fuzzynormal

Nah. Not at all. But that’s not always what cinematography is about, right? It’s also about knowing how to shoot when the light is right. Or adjusting to use the available light in a smart way. —or just Being there to take advantage in creative ways with what the situation allows. Pointing the camera in the right direction. knowing what to avoid as much as knowing what to get. I just think all those things go farther than worrying about which Canon camera you’re using or which Panasonic camera you’re using; concentrating on an extra 1 stop of DR with gear without knowing how to get the most out of the 10 you already have… etc, etc. the same old debate we’ve all had hundreds of times. All that said, having an awesome camera that can cover your ass and recover a bad ill-advised shot is fun too…

Yeah, Shooting with good cinematography will always be the best solution. Wish more people took that tack. It's a hard skill to learn. Certainly easier to buy a new camera!

Haha. Sold my GH5 and bought an Olympus EM10iii. That's definitely a "Downgrade" to a $300 cam. I went the opposite direction.

I like "The Conversation," but wouldn't feel the need to see it on the big screen. But, "M"? Man, that's just...to see it on a proper screen with a full room? The tension and vibe for something like that would be a real movie-going experience.

I’d definitely do that.

That's beautiful.

One of the funnest, coolest, and most useful tools we found for getting our lenses and camera ready was using the free app of BLENDER for pre-visualization. Honestly, we tried a bunch of "pro" solutions to create pre-viz and storyboards, but nothing was as effective (and obviously as affordable) as BLENDER. Here's an example of one of our master shots compared to the final result. Audio was taken from our initial video conference call/table read: Special thanks to Jacob Zirkle for the tutorial allowing us to be much more practical with this simple and creative solution.

Yeah, the ExProd's background is in set building, so he really loved helping on that part of it. But, truth be told, we cut a ton of corners when it came to authenticity. Made do with a lot of compromises.

Aww, thanks for giving out such a nice compliment. Appreciate it!

Yeah, I think they just got lost in the shuffle of on-line PR. The dark horse. I always liked 'em and wondered why videographers seemed to ignore the brand. My guess is a mix of slightly not the latest-greatest specs and lackluster marketing.

So I'm wondering, is it a brand issue? Oly never really gets any love from the video folks. Is it simply because their specs are always behind the curve...or...what? Samsung made a splash with the NX1, but Oly never really got much attention. Why have you stayed away from their cameras? Not judging, just really curious why there never had more support in the video market. Goofy company business? Not impressed with their offerings?

I just need the bucket.

I gotta believe a sub culture dedicated to minimizing this reality has got to pop up sooner rather than later. I ain't talking about creating some hippy utopia nonsense, but just a collective of people willing and able to dedicate their precious time to things that are actually that, precious... rather than the trivialities we currently allow to dominate. I'm as guilty of it as anyone, but at least I'm TRYING to regulate my exposure to it. I don't know we've always been awash with banal possibilities, but the sheer volume we're expected to endure; doesn't feel healthy both mentally and physically.

If that's where he was with things (including getting the insults to his kids), then, yeah, it's definitely a good thing to step back in general. I mean, all of it is just ridiculous and if anyone on either side loses healthy perspective, you might as well just throw it in the bin and walk away.

Bail. Good call. Things seem to be built for 13 year olds. There needs to be an evolution of internet culture in order to healthily engage with it. Might not even happen in or lifetime, but it's okay for some of us to be content on the sidelines.

I put up a URL to the latest working edit of the film here:

Thanks for watching us act like idiots. Here's another:

It's Canon XH-A1. HDV footage. A 1.6MP CCD sensor signal onto actual physical video tape @25 Mbps. 15 year old camera.

Thanks for the pleasant feedback. We just started submitting yesterday. We are in one local fest that happens in March. So we'll see how all that goes. Fundraising is still open, hopefully, to alleviate the damage to our credit cards: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-wrap-the-gift-for-all-ages-film If you have any other questions you'd like answered, drop me a DM. And again, thanks for the compliments.

We're still heavily tweaking the mix and grade, edit... you know, stuff, but here's a close to finish draft for any of you chuckleheads that want a sneakpeek of M43 doing B&W stuff. Everything was shot at f2.8 on three lenses. Two primes, 24mm and 50mm, from the old Pentax Auto110 series, and the Oly 12-40 Pro. I had fun with it. We didn't do much fancy shooting 'cuz it was all one set and we wanted to emulate a 30's movie, but that was part of the joy of it all. Oh, GH5 and a EM10iii. 23.96 fps @25ss. ISO 800, mostly. What else? FilmConvertPro using their Ilford400 setting. Also (god help me never again) RedGiant's misfire plugin and universe transitions. So, look, small indy films involve a ridiculous amount of compromises along the way just to get made. It's a small miracle it happened, warts and all. Believe me, I pretty much only see the warts at this point. Hooray! Filmmaking! (I'll only leave this up for a short time...)

Ahhhh, why did I sell it!?

Same here. On the one hand I'm glad I got to do a film and be a creative lynchpin in the process, but I didn't get fairly compensated for it. Could have easily made more money as a pan handler over the last 9 months that's been put into it. For perspective, I did a job for one week in 2021 and made twice as much doing that corporate thing as I did on the indyfilm. Yup. But I always tell myself unironically "posterity." Could be a prideful rationalization, but I lean into it. Be that as it may, we still have an active go-fund me for our film and we at least pull in some extended family and friends to help offset the financial hit. Still, it's a pittance. Thanks for the folks here taking a peek at the thing, btw. FYI, we're about one day from completion. Probably one more 8 hour session and it'll be complete. www.agiftforallagesfilm.com

Any guesses? I will say I stupidly shot this accidentally on a tweaked color profile.

I just did a sloppy car commercial Sunday where I was asked to shoot extreme shallow DOF. So, FF with a fast lens@f2. Not something I'd normally like to do, but the client wanted it, he gets it. Weeee!