Matteo Bertoli
“I went to university in Brescia because they had a radio course, as I have always been interested in music. In my first year of uni I discovered they had a video editing course. Before long I was doing an internship with the local TV station helping to edit the news. It was a massive opportunity for me, because they introduced me to the video editor job. And from there, I moved onto actually shooting corporate videos and music videos.”
“With my experiences shooting and editing videos, I soon found opportunities to shoot and edit videos in the clubs. Because all my networks came from the club I was getting more and more videography gigs in that environment.”
“Given the amount of work I was getting, I opened my own business as a filmmaker. I worked in Italy for about a year, and then I got the tax bill at nearly half on what I had earned. Honestly, the taxes in Italy are so bad, that I said to my wife let’s go and live somewhere like America!”
“I was only starting out back then, and had absolutely no idea about work visas and the difficulties that come with starting a new business in another country! And so we flew out to California as tourists, optimistically hoping to get a work visa while we were there.”
“It was while we were in America that I happened to walk into a camera store to check out the latest cameras. Because I had grown up shooting on Canon 550D and 5D Mark II, I wanted something that looked more cinematic and had the film look. It was while I was in that camera store in San Diego that I saw this tiny little handheld camera all rigged up.”
“I had never seen anything like it in my life. The camera store guy was the actual owner of that little beast. It was the first Pocket Camera that Blackmagic had ever made. What really interest me was it could shoot in Pro Res, but also Cinema DNG which was amazing at the time. And this thing only costed $999. I was seriously intrigued by what it could do.”
“After a few months being in the US, my wife and I then went on a holiday to London, where I decided to shoot some test footage with this little camera. I feel it was one of the very first travel films I’ve ever shot on the Pocket. I didn’t really think much about the footage when I posted it, but it then blew up on social media. And so from then on, I have always been known as ‘that guy who shot Cinematic London on the Blackmagic Pocket Camera!’”
“Being part of the Eurozone, we could go anywhere to work in Europe without a visa. So we figured Ireland seemed like the next best thing. And so my wife and I arrived in Dublin, only to find it was insanely expensive to find somewhere to live. And when we applied for an apartment they would take the person with the best job. Some of the apartments we applied for had more than 50 people competing for the same place!”
“Faced with the prospect of nowhere to live, I went out to find the first job I could, that also sounded impressive for the rental agents. My video business was also not going that well and I needed a job that could give me a stable salary. It just so happened that Apple were hiring technical support people at that exact moment. But the reality was that I was just sitting at home on the phone telling people to either plug in their computer, or reboot it to make it work. It was utterly mind numbing most of the time. What I really wanted to be doing was shooting and editing.”
“Luckily, one of the very few freelancing gigs I did in Ireland a few weeks before, suddenly turned into an eight month full time job paying more than what I was getting with Apple. And just like that, I was in the video production industry again. Thankfully I only did the 14 days training at Apple, but that was totally enough for me.”
“At the production company I was doing mainly corporate jobs. Everyone knew I had this pocket camera from seeing it on my YouTube channel. And they all expected it to be this tiny little camera. But in reality, once it was in a cage with follow focus, monitor, matte box and handle etc., it didn’t look very small at all. Given the interest in this camera, I found more and more people coming onto my YouTube channel wanting to know more about using it.”
“While we were living in Dublin, I would randomly apply for full time jobs in California. And then one day a US company came back via email, offering me a job. They were like, ‘man we love your work, can you start in two weeks from today?’ I said what about my visa? And they didn’t even seem to know I needed one!”
“My visa application took over a year to be processed. So after a lengthy wait, finally my big break happened working for an American agency in California. The only downside to my new job, was that this agency only had one massive client who was paying for us all. So if that client swapped agencies, then we would all be in trouble. Exactly eight months later, guess what? The client changes agencies and the guys I am working for shut their doors overnight.”
“After all that effort to get a work visa, and now my employer had shut down the company. Fortunately, I was able to quickly find another job as in-house filmmaker in Utah which was paying way more than my last job. And the great thing about Utah is the cost of living was way less than we had been paying, so it was a double win. Plus, it is a nice place to live!”
“I then found I was getting plenty of work opportunities all over the US, in places like Michigan for example. And then after about a year, I got another job in California. Which was the place where my wife and I really wanted to be living.”
“I don’t know what it is about agencies in California, but they just couldn’t see ‘the writing on the wall’ as Americans say. And so when I arrived at my new job, they kept telling me they were getting more investors who would bring in more money. And so in 2018, after only 9 months in this new agency, I got ‘the tap on the shoulder’ to say I was one of the unlucky ones to be laid off, as they had run out of cash.”
