We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dylan Paulini a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Dylan with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?
I think it just comes from being driven by doing something that you love doing as well as working with and helping people that you care about. it just makes you want to work hard for that thing and after some time working hard you develop a work ethic that helps you do your job as well as helps the people you’re working with.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
So I mainly work as Gaffer, and my job is to work alongside the director of photography and a whole team of lighting technicians to achieve a desired look for a shot using lights and other equipment for film and television. While the director of photography’s job is to come up with a look that best works for the shot, it’s me and my teams job to put that look on screen.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I think the first and most important quality is a good and positive attitude. nothing is worse than having to work with someone that doesn’t want to be there or feels like they’re too good for the job. Everyone that’s on set is there to achieve the same thing, so might as well make it easy for everybody including yourself. A good attitude and work ethic will get you way further and way faster than having all the knowledge in the world. Which is why I work professionally as a gaffer at 20 years old.
The next I think would kind of go hand in hand with having a good attitude but NOT having an ego is really important. I used to do this a little more than I do now but while you’re kicking off your career, never turn down a job even if it’s under your pay grade or a position under what you do. Yes, it can often leave you taking orders from somebody you know more than but hey, if you do a good job, that person is going to remember you when he has better work to offer. I believe that on every set you can get one of four things: Something new to learn, A good pay, A good connection or a good time. So if you get called onto a set that offers one of these four things, never turn it down!
And for the third I’ll keep it simple. know how to interact with people of all ages in a respectful way. The age range on sets in my experience can be anywhere from 18-75, so just treat everyone with respect and hope you get treated like that back (it doesn’t always happen).
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I mean I’m always up for meeting and working with new people so if you’re a DP that needs a gaffer, I’m pretty reliable and good at my job! Send me an email. (or more likely, DM me)
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dylanpaulinip/
Image Credits
Rytham Singla
