Forty Years of Freelance Cinematography

It was forty years ago last month that I left my job at the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation (NZBC) and became a freelancer. I didn’t know I was becoming a freelancer – I just knew it was time for me to leave television.

There were rumours at the time that I’d been given the sack; but actually, what happened was that the station manager called me in to talk about my dress. I was becoming too casual in the way I dressed – no doubt kicking my shoes off at inappropriate times – and I’d gone right off the idea of wearing a tie to work. So when I was called in for a chat, I suggested it might be time for me to leave. The boss didn’t argue.

I was with TV for two years and eight months, and it was a wonderful learning experience. I’ve always been grateful to **Ken White **– back then, Ken was the head of the NZBC’s newly-formed cine camera section – for taking me on as a trainee when I had no relevant experience for the job. I was no more than a likely lad fresh out of school; but for some reason Ken picked me out from the interview process and I found myself learning on the job and simply loving the work. Now, forty years on, I’m still glad I became a freelancer.

There were many years when it was difficult to make a living as a freelance cinematographer, but that didn’t matter when I was still young and single. I’d happily work for no pay, as long as I got a feed and a place to sleep. I wasn’t shooting commercials of course – I was shooting projects with mates, in the same way young filmmakers do today, doing it for the sake of doing it. It got tough there for a while, when we started having babies and there was a meagre and erratic income from filmmaking. We relied on other odd jobs to make financial ends meet.

That’s largely why a group of us would-be filmmakers (including Geoff Murphy, Martyn Sanderson, Bruno Lawrence and others) moved to Waimarama in the Hawkes Bay, because we couldn’t afford to live in the city. Communal living has a lot of economic advantages.

Gradually, over the years, film work has become quite a good earner; but there have still been years in recent times when there hasn’t been enough film work to pay our way. I guess it’ll always be an on-again-off-again occupation – but to tell the truth, that’s one of the things I do like about my work, the unpredictability of it.

There was a time when I’d get restless when I hadn’t had any offers of work for a couple of months, but now I find myself hoping the phone won’t ring. Don’t get me wrong, I do still enjoy the work – it’s just that I’ve found there are plenty of other things that keep me interested and occupied when there’s no film work around.

Why I started this rave, apart from the need to fill the el presidente column while deliberately avoiding the subject of politics, was that I’m wondering if there are others out there who have also been freelancing in our industry for forty years or more.

I know there are others who have been in the industry longer than I have, but what about freelancers or individuals who have been running their own business? If there are, then we probably know each other – Sigmund Spath Senior maybe? Let me know. Write in to the mag. Give us a bit of history.

… AlBol