When The Shot Doesn’t Tell The Story

Years ago, when I was still a young pup steadicam op, we had a newer director come in on a very very big show I was working on. After about the second scene I noticed that I simply wasn’t landing frames well or wasn’t landing them at all. It was the strangest thing because while I had been an operator for quite some time I felt like I didn’t know how to use the equipment anymore. I secretly wondered if I’d been drugged or was sick.

During a break I quietly went over to our 1st AC, a veteran of many years and asked “Hey are you noticing anything different about my operating today?”

“Yeah, it sucks” he replied nonchalantly, sipping on his tea.

“So you have then” I said. “What the hell is going on?”

He smiled and put his hand on my shoulder, seeing the fear in my face that my short career was finally over.

“Dont worry about it, you can’t land these shots because they make no sense. He’s simply making you move the camera for no reason. He’s not a storyteller, you are. Just do the work.”

A light bulb went off and suddenly I got it. From that moment on I was fine (the episode didn’t work well, but I was fine).

I learned a great lesson that day. There are times when you can really get your teeth into something and make it better, tell a great story, be a storyteller, and there are times when you simply have to listen, go from A to B, and realize that you can’t win everytime. As I’ve grown older I’ve learned to recognize that this is part of life too. You can’t control everything. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Sometimes you are creating something special and sometimes you are just delivering the pizza.

Not everything is going to be spectacular and sometimes that’s just the way out has to be.