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So far, we have: The French Connection The Day Of The Jackal Escape From Tomorrowland Chubby Rain Woody Allen (Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters, Deconstructing Harry) Lost in Translation I think this is a great list! I know that Sean Baker’s Tangerine was shot this way, but I’d rather not sit through another of his films. I've written a drama short. Two characters, 11 pages, lots of walking around town. I live in Portland and I’ve shot all over town before without ever once being hassled (except by some in a crisis of mental health). But I’m really more interested in seeing what kind of aesthetic choices might even be available to me when balancing that with coverage needs, moving quickly, and not attracting too much attention. I'm always so envious of New Yorkers for this very reason. You can fill the frame with sidewalk commuters and often no one will even bother to give you a second glance. I can’t think of any other US cities where this is true. Lovely screen grabs, Kye. If any of these were publicity stills for a film, I’d want to check it out. Especially the 68mm shots. Great mood and sense of place. I think that this quote sums up some of the decision-making that I am facing. I could totally go in there and “wing it”, just figuring out my shot as I went. But I want to rely on natural light, which means timing certain shots for certain times of day, and then that raises the question of how much planning I want to put into each scene, and ultimately how the visuals will compliment the story. I’d rather not lean too far into the documentary aesthetic. After shooting my last five shorts with my C70s, I’m actually thinking about shooting this film on a hacked EOS-M with c-mount lenses. I’ve been collecting them for a while and have three sets of primes, plus some great zooms. I’d personally put the aesthetic available with this (windowed) sensor and these lenses up against anything, I like it that much. I think the reason that no one really wants to do this is because it’s one of the most difficult digital cameras to work with, AND on top of that, the most difficult lenses to work with. But I’ve been tackling the challenges presented by these one by one, and I think I have them pretty well sorted. We shall see! Current plan is to hide a Deity PR-2 recorder with a lav on each actor and attach a timecode box to the audio input of the camera. Stabilize with a steadybag. Transmit the image wirelessly to a producer and make up artist in a car, along with refreshments for the actors. If I end up working with long zooms, I might give direction over a phone and provide a discrete earbud to each actor so that I could also monitor.

No idea about you guys, but I am in love with this tool accessory... pretty useful in those much different confirgurations: Head tracker, finger tracker/tracking, etc. ; ) More comparisons here and there or yet this one too from same Chinese tester BTW. And here, more for the new Osmo Pocket 4P/Pro with the sample(s) of the new add-ons introduced. Haven't you bought a gimbal pocket cam yet? This is for those who will buy one then : D ;- )

