Featured Profile: Jon Brysh, Director of Photography
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
By Maureen Aylward
We work with some amazing professionals at 1623 Studios, many of whom operate cameras or do production work behind the scenes. One of those professionals is Jon Brysh, a director of photography (DP) on many of our special projects like The Local Life, the seasonal scenics we produce, and promotional videos for clients like the Gloucester Education Foundation or Gloucester Fresh. Jon’s talent gets our projects to the highest level of quality production possible. I spoke to Jon about the approach to his craft. Aren’t you curious about what a DP does?
Maureen Aylward: Tell us what a DP is and does.
Jon Brysh:
I am a director of photography or a cinematographer. They’re more or less interchangeable titles. I lead the visual end of a video or film project. I put together the visual representation of an idea. A lot of times a client will connect with me and say, “We need a video for fundraising or for a non-profit promo or a commercial ad for a brand.” That’s where it starts – with an idea and a need. The next step is to discuss who the audience is, the message they’re trying to get across, and what the purpose is for the project. I brainstorm with the client the best ways to represent the idea through a video. I’ll work in conjunction with a director who already has a clear idea of what he or she wants. Then it’s up to me to take that idea and implement it with the tools of video, and most of that is camera placement and the lighting of a scene on the day of a shoot. However, there is a lot of work before we even get to shoot day and that work is called pre-production.
Maureen:
Take me through what that pre-production work entails. When we’ve worked together, you help us shape the project. The pre-production phase can be long and detailed.
Jon:
Everything depends on timelines and schedules. There are so many pitfalls and so many things that can be avoided the earlier everyone can get together and get on the same page. For instance, when we did the Gloucester Fresh video together, the 1623 Studios team spent a lot of time mapping out exactly how we wanted that piece to roll out.
We started with the need to capture what the client wanted, what Gloucester Fresh and the City of Gloucester wanted to portray in the video. This focus was on fishermen in the area providing fresh, local, sustainable fish. For that video we decided to go out on a fishing boat to best represent the client’s goal; we wanted to show live action. Then we decided to have a voice over rather than a series of interviews with fishermen or restaurant owners or customers. These choices come down to how we wanted to tell the story of the Gloucester fishermen and the Gloucester Fresh brand. We got good feedback when the video was complete. Another factor that we consider during the pre-production process is the budget.
Maureen:
Right, the budget. It can vary wildly depending on the client.
Jon:
Of course I’d love a twelve-person crew and a two-ton grip truck on every single shoot day to do the best quality work. That’s obviously not always possible with every budget. When I work with a client, I keep in mind the level of production I can offer while maintaining quality, fun, and expectations. It’s important that the client propose the budget and then my job is to squeeze the highest quality product out of that budget. Other times, the client has an idea based on a reference video, like a branded TV spot, that they want to replicate. I’ll help the client understand how much that branded TV spot cost and what’s possible given a reasonable budget to get a high quality video. I provide options that can come close to the idea and educate the client on why the process of making a video costs what it does.
Maureen:
Take me to the night before a shoot day. What are you doing? What is going through your head?
Jon:
The night before a shoot I’m spending time envisioning the shoot, literally closing my eyes, and running through the frames I want, what the shoot will look like, all the things I have to do to have the shoot go smoothly. I already have a good idea of what I’m trying to capture in the video that day. In the pre-production phase, I’ve worked out with the client references to other projects, the look we are going for, such as do we want this shoot to be bright? Do we want this shoot to be dark and moody? I am interested in the best way to propel the story forward and how it will resonate with the viewer. Oftentimes, I have a storyboard of very specific shots that I need to get. Other times, I’m working in a documentary style so I need to be ready to discover the action that will happen the next day.
Time is of the essence on shoot day, and it’s our most valuable asset. We’re losing time constantly through a shoot day. I need to make sure that we are nailing the shots and getting the key moments for the edit.
Maureen:
That must be a lot of pressure to make sure that all of the shots get done in one day. Do you feel the pressure?
Jon:
There is pressure, for sure. The more pre-production you do, and the more work you do ahead of time, the more at ease you feel on a shoot day. I have a crew around me that I trust. I’ve worked a lot of hours with these people and know that these folks are focused on the goal to get the best shot.
For instance, I had a recent shoot with a local university. There were a lot of moving parts. We were doing interviews and had to use different colored backdrops, swapping out colors for each person sitting for an interview. The backdrop colors depended on the wardrobe the interviewee brought. We were looking for complimentary colors with what the person was wearing, as well as with skin tone and hair color. The goal is to get everything within the same pallet. We can only spend so much time with each person and try only so many outfits. So, during that shoot, it was a battle against the clock, changing outfits, getting the best interview possible, being aware of people’s time, all with the client looking on.
The crew is working together like a beehive. Crew members know exactly what they’re supposed to do as far as adjusting lighting, pulling out backdrops, adjusting exposure levels, seeing what is working and not working. And we are often doing multiple things at once, like getting b-roll or behind the scenes shots. Logistics and planning are all key here.
