How Websites Helped Me Pick a Cinematographer
How useful is your website when it comes to getting hired?
This is hard to measure in industries like film/TV and theatre where it’s common for job opportunities to come about through our existing connections or word of mouth.
The question, ‘Is it really worth having a website?’ may have popped into your head.
My answer is yes. A website is a crucial part of how you market yourself as a freelancer. The benefits are just less apparent and harder to track.
Having finished a cinematographer search earlier this year for a short film I’m directing, I’ve viewed portfolio websites from “the other side”. I’d love to share with you 6 insights on portfolio web design that I gained in the process.
In this post:
A little backstory
If you’re new in this part of the woods, hello! I’m Tem, a web designer and the founder of Tempixel Designs. I balance my time between directing films and designing websites for film and theatre professionals.
To give some context for this blog post, I’ve been preparing this year to direct my second short film. I wanted to use this opportunity to collaborate with a cinematographer I haven’t worked with before.
So, I set about researching directors of photography in my local industry whom I would shortlist and approach for a first meeting.
I started by creating a list of cinematographers
At some point in time, I can’t remember when exactly, I’d asked a director friend of mine if she had any DP recommendations. She ended up messaging me a pretty comprehensive list of New Zealand cinematographers, which her team had generated.
Her list formed the foundation of my own, but I added to it other names that I picked up through other personal recommendations from director friends.
Some I found through scouring the winners and nominees of the past few NZCS Awards, held by the New Zealand Cinematographers Society.
I also discovered DPs via the podcast the Kiwi Cinematographer, hosted by DP Alex Glucina. This podcast was an unexpected gem. Being able to listen to different cinematographers casually chat about what they love doing gave me helpful clues into what they might be like to work with.
In fact, I later met with a DP who I wasn’t sure was a good fit from his website but had my misgivings erased after listening to his podcast interview.
That was my first list.
A second list I wrote for myself covered what I hoped to find in my next director of photography.
Here is that little list, copy and pasted word for word:
Kind + generous – i.e. good to newbie directors and is lovely on set
Prioritises story over images
But is also someone you can rely on to get good images
Has no problem with being less polished and breaking a rule if needed – lots of natural light and practical lights, human touch
Who is interested in shooting alternatively – not following trends. Indie sensibility.
This is purely a subjective list related to my particular film project, and I don’t write them for all of my HOD searches. In fact, I’m not sure if I ever have written one before… but in this case, I needed a list to remind me.
Why an online presence is essential
Finally, with my ‘wish list’ and my list of DP names, I started to search them one-by-one on Google.
The majority of them had a website. But some didn’t. The latter were generally new cinematographers who might be making the jump from camera assistant. Or they’re part of the older generation of DPs, who’ve been working before online portfolios were a thing.
Especially for less established cinematographers, not having a website was quite detrimental.
I wanted to find out more about them, but IMDb only goes so far. Instagram only goes so far.
In the end, I crossed them off my list if I couldn’t get a good picture of them and their work.
That’s why an online presence or home where people can find you can be the difference between someone discovering you or moving on to the next person on their list.
Be clear about what projects you’re interested in
Help your site visitors by clearly communicating with your web design what types of projects you’re interested in. This is my second takeaway from my DP search.
I’d advocate going so far as spelling it out somewhere on your site, such as in the bio on your About page.
You could write a sentence like ‘Jane Doe is a cinematographer working in feature films, commercials, documentaries and ….’
Example bio in the Track template About page.
The thing is, if you don’t spell it out, you’re leaving room for an unpredictable guessing game with your potential clients. When a DP didn’t state what types of projects they were interested in on their website, I had to make my best guess off on their portfolio.
Sometimes I was left feeling a bit confused and not so confident that a DP would be interested in my short film. After all, I don’t wish to waste my time, or theirs.
For instance, if they were listing lots of long-form work, and their last short film appeared to be 8 years ago, was I to believe that they had moved on past doing short films?
