but after some of the reviews regarding the Camera work, I'm disspointed with the quality of the film.
You're disappointed with the quality of your first short? Then you're
doing it right. You didn't think your first short film was going to be
an exceptional, top of the line amazing masterwork. You knew it was
going to be disappointing. And you knew you would learn from it.
but the DoP / Editor has a massive ego, and would tell me how great he was at this and that...
Another learning experience - on your first short film. Move on. Don't
work with him again. Expand your connections.
Going back to your original question the issue here isn't you (the director)
getting more involved in camera work. It's you (the producer/director)
using the right people. And that will take time. Even if you were more
involved in the camera work you may have missed the battery issue.
Mistakes happen. You didn't make any?
However, if you feel you won't make any mistakes (like the batteries)
and you will always choose better shots then you should be the DP on
your next movie. My advice is to keep making movies with different
people. Volunteer on movies being made. If you were to make just one
movie every four months and volunteer on just one every six months
by this time next year you will have experience on five movies. From my
first short to my first "good" short I made an average of one short film
a month for two years. I sure learned a lot. Most of them were terrible.
My first "good" one won multiple awards. By then I had assembled a
terrific team.
<added> Now that I've seen your movie I don't believe the issue is the
camera work. It's actually quite good. A few mistakes and a few "first-timer"
poor choices, but overall good. The lighting is poor, not the camera work.
I can't comment on the ego issue but your DP is quite talented. He needs
to work on his lighting.