assistant probably taking a photo right, and then you probably
- 8:57Speaker 3: just that's probably all you get, if even that correct?
- 8:59Speaker 3: Am I correct?
- 9:01Speaker 4: Yeah?
- 9:01Speaker 5: I mean yeah, absolutely, one hundred percent starting locations. It's fantastic,
- 9:06Speaker 5: and it's a wonderful Uh, it's a wonderful thing to
- 9:10Speaker 5: have if you can get it.
- 9:12Speaker 4: But yeah, you're not. It's usually the.
- 9:14Speaker 5: Lowest common denominator that's being sent out there, you know,
- 9:17Speaker 5: So it's kind of one of those things that inn
- 9:19Speaker 5: after thought. So a lot of the times I'll do
- 9:21Speaker 5: the research myself and you know, kind of walking into
- 9:27Speaker 5: situations where I'll have to just be ready, you know,
- 9:31Speaker 5: and and uh, you know, kind of rigging up things
- 9:36Speaker 5: and having things set up easy enough where I can
- 9:41Speaker 5: a lot of times I don't have a director and
- 9:43Speaker 5: I'm producing out there and directing myself. So having knowing
- 9:48Speaker 5: every element and how to over you know, to compensate
- 9:52Speaker 5: and to use certain things to my advantages.
- 9:54Speaker 4: You know, if you've got.
- 9:57Speaker 2: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
- 10:03Speaker 2: and now back to the show.
- 10:06Speaker 5: Because you know, for shooting two hundred and forty frames,
- 10:08Speaker 5: I've got a guy who's citing twenty pounds in a.
- 10:11Speaker 4: Day and a half.
- 10:12Speaker 5: He's not gonna want to sit there and work out
- 10:14Speaker 5: for me for two hours so and and be patient
- 10:18Speaker 5: while I set up lights. So I've really got to
- 10:20Speaker 5: kind of be ahead of the game and uh and
- 10:24Speaker 5: be ready to go and be patient with these guys.
- 10:26Speaker 5: You know, the number one thing I'll say I think
- 10:29Speaker 5: I have going for.
- 10:30Speaker 4: Me is, you know.
- 10:33Speaker 5: What I try to tell people is that you've got
- 10:36Speaker 5: to be a really good people person es firstly interacting
- 10:38Speaker 5: with people and you know, showing that you're not stressed
- 10:42Speaker 5: even though you maybe you'll get the better through the
- 10:46Speaker 5: data on things.
- 10:48Speaker 4: And that's true. I think with any kind of on
- 10:50Speaker 4: location shoot.
- 10:52Speaker 3: You mentioned not having a director on some of these shoots.
- 10:55Speaker 3: So when you go into, you know, to to some
- 10:58Speaker 3: of these shoots, then is basically you just have that
- 11:01Speaker 3: shot list that you want to get and I'm guessing
- 11:04Speaker 3: you know you're basically that that basically is becoming you know,
- 11:07Speaker 3: you're you're the director. Then with just a shot list,
- 11:10Speaker 3: am I correcting that.
- 11:11Speaker 5: Yeah, a lot of the time we're.
- 11:13Speaker 4: Working with a certain story omens. You know, so if if.
- 11:18Speaker 5: You know, we have a certain backstory that's provided by
- 11:22Speaker 5: you know, uh, different producers or different pre interviews, so
- 11:27Speaker 5: I'll be provided a lot of that information, so you know,
- 11:31Speaker 5: we'll get certain I'll get certain shots and set up
- 11:33Speaker 5: certain things that will kind of kind of help out
- 11:39Speaker 5: and kind of captivate the story that we're trying to tell.
- 11:43Speaker 5: So because if you know, if we're shooting, for instance,
- 11:47Speaker 5: or somebody who's.
- 11:48Speaker 4: Uh, you know, tried to you know.
- 11:51Speaker 5: Try to escape Cuba or something like that, we don't
- 11:53Speaker 5: have any footage of him trying to you know, get
- 11:56Speaker 5: on a boat and come over.
- 11:57Speaker 4: From Cuba and come to the United States.
- 12:00Speaker 5: And and you know what, we also want to use
- 12:02Speaker 5: original footage as opposed to trying to dive into stock footage,
- 12:06Speaker 5: so you know, trying to recreate kind of emotional elements
- 12:10Speaker 5: that kind of tie in with the story.
- 12:14Speaker 4: It's always you know, not only an obstacle, but it's
- 12:16Speaker 4: it's kind of a.
- 12:17Speaker 5: Fun part because you know, it's a challenge and create
- 12:20Speaker 5: something that's still visually and pricing and but also ties
- 12:25Speaker 5: into the story.
