Today we’d like to introduce you to Christine Adams.
Christine, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I wanted to be an architect, then a psychologist, then an anthropologist before wanting to be a director of photography. None of those individual topics completely held my interest though, the only thing that did that was something that could be used to tie all of those together, filmmaking. I had known I wanted to be in the film industry since I was a senior in high school. I decided I wanted to be a Director of Photography when I was a junior in college when I made the realization that being a DP tied together all of my interests.
I went to CSU Monterey Bay majoring in film and got a job working at the camera cage on campus for two years. Through that job, I became familiar with camera gear and started gaining my confidence networking with other filmmakers. I graduated college in May 2013 and moved to LA that September. I started helping out at a rental house right away and they hired me as a camera prep tech shortly after. This is where I learned the ins and outs of professional camera equipment. The rental house I was at was housing one of the first Movi gimbals out, so I had the opportunity to get hands-on experience with that very early on. On the weekends, I would camera assist and Movi tech whenever I could to get some on set experience. A few months later, I moved to a different rental house that was a little closer to where I lived and worked there for a bit over a year until I decided to go freelance full-time.
First year of freelance was mainly camera assisting and more Movi tech work until I worked enough days to join IATSE Local 600. The process of joining took a few months, so in the meantime, I practiced Movi and camera operating enough to feel comfortable promoting myself as a Movi/camera operator. About two years into freelancing and getting some Movi operating under my belt, I wanted to expand my skills, so I decided to invest in a Steadicam and attend an SOA workshop in Pennsylvania. After the workshop, I left so inspired and knew that I no longer wanted to be a camera assistant, I wanted to make the move to operating. I spent the next year gradually letting people know that I was no longer taking AC jobs and that I was available as an operator. I finally stopped camera assisting when I decided I would rather leave my schedule open for operating and director of photography work instead of making more consistent money doing something I only halfway enjoyed.
Throughout the whole AC and operating journey, I was filming my own and low-budget projects on the side to built a portfolio. In early 2018 I shot my first feature film. Now, I mainly work as a Steadicam operator, camera operator, and Director of Photography.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I wouldn’t say I’ve had any major obstacles, just some minor inconveniences like occasional sexist microaggressions. I experienced these more in the first few years of my career but also learned very early on not to take those things personally.
We’d love to hear more about your work.
Last summer, I was accepted to the 2019 Cinematography Intensive for Women at AFI along with 18 incredible women. I loved being able to learn and network with other supportive women in the camera and lighting departments.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Luck and timing played a big factor in the beginning of my career. When I moved to LA in September 2013 the first brushless camera gimbal had been released, the Freefly Movi M10. The rental house where I worked at the time at gotten one of the first four released. Being completely new to the film industry, I wanted to learn any of the gear I could get my hands on, so I was excited to learn how to use it. The Movi was new technology, so there was definitely an advantage in being able to get hands-on experience as soon as it was available to the public. Just having the skill of being a Movi tech, when there weren’t very many at the time, made me more hirable early on and I think that accelerated my path to being a freelance camera operator today. Although I don’t Movi tech anymore, I was able to keep a lot of the connections I made that now hire me to camera operate and DP instead.
Contact Info:
- Website: camerachristine.com
- Phone: 559.970.1540
- Email: christine@camerachristine.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/camera.christine/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christineadams4
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/christineaa4
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