Jonesy Jones

1 hour ago, Andrew Reid said:

In the end it should be up to the individual to believe in what he believes...

Absolutely.

1 hour ago, Andrew Reid said:

the problem is religion is too often forced on the individual from a young age or from peep pressure.

Food for thought.

I think this is too anecdotal a statement, and mostly, or at least often, untrue. 

The vast majority of Christians that I know came to faith in Jesus Christ later in life, and not because of, but in spite of peer/peep pressure. 

Of course you said "religion" and not solely Christianity, so obviously my anecdotal experience varies from yours.

Also, it is not uncommon for people to clump "religion" into a category and forget that every single worldview, is exactly that... a worldview. As a public teacher for many years I witnessed countless students who had been conditioned from childhood into believing that their lives were ultimately, meaningless. And their actions were therefore, meaningless. In other words, conditioning the young is far from a monopoly held by the "religious". 

Just food for thought.

Also, Jim Carrey looks absolutely out of his mind in that video. Whether it's drugs or something else, he's definitely not lucid. Unless he's trolling. But to me it looks like he's at his wit's end desperately searching for a solution he hasn't found yet and pretending to troll in order to hide his state of desperation. 

“I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it's not the answer.” - Jim Carrey

Once again, Canon canoned. No one does it better.

I think Canon is out. And as beautiful as the images are from the C200, it won't be the success they need. They just don't understand the fundamental principle of business (in their video line at least). Produce a product that people want.

8 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

Exactly, they said "middle" codec between 8bit 4:2:0 low bitrate H.264 and 10bit RAW.

Then they went back on it, but are still calling it a middle codec and an upgrade.

It's deceitful practice.

And where's @Mattias Burling chiming in about how Canon always delivers what they promise? Or works as advertised. But what if they'r using deceptive advert? Canon sucks. Canon canoned. 

I think that's a really great point mediaman, the more I buy in to Panasonic in one system, the more likely I am to buy in another.

However, it's also possible that Panasonic are just not worried about GH5's cannibalizing their higher tier cameras. Those who shoot with Varicams will not stop using those in favor of a GH5. Maybe for a scene where only a GH5 could work, but not replaced by any means.

I think the EVA1 is safe too. We'll have to see footage of course, but that camera is going to produce gorgeous pictures... and it's S35. 

As long as the GHx never goes S35, which it won't, Panasonic never has to worry about protecting their upper lines.

7 minutes ago, MurtlandPhoto said:

There are frame guides in this update!

Sweet. Did Andrew mention that and I missed it? Super cool.

Wait, where are you seeing that? I don't think they are in Andrew's article. 

Andrew, thanks for the great review.

I absolutely love my GH5, and I assume I will love it even more when the new firmware is available.

Panasonic, if you are listening, I have a couple requests that could still be implemented in this already superb camera.

First, some way to lock the aperture and shutter dials. I have used the available menu option to switch those two, which helps, but I still find that settings have changed every once in a while. Normally the lock is a physical switch, but perhaps there is a way to lock them by using firmware, like assigning a function button to that. 

Second, is there a way to make the eyepiece sensor even LESS sensitive? I find that when I'm looking at the little articulated screen, every so often the camera gets closer to my body and the screen shuts off, even though I have it on the least sensitive setting. Would be great if that could be mitigated. Is having both the monitor AND EVF on simultaneously an option? May be too much processing and battery intensive, but would be cool. 

One more thing, and this is NOT a request, just wishful thinking. I would love it if there was someway to add a longer shaft to the EVF that pointed upward and that I could look down into. I find myself shooting through the EVF very often, and if there was some add on something like the old school optical VF's that would be awesome. I realize there are 3rd party EVF's, but they are super costly and bulk up the camera which is part of the charm of the GH5 in the first place. I love shooting through the EVF. I long for a compact solution that would make this more versatile.

EDIT: Oh, one more thing... frame guides. 2.35, 2.4, 4:3, 1:1, 16:9, etc. I feel like this would be pretty simple. I talked to the reps at NAB about this and they said they were asking for them too, but no word from the powers. Would be very useful.

3 minutes ago, quivering_member said:

I don't think that's it at all. Whether or not it was justified, there was a huge media furor as a result of his document. They fired him because of the huge global media pressure hurting their brand, not necessarily because they deemed his words unacceptable.

 

I think you just proved his point. 

1 hour ago, Ed_David said:

...because unlike you User, or Jonesy Jones, or whomever the rest of you are, hiding behind your anonymonity - this is my real name - and my real name and actions have consequences, as you guys pointed out, in the real world for me.

No anonymity here. I go by Jonesy. Look up Jonesy Jones on imdb, I'm the first on the list. Same name as every other forum or website. 

I'd still love to hear your reasoning for calling Kaylee, Ebrahim.

11 hours ago, Ed_David said:

You are completely right ebrahim!

