Lessons

Lesson Info

Vincent Laforet & Chase Jarvis Chat

Hello internet wake up vince um I'm shae says my friend vince you been watching vince for a long time I was watching from home yesterday the great job was amazing um for if you haven't had enough vince laugh right which is highly unlikely but you and I talked if you remember it was it seems like a hundred years ago but it was just on wednesday um I had you on chase jarvis live and that video if if anybody missed it live wanted to rewatch was on one of the creative life pages that's been taken down have been replaced with an audio podcast you know, my itunes page you can get that just in case they haven't had enough of you which is the matter again and had enough of the spokes every really that they want more so also craig told me to tell you guys out there that I think they made vince's last class kind of the precursor to this thing that ninety nine bucks instead of one hundred fifty bucks so so he asked me to relay that which is a smoking deal well maybe figure out how to bundle at so...

me point in the future but so that's the only housekeeping set that I have and you actually asked me to come on your is your show now yeah um and what we're gonna talk about I'm in your house my house your show okay uh I just thought it'd be cool to talk about some of the most embarrassing moments another photography or uh, filmmaking transitions because I know that I've had quite a few and I'm sure you have had one or two and I am sure people here to have a kind of little giggle at that and people on the web as well kind of that's the question you know how much time do we have because I have made every mistake in the book yeah um you wanna go first? Well I think we should let's keep it tio filmmaking for the time being very open up the photography we will and we'll be here all day okay um one of the things that I'm great at is actually make mistakes so I'm I'm honored to be on your show today events um my copy down sorry um and from the transition from photography and now I still do both I think you're you're pretty much like ninety ten about fifty fifty but a lot of the mistakes that I made that I feel like I'm comfortable making mistakes and that's one of the things that I do well is blow it um and it's kind of recovering from those mistakes that's actually I think more crucial than not making mistakes it is some great like you want to be a quick recovery, not a fear we're not not a blunder avoider um my biggest one was first of all just being on set and in the photography world especially sometimes under time pressure you're really in your eye was at least inclined to to kind of break down the tradition of in filmmaking this is your role you're the grip you're the gaffer you're on the first a c you're the first eighty and I wanted to run around do it all because it is all happening too slow for me and the first time I'll never forget does making a music video and I the sun was going down we had to get the camera rigged from the bottom of the hill to the top and get into a crane and I grabbed the cameras were walking up the hill and the first a c was like this is not your shit sorry there's not your stuff and I was like, you have a delay is like I don't think you understand this is not your stuff and I thought it came from a good place yeah, but it's very embarrassing and I was the director supposed to know all this stuff you're awesome people around and that was the first of many and I'm sure he did you experience that offset protocol there's so much stuff so much stuff I got it right that I did not know I mean, neither was classically trained we didn't you know you know the wonderful way to start is you know, from the bottom up and learn and earn your way up you know? And uh no, you know what the protocol is and one of the worst ones I ever did was I was a dp on my first big gig and I was so excited that the shot went well then I yell cut and everybody on the crew turns around and I was like, so excited they would do it again you know and it's like moving on you know? And you know, I obviously step not only on the director's toes which is a big one but also in the first aids and I was like, you know, when that happens I think it's just important t come back with something it's either funny or just honest never lie that's like number one thing you know, I'm so sorry I just got so excited totally my bad never happen again you know? Yeah, we want to move on don't don't make it a bigger deal by how you react to it yourself every recovery again yeah, just admit your mistakes and move on in the same thing um, I'm I feel like the more I make mistakes, the better filmmaker I become because you try and make them only one time yes, um another set of mistakes that I made was when you're enamored or at least I was coming from um, atlanta photography, where way have mastered all of the equipment, you know, you're just you're don't even have to think about it. You're the operating the camera and everything is second nature and one of the things that I enjoy learning. So, like, all right, all this new stuff, I get a trained, learn well, I was wanting to shoot things with the format that I wanted to learn about not necessary, that was best for the job, right? Well, I'm going to shoot this with a red will. Well, why? Because we're trying to do this and run and gun, and you've got a zoom lens on the red and that's not a run and gun kind of rig, right? And so I made a ton of mistakes with format choice, you know, being