Camera Assistant Christopher J Orr, guest on episode 14 of The Holistic DP Podcast

Cinematography and the camera assistant

Chris’ story

Chris’ career progress so far has been a busy ride of hard work and dedication. From 6 hour round trips to work in London, to accidentally standing on Jessica Alba’s hand in a strip club while working on a feature film, Chris has a great story to tell.

Brief debating studying accounting at University, Chris quickly released that was not the career path for him and set out to get a job in the film industry.

Northern Film and Media would provide Chris with hands-on experience across every role of the film crew, from the director of photography to spark. He’d go on to gain training and mentorship from some of the UK film industry professionals, like cinematographer Kyle Heslop

Fast forward a few years and Chris is now based in West London working as a loader (clapper loader, second assistant camera, 2nd AC) represented by Vision Artists. He works on commercials, music promos, and feature films.

Talking points

How Chris took a pro-active approach to find work in the film industry in the North of England
Networking and building genuine friendships within the industry
Learning first hand from an experienced cinematographer
Working as director of photography on side projects while still working full-time as a camera assistant
Knowing when to step up in the camera department - trainee to clapper loader to focus puller (first assistant camera, 1st AC)
What’s expected of you as a camera trainee
Having an end goal and creating steps to reach that goal

Resources

Transcript

Carter Hewlett 0:06 Welcome to wait for it. The holistic dp podcast, the podcast formerly known as the best cinematographer podcast. My name is Carter Hewlett, and this is episode number 14. How you feeling about the new name? Are you comfortable with it? Or is it still making you uneasy? It might take a bit of getting used to, but nothing's changed. It's just the name, and the logo, everything else. We're doing everything else, we talk about how we interact together, it's all still the same. cool new name out of the way. Let me tell you about this episode. On this episode of the show. We have camera assistant, Christopher J. Or Chris is an AC that I've worked with on a pretty good amount of shoots over the past few years. This is a cool conversation. I think just a little bit of a disclaimer, this is actually recorded this in June last year. So it's just been sat on my harddrive. So I apologize if something that we say sounds a bit like out of date, hopefully it doesn't. We talked about his experience of trying to get into the industry, living in the north of England, where the industry is a lot smaller, it's a lot different. And it's it's often a little harder to get your foot in the door. So he talks about that. And his approach to that he talks about his how he did get his foot in the door starting off as a runner and working his way into the camera department and starting off as a trainee in camera department and doing some work as a actually a focus on on a feature even though that's not technically his role. And he'll be the first to tell you that. So it's cool hearing him talk about all these different experiences and how he's been thrown into the deep end and how you kind of you're often expected to thrive in those situations as an AC. This is good episode for anyone who is maybe a self shoot or a filmmaker. And not necessarily on a shoot that has, you know, specified roles and isn't, quote unquote, a real set. So if you want to learn how to get on set and get your foot in the door and get into the camera department, this is a good episode for that. But it's also I think this is good. This is just a good conversation. I'm going to quit waffling on, and hope you enjoy the conversation and I'll catch you at the other end. Enjoy. Tell me your journey. What's the story? How did you get to where you are right now?