- 12:27Speaker 3: You know, very true. You know, you know I've done
- 12:30Speaker 3: some you know, interview segments, not nothing of that caliber
- 12:33Speaker 3: what you're doing, and you know, usually you have that
- 12:36Speaker 3: you're the same question you know, the same questions that
- 12:38Speaker 3: you have to ask the subject. And uh, you know,
- 12:41Speaker 3: like like for instance, I put together like an educational
- 12:44Speaker 3: real educational package excuse me for for a couple of universities,
- 12:48Speaker 3: and you know, you have to ask the same questions.
- 12:51Speaker 3: And one of the things that I found was was
- 12:54Speaker 3: that basically, you know, they they want you to. It
- 12:56Speaker 3: starts off, you know, small, like you're just being the videographer,
- 12:59Speaker 3: and then suddenly you know, there's so many people having
- 13:02Speaker 3: different say you know, a different saying things that you've
- 13:05Speaker 3: got to you know, sort of please like you know, five, six,
- 13:07Speaker 3: seven or eight different people, you know, do you do
- 13:10Speaker 3: you find that is the instance in some of these cases.
- 13:12Speaker 4: One hundred percent you're always trying to please other people.
- 13:15Speaker 4: And not only that, you know.
- 13:17Speaker 5: You know, uh, some of the things that I shoot
- 13:21Speaker 5: get used on a million different things. I might be
- 13:24Speaker 5: you know, say, hey, this is supposed to be used
- 13:27Speaker 5: in this location, but at any given point it could
- 13:29Speaker 5: be used during the live show could be thrown in
- 13:32Speaker 5: with promotional stuff, so you're you know, and then you
- 13:37Speaker 5: always get the.
- 13:38Speaker 4: Hey, why didn't you do this?
- 13:40Speaker 5: Course, well, I had no idea it was going to
- 13:41Speaker 5: be used and that that's not why I shot it
- 13:43Speaker 5: that way. But yeah, I mean you're always trying to
- 13:45Speaker 5: kind of be ahead of the gang please people. Communication
- 13:50Speaker 5: you know is always cut, so yeah, you're always.
- 13:55Speaker 4: Trying to.
- 13:57Speaker 5: Kind of communicate with what what's what's going on? And
- 14:00Speaker 5: then not to mention you always wanted to make it
- 14:02Speaker 5: look good and how you want to make it look,
- 14:04Speaker 5: you know, not just some generic, you know, flat shot
- 14:08Speaker 5: of just coverage. You wanted to make it look cool,
- 14:10Speaker 5: make it look like if your own and kind of edgy,
- 14:14Speaker 5: you know, and it look like you really put some production.
- 14:18Speaker 4: Value into it. And you've got to do that within
- 14:21Speaker 4: a budget.
- 14:23Speaker 5: And so yeah, I mean the other thing is it's
- 14:26Speaker 5: always great to have a bunch of hands on set,
- 14:29Speaker 5: but it also can get too many hands and you
- 14:31Speaker 5: got too many people put in their two cents. And
- 14:35Speaker 5: you know, I feel comfortable enough where I can walk
- 14:38Speaker 5: into a gym shoot with a fighter, you know, especially
- 14:43Speaker 5: somebody that I know or account that I know, and
- 14:45Speaker 5: it could be myself and you know a PA and
- 14:49Speaker 5: in a shooter or you probably have to shoot and
- 14:52Speaker 5: something to do it. I'm completely confident that I can
- 14:55Speaker 5: get what I need to get done and communicate with
- 14:58Speaker 5: the fighter because I kind of is also just like
- 15:00Speaker 5: in anything else, because it's kind of a unspoken rule
- 15:04Speaker 5: book of what you're supposed to do within the gym
- 15:07Speaker 5: or within a certain environment, and you want to kind
- 15:11Speaker 5: of make it look like you've been there before.
- 15:14Speaker 4: So once they get the.
- 15:15Speaker 5: Feeling that they kind of know you or you kind
- 15:18Speaker 5: of have that cred I think you're you know that
- 15:22Speaker 5: kind of for the doubt, you know, you'll get the
- 15:24Speaker 5: extra twenty minutes to get some extra stuff. He may
- 15:28Speaker 5: you know, that's that fight er that that you may
- 15:31Speaker 5: be able to get some extra stuff where maybe the
- 15:35Speaker 5: initial interview didn't wasn't able to get because he was nervous.
- 15:39Speaker 4: That you know, you didn't want to relate that to anybody.
- 15:43Speaker 5: But because if you created that relationship, now you've gained
- 15:46Speaker 5: some information that hey, this would be a great storyline
- 15:49Speaker 5: to kind of add.
- 15:50Speaker 4: Into the piece. So and then at the end of
- 15:54Speaker 4: the day, you have a job to do.
