I was taught to take up as little of the Gaffer’s time as possible.  I would rather quickly show you what I think you want than ask a bunch of questions, figuring I’ll then receive notes and direction.  But since I came to film from live entertainment, I struggled with how Gaffers and DPs communicate their needs to me.  The question of whether something should be a series of cues or a base look with some added faders to change things on command came up constantly, and I just made my best guess.  Since I have a lot of experience, I think I learned pretty quickly to guess correctly.  But what if you are earlier in your career?

Recently I was hanging out with a student/friend of mine (shoutout to Wilson Chang) who is struggling with this issue.  I realized that the biggest piece of clarity that he could ask with the fewest words would be:

Sequence or Possibilities?

Sequence: A ALWAYS leads to B which ALWAYS leads to C.

Possibilities: We may start with B or A, go to C, go to A, go to B, go back to A…etc.

Perhaps obviously, this question only needs to come up when we are doing an interactive.  In general, static looks that we do for “normal” filming don’t need this clarity.  But if there’s an effect, or a level change that needs to happen when the camera turns- that’s when it matters. I feel hopeful that a quick conversation before production starts defining both terms so all parties understand will save everyone a lot of time and frustration.  

If you’re a gaffer or DP and you are curious about my reason why this is so powerful, it’s because I record data in very different ways and even to different targets (a cue vs a submaster in Eos-speak) for each need.  Changing the record target after I start on one method takes up more time than anyone wants. 

I don’t want to overload anybody I work for with a bunch of programmer nerd-terms.  You shouldn’t have to understand my console to do your job.  But this issue comes up and maybe an attempt to create some industry terms might help everyone.

Has anyone else already come up with terms you use with your Gaffer or DP?  I’d love to hear them.  Or are you just trusting yourself to guess right like I am?  Hit me in the comments.

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Mark LaPierre is a programmer in film and television based out of Albuquerque.  He grew up in live entertainment and has been a designer/programmer for musicals, concert dance, live music, circus and corporate.  Mark is a proud member of IATSE, an ETC Eos trainer and an enthusiastic trainer of many other platforms and subjects.  If you enjoy his content, please consider commenting on his posts on the website to appease the Algorithm.