I get letters somewhat regularly, as do many of my colleagues, from Film and Art School students who as part of their class assignment lists need to study a Photographer or Film Maker.
I take these seriously. Since I get a fair amount of them, I decided to do a blog on the subject.
The following excerpt is one I really appreciated as it came from the daughter of someone I went to school with. I am pasting it below with some entertaining and informative links that will give anyone who possesses a moderate amount of effort and ability to self motivate, a great look at what exactly it is that I do. If one looks a little bit more closely (I am a firm believer in incentives-reward for effort) there is a treasure trove here for a young Creative mind.
The Correspondence:
Santa Barbara Ca. Here. Google can be your friend sometimes (Or the road to massive distraction if one is ADHD prone like I am)
http://www.davidpuu.com/?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Where did you attend college?
SBCC. I was in Pre med and transitioned to business. Never finished my 4 year degree (came close) as I was already running a company, on the radio as a personality, and doing entertainment based projects.
When did you start photography?
When I was 12. My Dad was a map maker and Photographer in the Military. He gave me his Army issue Nikon kit, and I self taught.
What was your first job out of college?
I never had one. I worked my way through, as a Restaurant Manager and Production Manager for a packaging company.
Then transitioned into Professional Athletics as a competitive Cyclist and Professional Surfer.
When and how did you start your business?
Which one? (There are 4 right now) I have pretty much run my own companies since I was 24. I am 57 now.
Depends on what I am trying to create. My last film was shot for Nat Geo on an innovative high speed 3D system which WHOI built for me from scratch. I own a large Canon film and DSLR kit for stills and have a large high speed film kit which I built for high speed motion picture capture.
The way that this works is that I am required to know how to work on any system in existence. For example, on my first film project as a Director of Photography, the director asked me if I could shoot on a specific camera System made by Photosonics. I said yes, no problem. They hired me. I called Photosonics up and went in and they tutored me on their system. If I had needed more help, I would have hired an AC. Understand? I rocked the shoot, BTW.
I have never been a Videographer. I am a Cinematographer. A Videographer turns on the camera and documents action. A Cinematographer uses choreographed camera moves and looks, to facilitate telling a story.
Thanks for the quick response.
