Is arrogance a common trait among cinematographers?

[Phil Holland]

james Cameron sounds like a tit to work for .. but his films have little to do with meaningful story telling or art , so I wouldn't be surprised
psychopaths have no fear , which can be helpful if producing .. I'm noting Cameron' dangerous deep sea submarine adventures as I write this ..

Not to get terribly off topic, but do note that Cameron is all about the art and craft of filmmaking, despite your personal opinion regarding Avatar. There is a story there that features a "meaningful arc" as well as tremendous levels of art on screen at nearly all times.

Literally some of the best artists in the world have helped that film and the future ones slowly come to life. From storyboards, to concept art, to previs, to animation, and VFX. On the camera side, a great deal ground breaking challenges were and will be common on a daily basis.

Cameron is demanding, which in my mind is mostly a good thing. Sometimes the beams cross and things melt, but overall he's very good at getting the best out of people.

Most director's I've worked with are very demanding to some degree. It's okay to be that. We're all professionals trying to produce our best work "usually" I hope.

 

[Sabovic Adis]

Yes. Many use 110% as an emphatic. Obviously, it is an impossibility. Unless of course they mean to suck the ever-loving life out of you and ten percent on top as well. Then you know you're working with a vampire.

Is this even legal to ask, I mean exploitation only comes to mind...

 

[Hrvoje Simic]

work in the industry for longer and the fog will lift for you ..

The only fog here is in your imagination and lifting it depends on a single man's reasoning process.

I suggest reading again what was written and what is the topic.

 

[Mike Finegan]

You are saying that the director is arrogant but then label cinematographers as arrogant. Not sure you can classify newbie director as conematographer. Newbie director will be defensive since they know they are less experienced than everyone on union set pretty much
On the other hand all leaders have to be strong and efficient. So unless you are extremely well know DP / cinematographer you will need to vigilantly protect the vision from derailment. That might be seen as arrogant.
Multiple DP involved in different roles (say on indie projects) can result in fireworks though LOl

 

[Dan Kanes]

There are cinematographers. And then there are people from LA.
One must never confuse the two.

Hey! I happen to represent that remark.

Never confuse those FROM LA with those who have transplanted here to “make it big”

 

[Zeb B]

Insecure people can react in strange, sometime hostile, ways to those who know what they are doing and are self confident. Regardless of profession

 

[Hrvoje Simic]

Hey! I happen to represent that remark.

Booking or court ?

 

[Dominik Muench]

the film industry is full of arrogant, unreasonable, disrespectful, condescending and downright CU**y people......but so is every other industry too!!!!!
Some of the most horrible and unreasonable people I have ever met were in the fitness and health industry. So its not just our industry.

it just depends who you surround yourself with and more importantly who you tolerate around yourself.

Unfortunately this industry makes it very easy for such people to thrive, especially once these people have had some form of success. as everyone from day one gets drilled in their head...."bend over and take it up the ass to make it" or " if you don't kiss ass enough and are submissive you will never work in this town again".
Being demanding is fine....when you juggle with $200 mio. of other people's money you have to be able to rely on your crew and ask for 100%....but being demanding does not permit being a total asshole to people !

I worked for a director/ DOP duo once, who told their entire crew on the morning of the first shooting day "shut up and do as you're told and we might hire you again". On day two the DP still couldn't remember my name even though I was his assistant and kept flicking his fingers at me for attention....needles to say I never worked for them again and walked off set on the 3rd day.

Last year I was second unit on a shoot, I asked my camera intern to get me a different lens (lovely master primes). The kid carried the pelican case over and one of the lenses fell out and hit the ground because the case wasnt closed properly (not his fault, whoever opens a case, closes and locks it properly).
Immediately the producer came running over and absolutely LOST HIS SHIT at this poor intern. It was his first day on set and he almost cried and was very distraught and intimidated the rest of the day.
I walked over to the producer and told him I would leave the shoot for good if he ever talked to any of his crew like this ever again.
A.) nothing actually happened to the lens.
B.) We have insurance for exactly these purposes anyway.
If the producer would have calmly pulled the kid aside and explained to him what went wrong I wouldn't have said anything. But he didnt know the circumstances, didnt realise that first unit left the case open and the intern was rushed and pressured and just acted on instinct. Did he deserve to get yelled at in front of the whole crew ? hell no.
It doesn't matter if you're an intern, the catering girl or the DP.
No one should ever tolerate or show abusive and condescending behaviour, but most people in this industry do because they are scared of their job and want to get hired again.

