Fr
Home Training Courses Camera Trainee Program

Camera Trainee Program

The goal of the Camera Trainee Program is to train the next generation of the camera department. The trainees receive their training in the workplace on camera teams working on film or digital productions of all kinds (feature films, television films, documentaries, docu-dramas, television series, heavy series, mini-series and commercials).

PrEsentation

The Camera Trainee Program is a professional training program designed to give future assistant camerapersons a sound basic knowledge and support them in their first steps in the camera department through training and professional mentoring.

This program is intended for anyone who wants to become an assistant cameraperson.

 

Presentation of the Camera Trainee Program

what the work of an assistant cameraperson is really like

 

 

APPLYING TO THE PROGRAM

To enter the Camera Trainee Program, you must submit an application and undergo an interview. The application instructions are provided below.

The deadline for submitting applications is October 15, midnight . (We recommend that before you submit an application, you spend one or more days observing on a set. It is up to you to find the team or teams that are willing to let you spend this time observing on their sets.)

A committee then meets to select the applicants to be interviewed by the people in charge of the Camera Trainee Program. The applicants who pass their interviews are accepted into the program. They must then attend the course ”Film and Digital Camera Assistant” (8 days, divided into four weekends) and work as a camera assistant for 120 days.

Once trainees have completed this course, they must take a final exam, which they must pass to complete the program successfully and obtain the status of 2nd assistant cameraperson member, provided that they have also taken the other courses required for this position (see the criteria here).

 

"Camera observation day” certificate of participation

In French only

 

calendar 

This calendar is provisional and may be subject to change if necessary:

  • September 15: First date for submitting applications
  • October 15: Final date for submitting applications
  • November and December: Applications under review
  • December or January: Applicant interviews and preparatory meeting for the interviewees selected as trainees
  • February and March: “Film and Digital Camera Assistant” course (8 days, divided into four consecutive weekends)

 

 

How to apply

application form

In French only


film and digital camera assistant course

This course provides the foundations for practicing the profession of assistant on a film or digital camera team. It is designed to get each participant to define and apply a work method that suits them.

 

Course contents

1. Camera Mechanism

  • Basic principles (intermittent mechanism, retinal persistence, stability)
  • The various parts of the camera (body, magazines, mounting, optical system)
  • Loading magazines
  • Practice: handling the provided equipment in small groups 

2. Film, Exposure and Camera Tests

  • Film (components, types, sensitivity, colour temperature, exposure, labels, cost and running time)
  • Camera tests (stability, framing, definition, scratches, CCM)
  • Practice: shooting camera tests on film

 

3. Test Readings, Tasks and Reports

  • In-depth reading of tests shot on film
  • Peripherals
  • Shooting protocol and etiquette
  • Shooting with multiple cameras
  • Practice: pull focus without a monitor

4. Optics

  • Characteristics of a lens
  • Depth of field and depth of focus
  • Choosing your lens
  • Lens barrel markings
  • Exposure control and compensation
  • The lens versus the filming format 

5. The Set in Practice

  • Tools on the set
  • Walkie-talkies
  • Clappers
  • Setting actors’ marks
  • Reports to fill out
  • Thoughts about harassment
  • Ratchet strap workshop

6. Digital Cameras

  • Human visual perception (receptors in the eye, retinal persistence)
  • Digital visual perception
  • Digital sensors (CCD and CMOS, resolution, crop factor, Bayer filters and other mosaics, filters in front of the sensor, far red, rolling shutter and global shutter)
  • Modulation Transfer Function (MTF)
  • Processing (colour space, bit depth, RAW, LOG, Rec 709, demosaicing, sampling)
  • The various digital cameras: Arri Alexa, Red Epic, Sony F65 and F55, Canon C300 and 1-DC, Black Magic BMCC, Phantom
  • Timecodes (drop frame, non-drop frame)
  • Recording peripherals (Atomos Samurai, SoundDevice Pix 240, KiPro)
  • Monitors (plasma, LCD and OLED)
Prerequisites
  • Have been accepted into the Camera Trainee Program or have received a waiver
  • Be a member in good standing of AQTIS  514 IATSE
  • Have taken the “Inititation to the Community Life” training session
Training team
  • Ariane Aubin-Cloutier, 2nd Assistant Cameraperson
  • Isabelle Pépin, 1st Assistant Cameraperson
  • Jocelyn Simard, 1st Assistant Cameraperson
  • Natacha Lemay, 2nd Assistant Cameraperson
  • Nicolas Fournier, 1st Assistant Cameraperson and Director of Photography, Co-Founder of Studio Post-Kopic
  • Soupharak Keoborakoth, 2nd Assistant Cameraperson
Informations supplémentaires

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS
24

DURATION
8 hours for 8 days

DATES

TBA
(The program usually takes place in between February and March)

SCHEDULE
8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

LOCATION
Mel's 2 Caméra, 1777 Rue Carrie Derick, Montréal, QC H3C 6G2

PROGRAM FEES
$800 + taxes

Registration

You must either have been accepted into the Camera Trainee Program or have received a waiver.

Contact

For any information you need, please contact the:

Professional Training Team
formations@aqtis514iatse.com / 514 844-2113