- 15:56Speaker 5: It's as a producer that uh, you know DP or
- 15:59Speaker 5: you really got to kind of the guy is just
- 16:02Speaker 5: kind of sitting there. He's cutting twenty pounds, for instance,
- 16:06Speaker 5: and he's kind of a lump.
- 16:08Speaker 4: You gotta you gotta say, hey, let's just get this done.
- 16:11Speaker 4: Let's try to sell this fight and give me, give
- 16:14Speaker 4: me all you can give me for you know, fifteen minutes,
- 16:17Speaker 4: and we'll get you back to what you do. Get
- 16:20Speaker 4: yourself ready to this fight. Well let's get people with
- 16:22Speaker 4: the watch, you know. So it's a lot of give
- 16:26Speaker 4: and take, and uh, you know, at the end of
- 16:29Speaker 4: the day, I'm just trying to make.
- 16:31Speaker 5: Them look good. You know, That's one thing I try
- 16:34Speaker 5: to really do. So the talent, I want him to
- 16:36Speaker 5: look good. Ben, they will be the one to say, hey,
- 16:38Speaker 5: I want to work with this guy. He understands me
- 16:41Speaker 5: and makes me look good.
- 16:43Speaker 4: You know.
- 16:44Speaker 3: And you know, Jared, you mentioned being a people person
- 16:46Speaker 3: and how you know important that is. I know, I
- 16:49Speaker 3: think that is a great point to make because you know,
- 16:52Speaker 3: I've been on set sometimes where you know, even the
- 16:54Speaker 3: director's cinematography or even the director has just been a
- 16:59Speaker 3: conclude eat jerk to everybody, and you know they're yelling
- 17:04Speaker 3: you know, every everything is yelling at everybody, so you know,
- 17:07Speaker 3: by the end of the day, they're just praised katruing
- 17:10Speaker 3: that guy out.
- 17:11Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean it's it's like I said, if things
- 17:14Speaker 6: are gonna go wrong, dude, So if you know I've
- 17:18Speaker 6: had fighter, what ourory or I'm the same fighter, That's
- 17:23Speaker 6: what I'm working on right now.
- 17:24Speaker 5: But it doesn't matter if you're retirelet to you're working
- 17:27Speaker 5: with you've got things are gonna go wrong. If I'm
- 17:30Speaker 5: getting a point technically for getting missed, all that kind
- 17:35Speaker 5: of stuff. But if they you know, you've developed the rapport,
- 17:40Speaker 5: maybe not that guy, but maybe his body or something
- 17:43Speaker 5: like that.
- 17:44Speaker 4: You you're gonna get the benefit of the doubt. If
- 17:46Speaker 4: you tiptoe around him and make him feel awkward.
- 17:50Speaker 7: I think it's kind of create an environment that that's
- 17:54Speaker 7: not condused to not only to get your help you out,
- 17:57Speaker 7: but I think it just creates something like a like
- 17:59Speaker 7: a trust a mistrust situation.
- 18:02Speaker 5: Well, you just want to create like a really kind
- 18:04Speaker 5: of relaxed You want them to be themselves. You know, hey,
- 18:09Speaker 5: help me out. I promise I'll make you look good.
- 18:12Speaker 5: You want to give him the confidence that you're not
- 18:14Speaker 5: there to make him look bad. Ultimately, there's black and white.
- 18:18Speaker 5: As that sounds, that's really you know, these especially if
- 18:23Speaker 5: you're working with somebody who's you know, if you're working
- 18:27Speaker 5: with an Albert Poohole, so you're working with the hoist Gracie,
- 18:29Speaker 5: you're working with somebody who's always he's got a camera
- 18:32Speaker 5: in their face all the time. You want them to
- 18:35Speaker 5: kind of develop a trust with key so you know
- 18:38Speaker 5: they're otherwise they're they're just gonna be like, Okay, yeah,
- 18:41Speaker 5: I'm just gonna give you the same answer I will
- 18:42Speaker 5: give everybody out.
- 18:44Speaker 4: You want the new answer, you want the new look.
- 18:47Speaker 5: You want the the thing that somebody else is going
- 18:49Speaker 5: to get, you know, and and it comes with you know,
- 18:54Speaker 5: I think confidence, knowing what you're doing, being ready, but
- 18:57Speaker 5: also kind of developing that uh personal relationship.
- 19:01Speaker 3: Yeah, you know that's an excellent point.
- 19:04Speaker 4: You know.
- 19:04Speaker 3: I always find if you're going to interview somebody, basically
- 19:08Speaker 3: not if you could if you can talk to them
- 19:09Speaker 3: even through email beforehand, that's a huge bonus. But if
- 19:12Speaker 3: you have to meet them the day of which you know,
- 19:14Speaker 3: I've been in that situation too, you know, I find that,
- 19:17Speaker 3: you know, just talking with them for five to ten minutes.
