Pieter de Vries ACS
Camera Work Tips

Born in northern New South Wales Australia, Pieter's early loves were photography and music. Following a first job working in a darkroom, Pieter's start in the film industry was as camera assistant then cameraman with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

During the last thirty years he has worked on assignments in over sixty countries for American, Australian, British and European production companies, shooting many important and acclaimed television series.

Pieter's work has been widely seen and he has received high praise and numerous awards for his documentary and drama cinematography.

In 2001 Pieter participated in a shoot with Academy Award winning US director James Cameron ("Titanic", "Terminator" 1 & 2, "The Abyss") – Topside DP of a large format (Imax) film revisiting the wreck of the Titanic, using the new Sony/Panavision High Definition 3D format.

Other recent films and series as Director of Photography are "Australians at War", "The Human Journey" for the Discovery Channel, "RAT" and "Animalicious" - both co-productions with Radio Pictures Inc, National Geographic Television and Beyond Productions.

"RAT" earned him the Milli Award and Australian Cinematographer of the Year at the 1998 Australian Cinematographers Society Awards. This film additionally received an Emmy nomination for his cinematography in 1999.

Notes from speech

Pieter gave his tips at Sony Roughcut on how to approach making your Sony Tropfest film from behind the camera.

Most importantly, shoot for the edit. Try and get it right in the camera rather than relying on post production regarding framing and exposure – your editor will thank you because it will be a joy to cut!

There are a number of things that any film-maker can do to improve the final product:

Exposure:

• Take the camera out of automatic – manual settings give you a photographers eye and allows you more control. A camera on automatic wants to see into dark corners and shield from the light.
• Always consider what's important in the frame and make sure you expose just for that element – the eye will be drawn to your subject.
• Play with the light and don't be afraid of black that can add mood to the shot.

White Balance:

• Light changes throughout the day so white balance the camera regularly throughout the shoot – mornings give a warm light whilst midday gives a harsh blue light.
• Don't rely on post production to make the light consistent.
• But remember not to white balance out the mood of the shot so take care with the manual settings.

Focus:

• Switch off the autofocus! You can use selective focus to your advantage.
• Focus can be used to create drama with the shot.
• When filing on DV be aware that the depth of field is large so you will need to build in foreground elements to 'build the shot' and add depth.
• You can use zoom compression to 'stack the shot' – move further away from the subject and use the zoom to frame.

Shutter:

• Try and shoot at a 50th of a second unless you are trying to blur a shot.
• This is the most natural shutter setting – any higher and the shot becomes jumpy.

Transitions:

• Every shot you shoot is not just a stand alone clip – all of your shots need to fit together in the end.
• When filming, ask yourself 'in this shot, where am I coming from and where am I going to?' You need to give your editor options to transition between shots.
• There must be a reason why you move the camera and take the shot in a direction and it must be more interesting than the place it came from!
• If you are shooting handheld, don't be afraid to fill the frame and create movement by moving past things in the foreground.
• If you are moving the camera, rather than moving in on a subject, move backwards out from a tight shot to reveal more of the subject to keep interest.

Framing:

• Try and zoom in tighter on your subject and play with perspectives to make the shot more interesting.
• Look at your camera as a bag of different lenses – use the zoom just as a framing device. Never zoom with the camera rolling.
• Don't follow a subject with a zoom as they walk away from the camera, for interest let your subjects come in and go out of the frame.