I have been shooting unit stills for film and television for a relatively short amount of time if we are comparing how long I have been shooting to veterans of the film and television industry..
If you’re looking for some insight into the career of, in my personal opinion, one of the top unit stills photographer’s working today you can listen to the interview I did with motion picture photographer Niko Tavernise who recently shot unit stills on the Denis Villeneuve directed space epic Dune Part Two you can watch on Youtube or listen on Spotify
Following on from the pandemic, like many people, I had time to reflect on my career and the type of work I was being paid to shoot and was able to objectively ask myself what was the type of work I really wanted to shoot…
I was able to cast my memory back to when I was just starting out in photography as a photo assistant, and I had aspirations about the type of work I wanted to shoot.
Fast forward fifteen years and those first ideas had fallen by the wayside as I had found myself in a position in which I was shooting any work I could get my hands on with very little regard for what type of work it was… this was tiring and frustrating, I was burnt out …
Having time away from photography allowed me to refocus on what I really wanted to do, I had had the opportunity to work on a feature film in 2018, shooting on set and working with a small team of director, DP, gaffer, camera crew and actors.
It had been an enjoyable journey and I even got paid, which isn’t always the case for your first independent feature.
That film has now racked up 4.5 million views on Youtube which is no small feet for an independent micro budget feature but it was the springboard for bigger things and the beginning of a career shooting unit stills for film and television
I recently wrapped production shooting stills on my second television series for the ABC through matchbox pictures and have shot 4 feature films in the past 18 months (edit now up to 7 features December 24)
I’m currently waiting to hear back about working on for me the largest film production so far, so fingers crossed and you will be hearing about it soon…
