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Jeff Hirsch owns and runs Fotocare in NYC. Since 1968 they have been taking care of professional photographers. The word “care” is what runs through the organization. They not only rent gear, or sell cameras, they take care of their customers. I could relate a dozen stories of them going to bat for me with the camera manufacturers, overnighting a piece of gear, or going the last mile to research some obscure question I may have.

As someone who has for decades been suppling photographers, and now film makers, with the gear they need, Jeff has a great vantage point.

1. You wrote some fascinating comments last week about the DSLR video craze. Could you go into that a bit more? Ten years ago, the transition to digital from analog had been in full swing. Within two years there was no turning back. Now, we are in the midst of another transition that requires new skills and investment. This is another fresh chance to be seen and recognized. Our business is growing again and I trust so are our customers. With the drive to produce video content we will experience greater bottlenecks in speed, throughput and connectivity. We’ll get frustrated and there will be the threat’s to return to the days past of analog capture. A lot of video content may have no where to go because it’s being made without a buyer or viewer or the producer has not figured out how to get their message to buyers.
You might say that you had better get out of the way because the freight train is coming down the track but the change the train is bringing offers opportunity for those that want to be photographers or videographers.

2. Over the years, you have also been in a unique position to see the careers of photographers come and go. What do you think are the characteristics of the people who make it, and then manage to stay on top for decades? Be best at what you do with and develop an inquisitive eye. Look for interest in the mundane and show your clients and friends the world that they overlook. Make people smile not just in your images but in the way you relate to them. Every day presents new opportunities that unlike before.

3. Fotocare now has a web site, a blog, a Facebook page, Twitter. How do you see Fotocare in that universe? We look for the chance each day to make a difference by helping photographers solve problems big or small. Our use of social marketing now lets us reach a wider user group than in-print media permitted given the associated costs. We’ve undergone tremendous physical changes related to moving and opening two new facilities during an economic downturn. The initial downturn gave us a breather to take stock and re-organize. Our incorporation of social media helped us inform and publicize an active series of seminars that continues to grow

4. What is your background? How is it that you came to run Fotocare?
I grew up in a small town and learned about customer service from my Family who owned and operated a small chain of retail clothing stores. I discovered the magic of photography early. I found my Mom’s box camera and Kodak book that described the Darkroom. That was nearly 40 years ago. College experience gave me a greater desire to be a Professional Photographer. I assisted Photographers from LIFE . I shot professionally until I discovered I enjoyed serving customers more than Art Directors. In 1990, Foto Care found me rather than the other way around. Foto Care had been purchased by a group of investors who needed someone to take over the store. They found me and offered me the ability to manage and buy out their investment. That was exactly twenty years ago. For the past twenty years I’ve had the chance to be part of something much bigger and better than me. I have the greatest respect for our customers who so sacrifice everything to photograph. With so little business acumen, our customers start a business, have kids and put them through College all the while keeping alive their wide-eyed enthusiasm for image-making. I hear too often that we make so little any more in the US. One think that we never stopped making is creativity and entrepreneurs. Our business is built on thousands of them, all home grown.

5. Do you take pictures yourself? Not as much as I would like. I still find myself wishing I had more resolution when I like an image I made.

If anyone has questions comments for Jeff, please do write them. He will do his best to respond.
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1. You started quite young, and I am guessing that your first crews were quite young, and now some have gone on to win Oscars. How did you go about chosing the DPs you worked with?

I chose my DPs in what I imagine are the usual ways, first looking at the work of people who were available to me at my low budgets and singling out those whose look I liked for the project, then asking people who had worked with those DPs if they were fast (since our shooting schedules were very short) and worked well with others, and finally interviewing my top candidate to make sure our ideas and personalities meshed.

Because each film I directed was shot in a different part of the world and we didn’t have the money to fly in and house a DP from L.A., I had to find someone new each time. That was a drag, but the upside was that I learned something from each of the DPs I worked with.

One of the first films I worked on as a writer and 2nd unit director, back in 1990, which was directed by someone else, was an $800,000 comedy that was shot by Phedon Papamichael, Wally Pfister, and Janusz Kaminski. I think Mauro Fiore gaffed a few scenes since he was working with Janusz at the time. It’s not the fault of those incredibly talented shooters that the film doesn’t look particularly good — talent is important but you also need resources.

Janusz Kaminski shot the first film I directed, a very low-budget erotic thriller for Roger Corman. During filming he was hired to shoot Schindler’s List and so, for very good reasons, he took his name off the credits. He did a beautiful job, though, and also worked very fast which enabled us complete on our brutally short 16-day schedule. On the day Janusz had his big interview with Spielberg, Mauro Fiore, who was the gaffer, stepped in as D.P.

Talented people like that were looking for work and were available to anyone who had the ability to see how good they were. And that’s still the case.

2. What was it like working under Roger Corman, and do you see any similarities to what is happening with the DSLR revolution in Hollywood?

It was both wonderful and frustrating to work under Roger’s system in the ’90s. Wonderful because things came together fast, and there weren’t a lot of committees to meddle in your creative decisions. The place was a factory to churn out product for the video market, and if you could figure out how to keep your project contained enough to fit through their chute, you could get it done. Certainly, though, no one would lift a finger to help you make your film better — that was entirely up to you and whoever on your crew you could marshall to your cause.

Typically, people would bust their butts on their first few Corman films and then realize that their efforts were kind of wasted. People who stayed there longer than that were generally making garbage just to pick up a few bucks or because they didn’t know what else to do.

