One small lamp, a table of wool and felt, a shadow in the right place, and the whole room believes it is morning at the sea.
Tatako is hiring a Director of Photography to light and shoot the puppets and miniature sets of our series. The Art Director sets the palette and the mood, the Series Director sets the shot, and you make both true on a real table with real light. This is project work, booked episode by episode from your own stage.
About Tatako
Tatako is a first-words app for families raising a child with two languages. A lesson takes about five minutes, there is nothing to read, and a small round octopus keeps everyone company. He has eight arms, no socks, and usually loses count at seven.
The language of home stays the language of home. Tatako adds a second one on top, at a toddler’s pace, from the very first words. A guide voice can explain what to do, and you can switch it off whenever you like. Every lesson has three small steps: Hear it, say it. Touch it. Name it. In the last step the picture comes back without the word, and the child names it first.
We started with English: first words and phrases, from “hello” and “mommy” to colors, animals and what the teacher says at preschool. More languages are on the way. Tatako works in the browser on any phone or tablet.
The role
- Remote project work from your own stage, open to candidates anywhere in the world
- Fluent English
- An agreement signed before you start: your work is made for Tatako, Inc. and its rights go to the company in writing
By the end of your first project, a full scene is lit and shot, every setup is written down so it can be repeated, and morning on the beach looks the same from one episode to the next.
What you will do
- Light puppets and sets by hand: a soft key, gentle fill and small practical lamps that make felt look warm and wool look deep.
- Write a lighting plan for each place in the series, so the same beach at the same hour matches across episodes.
- Hold the light steady through frame-by-frame shooting, with no flicker, no drift and no stray shadow of your own on the set.
- Choose lenses and camera height for a world the size of a table: close faces, deep small spaces and scale that feels real.
- Move the camera slowly and smoothly, from a face up close to the world around it, at a pace a small viewer can follow.
- Check incoming puppets and sets on camera, and tell the makers what the light reveals.
- Deliver clean, color-managed files with a short camera and light report for each setup, ready for the compositor and colorist.
What you bring
- 4+ years as a director of photography or lighting camera on stop-motion, miniatures or tabletop work, with a reel.
- Command of small-scale light: you know what a lamp the size of a thumb can do to a felt face.
- Fluency with stills and cinema cameras, macro and probe lenses, and frame-by-frame capture in Dragonframe.
- Your own stage: a stable table, full blackout, lights and a camera rig you trust.
- A color eye that survives the phone: you check each frame at the size a family really sees it.
- Patience: the same care in the last hour of a long shoot as in the opening one.
Bonus points
- You have lit a stop-motion film or a puppet series.
- You have programmed motion-control moves on miniature sets.
Why you will love it
- A whole seaside that fits on your table, with sunrise on a dimmer.
- Real textures everywhere, so light always has something to play with.
- A lead who holds perfectly still for hours and never complains about the lamp.
How to apply
Meet the octopus at tatako.com, then email join@tatako.com with your LinkedIn profile or portfolio. Make sure it shows scenes you lit and shot, with puppets or miniatures if you have them.
If your experience matches the role, our team will get in touch to discuss next steps.