Christopher J Orr 2:26 So I started in Northumberland before I moved to London in 20. Start of 2018 I remember when I listened to Ian's podcast on this and I've heard so many people talk about how they got started in film. And they talk about how they had cameras in their hands from when they were like eight and stuff. I never had that. I literally, I touched cameras. I remember my dad bought a mini DV camera. Like when I was 789 maybe and I had to play on it but didn't really care sort of thing like I was I was not I never had that I wasn't given an old 35 mil stills camera by my granddad. nobody in my family was cinephiles like I remember my uncle's my uncle's got me at the Star Wars. Another uncle got me into the Alien franchise. That was kind of as far as it went to be honest, like my family were more into music than they are into, into like any other arts I would say. It wasn't until I went through high school. I studied drama as one of my GCSEs for two years there. And my plan was to go be an accountant. Surprisingly enough. Yeah, I'm really weird plan but it's I was good with numbers and enjoyed that side of it. And then I remember in the I was I must have been 16 I think at the time. One of my friends was this is in between a GCSE and a level. So it's the summer in between there. And my friend was moving. He was moving down south he was moving to Kent. And this was the sort of time this was 2011 I think it was and this was the sort of time that youtube viral videos were sort of taking off like the the action YouTube channels like Freddy W and corridor digital. Those sort of like three minute comedic VFX heavy action pieces. Were kind of really taking off. I was didn't have a job at the time I was broke and my friend was leaving. So I didn't have any money to sort of buy him a going away. Present. So my idea that summer was I was going to make him a little short film as as a present with all of our friends. And the premise was it was me going around all my friends trying to work out what sort of present to get him for leaving. It was absolutely terrible. Like it was ungodly awful because I literally had never touched a camera before apart from watching some YouTube videos and just went well I can do that. Christopher J Orr 5:31 Obviously, I couldn't but I did it. It was like 10 minutes. We showed it to him. He loved it everybody that was involved just had like a great time making it like there was no sound there was no it was literally just me a tripod and like a little flip camera and then that summer I decided that was really fun. I want to do more of that. So I changed one of my a level studies I dropped double Applied Business to only study single I took Media Studies throughout my a levels so I in my A Levels I did really bad in my maths as level, like, really failed it hard because at this point, I started making films, and I just didn't care about numbers. I'm also really dyslexic so when they started adding letters into the maths that just threw me massively. So yeah, I started making films studied media started doing I did really well in my practicals but media is all my levels were very coursework heavy, which I would never do very well at so all my practical stuff despite being like quite good I'd get quite good results for my coursework would always let me down and I kind of came out I came up with pretty average grades but all throughout that I was just making more and more little short films all of them again, absolutely terrible, but getting a little bit better. Each time I realized throughout my a levels that I didn't want to go to university i'd struggled throughout my a levels with my coursework and all my written stuff and like I didn't enjoy learning like that in the classroom. So decided University wasn't for me, so came out of uni and just decided to try to get into the and try to get into some sort of film jobs. And I came across a course that was run by a local independent cinema in Newcastle called the Tyneside cinema backed by the BFA. And it was basically for young people aged 15 to 18, or 19, I think I was was 18 or 19. At this point, you'd go in for about four or five, six months. And there was essentially just on weekends you would go in and you'd go through the process of learning how to make a short film of how how cinemas work, there was a residential during it where we went away for a week. And we shot a short film, but they took you through every sort of professional aspect of it. getting funding they touched on research, screenwriting, and cinematography. They had cinematographers who are local to the Newcastle area, like Kyle Heslop, he was our cinematography teacher who came in on this course. And I've done little bits with him since they've had some really cool people teach it these things and like really expose you to the actual film industry. It wasn't just our This is all theoretical. So these mentors came with us other than residential, there was three short films that were shot over the space that we then went back and we went in on weekends, and we edited the short film. And then we had a big screening night, I think in December, where we screened all of our short films on in the cinema, in in the Tyneside cinema, and a big premiere event. And that was like, that was my first sort of there is actually a film industry. Like, this isn't just there's not just YouTube, there's not just you making short little short films and dinky cameras, there are, there's something in between YouTube, and the big blockbusters which at this point I just had, I don't think I'd really ever thought that there was more than that. Obviously, there was because I watch TV or watch commercials I watched, you know, adverts on YouTube, but it just kind of never really clicked for me up until that sort of point Carter Hewlett 9:29 With that course, were you... How did it, what, how did the filmmaking process what did people take like specific roles? Or was it all kind of a bit of a collective and everyone was sort of hands on like you didn't have first AC second AC and a gaffer and stuff was it really a bit more like bundled in? Christopher J Orr 9:47 S,o the way it worked? There was a short film had, I think six of us six of the students essentially and each of them got given a rule for that short film but there was like Three, three months of pre production time where we would be where we got taught how to use every single bit of equipment. So we had also pretty much like it was essentially it was University, but instead of three years it was jammed into like, five months. So we had like, local sound recordists come in and teach us all about like, how to properly record how to use lav mics. And after sort of three months, they kind of worked out who wanted to go in what direction and then we got assigned roles. So we had those Producer Director DLP sound recorders so the producer basically did also first ad like the sound recordist kind of boom are they boo mopped and they did essentially everything so it was like the DLP is also did the lighting. It was a low budget sort of film student a style shoot, but we've got all the different rules within that after that course what was the next step for you? After that I got a retail job or I think a year and a year and a half or while shooting short films. And because of that course I did with the Tyneside cinema, I got to know one of the mentors who came in who was a first ad in the northeast and him and one of my, one of the people who worked at the Tyneside cinema, and this first ad, they were in a trio comedy group called hot cold. And they would go out and they would shoot short films and sketches for YouTube, basically, but they knew through the Tyneside cinema and through the first ad called how they knew loads of people in the film industry. So when I say they were shooting YouTube sketches, I don't mean they were shooting on like a 600 D, they would get proper DPS and they were shooting on reds, some of the only reds in the northeast, we were getting, we were getting proper equipment hire in for these things like I was just, I was just running on these originally. But that's kind of that was the next step. I was working retail to pay, pay for my drinking habit. Basically, it wasn't paying bills, I was still at home. I was buying little bits of kit to make short films and my friends and I started running. Basically, that was the next step. For me, I started running, that was my way into the film industry. And through that I just got to know more and more people in the northeast and the film industry. I started running on slightly bigger things. I bought myself a camera, I started shooting corporate bits video. And then eventually it got to the point where I left that retail job. And I was shooting corporate and I was running. That was that was how I made my money after that this is this is over the space of like a year and a half as well. It took me quite a while. And then after that I started running more and more so the corporate side sort of start to fall away. Because Yeah, the corporate side was always better money. But there's nothing like being on a proper film set sitting around talking to some people for the council about these new park benches that they've built or something like that. Or I could be on a set having a crazy, you know, 12 hour day getting paid a runner's Ray that was way more appealing to me.