Maureen:
Give me an idea of the people who are there with you in terms of crew. What are their roles?
Jon:
I’m the DP on the shoot then I usually have a director with me. The director and I work with the client throughout the pre-production process. The director always has the final say on a shoot because we are trying to work towards that director’s vision. My crew consists of a gaffer, a sound operator, and extra crew as needed. The gaffer runs the lighting department. The gaffer uses two grip and electric swings that control all of the lighting, all of the stands, and the backdrops. The gaffer instructs the lighting crew on specific actions like raising the light up, lowering the light, moving it left or right. I have a sound operator that is focused just on the audio. This person operates the boom and makes sure the sound is excellent.
I’ve got my eye on the camera frames and will direct the gaffer. This is a big part of making sure the shot is perfect. For instance, on that university shoot, the gaffer had to adjust the lighting for each backdrop because the intensity and saturation changed depending on the color. I might ask the gaffer to throw a gel on, which is a tinted piece of plastic placed in front of the light to change the saturation level.
Maureen:
Let’s talk about the gear for a moment. There is always a lot of gear!
Jon:
Everyone is surprised when we show up with the amount of gear we need. So many people expect just a guy with a camera. It depends on the project. It takes a lot of gear to get that one frame and a quality video. I always educate the client on the process of what to expect on shoot day and the fact that we have a lot of gear. There is a lot of gear for lighting. It’s a big part of what I do as a DP.
Sometimes a client will want to shoot in a room with a backdrop that is stunning, but it might not work because of the lighting needs and with what the camera sees. For example, I worked with a client in downtown Boston, in a corporate setting, who wanted to shoot in a room with the Boston skyline as the background. It’s a beautiful room and a nice idea, but there is a difference in what the human eye sees and what a camera sees.
Human eyes have what is called dynamic range. We can see the blackest of the blacks and the whitest of the whites, and everything, literally, in between. Eyes adjust easily to brightness and darkness. Making those adjustments in a camera works completely differently. So, when I walk into that office space with the beautiful skyline and we sit somebody down for an interview and we turn the camera on, if we want to see that skyline, I need to bring in a lot of light to balance out the exposure. That means a lot of gear to balance out the levels, what I call contrast ratios. This takes a huge amount of power and gear. Whether it’s more physical fixtures or just bigger fixtures. For a shoot like that, where I’m indoors and trying to see outdoors, I need to bring in light that takes up an enormous amount of power. If I tried to plug into a single outlet in that room I would blow the circuit. Instead, I would have to run cables to other rooms or bring in a 6,500-watt generator to run all of those lights.
Maureen:
I’m realizing that lighting is such an important factor in the overall quality to get the video right.
Jon:
In cinematography, and this might sound cliche, the DP is really painting with light. That’s my job. I do a lot of what’s called blocking. Blocking is the representation between the camera (where the camera is pointed) in comparison to what is being shot. The light source is vital in relation to where the person is and where he or she is situated to that light source, whether that’s the sun or I’m bouncing the sun off a big white board or filtering it through a black piece of fabric that cuts light. My work is to find those sweet spots like the contour on someone’s face or body or light that fills the frame. It’s about using four basic elements: camera position, a subject’s position, light position, and quality.
Maureen:
You have a background in audio. Why is audio so important in what you do?
Jon:
I went to school for the recording arts, for audio, and I am a musician. When I was just starting out, I had the opportunity to work for a wonderful boutique production company in Boston to do sound. I can tell you that there is nothing that can cure bad audio in a video. It’s something too often overlooked. That is why I always bring in a good sound operator and make sure that is in the budget. This person is listening for refrigerators going on and off, air conditioner units going on and off, and traffic sounds from the street. All of these sounds can affect audio for any project on shoot day.
There are a lot of things I can do if I made a mistake with shooting the video like editing the visual aspects to push the story forward if I didn’t shoot something perfectly. If I miss the audio, there is no going back. I can’t get that audio back no matter what I do. If I did a whole day of interviews, and the sound operator missed something or made a horrible mistake, the whole day is wasted.
I bring this love for the importance of sound. It’s always in the forefront of my mind. If I’m out on a location scout, I’m thinking “Is the shoot near an airport? What’s the traffic like outside? Is it summer? Will people be mowing their lawns? What are all the sounds that are happening in this place?” I have to think all this through so when we get there on shoot day the neighbor next door is not mowing his lawn. This also takes pre-planning. I’ll run through my audio concerns with the client and suggest that the client contact the neighbors before the shoot to provide a friendly reminder not to mow lawns during 12 and 4 o’clock on Wednesday afternoon.
Maureen:
How did you move from the audio side to becoming a DP?
Jon:
When I started going on shoots with that production company in Boston, I was drawn to the cameras. I was drawn to the interesting things they were doing with lighting. I said, “Wow, I really like these aspects of creating video and film.” And it hit me that I wanted to be on the camera side. It has to do with the thrill I get with being on set, similar to the thrill of being a musician on stage. I wanted to be at the heart of everything coming together for that moment. That’s what got me fueled to go out on my own and become a DP.
