Úna Farrelly, Location Lighting Camerawoman

The lighting camera operator, or Director of Photography (DOP) works closely with the director to achieve the desired visual effect in each scene. The DOP selects the camera, lens and lighting for each shot and directs the camera crew.

As a camerawoman for RTÉ, Ireland’s National Broadcaster, Únaworks on a range of projects across various genres. What she enjoys most in her work is the creativity in choosing a frame and the light within it. The road to her dream job wasn’t always easy. Along the way she questioned if she would be taken seriously. Today, her mantra is: be better than you were yesterday. And every day after filming she asks herself how could she have made today’s task better.

Globally, the role is so male-dominated that it’s one of the few jobs on a film set still stuck with a gendered title - ‘cameraman’ is as persistent as ‘best boy’ - and the Oscar category for camerawork, cinematography, has been called the toughest Oscar ceiling to crack. There were no female members of the American Society of Cinematographers until 1980, and 2018 is the first year ever that a woman was nominated for an Oscar in cinematography - Rachel Morrisson for Mudbound. No, she didn’t win, but Una has noted some industry change over the years, including the ‘predominately female crew’ for the recent children’s TV series, Magical Sites, filmed on location around Ireland.

Photo: Beta Bajgart