Other than your actors, the person with whom you will have the strongest artistic collaboration with on any given film shoot with be your cinematographer. Film is a visual medium and no one person is more directly responsible for how the finished product will look than your D.P. (the two terms, D.P. and cinematographer are more or less interchangeable, but the shorthand of the set is always DP).

As a developing director or producer you will also find that no one on your crew has the potential to provide greater help to your production than your D.P., and communicating effectively with him or her, and building a relationship of trust and respect is absolutely critical for achieving the end goal of a great film.

The position of cinematographer is unique in that it sits at the apex between the artistic and the technical sides of filmmaking. On the one hand, the cinematographer is ultimately responsible for supervising all of the technical requirements (that the appropriate and requisite camera and lighting equipment is rented and maintained, that the camera is loaded and operated correctly, that the image is properly focused and that the lighting is sufficient to provide a good exposure) necessary to produce a good-looking image. On the other hand, the cinematographer is (along with your actors) the ultimate agent of the expression of your vision. There are an infinite number of ways to tell a story visually, and the cinematographer you select will have a lot to do with helping you develop the one way that works best for you.

If you are producing any type of film (whether a short, a feature or a music video) the very first person you should bring on after the director is the D.P., for reasons that are both artistic and highly pragmatic. So how do you find the right D.P. for your project? Much like every other aspect of crewing and casting, much of it has to do with your tastes, your intuition and your budget. If you are satisfied with the quality of work on their reel you probably don’t need to worry much about the person’s ability to get the core job done (I have always been astonished at how many truly talented cinematographers are working out there today). A casual meeting with your candidates will allow you the opportunity to get their take on the script, and the level of ownership they may bring to bringing the pictures to life. Experience and personality can also make a big difference in how fast your D.P. works, and how flexible they are with shifting on the fly – qualities that can make a big difference on a low-budget shoot. As a new director, you may be surprised at how much time can be necessary to light a scene, or to rehearse a dolly move to satisfaction and you would be wise to discuss with your D.P. (in pre-production) about any scenes they feel might take an undue amount of preparation.

That said, you should always bear in mind that your cinematographer is also a director – a director of photography - after you discuss a particular shot, they will go off and immediately begin directing the gaffer and key grip as to what needs to be done, just as you will begin directing your actors. And a good D.P. should be willing to argue you out of working too fast, or sacrificing too much. If you think of your D.P. as a co-director, the two of you will gradually come to understand what the movie wants to be and then come up with a strategy to get it. and You’ll be surprised how a shorthand develops between you as you move forward.

That kind of collaboration can be achieved with careful discussions in pre-production. Like most people with whom you will work, the one thing that your D.P. will expect from you is clarity. If you cannot articulate what you want, your crew and actors will not be able to deliver it to you. So it’s important that you study your script and be sure that you are clear about what the story is and how you want to tell it. Inevitably you will want to get together with your D.P. before the shoot and have a good talk about what your vision of the film is. For some people this can be frustrating, as it can be challenging to get the image that is so clear inside your head out to somebody else. Most directors lie somewhere between two opposite poles – the visual and the verbal. If you are a visual person (perhaps with a background in the visual arts or photography) you may be able to speak directly in the language of photography, in F-stops and 5Ks. If you are a more verbal person there are many avenues available to you to communicate your visual thoughts, from torn-out photos and watching movies together, to carefully describing the emotions of each scene.

On the pragmatic side, you should be sure to budget appropriately for your D.P. On some projects, the right person may work for little or nothing (cinematographers do what they do because they like to shoot)… but keep in mind that your D.P. may be able to work great deals with camera houses and save your project much more than the cost of their salary.  I have worked on several projects where I was given a 35mm camera package for nothing, because the camera house valued their relationship with the D.P. – and because if they have an extra camera lying around unused on a particular weekend, the loan to the D.P. may bring them business the next time your D.P. books a high-end feature film or commercial. Moreover, your D.P. no doubt has longstanding relationships with camera crew who will be guaranteed to give your project more weight than they might have otherwise.

I have never met a cinematographer I didn’t like. They are generally interesting, hard-working people who like making movies. If you take the time to understand their perspective and treat their point of view with respect, your initial collaboration may extend to future projects. Then you will undoubtedly begin to echo the old line from Casablanca: “this looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship”.

Barry Gilbert is a director and producer residing in Los Angeles.  He is the founder of Seduced and Exploited Entertainment, which develops theatrical films and Modern Film Methods which creates content for mobile media.  He is currently producing a documentary feature film entitled “Jose Padilla: Enemy Combatant” about the accused “dirty bomber” held in the United States by the military for three years without being charged or given access to a lawyer; and “Blood Sucking Fiends”, a darkly sexy saga of vampires trying to take over the world and the women who love them, coming soon to your ipod and mobile phone. Learn more at
http://www.seducedandexploited.com andhttp://www.modernfilmmethods.com