Further to the above, and further to what Mercer wrote.. The smaller the camera package the more amateur and less pro you look, which impacts how the authorities treat you Often locations care if you have a tripod or not, especially in crowded situations where a tripod takes up a lot of space and is a tripping hazard. Alternatives to a tripod are obviously hand-held and also shoulder-rig, but the often overlooked options are a monopod, and Mercers trick of having a monopod where the foot is resting in a pocket of a belt, so the camera effectively gains the stability of the operators waist Depending on the focal length and type of shot (medium, close-up, etc) the primary consideration in crowded places is if people will walk in between the camera and subject. My travel shooting with my family was done mostly on a 35mm F1.9 equivalent and this enabled medium-close-ups and closer in very crowded places without anyone getting in-between and wider than that with people or obstacles in-between. If you want to get more distance than that and not get wider then you'd need to go to a 50 or tighter depending on the distances involved. I personally find this hugely situationally dependent as it depends on how crowded things are, how noticeable the operator is, how willing to walk in front of a camera people are (or how much/little they care about you) etc. Combined with the distance / density / shot-size / focal length interactions are the DOF considerations, specifically how much do you want to separate your subject and at what distances. Normally this also blends into low-light requirements but I think these days if you use a dual-ISO camera then that consideration drops away and you can get by with F2.8 or even F4 at night in well-lit areas. The main reason that aperture isn't an obvious choice (just go F1.4!) is that if you can choose a slower lens then you can consider a zoom, which changes the shooting equation drastically. Depending on how you're planning and scheduling the shoot, the ability to move fast without changing lenses might be considerable. The French New Wave approach of getting minimal coverage and preferring longer takes is something to consider. There's a huge difference in logistics between storyboarding the whole thing within an inch of its life (and having many setups and doing hair/makeup/wardrobe touchups between takes etc) and running the whole scene a couple of times with a wider master then going a bit tighter and grabbing the more interesting shots as colour for the edit. Noam Kroll has shot short films on film and only had ratios of 2:1 or similar, and for certain sections only shot one take because he wanted to spend more film on making the important parts more interesting. For aesthetics it's also worth considering what you'll do in prod vs post. The traditional prod approach is to use filtration and select a lens / aperture combination that gives the rendering you want, and then you'd shape the light and control your lighting amount and ratios etc to suit your ISO/aperture/filtration. This makes prod very cumbersome and if you don't control the location perhaps impossible. The alternative approach is that you choose much more neutral equipment and push a bit of a look in post. There are obviously limits to this, but for example by picking a lens that's sharper across its range you can vary the aperture to control DOF and exposure in prod and then degrade it in post (soften it globally and in the corners, add distortion, add diffusion, add vignetting, etc) and you'll have a consistent look despite using the lens at different apertures, etc. Think about DR. The more DR the camera has the less of the scene you will clip and the more flexibility you'll have to adjust exposure and ratios etc in post without making the clipped areas visible. The less DR you have the more carefully you'll have to expose, and the less flexibility you'll have with moving shots that go between dark/light areas. The more DR you have the less you need to vary the aperture on the lens to compensate, or the less you'll need any lighting etc to compensate. Think about the contrast of the final film. The more contrast you apply, the more leeway you will have with the cameras DR, so the previous point gets easier. Film was great in this sense as the negative was so wide and flexible and gave a lot of leeway in post. Monitor as well as you can. Use a large monitor and a viewing LUT. The more you can visualise the end result while shooting the better. I find that shooting in uncontrolled situations means there are always things in the frame that I'm reacting to. This is in alignment with the situation and performance too - shooting in crowded public places will have the cast reacting to their surroundings, so you should be reacting to their performance and to your surroundings too, so the more clearly you can see the shot the more coherently you can react to it. Embrace the chaos. Separate the ideas of controlled coverage and creative experimentation as much as you can. The idea of getting a master in the can and then experimenting is great because you can ensure you've got an edit that can work and then you can grab risky but potentially great shots after that. Much better to have the final edit cut between neutral shots and really great shots that embrace spontaneity and add to the film than struggling in the edit by having to cut between shots that are neither safe nor creative nor sensitive to the surroundings. Some example 35mm F1.9 shots I've taken (please ignore the grading - these were from a long time ago!!!): More recent shots with 68mm F1.5 equivalent: and more recent with 70mm F2.0 equivalent: If you really wanted a minimal set of focal lengths, I'd suggest a 28mm for wides and ultra-packed situations, a 'normal' lens in the 35-50mm range, and a longer one in the 70-100mm range for shots where you are at some distance and don't want a wide. Your aesthetic should really begin with the emotional arc of the characters in the film, filtered into scenes, then the equipment chosen to express the intended aesthetic while shooting in the specific circumstances of the location and logistical assets and challenges.

Lost in Translation was famously shot in Tokyo without official permission. They shot in public with a very minimal crew and moved fast to try and keep ahead of the authorities. They chose this approach primarily because it was almost impossible to get permission to film there at the time. I saw a great doco about the making of it but it's been removed from YT now so can't share it. I don't know what sort of info you want to know to prep for your film, but there are snippets of BTS online if you dig. This video shows a bit of BTS from on location (linked to timestamp): From what I can remember / piece together: shotonwhat says it was shot on Kodak 320T and 500T using Aaton 35-III Camera and a Moviecam Compact Camera with Angenieux and Zeiss Super Speed Lenses they moved fast to stay ahead of the authorities the cast and crew when out shooting in public was only a few people (camera, sound, director, and talent and I think that's it?) and were all non-Japanese people, and if anyone official came to tell them off the they would just be apologetic but use the language gap to effectively prevent any communication. They had a Japanese fixer who stayed a distance apart from the group (so they wouldn't be noticed by the authorities) but that was helping with logistics etc and could step in if the situation required it they had challenges with locations (link to timestamp) another snippet of them on location - tripod but not clear if they're using any lights What information are you looking for specifically?

What are you trying to do? As long as you don't have a big rig with lights and a shotgun mic, then you should be good. I've walked around Philly and NYC and see plenty of people shooting video everywhere with gimbals and even tripods sometimes... although I wouldn't recommend that. The key is to look like a tourist and find locations where there aren't many people passing by, or it's so busy, people don't even look twice at you because you look like a tourist. And be prepared to move to a different location if you have to. Philip Bloom, hardly a narrative filmmaker, but his use of super long lenses gives him the freedom to be a little far from the talent. Separation between camera and talent can be a good thing if you're trying to steal shots.

