Have you ever wondered what it takes to be a director of photography? Steven Owen recalls what it took for him to go from making his own films in college to being a runner and eventually getting to where he is now. 

From working on TV series to music videos, commercials and live events, working behind the screens comes in all different formats and setups. Working as a runner, spark, director of photography and many more important roles come into play. Steven, who has been working in the industry for about 15 years, sheds light on what it really takes to work your way up in the world of TV production when you’re working with one of the most important elements: the camera. 

Starting out

Often it’s hard to focus on what you need to do to get into a certain production role, with most people having no clue where to even start.

With jobs within TV production only becoming accepted as conventional or even achievable relatively recently, Steven explained how he started out.
  “Initially, when I was looking to get my foot through the door in the industry, I kind of dabbled in a few different roles. I started off just obviously, as many people do, looking to just try and get anything and everything that you can.” 

“A lot of people come out of university, and they’re looking to try and get into the industry. I was actively making stuff in college and trying to get work experience.”

After taking a multimedia course at college and actively trying to seek out experience in the industry, Steven continued onto University. “I actually probably got more from going out and doing stuff. I took six weeks out of my second year of the degree to go out to Spain to get paid to do a feature film as a spark.” 

“As long as I did the coursework in and around that, there was no problem with it, so it’s quite nice to have had that kind of balance of doing it while approaching that course in a way.”

While university is often the sole route people think to take, experience alongside study is usually a great way to get into production. Steven even travelled to Spain and Malta to work on indie projects while at University. 

“I kind of knew then that with the right kind of approach, work ethic and determination to get stuff, anything was possible. I was even trying to battle with my own family to go ‘no, actually I can do this.’”

With so many different positions and career opportunities, it’s not uncommon to do a variety of roles until you find what fits you best.

“I’ve kind of dabbled as a runner, a 3rd AD (assistant director) and I’ve worked as a spark. All in that time in the first year or two to try and find my feet of where it was that I wanted to be. It’s led now to what I knew was going to be a clear path for me in the camera department and I haven’t really looked back since then and I’ve worked my way through the ranks.” 

What it entails

“Every job is different. Over the last, say, five or six years in particular, I found myself kind of in a vast range of different things, from different kind of sports, live broadcasts, music videos, short films, passion projects, indie features and then TV dramas and commercials even working with the likes of Liverpool and Man City footballers.”

He’s worked on shows like G’wed, Boiling Point, Waterloo Road, The Responder, Everything I Know About Love and lots more. 

Working both as a camera operator and a director of photography more recently, it’s Steven’s job to tell the story through the lens of the camera. Camera operators work closely with the DOP to frame the shots and operate the camera equipment to capture the action. Directors of photography, in turn, work closely with the director to choose how the story is going to be told and figure out the best ways to portray this through the camera work. 

 “For example, on G’wed, we had predominantly one camera for the whole shoot, which was a man called Claudio Cadman. He would occasionally bring in, for about 12 days of the shoot, a second camera for specific requirements to make sure that the schedule was achieved. So I predominantly operated the B camera on that.” 

“In addition I’d have the second unit to run as a DOP as well, as kind of a hybrid role, as a camera operator/ 2nd unit director of photography (DOP).”

Much like most TV production jobs, there is a belief that this line of work is unconventional as it includes things like travelling, working unsociable hours and working back to back for days on end.

However, some shows are more regular to work on: “I spent four or five years in South Wales working on Casualty, where that felt like the closest thing to an office job that I’ve ever had. Obviously, we did the same thing for a long time, but even then it was still varied enough. There were some different aspects of it that felt that you were going to do something different.”   

Advice for beginners

It can be daunting when you know you want to work in the industry but you’re not sure where to start. Steven offered some words of advice to those unsure of how to get themselves into production: “The first thing I would say is just to encourage people to just go out and experiment and play, you know, shoot stuff and keep learning from your mistakes.” Highlighting the need for more people to be creating without the need to be afraid. 

“When I started out, I’d made like a 60 minute film with mates when I was in college, called Echoes of Summer Sin and it was done for like, £500-1,000. We shot on DV tape, you know, old school. So just try to get people to actively keep making stuff.” 

Networking and connecting with people who can get you any further or even look at what you’ve made can also make a massive difference.

“After making that film, there was a little bit of luck involved. I took it with me down to Cardiff, and then got the opportunity to meet someone in a football game who also worked in the industry so I can kind of chase everything back to that chance encounter in a way, so you never know who you might meet.” 

It’s also fairly easy to become disheartened after rejections or just not getting to a point where you feel secure in what you’ve achieved so far, for this Steven offers philosophical advice that has stuck with him throughout his career. “When I went to Cardiff I had the chance to interview John Hurt (a BAFTA and Golden Globe winning actor), and he said this thing in an interview with me, “Press on and yourself be true”, which was apparently quoting Noel Coward. I always had that kind of stick with me in a way. Basically talking about the idea of, no matter what happens, keep going, keep doing, and only you know, ultimately, where you will go in yourself.” 

For more of his work, click here.
For more articles like this, click here.