Also, showing featured work on a home page is a popular practice. In my opinion, this draws attention to the work you’re most proud of/the projects you’re most keen to be hired for. One DP only featured commercials and music videos in their portfolio, so I crossed them off my list.
I could have been 100% wrong, of course—maybe they were interested in short films—but the only other text (aka copy) that I had to go off of was their contact details.
Another way to send visitors a clear signal about what projects you’re interested in is via your navigation menu. The DP I eventually chose didn’t explicitly write out the projects he was interested in. But his navigation menu grouped his work into Features, Shorts, Commercials and Music, making it clear what areas he works in.
What’s more, he included recent short films released within the last few years.
Navigation menu for DP Mandy Walker ASC ACS.
Navigation menu for DP Michael Gioulakis ASC.
Show your range, but distil it down
Use your online portfolio to show the range of what you can do, but distil it through a careful selection of your best work.
This can be a bit of a tricky act to balance.
I was talking with my mentor, Chris, who is an experienced writer/director, about how he goes about choosing a DP or editor to work with. As a film and TV director, but also someone who ran a commercials company for many years, Chris has much more experience than me in hiring.
He said that he’ll look at their work on their website and view it in terms of what he's trying to make or the specifics of the job.
When I was searching through people’s websites, I was looking through the lens of my project: a comedy-drama with a supernatural element. My brain was creating whatever connections it could between my project and the work of each cinematographer.
This is when a range of past work on your portfolio website can be useful. You don’t know what specifics a producer or director will be looking for. Maybe they need to shoot on water, or have lots of special effects. Maybe they’ve got a no-budget web series that needs a smart, resourceful DP who can make images look amazing with very little.
At the same time, don’t fall into the trap of showing everything you’ve ever done. If you want to mention other projects, you can link people to download your CV/resume or share your full filmography on your About page — I think there are pros to this too.
What happens when you present too many projects? A cinematographer and camera op that I looked at had loads of work on his site. The work was varied and interesting. BUT for me, it backfired. I couldn’t grasp the types of projects he wanted to focus on.
When designing your website, you should work with specific website goals in mind.
This will help you distil your work down. To determine your website goals, ask yourself:
What kinds of projects do I want to work on?
How will my ideal projects help me get closer to my career goals?
Who are my ideal clients? E.g. producers or directors with feature film projects.
What is the most vital action I want an ideal client to do on my website? E.g. enquire by email.
On the other end of the scale, I came across a cinematographer whose body of work stuck closely to one single style. As beautiful as their cinematography was, it made me doubt that we’d be a good fit.
As noted in my wish list, I was on the lookout for someone who ‘prioritises story over images’. I work in narrative, and I’m no Wes Anderson. The way I currently work is I try to figure out what visual style will best suit my story and characters.
A good DP can shoot any story as their job is to help a director achieve their unique vision. So I’m looking for a collaborator who doesn’t let style take over.
If the films on their portfolio range in style, that’s a positive indicator in my book.
Avoid creating a cookie-cutter website
During my research, it became obvious that a lot of sites use a similar look, layout or template. Among DPs, there’s definitely a trend for grids (3 across is very popular), and minimalism with white or black backgrounds.
Many of the sites began to blur together in my mind. It became harder to connect a name on my list with a website I had seen after going through 8+ names.
Now, I also love the minimalist website trend. Don’t get me wrong. But given its ubiquity, try if you can to inject something different into your site.
And ideally, make these differences reflect your personality and tastes. For ideas that don’t have to be big, head over to my examples of cinematographer portfolios for simple ways you can inject a bit of you into your site.
The cinematographer I eventually met with and offered the job to has a minimalist website. He even has a Home page grid layout with projects 3 across! But he picked this somewhat quirky sans serif typeface for his website headings.