Some Woody Allen films, maybe?

The Guerilla Film Makers series of guides is getting on a bit but offers some solid insights into zero budget that are still very relevant. https://guerillafilm.com/books/

Elements of The French Connection and The Day Of The Jackal (original version) were shot were shot guerrilla style without permission. Escape From Tomorrowland was shot completely surreptitiously inside Disney theme parks. Of course Chubby Rain* is a classic of the genre where even its star Kit Ramsey was unaware a movie was being made around him. Chubby Rain* also established the principle that without deduction, profit percentage, deferment, ten percent of the nut then, for cash, every movie costs $2,184 to make. * Obviously a bit tongue in cheek but Bowfinger is a great movie that does offer the proposition that if you want to do it then do it.

Can you think of any narrative films that were shot with natural lighting minimal crews in busy areas/cities? I’m doing some research for an upcoming zero-budget project, trying to figure out a solid approach to the aesthetics. I really want to get out of a locked set for this one.

I'm thinking of selling mine. I have had mine for a couple years and understand the camera's ins and outs if you need any information. As far as your question, I'd be most worried about the usb-c port. Most of the available cages do not have cable clamps, so I'd imagine most FP users haven't used them with the camera. So I'd verify with the seller that the port functions and the connection is tight.

https://www.cined.com/lidarac-app-for-tilta-nucleus-m-ii-and-nano-ii-introduced-turn-your-iphone-into-a-lidar-rangefinder/

I have finished modifying the painters pole i bought. Comparing the cheapness of selfie sticks verses the price of branded monopods, the painters pole does comes in dearer than a selfie stick and a fair bit cheaper than any monopod. It did need some modifications with a drill and a hacksaw it also required 2 x 1/4 bolts which have now been replaced with 2 black knurled 1/4 inch large diameter "bolts" which makes disassembly or assembly a breeze. The mission 1 fits on the crane m2 gimbal without issue even though it is a little bigger and heavier. i did remove some mass off the base plate, that allowed me to move the camera sideways just enough that i can fold all the axis's flat and stow it away in a plastic protective case in one piece. Remove the two black bolts stow in case and go. A great time saver i think. The first feature i like about it, is its robustness. Painters poles are sturdy pieces of equipment by design. The 2nd feature important to me at least was it has a hexagon shaft extension. which mean i dont have to worry about cams or twist locks, like you find on tripod legs coming adrift or wearing out, they always seem to frustrate me. The minimum height is about 5 feet and i think i can extend it to about 9 feet. I'll have to find a tape measure tomorrow... With gimbal attached the camera is a little lower than my eyes and im nearly 6 feet tall. So i kinda feel like it should be a nice height if i am just holding it upright, time will tell. I have been out today scouting, My town has a bunch of murals painted on various walls all over town, probably most towns have similar. There's actually a path to follow on google if one wanted to search it out. I had the mission 1 in a pocket and the first thing i noticed is that the rubber sun shade can get dislodged pretty easy and intrude into the photo. This is from a burst mode, you know the 960 fps. Interestingly burst mode files sizes seem to come in at about 134 - 144 MB per batch. if you have a look at the two pics you can see the difference in light levels. Straight out of camera we have a jpg ( yes i know i should have shot raw ) i figured i would start with the defaults and see how that goes... These are like only a minute apart and there's not a cloud in the sky. Not that i find the look unpleasant, it is what it is. The mission1 also does a ton of processing after you stop recording, it continues processing for a few seconds. Again not an issue just things i have noticed. If i use the phrase gopro take a picture it will do whatever the mode is set to, however it seems a little finicky in its execution the timing doesn't always seem the same. Theres also a very good chance the error is operator induced, but i think it may be more consistent for me, if i buy a bluetooth remote to trigger it, specifically if your trying to do one man band 960 fps sequences. I have tried half a dozen slow motion things at home with out alot of success.