- 19:21Speaker 3: Shaking the hand is important, sort of getting that like
- 19:23Speaker 3: a physical contact, you know what I mean. They know
- 19:26Speaker 3: you're not going to be you know, pretty but basically
- 19:28Speaker 3: a jerk, you know. And you know, one thing that
- 19:31Speaker 3: I've I've learned is whenever I'm going to interview us
- 19:34Speaker 3: a subject, so if whenever I see they're nervous, I
- 19:37Speaker 3: usually just roll the camera and I begin talking to
- 19:41Speaker 3: them and I said, you know, okay, you know, we'll begin,
- 19:44Speaker 3: you know, whenever you're ready. So basically I'm just rolling
- 19:46Speaker 3: because you know, we're all shooting going digital now so
- 19:48Speaker 3: there's no film, but we're wasting, so you know, I
- 19:50Speaker 3: usually roll and just say, you know, whatever you feel comfortable,
- 19:53Speaker 3: you know, you could introduce yourself and start talking.
- 19:57Speaker 2: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
- 20:03Speaker 2: and now back to the show.
- 20:06Speaker 3: Basically sort of it makes them feel that they're in
- 20:08Speaker 3: control of the situation, which some degree they are, but
- 20:12Speaker 3: they aren't.
- 20:13Speaker 5: If you know what I mean, man, Yeah you wanna yeah,
- 20:17Speaker 5: if you if you if you're you want to make
- 20:19Speaker 5: them feel like you're ready, but you're you know, not
- 20:22Speaker 5: necessarily waiting on them. But yeah, you want to feel
- 20:24Speaker 5: like just I mean, I think it's creating an environment
- 20:27Speaker 5: where they feel relaxed.
- 20:29Speaker 4: If you know this, there's this sense of anxiety, whether
- 20:31Speaker 4: they would it or not.
- 20:33Speaker 5: So if you can kind of nip that in the
- 20:35Speaker 5: butt right away, like hey, listen, I'm gonna get out
- 20:38Speaker 5: of your way, you know, and and we're gonna get you.
- 20:42Speaker 5: We're gonna make you look good. Everything's taken care of,
- 20:44Speaker 5: everything's organized, you know whatever, let's chill. You know, maybe
- 20:48Speaker 5: you crack a joke something to kind of humanize yourself
- 20:52Speaker 5: because they don't want you think you're a robot and
- 20:54Speaker 5: kind of yeah, it's at the end of the day.
- 20:58Speaker 5: I feel like I've always been able to get the
- 21:00Speaker 5: you know, because you're always gonna get the oh we
- 21:02Speaker 5: need to get that or oh, by the way. So
- 21:05Speaker 5: if you develop a personal relationship, you know, you can
- 21:09Speaker 5: text or call these guys and just say, hey, man,
- 21:11Speaker 5: I hate to bother you again, but you know this, uh,
- 21:15Speaker 5: you know, I really need to grab this one extra thing.
- 21:17Speaker 5: I can't get five more extra minutes of your time,
- 21:20Speaker 5: and I rarely have that, you know, that time where
- 21:26Speaker 5: the talent is unless and less they're really doing something
- 21:30Speaker 5: where they said no.
- 21:31Speaker 4: You know, you say they're like, yeah, man, no problem.
- 21:33Speaker 5: Give me, you know, give me an hour, let's do
- 21:35Speaker 5: it right before dinner or something like that. So and
- 21:38Speaker 5: you know, like I said, that's kind of helped me
- 21:41Speaker 5: in that avenue, you know where I'm like, Okay, yeah,
- 21:44Speaker 5: no problem, man, thank you forgiving me your extra time.
- 21:47Speaker 5: I'll work around you. You know, I'm in your environment.
- 21:50Speaker 5: You're not in my environment.
- 21:51Speaker 4: You know that kind of thing.
- 21:52Speaker 3: So, uh yeah, yeah, they developed never poor. It is
- 21:56Speaker 3: very important, you know. I I great agree one hundred percent.
- 21:59Speaker 3: You know that that is something that I found over
- 22:02Speaker 3: the years as well. You know, and you know, I
- 22:06Speaker 3: know you also you know, as you mentioned before, you
- 22:08Speaker 3: work on films as well, so you know sort of
- 22:11Speaker 3: to transition to that. You know, when you're on a
- 22:13Speaker 3: film set, obviously you know there is going to be
- 22:15Speaker 3: a director you know, hope hopefully, right Jared. But uh yeah,
- 22:19Speaker 3: but but if you know you're you're working a film set,
- 22:23Speaker 3: you know, I I think you're building that that teamwork
- 22:26Speaker 3: and building that trust is sort of key because you know,
- 22:29Speaker 3: I've been on film sets where you know, there is
- 22:32Speaker 3: no teamwork, uh sort of everybody is off on their
- 22:35Speaker 3: own little island, so to speak. Sure, and yeah, and
- 22:39Speaker 3: you really don't feel like everyone's kind of working together.
