Creative Platforms

1. Thomas Parker

2. Creative Platforms Blog
The Creative Platforms unit requires me to blog my work regularly on Tumblr in
preparation for the my chosen industry. Research into my chosen sector Director of
photography (DOP) will aid my sense of direction in employment and support my
ability to showcase my work.
I will be blogging progress and research of the following:
- Showreel
- Business Cards
- CV
- Website
- Logo Design
- Critical analysis of my work
- Industry and University related work

3. What Industry
I already had a rough idea of how to break into the industry so I conducted further
research to support my thoughts to expose ‘how to climb the ladder’. As I wish to
be a Director of Photography (DOP), in the Television and Film industry, the key to
everything is contacts. Running and work shadowing experiences pose the
opportunity to gain contacts through communication skills.
I came across a range of sites that
offer a variety of work experience
and jobs, using keywords you can
narrow down exactly what you’re
after. For example mandy.com and
The Unit List provide post jobs with
their pay rate.
The creative skillset page states what the
role of a DOP involves. A DOP is
essentially the chief over the camera and
lighting department who creates the
visual look of the film. This role works in
conjunction to the director in order to
achieve a successful overall outcome, in
regards to drama and visuals.

4. Director of Photography (DOP)
To be a good DOP you must have a good sense of creativity,
knowledge of the digital and technical processes, making
quick choices, paying close attention to detail and having
great communication skills. Their job is essentially to discover
the photographic heart of a screenplay which is what draws
my attention to this role.
The desired skillset for a DOP follows competent use of a
wide range of cameras and lens’s with a mature
understanding of how lighting contributes to
cinematography. As posted on my blog, the best route in is by
working your way through the camera department to learn
the traditions of working.
In film, the DOP’s tend to work closely with the Gaffer, who
runs the lighting team, they also tend to have ‘best boys’
who do further running work for them. Being at the top of
the job chain, DOP’s also have a first and second camera
assistant (AC). The first assistant would support the camera
by focus pulling, adjusting camera lens’s when prompt and
maintaining the camera equipment. The second assistant
operates the clapper board and must be prepared at all
times to jump into the first AC’s position for whatever
reason. The DOP is the chief over all these roles.

5. Becoming a DOP
Roger Deakins in my opinion is a very successful DOP, winning more than sixty awards nominated for eleven
Oscars and winning three Baftas, he is known for movies such as Shawshank Redemption, No Country for Old
Men and Skyfall. His route into the industry began with film school , after that he moved onto documentaries
which then gave them the skills to work on a feature in cinematography in England then later in the United
States.
In this video, posted on YouTube, Roger explains how
every cinematographer he has met has reached this level
in the industry in a different way. He notes how back in his
day everyone would work their way up the grades but
nowadays most of the younger cinematographers go to
film school and go straight out shooting on music videos,
commercials and documentaries rather than becoming
assistants.
This scene from Shawshank Redemption (1994) was shot
in a prison, the majority of it was completely blacked out.
The importance of lighting is crucial in this department.
Roger was given remarks about how it was nicely shot
although no lighting in it, when in fact there was, Roger lit
this scene so well that professionals believed it was all
natural lighting.

6. Emmanuel Lubezki, known for Children of Men, Bird Man and Gravity recently winning an Oscar for best
cinematography with Gravity is another great example of a DOP. Like Roger Deakins, Emmanuel attended film
school with teenage friend and director Alfonso Cuarón. The pair set off and collaborated to make many
movies together straight after film school, like Roger suggests; it’s important to also know who you work best
with.
I love Emmanuel Lubezki’s employment of camera
movement in Children of Men (2006), I see it as a good
example of the skills a DOP requires in conjunction to
lighting. A car was modified to fit cast and crew to drive
about safety with actors chasing the car, the movement of
the camera is influenced by movement or objects on the
screen. This is a lesson to when working in the camera
department you must learn to adapt to your surroundings
at all times especially when working with new equipment.
Birdman (2014) was filmed in such a way that
gave the impression it was a continuous shot,
proving the film to have something unique
about it. This was all done through the
camera panning and post production of the
film so Emmanuel didn’t have to worry too
much about where the camera cut as the
shots would be composed together
throughout the pan. Techniques like these are
a great contribution to what I could
potentially do.

7. Showreel
As part of the Creative Platforms unit I am required to create a showreel, this is more likely to be completed at
the end of my academic year when my projects are finished so I can add them to my showreel. I have both
corporate and university projects I can select parts from, however my university projects may prove more
effective. This completed showreel will be showcased on my finished website.
I want my showreel to be as professional as
possible, to portray this I must select the most
interesting shots from my work and audio that will
really support it. Shots with good camera technique
and movement will definitely be added in, shots
that sell myself as a Director of Photography. The
shot taken on the right was a project that involved a
lot of rigged camera, I feel influenced camera
movement should definitely be put in my showreel.
As cinematography is the direction I aim to
head in, it only makes sense to add scenes of
my Cinematography unit in, The Great Gatsby
reinterpretation. I really enjoyed working on
this project as it gave me a chance to
experiment more with lighting. We integrated a
lot of CGI into this film too, this particular shot
was actually shot during sunset, colour grading
assisted the darkness and a vignette to keep
the focus on the central character.

8. Showreel Research
I’ve been searching Vimeo for DOP showreels as an
example to what I’m yet to produce. The screenshot on
the right is a video from DOP Jimmy Boutry and I noticed
he uses an awful lot of portrait shots in his showreel, the
majority is cut to the beat of the music which transitions
each shot. Like most cinematographers he has also
selected expressionistic parts of his work to put in place,
this shot of breathing fire for example. I feel that when it
comes to putting mine together I should have an idea of
what sort of track to use so I can cut my chosen shots to
it.
From research I’ve also found the majority of these
showreels are around one to two minutes in length,
depending on what material you have to offer, keeping in
mind a person tends to stay fully focused for only a short
period of time, it’s important to gain their attention.
This screen shot from DOP Tommy Olsson exposes the
lens flares in his shot, this is a good influence on what
shots I’m going to select to show my lighting skills. The
music used in this is very subtle and holds a lot of
emotion, what I love most about it is that the video
supports the song. It’s important not to go too crazy with
the audio as the visuals are more important.

