We have Cleveland-based cinematographer Nicholas Weiss on this week’s episode to talk about the state of filming commercials and the messages behind them during the pandemic, as well as the outlook for the film industry in 2021.

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  • How has working on-set changed during the pandemic? That’s just one of the questions we answer this week. We talk with Cleveland-based cinematographer Nicholas Weiss about that, as well as the change of messages commercials want to convey and how it affects DPs. We also go into what smaller film cities, like Cleveland, can do to thrive in the industry, as well as what the future of filming commercials can look like in 2021.

• Talking Points

  • COVID Mindset of commercials/marketing

  • Inspiration during quarantine

  • The flexibility of sets during the pandemic

  • Working with small crews

  • Optimizing relationships with others on-set (i.e. Director, Gaffer, etc.)

  • Establishing community outside of bigger markets like NY, LA, Chicago, Atlanta, etc.

  • Why we need more people to do one job rather than do multiple jobs on crew

  • Outlook for 2021

  • Self-improvement

  • Trusting your crew

  • Formula for success

  • Technical aspects

    • Monitoring color on-set

    • The importance of efficiency on-set

  • Pros and cons of having an agent as a DP

• Social Media

  • IG: nicholasweissdp

  • Link: nicholasweissdp.com

• Also On This Episode

  • The Session: 2020 DC Shorts International Film Festival