appropriate for the actual, the stuff I was trying to capture. Yeah, I mean, I I also coming from state backgrounds, you was always the person and start and stop the camera, especially on the red. And so I would always just start rolling the camera and, you know, it's, a real camera in the first days he would stop it the whole entire things. So smaller productions, but, you know, he was doing his job of that's his job start came or not mine, and we just can't like a comedy of errors, you know, the first time someone said, you know, we got a t two eight, four split, I looked at them like, what? You know, I knew what a t stop was, but to a four split I was like, what? What kind of martian languages that and I realize it's just no split between two a team or two, but when when you talk to people in that field, you find it, you talk about the exact same principles been different language, and you got to say, you know what? I actually understand exactly you're saying it's, the language they're using, I'm not used to, and you just kind of really quickly learn about it, you know? And I like to go on set and tell people that I don't know much, and I think that's one thing you mentioned it's actually best to start off in the ground floor and really kind of work your way up. And regardless of what level you're, you're as a photographer, if you're making that transition, a cz you are, and I am it's hard to put yourself back down at the bottom and because you might be the director but just announcing that you're new and that you're going to make a ton of mistakes in the beginning of the show and inviting other people to give you feedback, right? Even if you are, the director was super valuable for me. Andi, I still continue to make mistakes like you said that the language sounds like chinese, sometimes to me, and they're there, the problem is that they're just enough things that are the same, like you recognized two, eight and four, but this whole split thing threw a curveball, and and sometimes I've made the mistake of thinking that I know the thing when I really didn't right and, you know, the other thing is finding a balance the mistake I made initial ease, I want to ask everyone's opinion, you know, I would ask this sound boom hey, we'll how that think that shot and he would look at me like sheer terror, like, I don't know, uh or worse, they would actually tell you their opinion, and they're like, you know, they don't necessarily it's not their field and it's like where that come from, you know? But I think you got to find a good balance between saying you can't say I'm new, I don't know anything. Because then you immediately lost the entire faith of your crew and you're like, oh, that director uh I think it's important to say I know exactly what I'd like to get you know and talk to your department heads perhaps or dp you're you're your your actors or whatever privately if you have doubts or questions uh to kind of nail the big stuff down, but as long as you know what you're trying to get to that's your job as a director like this is where I want to get I don't really know what technical language there is, what gear that I need I mean, frankly, most department heads love that because that allows them to do their job, you know, when you say I want a fissure dollars, you know, this size dead it out with that arm, you've done everything for them it's like they're like, yes, sir, you know, uh and they go get it where did you say, you know, I want the camera to go from here, teo, here about this rate, you know, on about a fifty millimeter lens and I'm gonna want the actor toe to stay there and move backwards um and they're going to know the gear they need to do that they're going to know what kind of job you know what kind of job they might need or dolly and they'll figure that stuff out for you. It's totally okay, that's, that's the beauty hollywood is that it's okay as a director to not know the technical stuff too much. What you need to know technically, though, in your mind is how this whole piece comes together in the end, if you don't have understanding of what your final product that you're trying to achieve is, we're in a disaster situation, and that was one of the biggest mistakes I made early on my career's uh, I was so rushed on one of my jobs that I did on the smaller jobs, someone asked me a question like, you know which direction to the actor, you know, be looking, and I was just like, just like because I hadn't thought about it, you know? And I didn't have tools like, you know, going back to re player vtr or even storyboards and what I've learned whenever I have that look like, I just don't know is to just look right over at the department head or the person whose responsibility so any lighting question that I get, um, that I can't answer off the bat if I'm a dp, I looked right in my gaffer and he'll just jump right on it for me. You know, because I'm always going to hire a gaffer knows more about letting I do, you know, have a director about a camera move or whatever I'm gonna look right at my dp and just kind of, you know, let them let them make you look good, and over time you will have the answers. Yeah, the vocabulary that michael kay bailey grows every day and one set learn it's on another mistake that I'm going to echo, uh, for what you said is there's a difference between saying what you want the mechanics of the set to do and where you want people to move and whatnot and relaying the vision? And the vision is always more important than that? Like