I dont care how good you are and how many academy awards you have won....I treat everyone, from intern to A-list star with the same respect from the start, but treat me like crap and I tell you where to shove it and walk off set.
At the end of the day filmmaking is a job for me. If people cant show me respect, I reciprocate the exact same way, no matter who you might be. Ive never yelled at anyone, not my assistants, not my focus pullers....not even when the shit hits the fan. At the end of the day we are here to do a job and do it good, excellent results are only achieved if everyone works along happy and in harmony. Once its a wrap and we go home and we are all different people with our own lives and problems.

 

[Marc Wielage]

Not to get terribly off topic, but do note that Cameron is all about the art and craft of filmmaking, despite your personal opinion regarding Avatar. There is a story there that features a "meaningful arc" as well as tremendous levels of art on screen at nearly all times. Literally some of the best artists in the world have helped that film and the future ones slowly come to life. From storyboards, to concept art, to previs, to animation, and VFX. On the camera side, a great deal ground breaking challenges were and will be common on a daily basis. Cameron is demanding, which in my mind is mostly a good thing. Sometimes the beams cross and things melt, but overall he's very good at getting the best out of people.

That is very true. I have heard reports that he is not very patient and also is prone to rejecting real technical advice from engineers, basically saying, "we're going to do what I want anyway," but his goal is always to make a better film.

I've also been told Cameron is a much nicer person today than he was 20 years ago. There's a great story that in the last week of shooting Terminator 2, the crew was so exhausted they printed up T-shirts that said, "I Survived Terminator 2" on the front and "Pray There's No Terminator 3" on the back.

The only DPs I've encountered who were really belligerent and difficult were the ones who were insecure and just overreacting to the fear that they weren't doing a good job and/or were going to go over schedule. Some were clearly in over their heads. But it is remarkable that most of the big-gun DPs are confident without being too pushy, and most of them are willing to listen to reason and work out a compromise that gets the job done.

 

[Zeb B]

Hollywood is full of stable, humble folks who look out for each other . . .

 

[Sabovic Adis]

Ehm, that screamer clearly never ate the soap...:rofl:

 

[B Kanegson]

I would posit that asserting one's self in a leadership position, as "a first time film director who knows nothing about the film making process..." is actually the definition of the height of arrogance.

One should at least put some minimal effort and time into learning the basics about what it is one is doing/ attempting to do, before assuming command of an entire company, crew, and project.

 

[Alex Lubensky]

Hollywood is full of stable, humble folks who look out for each other . . .

Oh yeah, that sound of Bale yelling on Shane Hulbrut on set of T4 i suppose.

Too personal. Shame it left the set.

 

[Hrvoje Simic]

Hollywood is full of stable, humble folks who look out for each other . . .

If an actor flips out on the set it doesn't necessarily mean he's a douche in real life.

To be able to carry through a heavy role actors have to go through very demanding emotional states. For prolonged periods of time. Per request. And change and adapt them throughout the shoot as the shooting schedule and director require.

It is an extremely difficult task for the psyche.

Learning lines and what to mechanically do in a scene is one thing and a much easier part.
Pulling that off so it gives convincing performance to the audience in front of the big screen while they are "inside the story" is something else. And requires deep and heavy inner emotional involvement.

Picture yourself having to keep the heavily tasking inner feeling and verbal, facial and bodily expression to match for hours and hours and fit them to the camera, scene, co-actors, script and director's guidelines. Over and over again. While having constant distractions.

The outburst which may happen in that state is a product of overly-accumulated emotions from a role and mental/emotional exhaustion, when psyche has to let go of excess steam to keep sanity.

Huge amount of energy has to be kept and precisely controlled on multiple channels of expression while some circumstances prevent that and yank the other way. If it cannot be properly channelled, inner energy hits critical state. When that happens psyche reacts with a safety mechanism.

Pulling out this set dirty laundry to public eye was a low and unethical move and people who don't have experience with film making process and don't understand what it takes, due to lack of context are likely to get a wrong impression.

...


In the context of directing, good luck making a successful high budget, high stakes, high complexity project, in a most complex art form today, fusing practically all other art forms, without a leader with high expectations and firmness of character.

Firmness and arrogance are different things. Sometimes firmness can be misinterpreted as arrogance. Or some other character flaw.

In the context of cinematographer's occupation, arrogance is pretty much a "luxury", as cinematographers have to function with their camera dept. and gaffers properly to be able to achieve their goal. And a shoot drags like a dying mule and mistakes happen if there is no positive vibe and crew hates the asshole in charge. With exceptions, humbleness is a pretty much a job requirement there. Good cinematographer has to possess aesthetic sensibility which is related to sensibility for human interaction as well.

 

[Björn Benckert]

I would posit that asserting one's self in a leadership position, as "a first time film director who knows nothing about the film making process..." is actually the definition of the height of arrogance.

One should at least put some minimal effort and time into learning the basics about what it is one is doing/ attempting to do, before assuming command of an entire company, crew, and project.

Sure, But he must have had something to get in that possition.

