First meeting with Director

[viktorenvall]

How do you know when its the wrong project for you in your first meeting with a director?

What are you looking for in that meeting? When do you know it’s a match?

Thank you 🙂

Topic

[Roger Deakins]

I think you can only use your intuition. Do you feel the director is a collaborator? Have they the same view of the material as you? It is amazing how two people can have an entirely different take on a script. I have certain questions I ask as I always operate the camera myself and, as has been the case, the director operates the camera as well. So that won’t work. I don’t like using multiple cameras other than for specific circumstances, so that is always a topic for discussion. One director I worked with usually shoots with multiple cameras and I asked specifically about that way of working. The director had decided that on this one film he would shoot with a single camera and that is why I was being asked to work on the film.

[Yves_LA]

Yes! It always amazes me how one script can have so many perspectives. On that note… did prepping for a first meeting early in your narrative career change dramatically as you gained more experience? Did you like to make lookbooks, decks, for the 1st meeting to make a good first (and maybe only) impression? I like the idea of listening to what the Director envisions for the film and then doing lookbook, etc for a second interview … but one might not have a second go at an interview or did you have all your materials on that first meeting in case you had a chance to talk it over? Thank you!

[Author]

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