American Cinematographer - June 2020 - 18

t Stephen Lighthill, ASC poses with a new fence
that he built during quarantine. qt Xavier
Grobet, ASC, AMC has taken this time to exercise
his still photography skills. This photograph will
be part of a book he's making of his "lockdown"
photographs. qu In a photo taken by his
daughter Alexis, Christopher Chomyn, ASC saws
away in his basement workshop, making frames
for his daughter Anneke's art.

continue to foster those bonds. Coffee or
some other random beverage or libation
is perfectly suitable, too.

Update Your Résumé
While actual résumés are rarely
the tool that get cinematographers work
(see Shot Craft AC March '20 on reels),
what I'm talking about here is taking the
time to update your professional portfolio/resume as a whole, which includes
your website, reel and social media. Take
this time to contact past producers to get
copies of your work (it's often a job in
and of itself to get the footage). Put
recent work on your website, update
your IMDb - make sure the world sees
the current version of your skills. Don't
be afraid to post something on social
media that you do that you're passionate

18

June 2020

about outside of work. Are you building
that next ship-in-a-bottle? Post about it!
Why not? That next director might LOVE
making ships-in-bottles, making your
shared hobby the one thing you bond
over best.

Experiment and Build
This is a great time to build on that
reel. Take a good hard look at your
current reel - what is it missing? What
kind of work do you want to be doing
that is not reflected in your reel? Shoot
that! Is your dream to shoot car commercials? Rent a car for a day, or for the
weekend, and get some glorious shots of
it. Want to shoot the next great franchise
horror film? Grab some local actors and
shoot a horror scene. Heck, you don't
even need a script! Show someone being

American Cinematographer - 100 Years

"chased" by an unseen foe to show off
your suspenseful lighting and camerawork. A successful day of reel-shooting
need only result in a shot or two. If you
get more, great - but that's really all
you need. Then do it again the next day.
This is also a great time to TEST.
Learn new gear. Call up your favorite
rental house and tell them you've got
some time on your hands and you've
always wanted to test that vintage lens
from 1934 that you know they have in
the back room. Or you want to work with
the latest LED fixture. This expands your
knowledge base and your toolkit. There's
never time to test everything you'd like
for any individual project, so take the
downtime to try new things.

Expand Your Brain
Testing is one way to learn, and
there are lots of others - starting with
reading. That stack of American Cinematographer back issues you have on
the desk? Yeah. Read those. Buy some
new books on cinematography or still
photography or great Renaissance
painters. Get a book on graphic design
and learn more about perspective,
➔
colors, framing, leading lines, etc.
American Cinematographer - June 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - June 2020