I was planning to stay clear of this thread, but this is just an odd and awkward low blow. I actually don't get it. Am I missing something? Ebrahim was a fraud. Is Ed suggesting @kaylee is one? Kaylee brought up "under your real name", but in no way was she suggesting fraudulently posing as someone else, just pointing out that by using his full real name could come back to haunt him. 

Ed's line was desperate, and every bit as childish as Kaylee called him out for being. Point proved I guess. 

10 minutes ago, Nrubloc said:

I was able to visit the Nashville TN area and took a few images.
There was on and off light pockets of cloud veiling, but I took these as it was getting dark, then darker and when it was emerging.

 

Great stuff man. My daughter and I like the 3rd one the best.

To be honest I don't see what the big deal was. Got a little darker and colder. 

34 minutes ago, Neumann Films said:

Small world!  Is it crowded over there? This has been a Y2K level hype let down.

Nope. We're in south bend, but from what I can tell there's not much activity here. 

44 minutes ago, Neumann Films said:

Are you in Bend??

Yep. Exactly. 

1 minute ago, AaronChicago said:

I figured there would be thousands of videos/photos that look the same, so anamorphic might offer a different look with the sun flares.

Aah. Flares. I was stuck on oval bokeh.   

I just happen to be in an area of 99% totality. But there also happens to be a trifecta of forest fires nearby too. We'll see if the wind is blowing the right way. 

4 minutes ago, AaronChicago said:

I'm planning on bringing out my 2x anamorphic with the GH5. I just dont want to fry my sensor. Any idea on how long it's safe to aim at the sun?

It's no different for your camera than any other day, but I wouldn't know what the limit is. 

Just out of curiosity of what benefit is anamorphic for an eclipse?

2 minutes ago, lenny87 said:

Thanx,

Good to hear :-)

What focal length did you use? Or which would you recommend?

Thanx in front

Good question. I think you'll want to test. I was using the 18-35 somewhere in the middle. My instinct says to go 35-50 if you have the space, also depends on the sensor of course. But definitely test. 

I filmed green screen all summer long last year vertically just like you're discussing. I shot him on a GH4 in 4K from head to toe and can punch in to nearly a CU in HD. So full body to CU.  it wouldn't work for every application but it did for us and it was really cool. 

7 hours ago, Turboguard said:

So the new V2 of Zhiyun Crane is out and it has a max load of 3.9lb. Ive asked the question before but I’ve been looking for my first gimbal for a long time now and with this update I wonder, can it handle my Bmpcc-speedbooster-sigma art 18-35mm?

The total weight of the three is 2.9lb so I have 1lb to spare, but am afraid it’s gonna be, like before, too front heavy with the lens. I do wonder if attaching it by the speedbooster might help? Please advice.

 

thanks!

Well, with a whole pound to spare you may be able to attach some offset weight in the opposite direction. Might be too cumbersome, but theoretically could work. 

And comes with a Sigma 18-35. A kit lens for a $15K camera is unique.

6 hours ago, hmcindie said:

Alexa keys better than Red 5k. Less noise in color channels.

I've never keyed either. So I guess I'll take your word for it. But there must be some reason most tentpoles choose Red over Alexa. Can't be color. 

And not that it matters, but per my point, Alexa's not really 2K is it. 

5 hours ago, Rank Amateur said:

Do you recall what your BMPCC setup was, Jonesy Jones?

Yes, BMPCC + Sigma 18-35 + speed booster. I shot Prores HQ.

Here are my lessons learned from all green screen shooting I did. This is in order of importance, the higher up the list, the more impact it had on getting a better key.

1. Resolution is more important than bits. I would pretty much choose 4K over any 2K camera for keying, if the key is the most important factor. This goes against much of what I heard around the interweb, but I found it to be true. Think about it, maybe this is why Red is such a popular choice among filmmakers who do tons of green screen - Peter Jackson, David Fincher, etc.
2. DON'T stick to the 180 degree shutter angle or double your FPS for shutter speed rules. Increase your shutter speed (or lower your shutter angle) to reduce motion blur, which won't key well. On the GH4, I shot at 24P (some use 30 for keys but I didn't notice a difference in key and didn't like the result) with a shutter speed of like 80 or 90. Nearly or no motion blur artifacts.
3. Bits do make a difference.... but resolution matters more. With 4K and 10+ bits you'll get perfect keys, with crazy fine detail. Possibly consider the BMPC 4K.
4. DON'T overexpose your green screen. As you increase exposure you will begin to decrease saturation which will inhibit keying in post. 
5. Use false color to expose your green walls to get it even. To be honest, that corner you've created with the 2 perpendicular walls is going to pose a pretty serious problem. That corner will be very difficult to light properly. If at all possible, build a short sweep to make that corner a curve. 
6. If you do get dancing noise in darker portions of the image, try a 3-way color corrector (only found in Lumetri if in After Effects) and gently nudge the darks away from green toward magenta. Didn't really affect the image and massively cleaned up noise for me.
7. I found HSL to be a tremendous despill tool. And for me, most of the green around the subject was actually in the yellow channel. So, go to the yellow channel and begin sliding the Hue toward red, and reduce saturation a touch. Worked beautifully.