Carter Hewlett 13:19 How did you transition from runner to camera department?

Christopher J Orr 13:23 Well, I kind of already I knew that that's where I wanted to go. That was always kind of my interest. I was just running because I got onto sets, it was really difficult to kind of transition over in the northeast because there is work in the northeast, but there is nowhere near. I mean, obviously there's nowhere near as much compared to London, but everything in the northeast is usually either it's there's a few big long running dramas, Veera for ITV, they shot up in the northeast for about six, seven months of the year. And there is dumping ground, which is a CBBC kids drama spin off from Tracy Beaker. There's the other thing as well, but it's kind of those other two staple dramas. Everything else apart from that is kind of short films and like small, small corporate jobs and stuff like that. So transitioning from running on some of these big jobs, I started actually running on a TV show that shot up in the northeast for one season called hospital people. That was quite a big show. For the for the Northeast. At the time, everyone thought it was going to get multiple series unfortunately, then it just had one but I managed to get onto that job as a runner. And I remember my first one my first interactions with the camera department on that I already knew the camera operator, Jimmy Hicks, so I chatted to him. But this is my first interaction with the rest of the camera team that were there really I knew of the focus But this is my first interaction with Steve Aitchison, who is absolute world class loader and most, hopefully a lot of people will know him. As for 130 photography, on Instagram and all the amazing clapper boards and filter tabs that he makes. Yeah,

Carter Hewlett 15:16 man, I

Carter Hewlett 15:17 love that stuff.

Christopher J Orr 15:17 Yeah, like he's absolutely great. I love his stuff. But I didn't know that he did this. At the time. I didn't know who he was. And I remember the first time I went up to him, he had a custom clapper board that he'd made. So instead of hospital with said hospital people, but I think instead of the tea, it was like a Red Cross. That's cool. And I'd never I'd never seen like a custom clapperboard before, and I went up to him and was just like, your board is like, awesome. Like, where did you get it? Like, how, how do you get these custom ones? And he just kind of went, Oh, I meant this. I remember when he said that my jaw just kind of dropped. I was just like, holy shit. This is so cool. And you just went Oh, come come find me at lunch. And like, we can have a chat. And that was sort of one of my first sort of interactions with camera, big camera department being an absolute or Steve Richardson's work, which I still am today, to be honest. Every time he comes out with a new board on Instagram. It's like, looks so good. So yeah, like we had a chat at lunch, kind of I expressed my interest. Like, I really want to get it in the camera department. I started just chatting to these people. I started going into the rental house in the northeast called picture canning. It was picture counting, then. They unfortunately no longer a company. But yeah, so after that. There was a company in the northeast called company charity called northern film and media. And they sort of they ran loads of courses in conjunction with like the bfsi and local companies to try and get training and new talent to kind of come through the ranks in the northeast, to try and stop people having to move to London or to Manchester to get work. And there was a feature of low budget horror feature film shooting in shooting in Middlesbrough. So I think hospital people was February. And this was sort of spring, late spring, early summer. This feature needed a trainee for its 15 day shooting schedule, which is like insanely tight for a feature they interviewed the director, interviewed a couple people, because the director was also shooting it. He was the director dp it was that sort of low budget vibes. And I had a chat with him. I just expressed my absolute interest in camera and just how much I wanted to learn. That was it. I got it. I got that I got the feature that was my first ever a time as the camera trained. He

Carter Hewlett 18:01 Wow straight on to a feature.

