"Give me a cutaway, a reversal, and don’t cross the line.” Language that makes complete sense to you, right? How about “Roll sound?” Maybe you’re familiar with that one, where a movie production’s sound guy is told to start the recorder, and then the slate person places the slate in front of the camera and the AD says “Mark it! “ But I bet you’ve never witnessed it at a wedding. If you think I’m going to tell you that I do all of this at weddings and events (I'm a wedding cinematographer) well, no. But I do follow the most intrinsic protocols, the stuff taught to me many years ago when I was a supernumerary/ apprentice at Pinewood Film Studios in England. I was seventeen and I’d quit school early because I hated school. My initial training started with knowing the difference between emulsion and celluloid, key numbers and reel numbers, how to recognize fogged film, to know what butterflies, HMI's and scrims are and how and when to use them—a ...
