I was speaking to a young student recently when a notion came to me, in the manner of a bus hitting you on the crosswalk. She had asked for advice on a variety of lighting and camera techniques and seemed sincere. So I gave her a good helping of the orthodoxy. But I soon found myself channelling the conversation in the direction of how a student should approach what we do. Commit yourself, become an observer of light, study hard, work even harder, make contacts, try to apprentice for someone who knows what they're doing, etc.

Then it struck me. My words weren't really getting through and she was starting to glaze over. As valid as any of my comments were, "None of it matters," I thought. "None of the old rules apply anymore."

Seeing as we're living in a post-truth era, indeed, in a world turned on its axis, this shouldn't have surprised me. It was also about the tenth time I had encountered this situation. The traditional ways of doing just about everything are finished. Why should we be immune? The system within which I and so many others were trained as technicians and nurtured as artists involved a slow, thorough process in which advancement didn't depend solely on ambition (though that was certainly there) or short-cutting the syllabus. It also turned on a willingness to absorb the traditions that came before us. That I, and many of my contemporaries, went about our pursuits with such dedication is still very admirable. That most of our youthful ethic seems to have been wiped out so quickly is...frightening.

I'm sure I sound like an old scold, but that's the furthest from what I am. This is not so much a critique as it is an observation filtered through my own experience. But I do think it holds a broader representation. In addition to spending the time to learn - really learn - what we were doing, such seemingly unrelated values as modesty and gratitude were being put into us as well.

I had the great good fortune to have worked as an assistant cameraman for a number of enormously talented cinematographers in the '80s and while some of them weren't especially forthcoming with their knowledge, there was always a lot to be gleaned just from the way they conducted themselves. Almost without exception they were admirable men, brilliantly talented and unflappable even in the most extraordinary of situations. I would liken the experience in many ways to working for your father or some highly-regarded professor, providing they were the type you respected. Although it doesn't bother me when I hear it, the idea of addressing one of them as 'dude' – as I have been hailed to by any number of up-and-comers – was rendered unthinkable through the often regal example they set. So maybe the world needed to loosen up a bit; we're clearly enjoying the benefit of that now. But even through the most staid aspects of my formative experience I was never uncomfortable or aware of anything unusual about the self-policing behaviour.