I think the DSLR revolution is an entirely different beast. Roger had a market for his films. The digital revolution means we no longer need Roger’s lumber yard full of old cameras, lights, C-stands, Moviolas, and Nagras, but we’re still desperately in need of an audience.

DSLRs are like the portable equipment that appeared in the early 60s allowing the Nouvelle Vague and the Cinema Verite movements to happen. I believe some great things will come, due to the accessibility and portability of these new instruments. They’ll come from independent, self-starting artists, and not from a factory like Corman’s.

3. When you are writing, are you also thinking about who the actors will be, and how you will direct them, or is that a separate process?

When I’m writing, I’m imagining the entire movie in my head, but I know if the film is made it won’t exactly match what I had in mind, because every collaborator will bring something different. Actors, especially, put their own stamp on scenes. I always have an idea of how I’d like a scene done, but once the actors start working that idea might fly out the window because the characters have to belong to the actors. So, in that way, yes, it’s a separate process. Of course, there’s always the opportunity to re-write scenes to fit the actors — that’s one of the advantages of writing and directing.

4. What is your method of working with editors? Are you in there every day, or do you let them do their thing for a while, and then you look at it?

I always want to hang around and edit the film with the editor. But after a while I get the hint that I’m not really needed, and I’ll usually take a break — perhaps my first break away from the film in a year’s time. It’s valuable because I can come back with slightly fresh eyes and it gives the editor a chance to find his/her own voice in the project. So, yes, I like to let the editor surprise me and I try not to micro-manage.

5. I know that sound and music are very important to you. At what point in the process do you start to bring them in? Do you have a thought on that before you start shooting?

I bring them in as early as possible, especially if they are a part of the fictional world you’re creating. Although sounds can always be substituted later, you can take something away from the authenticity of an actor’s performance that way. It’s better to do your work early, so that the cast and crew can benefit from your choices, rather than trying to slide it all it in during post.

Introducing Dan Chapman, AKA Dante. Dan is the newest member of the team here at DHS. Dan is working as a camera operator on all our motion projects, and helping out with post/media management. He comes to us from Orlando,Fl and Full Sail University. We love working with Dan, and we really love having a camera operator that we can call Dante.

Here is a link to my interview in Pop Photo this month I am incredably excited to be part of this and deeply humbled that they chose me to be interviewed.

What I really hope is that from this more people will be making movies. So many people are intimidated by the process, and it really does not have to be that hard. Yes, once you get into splitting feeds, video villages, follow focus motors and the lot, it can be complex. But you can make a very nice professional quality movie with these little cameras with out all that. This is my message in the interview, just point the camera and shoot. Its not so hard. Isn’t that how we started taking photos?

There is a huge amount of information out there. For me, my day starts each and every morning with an email from Planet 5D. Mitch does a great job of searching the web for interesting developments and videos. I am happy to support them. If you are only going to look at one site, it is Planet 5D. They collect information from all over the world and post it. From there, if I see anything interesting, directors, gear, or videos, I drill down to find out more. I can honestly say, that if not for that site and for Shane’s site, I would not being doing what I do today.

Next comes my RSS feed: A Photo Editor, Canon Rumors, PDN pulse, Shane Hurlbut, ProLost, The Creators Project, Heather Morton Art buyer, Chase Jarvis, Philip Bloom, Nowness, Gizmodo, Vincent LaForet. These sites and the people who write have all been my teachers. They put their hearts into letting all of us know what they do, and I am deeply grateful to them. If there is anything that needs more investigation, I do it. The RSS list is constantly changing. I want to keep changing the people I read so that I don’t get too much of any one persons KoolAid. Because, we all have our own special KoolAid if you know what I mean.

If there is something that I want to know even more about, I send an email to the person. Almost never has someone not returned one of my questions. I love connecting to other creators. These connections are fantastic resource. I now have a pretty good network of professionals out there that I can send a question to.

I also read American Cinematographer. I highly recommend reading every word and save every issue. This is a magazine about the real giants. Even though I probably won’t have a 100 strong camera dept any time soon, it is great to read exactly how movies are made by people who are the best in the world at it. My copies look like porcupines with post-it notes sticking out all over them.

Books: In the Blink of an Eye by Walter Murch. DV Rebels Guide by Stu Maschwitz, Apple Pro Training Series on Final Cut and Color are the basics. Every book I read, I make notes in. My memory may not be so great, but I have an annotated library to back it up.

To me this is not work. In the words of my friend Jeff Hirsch at FotoCare ” It’s like springtime all over again”. I mean, how many chance in life do you get to re-invent yourself?

But then I came across the video below by Brit photog Kalpesh Lathigra. It is silent. Wow, what a revelation. And there is a power to it, it is compelling maybe because it is silent. It is an entirely visually experience, so I don’t want to look away. It is the anti John Williams approach. Ok, John may be a great guy, but it makes me insane when I see a movie he has scored. It is like he thinks I am so dumb, I can’t get the story feeling from the movie, he has to bludgeon me with the soundtrack. Arghhhhhhh.

Which brings us to Vimeo and YouTube. I guess people put bad music on their videos because they think they have to have some music. I am just as much at fault here as anyone else. I mean, if I don’t have music, it will be boring right? But there are so many more options out there. Record street sounds, static, silence, breathing, animal sounds, whale sounds, whatever. Of course, you can always find some $1.99 stock music for your work, but try to make it better. Or try silence, that maybe fantastic, who knows. I know I have become a huge fan Kalpesh Lathigra now. Check out the surfers. Love the wave sounds, and only wave sounds.