Christopher J Orr 18:03 Yeah, it was like, it's it still holds up. Like even today is one of I think the best jobs I've ever done. One of my best friends who I met on hospital people called john Reed he was he was on it as well. He came on as a runner and ended up doing bits of third AD-ing on that, which is the sort of department that he wanted to go down. And so it was it was it was really nice. Like me and my friend, were both sort of starting our first steps down the career path that we were talking about when we first met on hospital people.

Carter Hewlett 18:41 Yeah, that's cool. It's nice when you you feel like you can kind of take that journey with someone rather than just kind of being out there on your own. I guess that must have made things a little bit easie

Christopher J Orr 18:52 Yeah, it was. Plus we just had like a really good time that that crew on that were just like the loveliest people, it was just an absolute delight to work on that feature.

Carter Hewlett 19:02 It was it like you said, as a charity that kind of got you in there. The charity organization, what was what was that?

Christopher J Orr 19:08 I'm not sure what their actual status is. But they're called northern Film and Media. I think they are charity.

Carter Hewlett 19:16 And so and they're their goal is to kind of help people find work in the industry, where you are, so they don't so they don't have to move to London and Manchester.

Christopher J Orr 19:25 Yes. Yeah, that's, that's exactly what they do. They have a crew database. They kind of they offer training. So the way that I knew the camera operator from hospital people was they did a camera and sound workshop where the operator Jamie hex, who's now I think he's deeping episodes, Avira and loads of other TV shows. And he came in and there was, I think there was 10 sort of like recent graduates or people just We're really interested in camera went in and dude, we just spent the day with him. And he just taught us about his career and sort of how to get into the industry what he did what he expects from people sort of cop and coming in the industry. And he was just I remember he was incredibly blunt about so many things, but it was an absolute eye opener. I remember one of the things he said, because at the time, he was a camera operator. And he said, Oh, you've just you guys have just come out of uni. Don't go around calling yourself a DRP. Because you'll get people like me coming up to you. Oh, you're a DLP. You're 22 Have you got any work for me? He was so blunt about stuff like that. He was like, like, if you if you want to be a DLP, sure go be a DLP. But understand that you're not going to immediately DLP, Sherlock or Doctor Who if you want to be a camera trained he call yourself a camera trainee. That's when I might come to you and get you work as a camera trainee.

Carter Hewlett 21:04 And then so that's what you did.

Christopher J Orr 21:06 Well, at this point, I was already calling myself a camera shoot, I was calling myself a runner slash camera tree and he

Carter Hewlett 21:11 already doing it.

Christopher J Orr 21:12 Yeah, I was running at the time. And I wanted to be a camera trainee. But I just remember at the time, some of the uni students are just like, oh my god, shit. What am I doing? Obviously, not to say that there's anything wrong with that, you know, if you want to be a dp go out and shoot stuff. But you kind of have to understand what level you're at. This is this is one of the points that I think he wanted to kind of cover with me, I put myself out to the world and on social media and chat to people I'm, I'm a loader. Now. I'm a second day see recently stepped up from a trainee loader. I will might mention to some people if they're like, I know they are like loading on Star Wars. I'm not going to put myself next to somebody like that who's been doing it for 2530 years.

Carter Hewlett 21:57 Let's fast forward a little bit. So you've you're up north trainee. And at what point did you decide to throw in that lovely charities face and be like, you know, I appreciate that you're trying to keep people here, so they don't have to move to London or Manchester for work. But I'm gonna go to London. At what point did you decide that?