This may or may not apply to you, but since I only had 1 subject, I mounted my camera at a 90 degree angle (so portrait mode) and gained a ton more resolution in doing so. But if you have more than 1 subject this may not work. 

Most people use painters masking tape for the tracking markers, the thinner not the wider. 

We have no idea what the 400 mb/s upgrade will do for the image until we see it. In theory, this update will give us something close to Prores LT, which are both around 50 MB/s. I'm looking forward to it for my GH5. 

EDIT: before I tried any of the above, I worked really hard on exposing the screen properly. Once I got it exposed pretty good, then the above list produced the results in that order. However, if you do a really sloppy and poor job of lighting your screen, probably nothing above will help. 

GH5

I spent all of last summer shooting green screen with the GH4 and it keys wonderfully. I also tested with the BMPCC and was just so so. The BMPC 4K keys amazing, but in our case the difference between that and GH4 was nominal and didn't justify the increased data rates. I haven't tested it yet, but if the GH5 keys any better than the GH4, which it should, then it should be pretty close to flawless. 

On 7/14/2017 at 8:07 AM, Chris Oh said:

I liked your post for diy lights here. 

I have contributed to a few youtubers with Patreon. $1 to $5 coming out automatically, for contents I'm interested in, I'm in.

If you want to go that route. 

 

 

Did you ever build your own lights?

I still use mine. I have purchased a gaffer kit of kinos since. They are brighter and better light than my homemade ones, but I still use my own. 

On 7/13/2017 at 10:41 PM, HockeyFan12 said:

I think it's very possible but it's difficult. I think Rocket Jump has the closest thing to a good model that there is. They are absolutely cleaning up. But at the begging, when you're small, it's going to be very hard to monetize.

If you can move from day job with freelance supplementing it to freelance with creative work supplementing it to creative work paying the bills to creative work making you rich... then you just lived the American dream. If you have a vision, go for it. 

I have no advice except look to Rocket Jump and only do it if you have a vision and you're willing to fail but so desperate to succeed you don't worry about setbacks and failures. Look to Patreon and YouTube channels, too. 

And let me know what you find out!

And start small. Gall's law is truth!

This is another great info nugget. I think after learning enough of these one increases their chance of success greatly.

On 7/14/2017 at 2:07 AM, TrueIndigo said:

Thanks for starting this great thread!

I first heard of Patreon when I used to read interesting 'Doctor Who' articles by someone who was on it! It's an interesting idea: contribute to the person rather than the particular project.

A film-specific crowd-funding community I found (but haven't used yet myself) is Seed and Spark:

https://www.seedandspark.com/

Here's an article by Kevin Kelly about fan bases (probably a bit out-of-date now) called "1,000 true fans" which I found quite interesting when I first read it:

http://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/

And also another by him about the nature of distribution in the age of 1:1 digital copying versus the era of precious copies:

http://kk.org/thetechnium/better-than-fre/

I had hear of seed and spark, but thank you for adding it to this thread. 

I had also already read the 1,000 true fans article years ago. It was great. But I had not read the better than free one. That was fantastic. This has given me so much to consider. Man, great content.

On 7/14/2017 at 9:31 AM, mercer said:

So I think that it is smart to design projects that have the best chances of being marketed to not only a mass audience, but also to a DIY filmmakers audience.

Hmmm... Hadn't thought of that really.

16 minutes ago, mercer said:

I think you are right and wrong,

I agree. After reading through Griffin's experience and that he has made a decent amount ($23,000) over a couple years on Prime, it seems like it could in fact be a significant portion of sustainability. However, he also used "windowing" which is probably how he was able to monetize as much as he did. VOD first for the immediacy factor. Prime second. With Hulu in there somewhere too.

22 minutes ago, mercer said:

The key to this, in my opinion... is cheap and fast.

I agree, and add "good" to the list, and put if before the others, because the audience does not care how fast or cheaply it was made (in fact that would be a negative in their eyes) they only care about how good it is.

4 hours ago, jonpais said:

I thought this was informative - a look at how Griffin Hammond released his documentary Sriracha, along with a breakdown of earnings, marketing...

Now that, and the included update link from the article, was fascinating. Honestly it's both encouraging and disheartening all at the same time. $80K for 3 years. Not huge money, but if he could repeat that even once a year, it could accumulate significantly.

But also, isn't this guy the frugal filmmaker or whatever? I mean, doesn't he have quite a social media presence already? I guess, most of his sales probably came from people who had never heard of him, but perhaps his following is what got the film off the ground. From there his "viral coefficient" took over. 

Also, it was very interesting to learn about windowing, which is exactly what I described earlier.