In the early days, being good at making tea and coffee was crucial to getting work, says Stephen Murphy.
He's a young man in a hurry. As a camera assistant, it's only the beginning for him. Long-term he has his eye set on the job of director of photography.
Learning the trade from the bottom up is all part of the career path he has chosen to follow.
He has worked in Los Angeles as a camera assistant on The West Wing and cut his teeth as a camera trainee on Ballykissangel and the BBC's The Aristocrats.
A camera assistant "needs to be responsible, to have a thick skin, because everybody is going to tell you to get lost the first, and even the second, time. You need to be persistent. When you get the job you need to be very attentive - you're not in a situation where people have time to show you things. You have to pick it up.
"You're spending 16 hours on a set. You want someone who has a sense of humour, who knows what he's doing and who really wants to be there. You really have to know that this is what you want. You need to be willing to work for free for months and months and be good at making tea and coffee."
After his Leaving Certificate in 1995, he wanted to become a comicbook artist. He choose the D·n Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology, where he did a two-year certificate course in make-up for film, TV and theatre.
While there he heard about a US science fiction film that was being shot in Sandyford industrial estate. He convinced them to let him stay to gain work experience in the special effects department.
"I blagged my way in and asked if I could hang around. You start off sweeping the floor, making tea or coffee and you work your way up. I would have been building models in the end."
After completing the make-up course, he changed direction when he "realised that it wasn't a career path that would satisfy me." Focus, confidence and self-belief are crucial if you want to succeed, he explains. "You have to be incredibly cocky."
He did a six-week course in film production at Ardmore Studios. After learning the basics on this course, "you just start knocking on doors and making telephone calls. You get a day's work here, a day's work there. You build up your contacts. After that, it snowballs, hopefully.
"I wanted to do cinematography. I was focused on that" because the director of photography is "in charge of a look, in charge of the lighting. You have control over the shot, the way the film looks. He's the most important person on the set. A director of photography is seen as the wisest, the most experienced and the most artistic individual on a set."
Looking back at his early days, he says that as a camera trainee, "you're the lowest of the low". The early days are tough. There are 150 other camera trainees in the business, he explains. In the beginning, when you are looking for work, he says, the usual answer is: "We've no work, leave us alone. "You feel dejected. You spend your time doing shorts, which are unpaid jobs, mostly, but it's a chance for people with little experience to get experience. Also you get access to the gear and the guy who will be a contact in the future. You work for free for months and months until you get a break
"The first break I got was a BBC drama, The Aristocrats. I got a couple of weeks work." It was filmed all around Wicklow and in Powerscourt Gardens. Then he got work on Ballykissangel for six months as a camera trainee. "That was my real break and that was my training ground. I was a camera trainee."
Now, he's working as a camera assistant. He may decide to emigrate again to gain further experience, he says. In the meantime, he's off to work on a music video of Aslan's latest single.
He's happy to spend up to 20 hours on the set as the director of photography. The result, a three-and-a-half minute film, will be out in time for Christmas.
