How do I get out of being a cameraman? You are right of course, it isn't a job its a vocation. How did I choose my vocation? I didn't, it chose me.
My father was a snapper and my sister is a reporter but I had no interest in the business at all. I started out doing civil engineering, then photocopier repair and then security systems. I was doing burglar alarms for about 10 years when my sister started her own production company after being made redundant from TV-am.
She wanted me to come and work for her so I jacked in the alarms and started with her. I had never held a camera in my life and the chap who was supposed to teach me the ropes (a real artist with a great "eye") took up an overseas posting 3 days before I started! I just had to pick it up myself then but fortunately I seem to be adept at technical things so I found that the "technicalities" of camerawork and editing came fairly easily.
The craft part came about by shooting crap, realizing that it was crap, and trying to shoot it differently until it was less crap. Then I started getting breaks. I was "volunteered" to do a shift for a News organization in Belfast and it literally went off with a bang, the provos blew shit out of the Europa, so it was a baptism of fire. I shot all the necessary pictures and rushed back with the reporter to do a quick 10 minute edit to make the 1 o'clock bulletin. Got into the office, sat down in front of the machines and hadn't got a clue!
I knew which button to push but because the gear was Beta and I had learnt on M2, I didn't know were the damn buttons where! So much for making an impression! Anyhow, to cut a long story short, the off duty editor happened to walk into the office, took over and Sky got their piece on time. But I had severe egg on my face.
However, the beautiful people at the News organization in Belfast let me have the time to sit at the machines to familiarize myself with the SP and gave me more shifts. I was freelancing there when a post came available which I walked into, and had many happy years there until redundancy 3 years ago and I am now a hungry freelancer hoping to make contacts in the wider world of newsgathering.
I picked up a couple of awards along the way, most likely because no-one else entered, but I suppose if I have a point to make it would be this; there is practically no other job / career / vocation in this life that can show an employer whether some-one is any good or not, the proof is very quickly there in black and white. Its also very much a-who-you-know business as well. A lot of production companies stick with the same people day in day out which makes it very hard to break in as it where.
The advice I would give, and do give to anyone asking the "how to" question is to put yourself out there, offer yourself for free and watch very closely how people do things. There's no magic or mystery to this job just a "feel".
As for a "sum it all up" quote I would say that my work is my life. When I am not working I watch the news to see what I am missing because if I am working tomorrow, what happens today could be relevant to what I will be doing tomorrow, or the next day, or next week, or next year etc etc.
