Letter of Recommendation

Steve Shacter,

I received an e mail from my office regrading a reference for Steven Smith. My experience with him was first rate. We shot "The Net 2.0" together in Istanbul together and it was a bitch. The Turks are...well, they're Turks. Let's just leave it at that.

The shoot was incredibly difficult, emotionally draining and it was without doubt the toughest I've ever endured.

Steven was a trouper. He put up with a lot of shit. His Turkish electric crew was worthless. But I wouldn't cut him any slack. I am notoriously tough on D.P.'s and I like to move fast (lots of bad television on the resume). Since I made the move to HD last year I refuse to wait for anything or anybody - including Steven. He figured this out by the middle of our first morning together and heroically kept up.

Final tallies: 1150 set-ups 1st unit. 300 plus set-ups 2nd unit. Additonal 100 set-ups with DVX cameras. All this in 24 days. The film looks great. It's moody and dark when it needs to be and the daylight exterior stuff is as good as any HD you'll see.

Steven had no ego issues with my grabbing the camera of his shoulder when I wanted to operate. And this is no knock on his operating abilities. He's fantastic with the camera on his shoulder -- excellent instincts when it comes to diving in on a prop or an actor's reaction. (I mostly operate when I'm bored.)

Also, he worked extremely well with our Production staff to adjust his lighting package to save a few Lira.

All in all I can highly recommend Steven. I would work with him again in a second. Particuarly if, God help us, Sony decides to send us to another fucked-up shooting situation for the "Net 3.0" and I need a DP who has the goods and the personality to match.

Charles Winkler