On commercials especially I find it very hard to judge peoples knowledge as the shoots usually just last for a couple of days at most. And when pretty much everyone fly in the day before it´s difficult to know who base their judgment on experience and knowhow and who is actually just exercising their big egos. Sadly in this industry you simply need both a huge ego and a lot of talent, as talent alone will very often be pushed aside and talked over by those that scream and shout louder but with less experience.

I find it very interesting to see how DP´s, Directors and the rest of the crew find each other during a few days shoot, sadly just when everyone start finding their place the commercial is done and the team splits up on feature work its something else ofcourse.

 

[William Long]

If an actor flips out on the set it doesn't necessarily mean he's a douche in real life.

To be able to carry through a heavy role actors have to go through very demanding emotional states. For prolonged periods of time. Per request. And change and adapt them throughout the shoot as the shooting schedule and director require.

It is an extremely difficult task for the psyche.

Learning lines and what to mechanically do in a scene is one thing and a much easier part.
Pulling that off so it gives convincing performance to the audience in front of the big screen while they are "inside the story" is something else. And requires deep and heavy inner emotional involvement.

Picture yourself having to keep the heavily tasking inner feeling and verbal, facial and bodily expression to match for hours and hours and fit them to the camera, scene, co-actors, script and director's guidelines. Over and over again. While having constant distractions.

The outburst which may happen in that state is a product of overly-accumulated emotions from a role and mental/emotional exhaustion, when psyche has to let go of excess steam to keep sanity.

Huge amount of energy has to be kept and precisely controlled on multiple channels of expression while some circumstances prevent that and yank the other way. If it cannot be properly channelled, inner energy hits critical state. When that happens psyche reacts with a safety mechanism.

Pulling out this set dirty laundry to public eye was a low and unethical move and people who don't have experience with film making process and don't understand what it takes, due to lack of context are likely to get a wrong impression.

...


In the context of directing, good luck making a successful high budget, high stakes, high complexity project, in a most complex art form today, fusing practically all other art forms, without a leader with high expectations and firmness of character.

Firmness and arrogance are different things. Sometimes firmness can be misinterpreted as arrogance. Or some other character flaw.

In the context of cinematographer's occupation, arrogance is pretty much a "luxury", as cinematographers have to function with their camera dept. and gaffers properly to be able to achieve their goal. And a shoot drags like a dying mule and mistakes happen if there is no positive vibe and crew hates the asshole in charge. With exceptions, humbleness is a pretty much a job requirement there. Good cinematographer has to possess aesthetic sensibility which is related to sensibility for human interaction as well.

Nope! Sorry but it is just a good example of ego at work.

 

[C. Burkhart]

Hollywood is full of stable, humble folks who look out for each other . . .

1) Actually this was the best thing that could have happened to Shane. It is a quite famous recording. It permanently attached him to Christian Bale (thus Batman as well), the film Terminator Salvation and also helped him to get known.

2) The real issue is that the director should have stepped in and separated the two immediately, not waited. The reason is that Bale was in character and it takes time to come down from some roles. Bale himself said the next day that his behavior was unacceptable. I don't think people realize that the level of concentration that is needed to be absolutely present for a role is something akin to a boxer in the middle of a match. It is TOTAL. As I said, it takes time to come down and step away from such intense immersion in a part.

3) What people perceive as arrogance is often a need for shortcuts. During any given day a director will be asked to make hundred's of decisions. At some point some of the politeness is going to probably go out the window. When you have said, "Umm, please...would you mind, etc", more than 150 times, at some point it just is going to be left at the wayside for the sake of expediency. Personally, I give everyone a pass on film sets for this reason and I take nothing personally.

 

[Zeb B]

1) Actually this was the best thing that could have happened to Shane. It is a quite famous recording. It permanently attached him to Christian Bale (thus Batman as well), the film Terminator Salvation and also helped him to get known.

2) The real issue is that the director should have stepped in and separated the two immediately, not waited. The reason is that Bale was in character and it takes time to come down from some roles. Bale himself said the next day that his behavior was unacceptable. I don't think people realize that the level of concentration that is needed to be absolutely present for a role is something akin to a boxer in the middle of a match. It is TOTAL. As I said, it takes time to come down and step away from such intense immersion in a part.

3) What people perceive as arrogance is often a need for shortcuts. During any given day a director will be asked to make hundred's of decisions. At some point some of the politeness is going to probably go out the window. When you have said, "Umm, please...would you mind, etc", more than 150 times, at some point it just is going to be left at the wayside for the sake of expediency. Personally, I give everyone a pass on film sets for this reason and I take nothing personally.

Not sure about your take on Bale's effect on Hurlbut's career. Seems like it pretty much killed Shane's professional trajectory from my view. Diva actors hold tremendous power in Hollywood