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Film Crew Profile - The Art Of A Good Focus Puller

Posted on June 4, 2008 - Filed Under Arts and Entertainment

An In-Depth Chat with Professional Focus Puller, Angela Clark, based on the Gold Coast, Australia.

Interviewer: Tell us what a focus puller is and what they do.

Angela: A focus puller is another term for camera assistant. The actual term means adjusting the lens focus to keep the subject matter sharp. 1st AC (assistant camera) is the American term for a focus puller. The focus puller sets the camera up at the beginning of the day, preparing the camera for every shot, changing lenses, filters, the camera speed and so on. The DOP (Director of Photography) is the head of the camera department, but the focus puller is in charge of all things technical, and delegates to the clapper loader and video split operator. The focus puller is also considered to be the operator’s assistant, and the clapper loader assists the focus puller. A focus puller rarely leaves the camera, and is responsible for the technical side of things, leaving the operator to look through the camera and frame the shot. That’s it in a nutshell!

Interviewer: So who are you actually responsible to?

Angela: I’m responsible to the camera operator and all those above! The job of all the assistants and the operator is to ensure that the DOP is happy, and the DOP is ultimately working for the director. Occasionally the DOP is also the operator, but on bigger jobs they are usually separate roles. The DOP is also in charge of the lighting, so having an operator to frame the shots is an advantage and lightens the load of the DOP. In my job I have to ensure that the focus remains sharp (or soft, depending on the shot), that the stop (aperture) and frame speed is correctly set, and that the camera is rolling! This is very important!

Interviewer: How long have you been in the industry?

Angela: Ten years or so. When I was in my second year of Uni studying media, arts and production, I decided that I needed some industry experience if I was to consider a career in the film industry. I believed at the time (and still do) that a degree alone was probably not going to get me where I wanted to be. I ended up as a camera attachment on the ABC series Wildside.

Interviewer: I loved that show!

Angela: Me too! It was a great show to learn on, and basically taught me how to be a camera assistant. The focus pullers were excellent teachers. Joe Pickering was the DOP. He always ran at least two cameras, sometimes up to six at once! Consequently the camera department found themselves understaffed at times, and so as an attachment I was given plenty of opportunities to load film, wield the clapper board, and even pull focus. I learned how to be a clapper loader on that show, spending two days a week on set, over six months. That experience helped me secure a two-year production traineeship at the ABC. I spent that two years learning about all aspects of TV production: sound, editing, camera, assistant directing, and I would work on the occasional drama as a clapper loader in between. At the end of my traineeship I stayed at the ABC for a year or so, then went out on my own becoming a freelance clapper loader.

Interviewer: So you still freelance today?

Angela: Yes. Most people do. There are few in-house jobs for assistants.

Interviewer: Do work opportunities come from networking and the last job you did?

Angela: Definitely. The cliché “it’s not what you know but who you know” really applies to the film industry. It’s just one of those industries, which is good and bad depending on whether you get the job or not! I’ve never been much of a networker, but I can definitely say that the work I did for free opened a door for me, and allowed me to meet some great people, some of whom I still work with today, ten years down the track. It was an invaluable experience, and by the end I was confident enough to do the job properly…And get paid for it! The film industry is a small and competitive one, so if doing some work for no pay gives you an edge over some one else, then I think it’s a positive thing. It’s important to get in there, be enthusiastic and conscientious, because that is what will get you another job. The ability to get on with other people really helps too.

Interviewer: Is going from Clapper Loading to Focus Pulling a natural progression then?

Angela: It is, although they are very different roles. I believe that the more experience you have as a clapper loader, the better equipped you are to be a focus puller. A clapper loader learns the ropes from the focus puller they are assisting. Sometimes a situation will arise when a loader has to step up and pull focus, say if the focus puller goes home sick. Or an extra camera may be required, and the loader might be given the opportunity to pull focus. I have often been thrown in the deep end as a loader, but this is the only way to learn. The transition from loader to focus puller can be a tricky one. It’s hard to turn down loading work, but necessary if you want to be taken seriously as a focus puller.

Interviewer: So how many focus pullers can potentially be on the one production?

Angela: These days most jobs have two cameras, and therefore two focus pullers. The camera department includes the DOP, two focus pullers, one or two loaders (depending on the budget), and sometimes the video split operator falls under the camera umbrella - on big budget films this is a separate department. I worked as a loader on many low budget Aussie TV dramas, most of the time loading on my own for two cameras. My working day was extremely busy! But it is very important to have a focus puller for every camera, not just for the focus, but to make sure that the camera is technically ready for every shot - if the stop or frame speed is not checked and set correctly then the shot will be unusable.

Interviewer: What are some of the bigger productions you’ve worked on?

Angela: The majority of my work has come from TV drama, but as a loader I worked on films such as Strange Bedfellows, The Marine, and Irresistible, which starred Susan Sarandon and Sam Neil. Most recently I pulled focus on an American series called Monarch Cove. It was only a two-week stint filling in for someone, but I wasn’t looking for work at the time because I was six months pregnant. There was a shortage of assistants on the coast, and I suppose a pregnant focus puller is better than no focus puller! I’m just kidding. Before that I pulled focus for Russell Bacon on an ABC series called Blue Water High, in Sydney. I had a great time on that job - excellent crew, northern beaches location and impeccable camera gear - all of which made the experience very enjoyable. Also the hours were very decent, as there wasn’t really a budget for overtime, although this meant that the amount of screen time we had to shoot every day was sizeable -sometimes up to ten minutes a day! To give you an idea of how much this is, a big budget film will have the time and money to shoot only a minute of screen time a day (and often less). I enjoy the fast pace of drama though. Before Blue Water I worked as a focus puller on Fireflies, White Collar Blue, Bad Cop Bad Cop and both series of Grass Roots.

