1 The Director of Photography – an overview

10 Practical Cinematography
nearly 500, in my Palm and do all the lists and data for the shoot on a
Toshiba laptop, which is powerful enough to be my main computer. I
don’t own a desktop.A modern laptop is all I need these days; indeed,
this and my other two books were all written on a series of Toshibas,
including the making of all the illustrations. Both my Palm and my
Toshiba contain all this, together with an enormous database of just
about every technician with whom I have ever worked.
Three words of warning: if you decide to work up your data for a
picture on a laptop, make regular backups. I know it seems obvious
but it is essential. Also, make sure the computer is insured; unfortunately,
it is almost impossible to get insurance on the data contained
on the hard drive so, again, it is your responsibility to make those
backups. The production you are currently working on may be kind
enough to cover it, but it is best to have your own insurance for, if not,
fate may just decide it is going missing the day after you come off the
company insurance.
If you do not want to use a computer, the alternative is to use a
check-box list. Here you carefully write out your lists with just about
everything you could possibly ever need on any production with a
check-box against every entry. For each new production, you photocopy
your original list and then just mark the items you require on this
occasion.
There are four publications I provide the production with, all serving
a different purpose:
1 The camera equipment list
2 The lighting equipment list
3 The film stock breakdown
4 The technical schedule.
In order to discuss the use, importance and preparation of these documents,
I will refer to just one film, Neville’s Island, a feature-length film
shot in England for prime-time television transmission. This format
contains most of the problems associated with any film production. It
is also valuable that all the lists come from the same production for,
in many ways, they are interrelated.
The camera equipment list
The camera equipment list will probably be published twice. The line
producer, or production manager, will usually ask the DP early on in
the production run-up for a guess, or wish list, of the equipment that
will be required as the basic kit in order to get competitive quotes
from different suppliers. This does not take away the DP’s right to
nominate a preferred supplier.
It is important that this list is reasonable and not an ‘if only I could
have’ list. At this stage of pre-production, one does not want to
frighten the budget controllers with a foolish amount of equipment. It
is more important to list a reasonable kit in order that comparative
estimates of different suppliers’ prices may be obtained.
Once the supplier has been chosen, the recce is over and a basic list
can be decided upon, it is vital that you provide this new list as soon as
possible.This is not only so that a firm quote can be obtained, but also,
more important to the DP, to ensure that the chosen supplier can
deliver all their requirements or, if they need to subcontract some