“After working hard for the last couple of years, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to have a vacation in Europe. So after enjoying a well earned-break in Italy I got an offer to come on to shoot a film in L.A as the main DOP. The original DOP was caught up with a bunch of complications with some commercial work and was going to miss the production start date. So I had to come up to speed on this project quickly and start camera tests with the Arri Alexa they had hired.”
“After I finished shooting this film in November 2018, we decided to move back to L.A. to see if I could get another feature film. It was while I was living in Los Angeles that I first got to meet Raffy Vesco, who is a well known Local600 DIT. Raffy is the same guy I later worked with to develop our Buttery LUTs for cinematographers!”
“But trying to break out of doing commercials for films in L.A. is really complicated. For the one year we were there, I could only get four days of paid shooting work in the L.A. area! It is insane, because so many cinematographers will work for nothing or a couple of hundred dollars a day. That’s how bad it has got over there now.”
“And if you want to join the DPs’ union, well that is super expensive. They will cover your insurance in that fee, so that is one good thing. But in the end, you still have to have a ton of directors and producers who know you, just to get work. So it still came down to having loads of local contacts. Even having Raffy as friend, who knows a bunch of serious folk in that market - if they don’t know you, they ain't going to hire you.”
“So I got a taste of both sides of being a cinematographer in L.A. I kept seeing Raffy’s DP mates, who had broken into the network. And seriously, all they had time to do was work. It was gruelling for them. You couldn’t afford to take a vacation because you always have to be available”
“Although I was disappointed that year, not to break into the L.A. scene, our Buttery LUTS were becoming super popular and my YouTube channel was really taking off. And from then on, a big chunk of my time was taken up by YouTube. That was unexpected, but kind of cool at the same time. So suddenly, I found I had the flexibility to be more selective with the work I was doing.”
“By 2019, I found that I had become a popular YouTuber for other filmmakers, who wanted to know more about the latest digital film cameras. I was doing all sorts of camera tests and reviews on cameras like the GH5S, Fuji XH-1 and the Alexa. But the one everyone wanted me to give my thoughts on, was these new Pocket cameras from Blackmagic. Because I shot a lot on the first Blackmagic Pocket, I fast became ‘the guy’ everyone went to for an honest opinion. Because I was shooting in Blackmagic RAW and using a combination of BMPCC 4K, 6K and Ursa G2 or 12K cameras on my commercial jobs, I kept getting asked for my thoughts. Which then evolved into having a BTS shot every time I would do a commercial job.”
“Aside from all of the camera stuff I was doing on Youtube, I was one of the first people to start editing in DaVinci Resolve (back in 2013). Honestly, people thought I was crazy not to be using Adobe. Look, it was still in development back then, so you had to be forgiving at times. But is was so cool to be able to edit and color in the same place instead of jumping between Premier and DaVinci. And so when Blackmagic RAW finally came along, I was already using the perfect tools to get the best from this codec.”
“Life and work have merged to become the best combination. I now live in Lisbon, working for clients across Europe and the US, which is pretty cool. I have my regular clients and I am always getting more interesting projects to work on. Our life now allows us to go and live in an AirBNB somewhere off the beaten track, so I can spend time shooting whatever we want. So my career is now a combination of commercial gigs and passion projects.”
“I have spoken a lot about this on my YouTube channel. How to be the best you can be as a one man shooter, or working with a smaller crew. I have been shooting some food, wine and watches lately, which I really love doing. Their projects are so much fun to be involved with, because of their unique challenges. I shoot with medium and small crews very often, but I also still do a lot of one man band kind of shooting. I just love it!”
“Knowing which cameras to use for different shoots, can really bring down the cost of a production. For example, I chose the Blackmagic Pocket 6K camera to shoot the Mercedes AMG commercial, because it was light-weight and had dual ISO. When you are shooting a car commercial at night without lighting, the dual ISO and dynamic range of this camera was very important. I also shoot on the URSA 4.6K G2 and 12K cameras as well, but for this shoot it had to be hand held with the 6K Pocket. Which saves you a ton of money in renting car rigs etc.”
“I guess for me the challenge of shooting these days is not about the gear anymore because with my URSA Mini Pro 12K and my BMPCC 6K I can capture the best possible footage. Especially after the 12K, I feel I don’t need to rent an Arri anymore. The 12K gives me everything I need and in some situations is actually even better than an Alexa Mini. The Pocket 6K is just the best second camera and also very handy for run and gun and when you don’t want to attract to much attention. Right now what I really need is just a great story to tell!”