- 22:42Speaker 3: You feel like everyone's working and doing their job, but
- 22:45Speaker 3: it's not to do the same goal, if you know
- 22:47Speaker 3: what I mean.
- 22:47Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean I would say that whenever I have
- 22:51Speaker 5: an opportunity to put together guys, or I walk into
- 22:54Speaker 5: a situation where, you know, whether I'm replacing somebody else
- 22:59Speaker 5: or you know, you're you cut everybody's crude already and
- 23:05Speaker 5: you're kind of brought into you kind of manage the team.
- 23:09Speaker 5: Uh you know, you you're you feel kind of like
- 23:13Speaker 5: you're walking into enemy territory or something like that. Tell
- 23:16Speaker 5: them once again, you know, I always try to nip
- 23:18Speaker 5: that in the butt, you know. And if you can
- 23:20Speaker 5: get along with everybody and kind of show them that
- 23:23Speaker 5: you don't have an agenda, I think that and your
- 23:26Speaker 5: agenda is just to do a good job, you know.
- 23:29Speaker 4: I think that that.
- 23:31Speaker 5: Whether it takes time more time than other times than not, uh,
- 23:36Speaker 5: you know, it seems to kind of work. That's kind
- 23:38Speaker 5: of worked for me. Is that, Hey, guys, are just
- 23:41Speaker 5: you know, not that that's the situation. I understand. I
- 23:44Speaker 5: don't know you guys, I'm sure you guys are all talented.
- 23:47Speaker 5: Let's do a good job here. There's any confusion, I
- 23:50Speaker 5: promise you. Or something goes wrong, you know, I'll stick
- 23:54Speaker 5: up where you. We're not here to throw anybody under
- 23:55Speaker 5: the butt, and let's just do a good job and
- 23:58Speaker 5: get and and make this look good and kind of
- 24:01Speaker 5: go over what we what you can and the allotted
- 24:05Speaker 5: time because it's never enough time, you know that.
- 24:07Speaker 3: So yeah, it's always time and money, right, Jared.
- 24:10Speaker 4: Oh are you kidding?
- 24:11Speaker 5: The Yeah, I'm learning more and more as I do
- 24:15Speaker 5: things to keep asking for even more time than I'm
- 24:19Speaker 5: giving because there's always the ode by the way, and
- 24:22Speaker 5: there's always the you know, I've changed my mind, you
- 24:26Speaker 5: know so, And is as much as you want to
- 24:30Speaker 5: get aggravated and get angry, it's just but it doesn't
- 24:33Speaker 5: really help, you know. You just want me to get
- 24:35Speaker 5: on and I hope the guys that are around you
- 24:39Speaker 5: I can can I have the same mindset and ready
- 24:42Speaker 5: for it as well.
- 24:44Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I I find that you know the
- 24:46Speaker 3: shooting schedules where you know you're working like sixteen, eighteen
- 24:50Speaker 3: twenty hour days and you're you're trying to smush all
- 24:54Speaker 3: of this shooting schedule into a very short window. I
- 24:58Speaker 3: found that, you know, over the years that not only
- 25:01Speaker 3: I think is that, well, I just feel that that's
- 25:04Speaker 3: not the right way anymore. And I think more more filmmakers,
- 25:06Speaker 3: more indie filmmakers are coming to their to their senses
- 25:10Speaker 3: that you know, we don't have to emulate the big
- 25:12Speaker 3: guys and and shoot, you know, an entire script in
- 25:16Speaker 3: you know, this little tiny window if we can, let's
- 25:18Speaker 3: get a little more breathing room in here, and you
- 25:21Speaker 3: know that way, we're not you know, burning ourselves out
- 25:23Speaker 3: within the first week. I mean, is that something you're
- 25:25Speaker 3: finding out as well?
- 25:26Speaker 5: Yeah, it's you know, it's stretching. It just depends, I
- 25:30Speaker 5: think where the lines are drawn as parts what you
- 25:33Speaker 5: are and aren't doing, you know, especially in regards to
- 25:37Speaker 5: budgeting and that kind of thing. Uh, you know, I've
- 25:42Speaker 5: got a lot If everything is laid out and everybody
- 25:45Speaker 5: and everything's very transparent and you kind of see from
- 25:49Speaker 5: beginning to end all the you know ab CD.
- 25:53Speaker 4: You know, everything is led out.
- 25:55Speaker 5: Pre productions done, you should be pretty ready right on
- 25:59Speaker 5: page and not really kind of burning yourself out. But
- 26:03Speaker 5: as you know, uh, that never happened, so you you know,
- 26:08Speaker 5: but that's cool, and uh, you know, for the most part,
- 26:12Speaker 5: that's kind of what I was brought along in that hemsphere.