9. CV
My current CV is yet to be improved, I have further work
experience to add to it. The feedback I’ve gathered will
definitely help me improve it, my name being the first thing to
rework. Making my name bigger for a start will express more
ownership over what I do, I’m contemplating whether to
integrate my name as the logo.
My email could be more professional with a domain name, it
currently stands as twparker@outlook.com and could be
something along the lines of me@thomaswparker.com. I shall
place my name on the bottom left, telephone number in the
middle and my email on the right on both pages so employers
don’t have to search too hard to find my contact details.
The introduction to my CV, about me, should be reworded as
either in first or third person and the skills I’ve learnt from
university can be cut back. I’m certain employers are more
interested in what experience you’ve had more importantly
than just studying and this should space my CV out a little more
so it’s not so crammed.
The skills and interests section portrays a personal side of me
to employers, to contribute the information I already have I feel
industry skillsets would sell me a little more. Noting down what
cameras I’m capable of operating and software I’m competent
with.

10. CV Research
To articulate ideas for my CV I researched other DOP CVs online. I found a strong trait in these, the more
experience in DOPing one person had, the rest of the information would be decreased. For example if you
worked on thirty strong productions you would most probably note all of them down, that’s the most
important parts employers need to see. However after seeing these CV’s I began searching for some with less
experience like myself. Nevertheless, I’ve learnt how to portray my CV once I have built more experience.
Individuals who are loaded with experience
tend to map out what they’ve done in a table of
contents. They may have a box for the type of
production and another for the camera
equipment they’ve used: this shows employers
what they’re capable of operating. Turning my
name into something or enlarging it is certainly
something I should do on my CV too.
As shown below, DOPs with less experience
tend to go into detail about each of their jobs to
compensate, this exposes their skills more.

11. Business Card
I am focusing on my logo design before I start designing my business cards, there are companies who allow you
to upload your own designs as a Photoshop or jpeg file as long as you’re using the correct dimensions.
Moo.com seems like a promising site to start working with as shown in this photo.
I also discovered another
site, plasmadesign.co.uk
that sells a range of unique
cards, like this translucent
one for example. I’m
currently in search for
something that’s different
but simply effective. I
definitely want my card to
have curved edges like this
one
I recently ordered a sample pack from
instantprint to see what their printed cards
are like. The texture of some of them is good
to my liking however I’m determined to find
better as it would be worth paying extra
money. Ideally I’d like my card to have
contrasting colours, icons for contact
information and a different texture

12. Logo design
I’ve researched a variety of business cards I could potentially use to impress future employers, these should be
designed to inform them of my skills and contact information in a creative manor that outlines what I do with
an appropriate logo throughout all my media that expresses me as an individual.
Using Photoshop I had the idea of using my
name in the Harabara font. I want to keep
my name/logo nice and simple so perhaps
only using my name without other images
will work best. I played around with a
camera lens a little and this was the
outcome.
As well as viewing what logos other DOP’s had on
their CV’s I decided to throw my name into a variety
of logo generators just out of curiosity to give me
more ideas. The one on the left was designed on
http://www.hipsterlogogenerator.com/ I think it’s
extremely simply but if employed in the right way
potentially effective.

13. Strengths in my work
I like to think I have a creative eye. I know a shot
when I see it and line the frame up nicely so
nothing looks distorted or uneven, I tend to get a
tad OCD about that knowing the potential errors
when playing back and have a mature
appreciation of all roles in the industry.
As well as filming my other strength lays within
editing, I love piecing together something I’ve
shot and seeing the overall grade. I make sure
everything is done in good time so there’s time
for improvement and of course the edit.
Looking back on previous work, as an individual
I’m pleased that I put my all into my work, I do my
best to stay intact with the industry and always
pick up extra projects when I can and like working
in a team.
I learn and get satisfaction from sharing my skills
or technical knowledge, I know when teamwork
isn’t quite on cue so when required I tend to pull
people together. This all has an effect on the
outcome of a project as after all it’s group work.

14. Weaknesses
There’s always room for improvement and learning. I believe that when it comes down to TV and
Film there’s only so much in my control and I have to except that, not everything can or will go
perfect and all I can do is my best! Things tend to be a little more mature in the industry as
individuals are paid to do a job.
I guess when it comes to working I don’t often switch off, I take on a lot of work at once as I have
high ambitions of working at a high level in the industry as quickly as I can. Sometimes it’s
important to take a break.
I like to be very planned and organised, when being a DOP it’s important to be on good terms
with the director and to go over shots to gather a clear vision what you both set out to achieve.
I’ve been fortunate enough the last year or so to be working with a solid team(s) and would feel
uncomfortable if I was teamed with someone lacking motivation or determination to get a job
done.

15. Pending Work
My current outstanding work will be a gradual process over the next few months to update my
blog in regards to documenting my work.
I will be designing my logo first as I will then be able to place that on my platforms such as
business cards, CV, website and showreel. A rough idea of what I’m searching for is located on the
other slides. Further research into decent business cards will be taken.
My CV will be renewed with new information and improvements to release it as industry
standard once my logo has been completed.
My Showreel, as mentioned earlier, can be started to some extent but there are more pending
projects I wish to select from too. As my Fiction unit deadline is next week that gives me the
opportunity to choose what clips from that I want to add and audio would be an essential asset.