The Perfect Director of Photography Resume Writing Tips

Do you want to apply for a Director of Photography position to help you get closer to your career goals? Applying for jobs on Seek, LinkedIn, and other job boards can be a time-consuming process, however, to streamline the process, you can ensure your resume writing helps you to stand out from the crowd, and your online profile helps you to get an interview!

If a recruiter or hiring manager are looking for a Director of Photography, they are searching for specific transferable skills. With less than ten people being interviewed for the job and hundreds of people, just like you, applying, The Perfect Resume team have created Resume Writing Tips to help you stand out from the others.

What do recruiters look for in a Director of Photography resume or an online profile?

Tailoring your resume to a Director of Photography position is mandatory today to ensure that your application will pass Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). In doing so, your resume will be read by the prospective employer. Then, fingers crossed, you will be shortlisted as a potential candidate and be called for not one, but multiple job interviews!

Firstly, before you apply to be a Director of Photography, you need to be acquainted with what a Director of Photography does!

Director of Photographys handle the film's visual elements. Their primary duties include developing a film's visual style, determining lighting and composition and planning camera angles.

Hiring Managers are looking for a visually creative Director of Photography to assist in ordering and testing camera and lighting equipment, supervising a camera and lighting crew and editing a film's visual elements in post production, among other duties.

To be successful as a Director of Photography, you should have knowledge of necessary Advertising, Arts, & Media procedures, be open to learning, and have strong communication skills. Ultimately, a high performing Director of Photography should be able to achieve distinctive visual style and help determine narrative elements through visual style.

Knowing this, your resume and online profile should include the hard and soft skills that the recruiter or hiring manager is looking for in a candidate.

The Director of Photography position description template will also contain pivotal information about what the candidate will need to do daily. Such as:

• Determining lighting requirements on set.
• Deciding on the best camera angles and frames for scenes.
• Ordering and testing lighting and camera equipment.
• Supervising a camera crew and directing camera movement.
• Selecting the appropriate film stock.
• Determining camera aperture settings.
• Controlling natural or artificial lighting conditions.
• Liaising with electricians to ensure adequate electrical supply.
• Determining elements such as filters, shutter angles, focus, depth of field and camera distance.
• Editing visual elements in post production.

You will also have some requirements and personal attributes that you will need to demonstrate in your resume to ensure your potential employer will take your application seriously, such as:

• Degree in film, art or photography advantageous.
• A reel of visual work.
• Creative visual thinking.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.
• Exceptional interpersonal skills.
• Attention to detail.
• Good organizational skills.
• Good technical camera operating skills.



You may also want to do some industry research to find out what other companies want in their Director of Photographers.