Christopher J Orr 22:17 Early 2018. But I did that I think it was the start of March in 2018. All throughout there. So I was sort of, I'd come down to London a few times to do jobs I did pickups on a on a feature where I met with a really good friend of mine now who we do like commercials together a mess steadycam up who I then I think two years later did did a Apple TV drama with him. So I was I was always coming down to sort of London to do bits and pieces. And it kind of got to the point where I was getting I was getting more and more work down here. And there was kind of nothing else keeping me in the northeast. So I was like, fuck it. I'm going to move down to London by myself. Because it's way easier to where cheaper literally loaded up the car. I found a cheap flat and I just went fuck it and move down. And then I think I met you three weeks later.

Carter Hewlett 23:15 Actually,

Carter Hewlett 23:16 I was gonna say now you've Yeah, because when you just said a minute ago, you moved in March 2018.

Carter Hewlett 23:21 Hang on a minute.

Carter Hewlett 23:22 You must have when we shall when we did the music video. You must have just moved to London then.

Christopher J Orr 23:27 Yeah, I think I had

more text goes here

Carter Hewlett 23:30 so you're now in London. So you're just for what the next kind of I guess that's 18 months give or take you're just hammering it out as a trainee on what are you doing then commercials music videos, shorts, a little bit of everything.

Christopher J Orr 23:44 At this point I was Yeah, I was calling myself a trainee and I was training on dramas a couple features at this point. But it was during this time that I was starting to load and time to load slightly bigger things during this time. I started loading commercials not massive commercials but smaller commercials. Started loading some. Okay sighs music videos and dailies on features and stuff. It was just a hustle. Basically to kind of get contacts and get a networking get on the dramas in London. I think it was end of that year. Towards the end of that year, I started talking to diary service crew vision and I think before I even complimented signing to them, they put me on a feature because creative skill set just hadn't found somebody. And I think prep the prep was like the next day and they were just like, Look, we know you haven't signed with us or anything but are you free tomorrow to go prep this feature and I was just immediately Like, yes, definitely. And that was the sort of next big step for me in London gang on that feature where I met, I met some really cool people I met Anthony McHugh and Steven Dunn, who were both on crew at vision. And I decided to explain with them

Carter Hewlett 25:15 stepping up to a loader. What did you find was like the biggest challenge? Or did you kind of fall into it quite easily?

Christopher J Orr 25:22 Can you fall into it? Quite easy, because as a trainee, you're always you're always hungry, or I think you're always hungry for that step. Or you always want that more responsibility. I don't think anybody wants to be a career camera trainee, there are people who do it for a long time, but I don't think anybody wants to stay in that role. There's definitely people who want to be career loaders, and career focused polos. And there's always people that want to step up. But I don't think there's ever career training to be a good loader, I think you need to know how to be your first sc. At least generally, because that focus, your focus puller is always going to need to go to the toilet, you always need to know how to cover them. And if the loader steps up to focus pole for a shot or a scene, your trainee needs to know how to put boards on they need to know how to reload a camera. When it comes to eventually fully stepping up, there's very little that you shouldn't be like completely on top of because as a trainee especially on dramas, you always get step up days. Because your loadout is ill or the focus pullers ill so the for the loader becomes the focus puller, it's just it's easier to bring in to step up your trainee. So I think you always have to be ready to sort of accept that responsibility. So when it comes time to fully step up, I don't think there should be much of a learning curve. I remember when I realized that it was my time to fully step up. I did days on an Apple TV show called Ted lasser, which I don't think is out yet. We I was on second unit I was on I think technically I was on D and j camera. So delta and Juliet because there was that many cameras.

Carter Hewlett 27:22 I was gonna say fucking a lot of cameras,

Christopher J Orr 27:25 it was mad. And the loader came up to me and he was like, so the other trainee, this is her fourth day ever training. So can I trust you to be on it today? And like cover, essentially two cameras, so doubling my workload. And at this point, I was just like, because it was a night shoot, I had to shoot the next day, I was really tired. I think I'd already been on a shoot. I was just like, yeah, sure, whatever, didn't even register what he was kind of saying. And then I did two cameras worth of work without breaking a sweat. He was constantly on the phone to production. So I was dealing with lens changes with the focus puller I was dealing with like all the money, I was just dealing with like two cameras worth of training stuff and half of the loaders workload and not even really breaking a sweat because I wasn't even thinking about it.

