fuzzynormal

You should mention actors again. tbf, we had a good cast and a chill set. Still barely held it together. Can't imagine how it is for productions that have personality issues on set. Heck of a lot different than doc, where it's just my wife and I and the few people we're filming...

Normally my wife and I normally make documentary films as our creative outlet. We just produced and shot a narrative short film. Man, that shit is hard to do. God bless the intrepid. That is all. https://www.facebook.com/AGiftForAllAgesFilm/

Doesn’t bother me much. I’m gonna get all Busby Berkeley up in the joint.

I subscribe to this idea. Shooting a narrative short that'll put this to the test in a few weeks. I'm gonna pull focus on the fly by eye. If it goes a little soft in a few places, "oh well!" If the dolly bumps in a few places, "oh well!" There's gonna be a bunch of "oh well!" and I kind of love it.

I don't disagree with any of that. However, there's another option to chose from: "Set focus and don't move"!

My wife, the director, is going to maintain a social media page(s) for the film. It's just started here, but I'll definitely share highlights along the way as well. Thanks for asking. https://www.facebook.com/AGiftForAllAgesFilm

So, there seems to be a sentiment of “I need AF” when one buys a new camera. I do think that’s a misconception, yes. Maybe I’m misjudging? Numerous YT vids about enthusiast cameras sure make it sound like AF is an absolutely critical function —and inferior AF is enough to dismiss a camera outright. Since I’m a manual focus guy, I don’t agree with this assertion, but to each their own.

It’s a “personal” project that my wife and I were hired for. The EP is friends with us and has let us take the creative reigns. Wife is directing/writing. I’m writing/cinematographer. My main cam right now is a em10iii. However, will be using a GH5 for the film shoot because we can use a iPad as a wi-fi monitor with the GH5. If the wife didn’t want a monitor, I’d readily shoot it with the Em10iii. The IQ is actually pretty great on the cheap Oly.

Out of all the modern lenses I've owned, this one was my favorite. One of the best things about the M43 format is the native lens selection and the easy adaptability of old stuff. Looks like you have plenty to play around with! I would recommend trying the old Pentax Auto110 lenses for your GM1, as that was truly a lot of fun for me when I had it. My avatar here is the GM1 with that 24mm lens on it. Not sure if you've seen it, but here's a link to a doc my wife and I made after the Japan one, the main lenses for this film were the fast Voightlander manual primes:

Oh man, I take a GM1 again. Just to play with it. So...depends on what you're doing, but, honestly, I had an old 24mm on my GM1 most of the time. (Pentax auto110 24mm f2.8 prime) If you read my posts here, you know I'm a vintage and manual lens guy. I just can't abide AF, feels wrong to me for docs shot Cinéma Vérité style. For this particular documentary we were using Nikkor prime lenses with and without speed booster adapters. My wife did a bunch of b-cam work with the GM1 on this doc, and she put the modern Pany20mm 1.7 on there as well. I've shot a bunch of stuff with newer cameras and lenses since this doc, but I still think the way this one looks is better than most stuff I've done in the years since. I blame my lazy-over-reliance on IBIS and slow-mo for me losing some shooting mojo. (FWIW, I'm shooting a narrative short laster this month with the Pentax auto 100 prime lenses)

Something tells me that for this contest they wouldn't be too keen on seeing great looking footage from a crusty old GH1...

I'd suggest keeping things easy and just using proxies. Also, since proxies are low data and built for editing, I've found it's perfectly fine to use 'em off really slow (and cheap) HD's. Win-win. But if you got money to burn, buy the latest and greatest hardware.

Which is why I'd recommend "learning how to deal effectively with AF" off the list. Manual is very simple. Focal plane is 3 feet away. Stay 3 feet from the lens. Object is 1 foot away from the lens, set focal plane 1 foot away. And so on.

That's a general misunderstanding about AF, innit?

Third times the charm. No auto focus needed.

Not a fan. But I'm in the "not the way it used be!" phase of my career.

Yeah, the client wrote it, recorded it. I edited to her script. This video work is indicative, I think, of my "90% rule." Meaning, I score shots from 1 (shit) to 100 (perfection), and often try to hit a sweet spot of 90. Yes, you could do a bunch of other crafting to squeak out the final 10% to make the shots technically perfect, but the last 10% requires an ridiculously exponential amount of expense and effort. So, one tries to find a balance. I'd give myself an 80-85 on this stuff. It's all relative to what the client demands, what you demand of yourself, and what the budget allows. That all being said, the era of dudes like me delivering "90" is going away. Clients are okay with 30 these days. On the high end clients will expect 100. Seems like people in my range of stuff are not in demand so much anymore. p.s. I add a lot of grain in post. My ISO never went over 800 on this gig.

I know it's an impossible thing to really quantify to other people, especially pros, but it's been true in my experience as well. I've just ended up preferring using Oly cams for some reason. Ergonomics I think. And it doesn't make sense because Oly's menu system is a bit of a jumble, but I guess once I learned it, it's been productive. I don't do a lot of high end stuff, and what I do (still) do is almost always hand-held run-n-gun. I get by easily with 8-bit. My cheap EM10iii with a variable ND does the job. Here's a recent thing I was hired for; half day shoot and half day editing with a script they recorded. Basic basic basic, but got the product delivered to the client as they requested. I'm not sure if I even used a high end camera for a gig like this it would've turned out much different. So, you know, for me, the rather simple tool is appropriate.

My take is that I'm basically at the onset of forced retirement. The gigs that were my level of production are basically gone, replaced by selfie vids. And why not? They work just as well as something a real estate agent would pay 2K for a decade ago. If it looks "worse" than if I did it, big deal. A former client's self-made vids do the job. That segment of my career is over. Obsolete. Gotta get right with that whether I like it or not. So, move on to something else. It's liberating in a way, but learning a craft to lose the craft kinda stinks. Imagine being a blacksmith 100 years ago. In the meantime, motion picture cameras are going to a niche market, so expect a lot of fewer choices in that market in the years to come.

I didn't go upscale like y'all, but I'll tell anyone that listens how the low-end EM10iii is an exceptionally great bang-for-the-buck camera.

Just watched "No Sudden Moves" on HBO and that's pretty much the same sentiment they went with in that film. Worked for me. The shots were fun and weird.

I've put my dick into too many things, tbh. Also, an Olympus camera has been up my arse searching for polyps. But my nether regions have avoided SD slots thus far. I suppose for some fan boys they could eventually be STD slots if they're not careful?

Yeah, but aside from agreeing with the sentiment, is it effectively amusing? For me this video misses opportunities at solid jokes and just constantly leans on the premise you mentioned. Its like SNL doing political personalities. Just because you do a impression doesn’t make it funny...needs interesting humor beyond the initial novelty.

Aside from the shallow dof issue, how about the humor of this piece? I’m old. I don’t trust that my preferences resonate with other’s. So, funny or not? I found it so annoying I stopped watching after a minute.

Weirdly enough, my mom as a college kid had a Morris 1000. And, like mentioned, I ended up with a 1960 Mini 850. A bit remarkable considering both of us were from the USA Midwest, and these old English cars were very rare...but pretty cool to my eye. As a kid only 15 years old without a job, I committed to working for my mom for 6 months on a house project...and she gave me the extra $200 I needed to buy the mini. I guess somewhat similar to the Strangler’s song?