🤔 Considering that something as simple as a font had an impression on me, goes to show how similar many of the portfolios I looked at were… And why NOT looking like a cookie cutter can make a huge difference in whether someone contacts you or not.
10 years ago, it probably didn’t matter if your site was graphically kinda basic.
Oh yes, remember those days?
But with better and more accessible site builders, like Squarespace and Fabrik, our exposure to graphics on our devices every single day, and 175 new websites created every minute (siteefy ↗), it’s getting harder to turn heads.
Rather than checking out the sites of your peers and basing your website design off theirs, search for inspiration across other industries, like graphic design, UI/UX developers, food & drink — the industry doesn’t matter.
A director could spend a lot longer on your site than you think
If they’re interested, a director is likely to spend time on your site or come back to it more than once.
I think there’s a bit of inaccurate thinking going round that everyone’s so busy nowadays, that no one’s going to stick on your site for long. A showreel will do because I’ve only got them for 3-mins…!
So you don’t bother to include information that would actually make it faster for a director or producer to say, ‘Yes, I’d love to meet with them.’
I viewed many websites that were almost devoid of project details/text, or what I like to think of as context. They just had videos with titles.
Instead, I had to open a new tab and Google each film/episode myself to find out who made it and when. This took me away from their site where endless distractions abound… Or I’d head over to IMDb, which also sucks up time (hello, more distractions!).
When I asked how long Chris would spend looking at a portfolio, he answered, I'm going to have a thorough look at their work.
He said project details that are informative in a website are who they've worked with, i.e. the director and other key creatives. It shows what level they're at and who is trusting them.
If there's something that's not on their website, he'll watch it on a streaming service, etc., or contact a friend who has worked with them to see if he can get access (he could reach out directly to the DP or editor, but sometimes he doesn't want the person to know he's interested in them yet).
The care you put into your site will pay off. It’s not wasted effort. Concentrate on what ‘context’ your ideal visitors need, so they know what they’re watching and will save them multiple trips to ask Google. Consider how you can make their visit to your site an engaging, pleasant experience, and they’re bound to linger.
A website gives off first-meeting cues and clues
Chances are that your website may be the very first time a director or producer meets you.
Like any first meeting face-to-face, you want to make a killer first impression. And in a first meeting, you’re consciously and subconsciously looking for and responding to body language cues.
The same goes for websites. Just the kind of cues or clues are different.
As an example, the DP I eventually picked did this: for every project, he listed the credits of key people he worked with, including his 1AC and 2AC.
It stuck out to me because it’s uncommon for filmmaking portfolios to even list the major crew members, let alone their assistants. I liked that he took the time to collect those details and include them.
It reminded me how as I was shooting and completing my last short film, I felt so grateful to the cast and crew who basically worked for nothing to make it.
Portfolios can kinda feel like it’s all about me me me, but film is such a team sport. Maybe because this is something I value, I’m looking for that value in the people I work closely with.
In my web crawl, I felt like I was scanning these websites hunting for clues 🕵️♀️. What could this site tell me about this cinematographer? Could they deliver what I wanted? Would we vibe with each other? Are they generous and pleasant to work with?
And that brings me to the limitations of an online portfolio. It can’t tell you how they work.
You can only find out if you truly vibe over a project from a face-to-face meeting.
I did my homework as well — if I knew another director who had worked with them before, I asked them how they found working with that cinematographer.
Chris said he does this too. That’s why having names of the director and producers who hired you on your site can actually make it easier for people to talk to people. In a small industry, we’re all gonna talk anyway!
I ended up having 1-on-1 coffees with four DPs. Another few that I’d asked declined kindly over email. And then I reflected, listened to my gut, and I made an offer.
Did I pick my DP solely from his website? No. The work matters above all, but your site, the way you choose to present your work, is giving/not giving off other non-verbal signals and clues. Which you can have control over.
Presentation speaks volumes. And that’s why I believe your website has value in bringing clients knocking on your door.
I hope this was helpful. Until next time!
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