Interviewer: So does it matter what genre you work in?

Angela: It depends where you begin your career in the camera department: TV drama, feature film, or commercials. Even though the job is exactly the same, the skills that you build vary quite a lot. The commercial scene is great if you are interested in earning good money, and don’t mind not having long-term work. I find assisting on commercials a bit tedious, but this probably stems from working at the fast drama pace. A commercial is only thirty seconds or a minute long, and sometimes you can spend days shooting this amount of screen time. Feature films can be similar in this way, but there is something very rewarding about working collaboratively with the long format, and seeing the finished product in a cinema on a big screen. There tends to be more stress associated with feature films because of the budget and the fact that the end result is presented on a big screen. TV is a transient medium, an episode is on air and then it’s gone, where as a feature has longevity and the details (especially focus!) can be scrutinised on such a big format. For this reason, the transition from loading to pulling focus is a lot slower on the feature side of things. Opportunities to pull focus happen a lot more readily in TV drama, so it’s really a personal choice of where you want to be. On a drama, when the light is going and there’s a mad scramble to finish a scene, rehearsals will go out the window and the focus will become a matter of educated guessing - there’s a great sense of satisfaction gained from nailing a shot without a rehearsal. This would rarely happen on a big budget feature.

Interviewer: So how many people are wanting these types of jobs?

Angela: I’m not sure, but I think that the exciting nature of the film industry attracts people to it. The Australian industry is relatively small compared with, for example, the American film industry, so the fewer number of jobs creates competition. I found being on set exhilarating when I first started out, but this has changed over time, even though I still love what I do. In the beginning I had no real personal responsibilities, and therefore the long hours and occasional scarcity of work didn’t bother me. But things are different now that I have started a family.

Interviewer: Talking of that, you’ve been out of the industry for a year and a half now due to parenthood, so how do you think you’ll find getting back into it?

Angela: I won’t know until I’m doing it! There is a part of me that’s itching to get back to work. However I’ve been at home with my son for fourteen months now, so leaving him is going to be a struggle for me I’m sure. It’s difficult too because my husband also works in the industry. Due to the long hours we can’t both be working at the same time unless we have full time care arranged for our baby. My priorities have changed since becoming a mum, and they ultimately lie with my son. There’s a possibility of work for me in May, which I may consider if my family can help us out with some babysitting. We’ll see. It’s hard to commit to a long job because I’m not sure how much my husband will be working.

Interviewer: Is the unknown part of your attraction to the industry?

Angela: Not really, but the great thing about working as a freelancer in the film industry is that you can pick and choose when you work (provided there is work to pick and choose from!). You can have a great working year, earn quite a bit of money and still have four months out of the twelve off. This beats the four weeks of holidays that most people get. But with the good times come the bad, the quiet periods, which can be a bit scary financially. I think most people in the industry are really aware of this, as it fluctuates all the time. It’s a life style that takes a bit of time getting used to. And you can never be certain that a job will go ahead until the camera’s rolling, that’s the other funny thing about it. Jobs fall over at the very last minute; they get postponed, as we have seen recently as a result of the writers strike in America.

Interviewer: You mentioned pay before, so when the work is coming in is it good money?

Angela: Once upon a time it was, but the rates haven’t gone up a lot in the last ten years. Certainly it depends on budgets, the American films paying a lot more than Aussie features or TV drama. And it also depends on how good a negotiator you are!

Interviewer: So you’re in a position to negotiate?

Angela: Yes but it doesn’t always go your way. When a production tells you they’ve got no more money, chances are they do, but it all depends how you play the game. If there’s a lot of work on and a shortage of crew, the possibility of negotiating a higher rate of pay is better, as it should be.

Interviewer: What does the future hold for you besides the possible job in May?

Angela: I don’t really know. I’d like to have another baby soon. I’m not sure if the film industry is the right place for me at this time when I’m concentrating on my family. I really enjoy what I do though - being part of the creative process of filmmaking is wonderful, hard work but great fun. I have female colleagues in the camera department who have managed to juggle work and children, and I really admire them for that. It inspires me in some ways to do the same.

Interviewer: What advice would you offer filmmakers or any aspiring thespian?

Angela: I’d suggest picking a department that interests you, and finding someone to teach you all about it! Free work experience is a great way in, as long as you’re willing to be enthusiastic about doing it for nothing! But you are doing it to learn, and that’s the important thing to remember. For those interested in the camera department, I would suggest learning from the bottom of the department, and being patient, as I’ve seen many people try to use camera assisting as merely a stepping stone to something better. There is a lot of satisfaction to be gained from being a good clapper loader. And in the long run this will make you a better focus puller.

Evette Henderson is the founder, editor and publisher of Ozemag, Australia’s premiere online entertainment magazine. We’ve dedicated ourselves to collecting candid interviews with top industry experts from the glamorous world of showbiz. It’s an access all areas pass and is completely FREE to read. There’s heaps more to check out including competitions, movie reviews, audition advice from professional casting directors and more.

If you want real information for inspiration then visit my website where you will be able to read the second half of this article on The Art of a Good Focus Puller, at:

http://www.ozemag.com

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