Nice images, was it overcast that day, they seem a little subdued ? or is that the lens combo you think ? A long way from the top is a good thing i reckon 🤔 Be careful with the at-x pro 28-70mm pro 2.8 there's 3 versions from memory. I forget how to tell which the "better" one is. Google would help no doubt. I also suspect the tokina 28-70 at-x pro's might be flying under the radar. I vaguely remember this lens getting a good rap and an almost cult like status in some video forums. Pentax forums is a handy place to visit... I must be cdo its like ocd but with the letters arranged alphabetically, like they should be 🙂 Would you believe i only just gave that lens a wipe over 😞. I also have had an ef-mft metabones xl speed booster 0.64 arrive. With my metabones the internal focus was way off and the internal element was free to rotate willy nilly. Completely the opposite to your speedbooster Kye. I suspect the screw that holds it tight is maybe either bent or stuck as i cant move it by hand. its also in the open position which allows the element to move freely. I also don't have a screwdriver that small either, so until one arrives, i have a temporary work around. The whole internal lens is losey goosey, i think theres about a half a millimeter of play. I know it seems like huge amount. However it really is quite loose, i can get a rattle out of it, if i shake it. Not sure if that is why it was up for sale, i suspect its been played with then sold when it became all to hard. I initially had the 17mm takumar mounted to it but i think in hindsight that probably wasn't helping, with the depth of field so i put the 50mm on it instead. I can wind the lens element almost all the way in and it becomes a tighter fit and i can get infinity focus ( i think ) i have to double check. No issues with mounting the 50mm on the metabones Here's a pic of the front of the metabones and back of the 50mm takumar. i used the 50mm as that measured the longest out of the measurements i took. There seems to be plenty of room between lens elements. I have the chipped ef mount on it and the back of the takumar barely protrudes, less than a millimeter i think, cant measure it as i tossed the digital calipers... it would be interesting to compare it to the back front of the viltrox. One interesting fact i picked up is that the Olympus em-10 ii and the em-1 iii do not like the ef adapter with the chip on it. The chip is supposed to tell the camera that its a 50 mm f1.4. I always figured some metadata would be nice even if it was wrong data at least i had a place to start. However the Olympus's simply refuse to start up, all i get is a grey screen. If i depress the lens lock mechanism and turn the adapter slightly ( and i presume ) the contacts no longer touch the the cameras will fire up and work. I have two other brands of camera and the chipped ef adapter works fine on them. I have no idea why i haven't noticed it before. The problem is tilting the camera in any direction indicates to the lens, it should try its best, to immediately fall off ( don't ask me how i know this )🙄

Further lens contemplation reminded me of my Tokina RMC 28-70mm F3.5-4.5 for m42 mount, which is deliciously imperfect, and when combined with an ultra-cheap wide-angle adapter gets even tastier.. I've struggled with this lens because the main issue with it is that it's a dumb lens and so there's no way for the cameras IBIS to know what focal length it's at. This is fine for tripod work, but that's not really how I shoot, and if it was tripod work is slow enough that I could just use primes. Then I realised that as I now own an EF speed booster I can get an EF zoom lens and it should report the current focal length to the camera and the IBIS challenge goes away. As such, I started looking for the absolute worst, most imperfect, least sharp, EF zoom lens I could find. Luckily, if you search ebay in ascending price it makes these gems obvious and you can peruse at your leisure. So I have now snapped up a lovely Tokina zoom that according to the Pentax forums has decidedly poor optical performance. Hooray!! Pics when it arrives, but I'm excited. I was also made aware of the existence of the Tokina AT-X PRO F2.8 zooms, which are interesting, but a long way from the top of the (price ascending) ebay search results. I also found a couple of the F2.6 Angie designs too, those were $3-4K.. wow!! Being famous on the internet sure makes things more expensive!

Here's another from same 1st round of comparative tests: And about the Insta360 detachable screen vs DJI FrameTap remote: The sound in slowmo sounds just different enough too... Unlike the Osmo Pocket 4 / 4P (Pro), the Luna Ultra appears not only to provide 48 kHz AAC audio listed at a higher 32-bit depth — with true 32-bit float reserved for the external Mic Pro/transmitter — rather than standard 16-bit audio; it also appears to make 4K100/120fps available as a standard video mode, effectively usable as HFR when and where needed, captured as straight acquisition rather than pre-baked slow motion. That is a different proposition from restricting those frame rates to a dedicated slow-motion mode with more limited audio handling. So yes, both may offer “slow motion” (4K200/240fps with DJI) but audio-wise, this is more apples to oranges than apples to apples. And in slowmo, DJI does not appear to include built-in Mic Audio Backup either. That matters because, once high-frame-rate capture is baked into a dedicated slow-motion mode, the audio can no longer behave like normal sync sound unless the footage is brought back to real time. By contrast, 4K100/120fps as standard video mode is straight HFR acquisition: usable in real time with normal audio, or slowed down later in post.