- 26:16Speaker 5: So it's it's not comfortable for me. It's not the
- 26:22Speaker 5: most ideal situation, but I excel at it, and uh,
- 26:26Speaker 5: you know it's at the end of the day, you know,
- 26:30Speaker 5: I still still get the job done. I get it
- 26:33Speaker 5: the way I wanted to look, and uh, I think
- 26:36Speaker 5: that which counts. And so yeah, telling a good story, right,
- 26:40Speaker 5: that's what you're there to do.
- 26:42Speaker 3: So yeah, exactly, and you know that. That's actually one
- 26:46Speaker 3: of my next questions for you was, you know, you know,
- 26:48Speaker 3: what advice would you give to directors who who who
- 26:53Speaker 3: work with cinematographers. You know, maybe there's something they do
- 26:56Speaker 3: that you know, is grading on cinematographers or some directors
- 27:00Speaker 3: where you know, maybe they're they're sometimes they're not clear enough.
- 27:02Speaker 3: So you know, if you you know, what advice would
- 27:05Speaker 3: you give to directors when theyre working with cinematographers.
- 27:07Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean I think number one, you know, if
- 27:11Speaker 5: you bring in a cinematographer and where you do a
- 27:14Speaker 5: good job, you know, uh, you look at their work,
- 27:18Speaker 5: you said, wow, this guy's good, and you brought them
- 27:20Speaker 5: in to do something. I think you just trust them
- 27:22Speaker 5: with it, you know, especially I turned on to carry
- 27:28Speaker 5: an ego with me, so I can't you know, I don't.
- 27:30Speaker 4: Know if that's a good or bad thing sometimes, but.
- 27:35Speaker 5: You know, go in, just try to do a good
- 27:37Speaker 5: job and and once again develop rapport with you're a director,
- 27:43Speaker 5: and see how he likes to, you know, and get
- 27:46Speaker 5: on the same page with him, and and really do
- 27:49Speaker 5: as much free production if humanly possible. So you when
- 27:53Speaker 5: you walk in it it's something that you're you're ready,
- 27:56Speaker 5: you're ready to go. You know exactly how you wanted
- 27:58Speaker 5: to look that matches up with the end product, and
- 28:02Speaker 5: so that when they're going through daily they're looking for it.
- 28:06Speaker 4: Hey, I think it shortens your days, you know.
- 28:09Speaker 5: I think at the end of the time, at the
- 28:10Speaker 5: end of the day too, it keeps them on budget
- 28:12Speaker 5: because you're not sitting there sleeaking with things consistently or
- 28:16Speaker 5: doing pickups and.
- 28:17Speaker 4: That kind of thing.
- 28:18Speaker 5: And uh yeah, I mean, number one thing, it's just trusting,
- 28:22Speaker 5: you know. Really, if you bring in somebody to do
- 28:25Speaker 5: a job and you see and you or or you
- 28:28Speaker 5: know you've worked with.
- 28:29Speaker 4: Them in the past.
- 28:29Speaker 5: It's just trusting their their eye and and that they're
- 28:33Speaker 5: going to be there and do what you uh want
- 28:36Speaker 5: them to do. Actually, they've got a director here calling me. Now, yeah, line,
- 28:41Speaker 5: did you take it? I can call them back here
- 28:44Speaker 5: in a moment. Are we almost wrapping up here?
- 28:47Speaker 4: Uh?
- 28:47Speaker 3: Yeah, probably like three minutes? Is that right? Uh? So,
- 28:52Speaker 3: you know, uh, you know, is there any advice then
- 28:54Speaker 3: you have for first time cinematographers.
- 28:58Speaker 5: I mean, uh yeah, I would say, you know it,
- 29:04Speaker 5: you know, developed develop relationships with with with people in
- 29:09Speaker 5: the business. You know, networking is always great. No, I
- 29:13Speaker 5: think doing things the right way the first time and
- 29:16Speaker 5: getting off on that foot in regards to you know,
- 29:20Speaker 5: showing what you can do but not stepping on people's
- 29:23Speaker 5: toes kind of give you because you're going to develop
- 29:26Speaker 5: a reputation one way or another, so it might as
- 29:28Speaker 5: well be a good reputation.
- 29:29Speaker 4: You know. And you know, making things look you know,
- 29:35Speaker 4: scratch that itch man. You know.
- 29:37Speaker 5: That's the one thing I started doing was I was like, man,
- 29:40Speaker 5: this looks so great. How do I do this? And
- 29:43Speaker 5: how can I do this? Uh with what I have?
- 29:45Speaker 5: You know, how can I attain this look? With what
- 29:48Speaker 5: what I have to use, and you know, trying to
- 29:53Speaker 5: recreate certain looks.
