Key Camera Operator Tips from Shane Hurlbut | Mastering Camera Movement

What would you consider a good cam op? A good cam op is somebody that out of an A camera op, I look to him to absolutely drive the set. So working one-on-one with all the actors, working with the B camera team and C camera if we have that. So I see the A camera is literally the focal point to all lensing on set. I'm back at the monitors, I'm talking to them about what the shot is, but I look for them to drive. Now, there's some that say that in an interview and then they get on set and they don't. And then I just drive, right? So, but they, you know, it's all, it's finding that sweet spot. This last movie I did, I had an excellent A camera operator that drove sometimes and didn't drive. So we kind of found a beautiful balance because when he was really like had his mindset and what he wanted to deliver, he was all over it. And then when he, you know, he was really didn't have a point of view, then I drove. So it worked out really nice. I also work with another A camera op who is the driving force. He commands all the cameras, positioning them beautifully. And he is like a master class in coverage. The guy just knows where to place the camera and get all those bits so perfectly. The other thing that a camera operator has got to be is super positive, right? They got to be coming in with a smile every day with a go-to attitude and a B camera op, you want them looking for the shot all the time. I don't want to be saying, hey, come over here or do this. They should already be looking for that. So that's because there's so much responsibility that's put on a director of photography. I'm balancing the politics of the budget, the producing team, all that stuff. I'm trying to make the day working with the AD and everything. There's so much going on that when I have to also go, oh, B camera, why didn't you get that shot? Or why weren't you in on this thing? You know, that's the last thing I want to say. I want them, you know, doing the due diligence and finding those shots. And then from a kind of creative standpoint, I'm looking for instincts, okay? The instincts of when to pan and when to go and when to tilt down off of a face to see something that might be happening and tilting back up. Those instincts are hard to teach. And also I look for that same in my focus pullers. They're listening to the, they've read the script, they know the dialogue, they're racking back and forth, they get the rhythm to the dialogue and everything. I'm looking for them to give me that nuance. And if it's something that maybe the director and I specifically talked about, I'll go to EJ and I'll say, all right, EJ, we're going to pull focus when he says this and you're going to rack back to him and then come. So, but it's always collaborative and you kind of, I try to let my operators and ACs run the first couple takes and see what their instincts are with that and then come in and adjust. Because even though we are on a tight timeline, I want them to show me what their thoughts are and what their vision is. Because when it's all said and done, we're all filmmakers from every side of it, whether it's special effects, makeup, hair, you know, transportation, we're all in it together. So letting them kind of drive right off the bat before I'm like, what is that? And why is that? And you didn't pan too fast and you know, you didn't pan enough or whatever. It's like, let it all happen. Just like the first couple of rehearsals, you know, spike boomed up. I didn't want to boom up, but it's like, you let it go and we find our rhythm. Talk more about the importance of movement when you're bringing motion and things like that out of your scene. Camera motion is, you know, there's times where you want that uncomfortable, locked off camera where it never moves, you know. And then there's times like this where we just have this ominous shot. What I loved about the shot that you just operated is it's just like, and it's like, you hardly even know we're moving, but we are. And then out of the corner of your eye, light off, light off, car, you know. And I waited for the car to cue the lights because that's if the person was in the house, he's seeing the headlights on the horizon and that's when he turns the lights off. To not see the car and then all of a sudden the lights turn off, it's kind of like, oh, how did he know, right? So I'm trying to, you know, but it was just ominous. And there's something about, and we have all these other shots that we're going to do, but to just live on this and just let the car, you know, sound on the gravel, and then you hear their dialogue of her singing that karaoke song and we don't cut into it, but we just hear that and that energy, that might be a way that we don't cut into all those other shots that we're doing. But these are the kind of things you find and you say, well, you think it's going to work, but whoa, that did work. And it worked when we came up a little higher to see the car the whole way down where I was lower when I first envisioned it. And we thought the headlights would reflect more off of the corrugated metal and they didn't. So yeah, so camera motion is, it's like the script teaches you and tells you what to do. Like if I read the quiet hour description of this home and the car driving up, it told me to do this shot. You know, it didn't tell me to do a lock off. It didn't tell me to do a long lens follow. It told me to establish the location and make it look ominous. So those are the kind of things that you say, okay, so let's just move the camera ever so slightly. So it's like you hardly even know it's moving and we're just going. But then once you add all the sound design of the car driving on the gravel and then interject the fun karaoke singing and everything that you start to hear as the camera gets closer to that car, you know, it's going to be really nice. And you know, us being smooth and balanced and beautiful and all this. And then when they see that open door, now we go into handheld mode, right? So now we're adding that tension, right? And just like what you did when they entered the house, it's like the shadow, the tension of like, and his hand coming in so slow and you're feeling that. Uh, and those are the kinds of things that camera motion, you know, the motion really brings out when, I mean, Spielberg did it so best of all those beautiful push in shots and you know, that emotion is happening and the pull away is, and anytime you can, you can use that emotion, that camera motion to tell the story and the story is telling you to move, then you should be moving. If it's telling you to be locked off and, and very clamped down, then you do that. It's like, let the story tell you what to do, not make all these swirly moves and everything just to move the camera. Uh, and the story is not telling you to do that. Excellent. Very nice. Thank you.