Well stated @eatstoomuchjam @kye :- )

I haven't been able to download it, even after becoming a member of the DVXUSER forum.

What impressed me most is how much of the effect comes from the camera work and lighting rather than expensive VFX. A lot of the unease is created by subtle motion, lens choices, and the way the footage is treated in post. When I'm trying to analyze that kind of look, I sometimes run clips through https://zimblu.co/blur-video/ just to get a better sense of the motion blur and movement they're using. Small details like that can make a scene feel surprisingly real.

If you're doing longer shoots, I'd definitely consider an external USB-C power bank before jumping straight to a V-mount setup. The FX30 is pretty efficient, and a decent PD power bank can keep it running for hours while keeping the rig much lighter and simpler.

🫢 But yes, even with streamlining year on year, the volume seems to keep going up and up despite (deliberately) less jobs. I’m looking at outsourcing, but I’d be looking at a 20% drop in take home income with any existing booked jobs…which would not be a good thing. There’s only really one thing to do and that is the missus will need to spend less time baking in the kitchen and start baking in LUTS and earn her keep that way…

Log jam 🤪

For me, the head tracker suffers from a few problems. - No 4th axis stabilization means the footage will be partially smoothed, but with footstep movement (not different from carrying it, but not ideal) - Is not actually at eye level, assuming that the wearer and people they interact with are all of average height, the viewer will be staring at the chests of everybody - or at their double chins and nostrils. - Many people are going to find it creepy and will not react naturally when someone comes up to them with ET in the papoose For this sort of use case, something like the Insta360 Go line is a lot more suitable and it can be clipped to a hat. People might still find a little square camera on a hat to be a bit intrusive and odd, but at least it's closer to eye height and will be looking directly at people's faces. And electronic stabilization is generally pretty good these days - haven't used a Go myself, but I'm sure it does a perfectly adequate job of making things not overly spastic. And aside from the hat use case, helmet mounts for action cameras have existed just about forever and for any use case where the user would naturally wear a helmet, they work well and most action cameras are more robust if there's a crash - and they cost less if they do get broken. Of course, there are also SmartGlasses that sit exactly at eye height an point to exactly whatever the user is looking at...

The head tracker seems like it'll be an absolute game-changer for a small number of niche uses and a curio to everyone else. I'm wondering if it'll be a way to get natural looking gimbal footage, rather than the not-robotic-but-not-organic-either panning / tilting that we seem to get at the moment. Maybe akin to the difference between a shoulder-rig and a tripod? The next evolution of it might be to use it to control the camera on a drone - the current state of that art is very robotic. Still, neither of these is of much use to me, so I'll just be reminded of that Renault model that pointed the headlights left and right along with the steering so you could see where you were going while cornering as well as when going straight.

It allows you to operate the camera fully remotely so it is fundamentally the same thing. To be honest, if I was going to use such a thing then having a compact palmable remote is more appealing than walking around looking like I’m holding a crucifix like the Luna option. But it’s one more thing to carry so there is that. The head tracker is very smart and for people doing instructional videos it is excellent - even if it does look like you are carrying ET in a papoose when you are out and about. I guess the drawback is that it is excellent for seeing what you are seeing but falls down as a concept when doing the other 50-75% of what vloggers do which is getting their own face in reacting to what they are seeing. One issue might be trying to be discreet as you have to look at someone and ET sat there swivelling to do the same does draw more attention and gives off a mobile surveillance unit vibe. It such an eye catching feature though that I would expect DJI to be emulating it soon.

Indeed : ) https://freewellgear.com/blogs/news/dji-osmo-pocket-4p-vs-insta360-luna-ultra But: I wonder whether will Insta360 POV Head Tracker, or something similar, come to the Osmo Pocket ecosystem too? Will DJI eventually offer something like this? If they do, it might sound a little like DJI quietly admitting that Insta360 has come up with something genuinely unique this time or once again? LOL* ; ) At least for now... *disclaimer: happy DJI user here and just as happy an Insta360 camper... The FrameTap remote is interesting, but it is not really the same thing. The Luna’s head-controlled POV accessory makes it** feel like a more distinctive product: **AND Insta360 products, in general, BTW... : X