Quick Tip: Assassins and Opportunities

The job of the camera operator has many facets but in the end it can be distilled into two pretty simple ideas: can you accomplish the shot, and can you make it better. This is how I approach every shot I do and the way I break it down is to start with looking for assassins and opportunities.

Assassins

Assassins are things that, if left unchecked, are going to destroy any chance you have at being successful at the task you have been handed. There are physical assassins - sinkholes, hornets nests, loose footing, banana peels on the floor and on and on, that can physically stop you from achieving a shot, and then there are visual assassins - mirrors, glass reflections, lights near the frame - the list is endless. All of these (and more) are the first line of defense. Find them, fix them or find ways around them, and then move on. Spotting these assassins starts the moment I walk into a rehearsal as I clock possible reflections and physical barriers I may encounter and while I’m always keeping an eye out for anything that might change, hopefully, by the time we are rehearsing (hah) I’ve worked them all out and there are no surprises.

Opportunities

Once I've destroyed all of the assassins lurking about trying to stop me from completing the shot I’ve been charged with, I start to look for opportunities. I now know I can accomplish the shot, so how do I improve on it? Is there a better frame to be had, can I move a picture in the background slightly to make the frame better, is there a way to hint at another piece of the story that is coming up by visually including something in the frame? The hunt for opportunities never stops and in fact there are many nights on the commute home when I will think of something I should have done and just have to figure out how to sleep without that keeping me up! It goes without saying that the best way to find opportunities is to know the story because telling the story is what we are there for and being able to visually augment that is a huge part of our job. Opportunities are always there, the question is, can you find them.