There are thousands of camera operators for hire in any city. The gear is good and it’s cheaper every year. If the job were the footage, the job would be solved.
On a shoot in South America a few years ago, the production company hired locally and the crew didn’t speak Spanish. They couldn’t tell the players what to do, so the players did nothing. They turned up in the last minutes before the window opened, asking where their setup was supposed to be. The producer tore into them and the day was a write-off. The footage wasn’t the problem. Nobody got as far as the footage.
The real job on an international shoot is a list of things that have little to do with image quality. Knowing how accreditation works in that country, and starting it early enough. Knowing where a crew can stand during a national anthem. Knowing which official you ask and which you don’t. Being able to direct a player in their own language in the ninety seconds you have with them. Knowing when to put the camera down, which matters more than all the rest of it.
None of that shows up on a reel, so it’s worth asking about directly. Five questions that separate a crew who’ve done this from a crew who own the same camera:
- 1. Who on your team has worked in this country, and when?
- 2. What’s the accreditation lead time, and who files it?
- 3. What language will you direct talent in?
- 4. Who travels if someone drops out, and are they already accredited?
- 5. Tell me about a shoot that went wrong and what you did about it.
The last one is the only one that can’t be rehearsed.
