Today we’d like to introduce you to Kenny Mcmillan
Hi Kenny, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I grew up in the California Bay Area and was always interested in film. Born in a city but grew up in a small town so there wasn’t much else to do but run around in the forests or watch movies, but even as a young child I was always grabbing my parents home video camera and filming *stuff*.
I think right before High School, learning that being a filmmaker was technically a career one could attempt, I decided that was for me and never looked back. Over time, going to various courses around the Bay and New York Film Academy in Los Angeles (before heading to ASU for my undergraduate in Film Production) I settled on Cinematography as my path as I didn’t feel comfortable “taking the reins” as a director, and certainly didn’t see myself as a writer. I wanted to be “hands-on”. Watching Behind The Scenes featurettes on DVDs back in the day really made me excited to collaborate with a team and create something fantastic (I was and still am a big Sci-Fi/Fantasy fan), but I didn’t necessarily want to *lead* that team. Come to find out being a Cinematographer isn’t just pointing a camera, it’s actually a major department head, so I had to learn those leadership skills pretty fast. Looking back, I probably could have settled into prop making and special effects nicely, as that’s what really makes those Sci-Fi and Fantasy films so incredible, but for some reason I thought that was even *less* accessible than Cinematography. Today I’m not sure if that’s true, but I feel like I’m allowed to have at least two passions.
After graduating college I moved back to California, settling in Los Angeles on the West Side, and haven’t left for the past decade. It took me about 8 years to actually get “established” and not just seek out small music videos and fashion videos, but nowadays I pay the bills shooting Documentaries (although the odd Fashion gig does still pop up from time to time). Narrative is still in my sights though, as are larger commercial gigs as those can really allow you to test stuff and iterate in a way longer-form projects don’t, as those shoots are a lot shorter.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road hasn’t been terrifically smooth, although it has been relatively consistent. In college I got a little side-tracked working for Red Bull as an events photographer, even after graduating, so I didn’t really have a reel or anything to speak of when I moved back to LA (and even so, the stuff I did have didn’t hold up to the standards of the time) so it did take a decent amount of time and effort to build up that body of work and, crucially, a network. I got a lot of help from friends and family, just keeping me afloat or finding me gigs while I was getting established, so that was an enormous weight off my shoulders that I’m very privileged to have had. I was also able to make a lot of mistakes in relatively low-stakes environments, so that was huge. You don’t learn by succeeding, you learn from failure. If you get put on a huge gig Day 1 and blow it, that’s gonna be a huge lesson but also will probably tank your chances at furthering your career, as opposed to starting small and iterating “safely”.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m a Cinematographer, meaning I help the Director establish the look of a project. The tools of the trade are lights, cameras, and lenses. The Cinematographer also runs the camera and lighting departments (hence why they’re also called the “Director of Photography”) so you’ve got a team that you manage as well. Sometimes it’s just a couple people, sometimes its a ton, but you’re steering that ship either way.
In essence, a Cinematographer works with the Director to figure out the best way to visually tell the story at hand. Camera choice is certainly an element, but that’s more of a technical choice than a creative one. Lens and Lighting choices are more in the “creative” camp, although there are certainly technical considerations there as well. You also have to figure out *where* to put the camera; coupled with the lighting, the composition of an image tells the audience how to feel in this moment. Unmotivated or uninspired compositions are one of the fastest ways to make an image look “cheap”.
I think in terms of my own work as, what makes me stand out, is the fact that I have a relatively wide understanding of the imaging pipeline and am adept at taking the idea from the Director (often something hard to articulate) and making it real.
I spent a *lot* of time working on my own, so I had to understand every element of the image creation process to make sure I was getting not only the best bang for my (and the client’s) buck, but also surpassing those expectations. Digital Cinematography these days, as opposed to Film acquisition, has made it so half of your image is made on-set and half is done in Post during the color grading process. It’s there where you can really work to make your image shine if you’re on a budget, and *especially* if you’re able to get stunning images on-set.
Because of all that I had to become an adept Editor and Colorist as well, so I know exactly how those two sides of the coin can work together to create something greater than the sum of its parts. I also was doing my own sound and other auxiliary tasks so knowing, roughly, how everyone else’s job is done makes it so I can more easily work with those departments to make sure we’re all getting what we need. I heard David Fincher knows everyone’s job better than they do, so as an admirer of his work I try to do the same. Not so I can do their job, obviously, but so I can make sure I’m not making anyone else’s job harder. Giving the boom operator a little window in the lighting rig where they won’t be casting shadows goes a long way!
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
I think people’s understanding of “Networking” comes more from the business world, and that’s not really how it works in any artform let alone Filmmaking. You don’t meet someone and go “hey so here’s my card, call me if you need my services” or what have you. At the end of the day people want to work with someone they vibe with, not someone who is “technically a correct fit for the position”.
To me, Networking is just the act of being social and making friends in your community of artists, supporting others, and being a good hang. A phrase I heard long ago that really stuck with me is “Your friends won’t support you until they see strangers celebrating you” and I think that applies to *a ton* of things in life. In the same way, if you meet someone who is in the position to hire you, they’ll easily be able to “smell” if you’re just looking for a job. It’s off-putting. If you just treat them like anyone else, and they see that you’re working on other jobs without them, they’ll be more inclined to hit you up when they might have a gig for you. Sometimes that might take years, but if you just treat them like any of your other friends that don’t work in your industry, invite them to watch the game at your local spot or grab coffee/dinner/whatever, check in with them, send them memes (honestly there’s a lot of meme sharing haha), it’ll work out.
Or it won’t! Again you’re not being friendly for a job you’re being friendly to be a good friend. Maybe they know someone who knows someone, it doesn’t matter. “Networking” is the result of just being a good, non-job-related, friend.
Mentorship on the other hand is very similar, except you’re probably talking to someone else in your field (in my case Cinematographers) and often times they’re not in a position to hire you as you’re both doing the same job. In that case you just talk shop, and in that sense it’s probably easier to get out of the corporate “Networking” mindset.
I started a Podcast 5 years ago called Frame & Reference (Season 5 just started!) in which I interview the best Cinematographers working today, and I’ve found all of them to be really helpful and friendly and accommodating, and many of them have helped me figure out road blocks creatively when I’ve reached out and asked, so I think if you’re looking to learn from someone, just hit them up! Shoot them an email and ask away. It feels like most DPs don’t get the limelight very often so they’re just normal folks who would probably be happy to help.
Don’t, however, just go “hey I’m looking for a mentor!” be more specific. Something like “hey I loved your work on *movie* and I’m shooting something similar in *location, with this gear*. If you’ve got a minute, would it be crazy to ask how you might tackle this to get a similar result?”. I feel like a lotta DPs would be flattered and willing to spend a minute tying something out, ya just gotta make it easy for them to respond. Even at my level, getting asked an open-ended question can take too much mental power for the time I’ve got to respond effectively.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kennymcmillan.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kwmcmillan
- Other: https://www.frameandrefpod.com
Image Credits
Lee Timms
Ciena Lennon
