There's just no time to mingle with the movie stars

If you're interested in becoming a camera operator to meet famous people you're barking up the wrong tree, cameraman Keith Durham cautions. "You need to know your place," he says. "There's no time to mingle with movie stars."

The film camera crew, making features, commercials, documentaries and dramas, is a beast of an entirely different nature to the TV crew, with studio and outside broadcast camera operators, but both careers require dedication, focus and discipline.

The film camera crew is a very hierarchical structure. At the top is the lighting cameraman, also known as the director of photography. "He is responsible for the whole look of the film, liaising with the director and the production designer and directing the electricians on how to use the light," Durham says.

Directly below him is the camera operator, who is responsible for "the choreography of the shots. Next comes the focus puller or first assistant cameraman. This person is responsible for all the camera equipment, which is worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. They must make sure everything is working, change lenses, open aperture and change focus.

The grip is responsible for the movement of the camera - for some shots it may need to be put on tracks or on a crane. So, Durham says, it's very important to get the job right: "Grips can kill you if they're not properly trained."

The second assistant cameraman is more commonly known as the clapper loader. A lot of their time can be spent in the darkroom but they must also be on the floor to assist the focus puller. The job they are most identified with, however, is putting the board in front of the camera to identify the shot. The "clapping" sound the board makes at the start of the shot is used to sync the sound with the film, so a good sense of timing is very important.

Below the clapper loader, on the lowest rung of the ladder, is the trainee clapper loader - and that's where most people come in. The first step is to join SIPTU and get your trainee clapper loader card. Almost anyone can do this. Having a third-level qualification in the area is not necessary and, in general, Durham says, apart from giving you an idea of what areas in the film industry you might like to go into, it won't earn you a higher starting rung on the ladder.

"It's one of the few industries left where you can start out with no qualifications and work your way up to the top, as long as you can read and write, come in on time and do what you're told," he says.

Getting that first break as a trainee isn't easy however. Durham recommends working in a facilities house, used by production teams or camera-hire companies, to become familiar with the equipment and the people working in the industry. The marketplace is very competitive, but getting that first job is the hardest bit. If you make a good impression first time out, you will be remembered when the next job comes up.

"It's not for the lazy or faint-hearted, you don't know where your next job is coming from. It's a long haul, but if you work hard you can get there," he says.

Working as part of the camera crew for a broadcasting company is an entirely different situation. "It's like chalk and cheese. The operation is different and the equipment is totally different," Bob Moore, TV studio manager with RT╔, says.

TV stations have studio camera crews and outside broadcast crews. Most camera ops (as they're know in RT╔) will work on both crews during their career. Unlike film crews, studio and outside broadcast crews are involved in multi-camera operations. In studio there are four or five cameras. An OBU (outside broadcast unit) at a sporting fixture could have as many as 11 cameras.

As with a film crew, the camera team is a well-structured entity: "The head of the crew is the crew leader or senior camera op. He's supported by the assistant crew leader or junior camera op." Each camera then has its own operator and, again at the bottom of the heap, there's the trainee camera op.

Most of the camera ops in RT╔ do have third-level, broad-based media qualifications or training, Moore says. The station used to take trainees straight from college, but now a level of experience, usually in an independent production company, is necessary. New employees are given six-months training in the RT╔ training centre before they are assigned to a crew.