- 29:56Speaker 2: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
- 30:02Speaker 2: and now back to the show.
- 30:06Speaker 5: And certain ways of shooting and always trying to you know,
- 30:12Speaker 5: change things up so it's not always the repeat. You know,
- 30:15Speaker 5: it's not not everything you do with the same you know,
- 30:18Speaker 5: because I think everybody who's picking up a camera and
- 30:20Speaker 5: he's trying to be a VP is really just uh,
- 30:24Speaker 5: you know, it's really just uh, it's an outlet for creativity,
- 30:27Speaker 5: you know, So that outlet of creativity, you're trying to always.
- 30:31Speaker 4: Come up with new looks.
- 30:33Speaker 5: You may not be the first person to do that,
- 30:36Speaker 5: but it's always a I think it's self satisfying when
- 30:40Speaker 5: you are able to accomplish something that you know, you
- 30:45Speaker 5: pull off a look that you're like, man, I I
- 30:48Speaker 5: wanted to look this way. I've got my mind's eyes,
- 30:52Speaker 5: got it. And when you when it's in the can
- 30:55Speaker 5: and everything looks just the way you want it to
- 30:58Speaker 5: be and the delivery was right there, you know, you
- 31:01Speaker 5: get that that self joy and if you're able to
- 31:04Speaker 5: do it the right way without stepping on his and
- 31:06Speaker 5: herst toes and you know, pissing off this guy and
- 31:10Speaker 5: that guy. You know, I think that that's really it's
- 31:13Speaker 5: really cool, really cool Mohammed that I have. It's like, hey,
- 31:19Speaker 5: actor was happy, the producer is happy that, you know,
- 31:24Speaker 5: the talent loves working with me.
- 31:28Speaker 4: You know, the PA was happy just to be there.
- 31:32Speaker 5: You know, that kind of thing when everybody just like
- 31:34Speaker 5: I love being there and you kind of helped be
- 31:38Speaker 5: a part of it.
- 31:39Speaker 4: And then you also get that that end project that
- 31:43Speaker 4: looks fantastic. It's really gratifying.
- 31:46Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know, I concur you know, it really
- 31:49Speaker 3: is great when everyone sort of uh you know, comes together.
- 31:52Speaker 3: You know, I just to I know, you have to go.
- 31:54Speaker 3: So just just to sort of close this out, you know,
- 31:56Speaker 3: I recently was on a I was working with m
- 31:58Speaker 3: Night Shaman's producer, and we got to go to this
- 32:02Speaker 3: post production house and it was a beautiful theater. And
- 32:05Speaker 3: the guy who works there was saying, you know that
- 32:09Speaker 3: the track lighting that they use on the floor there,
- 32:12Speaker 3: there's floor lights.
- 32:13Speaker 4: He said.
- 32:14Speaker 3: As soon as they started screening footage of another movie,
- 32:17Speaker 3: the director's cematography was like, wait a minute, he goes,
- 32:19Speaker 3: this color is off down in the bottom left here.
- 32:22Speaker 3: What the hell is going on, and then he turned
- 32:24Speaker 3: off the lights and now it's like pitch black except
- 32:26Speaker 3: for the screen, and the director photography was like, okay,
- 32:29Speaker 3: now this is now, this looks good. I remember this
- 32:31Speaker 3: looking like this now, and you know, and everyone's sort
- 32:34Speaker 3: of you know, you know obviously you know, some people
- 32:37Speaker 3: probably wouldn't even notice that, but obviously you know he
- 32:40Speaker 3: did because you know he has that.
- 32:42Speaker 5: I details are always something that you're especially you know
- 32:49Speaker 5: you're looking. Now it's even more difficult, I think, because
- 32:53Speaker 5: you have you know, everybody is shooting. He's shooting in
- 32:57Speaker 5: conctantly because it's cheap, and you don't have you know,
- 33:00Speaker 5: my name's not Quitting Chantino, so don't have yet the
- 33:04Speaker 5: ability to shoot on film. So uh, you're just constantly
- 33:08Speaker 5: shooting because it's cheap, and you're just taking another director
- 33:11Speaker 5: maybe watching them this monitor, you know, so if they're
- 33:15Speaker 5: not calibrated.
- 33:16Speaker 4: Correctly, who knows what they're seeing?
- 33:18Speaker 5: You know, who knows what they're Maybe they're looking at
- 33:21Speaker 5: as the raw without a lut dropped in and you're
- 33:24Speaker 5: just you know, you're looking at nonsense essentially.
- 33:27Speaker 4: So yeah, there's it's it's it's an interesting.