what you talked about, what kind of gear we're going to use, how we're going to achieve this look and feel. And once I once I started coming to set prepared with how to share my vision with the crew, my production quality went way way up, like the results of what I was getting in camera were way up, and it just came from a place of me trying to trying to fix everything again, is that that, like in the photography world, where I don't like the idea of sitting in a chair and pointing around and being a pretentious dude? But it's actually a beautifully well old machine everybody on set has their job and when I realized that as a director your job is to impart the vision of this thing to you department heads my whole life got way better but I was a buffoon for a long time yeah, so was I because we as photographers coming into this we feel like we have to know everything now that we're not used to relying on other experts to help us out uh the number one thing that made me a single number one thing in they the most nervous coming into filmmaking, especially as a dp initially is I knew I knew twenty years experience with light and how to balance it and how to modify it and how I wanted the shadow drop off and how focused I want like to be in the color temperature like, you know, I'm saying I knew that said studied it for twenty years no idea how to do it felt with continuous life, you know, no idea they're going to k h and mine and two k tungsten and that tux and I put a lot less light I had no idea what the pie requirements were or the modification tools and that petrified me because, you know, ultimately I realized that the reason I was being hires dp wasn't because of you know, whether I knew the different opel uh you know, diffusion screen or between two k or one k is because they were hiring me for the way I saw things and the way I live things and, um if I could please communicate to my gaffer saying, you know what? Well, here's, what I can tell you, you know, here's the reference that I have here some stuff we can communicate that we've both seen and I would bring it on my ipad this is what I don't like about lighting on this situation is that I like about here I don't like, you know, seeing chipmunk eyes, right? You know, I don't like when the shadows was too harsh, I don't want to see the back in the background, I you know, I hate that pinkish quality they show highlight, they would get it and they would do their job that's the vision thanks division thing and, you know, I work with that gap for as much as I can because he's, a photographer to totally gets things like but that's what he does is he he lights for a living and trying to sell people like flag this move this and have them here versus saying, I don't like the shadows under the eyes like fix that in the mail they're way better fixing things than you or I could could ever be I'm gonna change change tactics a little bit. Um, another mistake. This is kind of it was a little bit antithetical what we've been talking about, but I had the idea that all these tools were incredibly complicated the first time I ever worked with the phantom, which is a camera that shoots the venom was thousand frames a second agency in the new flexes twenty four, ninety five or some twenty, five hundred frames a second is that I thought it was like a lunar takeoff module or something and required forty scientists to run the thing, and I was very, very intimidate, and I think there's a reasonable amount of respect that you have to go into these situations with when you are working with new tools. But when you realize that you I think it's a two thousand dollars class in a way to become certified phantom tack rights over a weekend, not now a place that class no, no, that was somebody else. Oh, yes, but but the idea that that you can't run and gun again, knowing not knowing the limits and the the framework for what equipment you should be using when and being intimidated by things, when in reality what you're trying to do is pick the right tool for the job based again, backtracking onto vision, um you ever do that kind of stuff we ever we ever overly intimidated by the gear and when you shouldn't have been and on the flip side you were the first time someone and producer asked me to put in an order for a camera package and a heart attack I know where to start you know it was it was a red package with cook lenses and what not I don't know what lenses to pick so I called in my buddy jason morrow and said hey jason he knew where I was I wasn't pretending to be you know, uh twenty experiences dp I was like jason you know, this is kind of what I want this is what I would do this on a five d this is what we're going to be doing what do you recommend he's looking to get back to you an hour in order list and that's that's friend yeah, you know and it all worked out but I still I still you he's my friends you know too much too much stuff out the absolutely uh you want to bounce like one or two questions off the interwebs I was yeah I was going to go to canada and susan yes we do we're inside of five minutes so let's yeah let's move right along here holy smokes smokes twitter winners winners you put things in the same yeah start picking and you stir okay, we're getting in the same bar that was fast the difference okay, mostly about our blunders and being a hope that moon quote and vincent from the phones as chase would say how do you this is from latte how do you manage mistakes with your clients? Best thing to say is I need to