Episode 191: Top 5 Cinematography Skills Needed with Chad Gilchrist

Welcome to Episode 191.

Chad Gilchrist, grip and lighting guru extraordinaire, and Director of Photography for “Taking Carentan”, joins the podcast today to talk about the Top 5 skills every cinematographer needs to develop in order to be successful.

Before we get into the episode, I wanted to let you know we’re starting something really new. We have extra bonus content exclusively for our Patreon supporters. And this week, it’s going to be an extended interview with Chad talking about his work on Steven Spielberg’s favorite show of the year, “The Bear”. You don’t want to miss this!

Chad comes to the team with an amazing wealth of knowledge and skills from a variety of projects with some pretty impressive films.

This episode’s focus is on The Top 5 Skills every aspiring cinematographer needs to develop and why those skills are important.

Tip No.1: Develop a strong network. Build friendships and relationships. There is a ripple effect in networking. A key to networking is not seeing what one can get out of it for him or herself. The question rather is: Am I genuinely curious about other people?

There really is a butterfly effect. You don’t know where and when the fruits will blossom from the seeds that you planted years ago, but it is always important to keep planting seeds.

Tip No.2: Learn the techniques, technical skills, and then remember that it’s about how you use them.

“Creativity with what you have is filmmaking…Make it great with what you have” – Jason Rugg

Tip No.3: Go do the thing!

Tip No.4: Learn great communication. It matters how you manage people, it matters how you communicate, learning how to work with others is critical to success.

Tip No.5: Be flexible and adaptable. Filmmaking is never the thing that you pictured it being – ever.

Chad and Jason expound on technology and resources useful to them from experience. They give a couple of situations when networking was a good thing for them to do.

The team shares some resources available for listeners:

Roger Deakins: Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC, CBE – Cinematographer Books

Dale Carnegie’s book: “How to Win Friends and Influence People”

ASC: The American Society of Cinematographers

Brent Forrester: Online Classes

DocuView Déjà Vu

Chad: Navalny, 2022, 1hr 39mins, HBO Max
IMDB: Navalny (2022) – IMDb

Jason: YouTube videos – 2 parts called “Halo four is worse than you remember” Part 1 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjZMRcpbK2E Part 2 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2XcD7BV95E

Christian: World War II in Color, 2009, Series, 13 Episodes (51 mins each): World War II in Color (TV Mini Series 2009) – IMDb

05:37 – Tip 1 “Networking/ Connections/Community”
15:37 – Tip 2 “Technical Skills”
22:45 – Tip 3 ” Go do the thing – build your portfolio”
27:00 – Tip 4 “Communication – learning how to work with others”
29:09 – Tip 5 “Being flexible and adaptable”
34:19 – Resources for listeners
40:14 – DocuView Déjà Vu
45:23 – New DVD now available for purchase.