Carter Hewlett 28:13 What is your end goal? Do you want to be a Do you want to dp because you've shot your own shorts? How many? You've read some shorts? I know that much?

Christopher J Orr 28:21 Yeah, so I think I've shot this point, maybe 20 shots handful of music videos? I don't know. It's it's a question that gets asked. I think of every assistant or every trainee. And honestly, I kind of I don't know. It's not an it's not something that I want now. I think I'm quite happy shooting little short films with my friends and music videos and playing around. Because I'm so happy and being a loader and being an assistant, but that's not to say that eventually those little short films will won't be enough.

Carter Hewlett 28:59 I mean, if you don't have any ambition, I guess immediately or at this point to dp what's what's kind of next Are you do you have ambition to to become a focus puller?

Christopher J Orr 29:11 I definitely enjoy focus polling, and it's definitely something that I want to do. I don't think it's something I want to do anytime soon, fully. I've just stepped up to be a loader. I want to do I want to load for I'd say at least minimum five years of my career. I didn't fully step up until I felt like I had really done everything that I wanted as a trainee. Yeah, I didn't do big feature films, but I did. I did the TV dramas. I did the commercials. I did you know I did the sort of smaller features. You know, the ones that you know, hopefully go on to become cult classic. You know, some of my favorite films are like the smaller, smaller feature films that only had a budget of a couple male I'd kind of done everything that I want. too, I didn't really have a desire to kind of go on and do the big but I didn't want to do Star Wars. I didn't really want to trainee on Star Wars I didn't want to do bond I was quite happy doing my TV dramas and commercials and small feature films and mid budget feature films as a Ludo. That's what I want to do. I want to do my TV dramas, I want to do my mid budget feature films. I think until I've done that, I probably won't have that much of a desire to step up to be a focus puller. I'm also very acutely aware that anytime there's a problem with the camera, if the focus puller doesn't know, that's, that's bad vibes that's I definitely don't feel I'm I'm at that stage. Now I can troubleshoot shoot most problems with cameras, but I know there's some focus pullers that I work with. And they start talking about Preston RF frequencies, and all this voltage is like, affecting all the accessories in this way. And I'm just sat next to them just like nodding along just going, can I bang my two bits of wood together yet? So I think until I realized that I get to that stage, I think I'll be too scared to fully step up as a focus puller. Because if, if the focus puller doesn't know, and it's highly unlikely The Lord is going to know. And I think that just scares the shit out of me a little bit. I like to know the answer

Carter Hewlett 31:31 for talking about working as a as a first day see what for you makes a good time on set with the DP.

Christopher J Orr 31:40 Would it help if I talked about sort of, across all the roles that I've done, like trainee loader and focus? pelage?

Carter Hewlett 31:48 Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. For sure.

Christopher J Orr 31:50 The DPS relationship to like, the whole camera crew is going to have a different relationship to that to the DP focus polar is going to be we're closer, we're tighter, because that's usually the first person that they they hire. What's the only person that the DP really hires is the focus puller, and the focus puller has the second then the second hires the trainee, because I've got quite a limited experience, working as a focus puller with all the DPS that I've worked with that, trust me to think that my skill level is there is kind enough, they're all friends. Right? foremost, really, I'm sure I'm sure I've gone on set, and I've kept things sharp, you know, I've kept their kit organized. I'm not, you know, nothing's broken. Nothing's gone wrong. We've made the day. But I think that the reason people have me back for jobs because we, we get on, I like to think that's why you've had me on jobs because we get on, you know, we go on, we got a set, we we have a good time. But we do make the day.

Carter Hewlett 32:55 One thing that I do, like when I have you on as a focus puller is I genuinely feel that I don't have to worry about camera, I don't have to worry about it. Like I can have zero contact with the camera until I need to roll that frees me up. So then I can talk to my gaffer, and I can talk with the director, I don't have to worry about a camera, I know. I'm good. And I'm going to be sharp, and I'm going to have what I need.