think on that a little more you know, I need to think about that instead of trying to give a b s answer on the spot that you're gonna be held accountable accountable forward to say you know what? Let me check on that there's a there's a you know, either you say let me think on it or I need to check a few technical things out with my my department heads before I give you an intelligent answer, so I know what I want to do um but I'm not sure that we could do it in the time of the budget we have to get back to you in five minutes and then you go over your gas ago oh ee oh yeah, I think clients like actually client management is is really, really important and whether you're a super genius creative or you're faking it until you make it the it is and if you're working in the commercial world redirecting commercial first and that's why I'm taking the client side of things they are writing jack and they you know, they they have hired you to realize their vision but I always try and approach that with that most respect and there's probably super important people in the world that can tell their clients to you know, to take a hike but I'm like usually acknowledged that it's a great question if they have, you know, if if they're looking over your shoulder and they are there on set, you know, over there with the eighties and the cds acknowledge that it's a great point that's the number one thing that people especially the clients that I've found is effective is that's a great point and like then says if you know the answer, you know be honest, if you don't know the answer here, you need to think about it because it's a time or a money question that's a great question I'd like your idea let me let me when we get back in that in fifteen minutes, I'm kind of focused on this right now, but we're going to take a break and we'll get right to it. I think that's a really important and I think it's a great question and not a lot of people ask their clients if they're happy like they are the ones they're going to cite if you get hired again and in the commercial world like it's in some ways a client service business and most creatives don't like to hear that I know I didn't like to hear that or didn't like to feel that when I started you know, working on bigger productions where there's been these peoples a lot of times their jobs on the line if if this production gets blown then you know they might not be around another day so I've had two jobs one job where a client told me that the entire account was depending on this job we're shooting that makes you sleep and the other was that uh that was the agency and in the client I was calling clients but the agency said that the entire county is on the line with this job and another job where the clients had his job on the line with this job and you just like um and you're like you know what? So is mine you know? So we're in we're in it together eating together and we're gonna we're gonna win you know we're gonna make it out of this together and uh high five at the end of it you've got to go into like that I'm gonna pick your twitter winner if I can um this is a chase is quote it's once I came to stay prepared with how to share my vision to the crew, my production went way up and I couldn't agree with you more with that and that is from david fooled fuld nice moves david uh I think we've got time for one more question yeah um I really feel like we could go on and on about mistakes and people want to probably get over our mistakes and get on to making their own. Yeah, so one more question from you guys susan okay, um whenever you hear chase, we always like to ask the more philosophical questions that a man is in philosophy that lost the market you don't know and that's why I like it when you get good. Yeah. Adam no, I wanted to know what would you do if you couldn't shoot anymore? So I guess that means what is your second passion? What? What in your life would you do? Wow, I couldn't shoot anymore that's heavy and I feel it would divert definitely still be in visual art. You know, I my crew walks around and they joke about my trigger finger. We gotta protect this thing like I should wear a big cast on my arm and then I should always wear headgear with big protective things so my eyes are protected because that's in many ways their livelihood as well but barring like, not losing vision or my trigger finger, I feel like it would still be in the visual arts. You know, the I think just making stuff and putting out into the world is is the number one thing like posted a drug and diagram that would be like making stuff and sharing it is the most important part and what I do within that would, you know, it's less important, whether I'm shooting the film or or a commercial or a still ad campaign or, ah, personal project, for that matter? Um, what about you, homey? Uh, probably teach this stuff, go and share it because I was fun or teach at school sweet good answers. Yeah, my philosophy didn't stand a chance against that man. Um, his last twitter yeah, do we have to give aways here? Yeah, my mind's going toe pick one of vince's on dh it's cutting to the chase it's e r g twenty two it's very, very poignant. Admit your mistakes and move on and I think that's the actually being a good mistake maker is something I take a lot of pride in and being able to move on, it has been said is without a doubt the most important part of making mistake if you're sitting there lingering on it, the only one to make it once, but make that mistake and move on.