May 8, 2006

Camera Department

We have an unusual camera department. Traditionally, this particularly technical department has to be one of the most male dominated aspects of the film industry. Not on our set. Our camera team is completely made up of women bar Giles the D.o.P.

Llilia marking up the focus on a handheld follow-focus

Lilia Sellami is our focus-puller. As the title suggests her main job is to keep the focus in the right place. There are other responsibilities though, here is a link to explain a little more en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focus_puller

Anna holding up the clapperboard so that Lilia can take a focus mark for the lens

Anna Benbow is 'clapper loader'. Now the title of this job is not so obvious. Although her main roles are to load magazines with film stock and also to operate the slate (clapperboard) she has a whole host of other responsibilities. Here's another link to get a more detailed definition en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clapper_loader

Siobhan, making sure the monitor is neat and tidy, and plugged

Finally, we have our lovely camera trainee or 3rd Assistant Camera, Siobahn. I suspect by now Siobhan is sharing loading duties as well as generally helping Anna with her myriad of tasks. The camera department needs a lot of organisation and a lot of keeping everything absolutely spotless. Siobhan will be rushed off her feet, shifting gear, packing rushes, copying up camera notes, helping Anna keep everything ship shape.

Nick Cupac, grip, DM, director, and Giles Nuttgens, director of photography.

The leader of the team is the director of photography, or D.o.P. Giles heads up the camera department and works very closely with the director about how each shot is put togther and lit. He also has a lighting department working for him as well as a camera department. This is a highly skilled and with an extra burden on Giles as he is operating too.

Posted by colin kennedy at 10:03 AM | Comments (3)