Sometimes the film already exists and what it is missing is the image. A director, a producer or an agency brings the project, and Tawfik Cheikhdouar joins it as director of photography - lighting, lenses, framing and the look.
The camera and the lighting travel with him through Heero Cam, so the production hires the image and the kit as one thing instead of chasing two bookings. He works inside the crew you already have, under your director, and the rushes are handed over at the end of the shoot.
01. Reading someone else's material
The film is already written when it reaches us. We read what you have - a script, a treatment, boards, or a location and a date - and come back with questions rather than another idea for the film.
The conversation after that is with your director: what each scene has to make an audience feel, which moments carry the film, how much the camera should be noticed. Out of it comes a written visual reference the whole crew can look at, in Arabic, French or English depending on the language the set runs in.
02. Tests and the look
Before the shoot we test. Lenses against the faces and the sets that will actually stand in front of them, the contrast the story can carry, and how far the light can be pushed before the image stops resembling the reference.
The camera, lens and lighting list comes out of those tests and is prepared at Heero Cam, with stabilisation or a drone when a scene asks for one. You see the graded test frames and the colour reference we will shoot to, so the image is settled with your director before the first shoot day rather than after it.
03. On set, and the rushes
On the day we work inside your crew and under your director. Camera and lighting are ours to run; the schedule, the cast and the call sheet stay yours, and we fit the way the set already works.
Across a schedule that moves between locations, hours and weather, the job is to keep the scenes belonging to the same film, so the reference is checked on the monitor as we go rather than left to the grade. At the end the rushes are handed over, ordered and labelled, with the colour reference we shot to, so whoever edits and grades them starts from what was on the monitor.
What you get
A director of photography with a Carte CCM from the Centre Cinematographique Marocain, working inside the crew you already have.
A look built from tests and written down with your director before the first shoot day.
Cameras, lenses, lighting, stabilisation and drones through Heero Cam, chosen for the scenes.
Rushes handed over ordered and labelled, with the colour reference we shot to, ready for whoever edits.