Christopher J Orr 33:18 The reason I do all of these things is because of I've been I was taught on drama. I was I was taught I think the way because to me a camera operator and a DRP shouldn't have to know a single technical thing about the camera that they're shooting on, they should know. Obviously, they should know what they want their ISO to be they want they know what their shutter angle wants to be. They know what sensor they want. They know what glass and filters they want. But they shouldn't be checking like the voltage on camera, they shouldn't go, Oh, why don't you rig the camera like this the focus, but that's not their job. Really. They've got too many other things going on. Really like like what you said, you know, when we work together? I will in theory, I hopefully I will just go filters stop, you know, what do you want to be at? Or you'll take the camera and you'll set your own stop. But when you look at it, because I think a good focus Polo, and a good camera team should be able to do that because DLP is a head of department. They've got so many things going on. You don't want them to be thinking about anything else like Oh, if we got enough

Christopher J Orr 34:29 I don't know

Christopher J Orr 34:30 this particular cable to deal with this. The the whole camera team should be you should be dealing with that.

Carter Hewlett 34:35 Where can people see the stuff you're up to? Usually I say well, where can people see your work but they can see is still your work? You've worked on it? Where can they like keep up with what you're doing? Is Instagram probably the best?

Christopher J Orr 34:48 Yeah, Instagram really was. What's the handle? It's just my name, which is Christopher, underscore, J underscore all are just in case no one got That's the one yeah, everyone gets that one wrong.

Carter Hewlett 35:02 This was a cool conversation, man.

Christopher J Orr 35:06 Yeah, no, thank you very much for having me out. I just hope that people take away that you don't have to be from. From London you don't already have to know people in the film industry to to get into it. You can still get into it and do well

Carter Hewlett 35:20 by his hard work and perseverance. Right? Because don't don't make it sound like it was easy for you. I'm sure it wasn't.

Christopher J Orr 35:26 Oh, absolutely not. You know, I've been I've been doing this for I started running five, maybe six years ago. You know, and I've been fighting, fighting to get where I am. Every single day. Yeah, if you, if you persevere, you'll you'll get somewhere.

Carter Hewlett 35:41 But the only time something is a failure is if you give up, like if you keep trying eventually, like something's gonna happen.

Christopher J Orr 35:46 Well, thank you very much for having me on this car. It's, it's been great.

Carter Hewlett 35:53 Welcome back. I hope you enjoyed that conversation. Let me just quickly tell you about what's coming up on the next episode of this show. on episode number 15, we have the artist formerly known as the Manchester dp Mike standing forth. As you can probably tell from that name, Mike is a cinematographer based in Manchester. This is a big episode by the time I cut it down more like an hour and a half. And having done recently, a little bit of a data analysis and fuckin research, whatever you want to call it. With some of you guys on Instagram, we have figured out that you on average, everybody likes the episode to be around 45 minutes to an hour. So that's what I'm going to try and do. Mike's episode is going to be cut up into 245 minute episodes. I'm going to try and get Mike's episode out within two weeks time. Now, I always say stuff like that. But I'm really I really am going to try and do that this time. I promise you. Make sure you subscribe on your platform, Spotify, Apple podcast Stitcher, wherever you're on. Make sure you subscribe, you get a little notification. Don't be just searching for every time. Just do yourself a favor, subscribe. And then you get just get a little hollow every time ones dropped. You're like Yo, there's a new episode, holistic dp. And then you're good to go. You just jump in there. It's good to be back. It's nice to be recording these again, nice to be putting some content out for you and sharing some stuff with you guys again. Hope you're doing well. I hope you're all staying safe. Thank you, all of you for listening. I do really appreciate every single one of you. There's so many podcasts out there especially since COVID. There's there's so many cinematography and filmmaking podcasts now that it's like it's kind of saturated. So if you're still here, you're still with me, and you're still listening. Thank you very much. I appreciate you. Stay safe. I'll catch you on the next episode. Goodbye.

About the podcast

On the show cinematographer, Carter Hewlett takes a holistic look at life as a working director of photography.

Through conversations with directors, producers, DPs, actors, and everyone in between, you'll gain insight, knowledge, tricks, and tips on all things cinematography.

Being a successful cinematographer is more than just the art, more than just the photography.

Discussions about lighting, cameras, lenses, and photography are a given for any cinematography podcast. On this show, we aim to go beyond the surface level camera chat and take a holistic look, and deep-dive into every aspect of a DP.

Lighting, cameras, lenses, photography

career management
Investments
marketing
networking
personal and professional development
branding
work-life balance

Whether you’re already a career director of photography or still trying to get your foot in the door, the Holistic DP Podcast aims to provide value, knowledge, and insight to help you become better at what you do.