- 33:31Speaker 5: Thing where you never know who's going to be looking
- 33:35Speaker 5: at it and where they're going to be looking at it,
- 33:37Speaker 5: and uh and what lightings you know set up. Are
- 33:41Speaker 5: they sitting there a dark room, they sit in a
- 33:42Speaker 5: light room with it looking at a vino monitor.
- 33:45Speaker 4: Are they looking at it's twenty four K monitor? They're
- 33:47Speaker 4: looking at it oled you know.
- 33:49Speaker 5: So it's that's another thing I would say, especially with
- 33:53Speaker 5: the old thing, that's that's dp's best.
- 33:58Speaker 4: Friend, is no lead monitor if you can have one
- 34:01Speaker 4: on set.
- 34:01Speaker 5: But all the times I was just doing that because
- 34:05Speaker 5: then you know exactly what you're seeing and at the
- 34:08Speaker 5: end of the day.
- 34:10Speaker 3: Yeah that that post production house recommended that as well,
- 34:13Speaker 3: because they actually had their workflow recommendation and that was
- 34:16Speaker 3: on there. The monitor.
- 34:17Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, yeah, an O lead monitor is it's
- 34:23Speaker 5: especially for running gun stuff. You're walking into floors and
- 34:27Speaker 5: you woke it into uh you know, Jeff who knows
- 34:32Speaker 5: you and you're trying to set up you want to
- 34:35Speaker 5: make sure that you've got one of those on on.
- 34:37Speaker 4: Site because there's a couple of them out there.
- 34:41Speaker 5: The Odicity now has one where you can drop on
- 34:45Speaker 5: a lot and match it up, so it's pretty close
- 34:50Speaker 5: to what your editor is going to be looking at
- 34:54Speaker 5: or your colors, it's going to be kind of looking
- 34:56Speaker 5: at so uh you know, correct your black and those
- 35:00Speaker 5: kind of things, which is just, i mean just incredible
- 35:04Speaker 5: to have on site. You're not guessing and hoping that
- 35:09Speaker 5: the guy you know the colors decides to go this
- 35:12Speaker 5: way or that way. It's it's just I mean, I
- 35:14Speaker 5: can't tell you how much that saved me and saved
- 35:17Speaker 5: my probably my careers.
- 35:19Speaker 4: You're having one of.
- 35:20Speaker 5: Those on on site all times, you know, is not
- 35:25Speaker 5: as the able to see you close to end product on.
- 35:29Speaker 4: Specially low budget type stuff.
- 35:32Speaker 3: So yeah, that's you know again, like one of the
- 35:35Speaker 3: things they were saying was, you know again like these cinematographers,
- 35:38Speaker 3: they they always tell them how important that the the
- 35:42Speaker 3: that particular monitor is. So anyone listening to this, I'll
- 35:45Speaker 3: make sure it links to it in the show notes.
- 35:46Speaker 3: The monitor we're talking about. Jared, I you know, I
- 35:50Speaker 3: know you have to go. So you know in closing,
- 35:52Speaker 3: you know where you'll find you out online.
- 35:54Speaker 5: You can take out Jared has video dot Com. I
- 35:59Speaker 5: also do I'm doing the new show with for Bellator
- 36:03Speaker 5: for the upcoming fight of February nineteenth with GRAYCI and Shamrock,
- 36:07Speaker 5: so you can check out my work there. The show
- 36:11Speaker 5: will be released the leak prior. Yeah, and I'm actually
- 36:15Speaker 5: doing some stuff this week for ESPN Phil. We're doing
- 36:18Speaker 5: a couple of Bowl game type stuff.
- 36:20Speaker 4: So yeah, I'm all over the place. Yeah, I would
- 36:24Speaker 4: stopped working since the tenth.
- 36:26Speaker 3: So you're on Twitter as well, right?
- 36:29Speaker 4: Yeah?
- 36:29Speaker 5: Twitter Dared had zero six and Instagram Jared had zero
- 36:34Speaker 5: six as well, but it's usually just basis of my son.
- 36:39Speaker 3: I will link all that in the show notes everybody. Jared,
- 36:41Speaker 3: I want to say thank you very much for coming on.
- 36:43Speaker 4: Hey, thanks for having me man, good talking.
- 36:46Speaker 3: Good talking to you too, buddy, Take care are you bye?
- 36:49Speaker 2: I want to thank Dave so much for doing such
- 36:51Speaker 2: a great job on this episode. If you want to
- 36:53Speaker 2: get links to anything we spoke about in this episode,
- 36:55Speaker 2: head over to the show notes at Bulletproof Screenwriting dot tv.
- 36:58Speaker 2: Forward slash four. Thank you so much for listening to guys.
- 37:01Speaker 2: As always, keep on writing no matter what.
- 37:04Speaker 4: I'll talk to you soon.
- 37:05Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Bulletproof Screenwriting podcast at Bulletproof
- 37:09Speaker 1: Screenwriting dot tv.