Jonesy Jones

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. 
 
 

I think you are right and wrong, it isn't a great deal or very encouraging if you look at it as though you need 44,000 people to watch your film, but when you look at the 80 million worldwide subscribers to Amazon Prime and think about it in terms of viewable hours instead of fully watched films, you will see that you get credit even if the viewer only watches one minute of your film. Of course, yeah it is hardly sustainable if you're trying to raise a family off it from day one.
But I do feel you have the possibility of making more money than a rental fee variant... because quite frankly... nobody knows who Jonesy Jones is, nobody knows the actors in your film, so without press and reviews... who will pay to watch your film?
The key to this, in my opinion... is cheap and fast. To have any sustainability, you need fans and without a catalogue of works, how do you build a fan base? So, make 3 or 4 movies over the next year and create a social media marketing strategy, submit to festivals, even small ones will give you the laurels to put on your poster, also there are a bunch of review sites that get a lot of traffic that you can submit for a review... some require a fee, but also guarantee a watch and review... but they do not guarantee a good review, the quality of work still matters.
I would love to hear @Zak Forsman 's thoughts on this because he has sold a movie and has titles on major VOD sites.

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Here's an article by Kevin Kelly about fan bases (probably a bit out-of-date now) called "1,000 true fans" which I found quite interesting when I first read it: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 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 a sales issue. While "people" won't pay for content, your fans absolutely will pay for your content. All you have to do is figure out how to provide them value and they'll pay you. What value does your content provide? Is it funny and unique, not available anywhere else? Is it dramatic, does it tell great stories, does it help people improve themselves, does it help people make decisions, etc.? Can you use your videos to sell related products? For example, we're starting to sell a line of CBD products which we'll promote on our free personal-improvement videos.
YouTube ad sales for videos appears to be on the decline for a variety of reasons. That's why people are moving to Patreon.
I cut the cord years ago and have been using Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and Apple TV to watch online content. Lately I've been using the YouTube app for living room/bedroom viewing and Apple TV or Amazon (not very often) for paid content. I joined Hulu to get Rick & Morty- since the new season isn't on Hulu yet, probably time to turn it off.
As a "startup" filmmaker, I think it's important to focus on content and finding your audience to build a fan base. Give it away for free, then later ask for subscriptions once your following is large. Keep some content free to attract new subs. Keep production costs very low, and focus on story and value to others. I remember seeing a couple make videos with an iPhone and a ring light with over a million dollars in revenue.
I started out with low cost cameras, lights and mics, and finally have end-game level gear (C300 II, Schoeps mics, high CRI lights), meaning I can't spend any more money to get higher quality (e.g. an ARRI Alexa isn't really going to look any better in the studio vs. the C300 II, plus it doesn't have AF ). The only thing holding back increased sales is producing more valuable content and finding fans who value this content. 'Value' is the key word.

It really boils down to creating content for which there is a large enough market to support your venture. The key to growth is virality. If your viral coefficient isn't greater than 1.0, you'll need to make some changes. This is true for all products, not just video.
If people aren't sharing your content/product with others, it's not yet good enough or you're marketing to the wrong audience. Finding your audience is just as important as creating great content.

I still think the Amazon Prime deal is pretty good. Especially once you realize that there are over 80 million Prime subscribers worldwide and you are getting money even if the viewer only watches 5 minutes of your movie. And since it's listed for free, most viewers will give it 10 or 15 minutes. How many places can your movie be listed right next to a Hollywood movie?

Use patreon, I know some are sustainable but some still got a few miles ahead by using patreon. Subscription (or monthly contribution) is the way to go.  There is different mindset of paying to support and get content vs paying to buy content, which I doubt many want to spend to buy just the content, I know I wouldn't.  (look at honest trailer, their $1 subscription end in epic failure, if they do it on patreon that will be a complete different story)

I'm not a wedding shooter but did help out a colleague at a wedding recently. I used a Tamron 24 to 70 on an EF Speedbooster XL, giving a 1.8 aperture in terms of light and 31 to 90 f3.5 full frame equivalent. 
IBIS worked perfectly 
AF was much slower and more unreliable so I used MF with focus peaking and rarely missed focus at 1.8
Plenty narrow DOF without changing lenses. Wide end is wide enough, but would have preferred extra reach on the long end. 
I was shooting 1080. I didn't use ETC as it gives a softer image, but clients may not notice this. 
Overall I'd recommend this combo if you're confident with manual focus and can get close to the action when the long end is not long enough.
If changing lenses is a hassle, have you thought about using two bodies?

Here is te extreem curve used.

Be your own judge.
I don't have a real recipe. What I tend to do is set up some extreme curves to explore the picture as a whole. So literally the top point either to left or bottom direction and the bottom point to the right or up direction and that for each curve. That usually leads to a good first impression of the direction I want to go. After that it's just a choice of tools. On my desktop computer I work with Davinci. The picture you shared was graded on my MBP in ColorFinesse a plugin for AE. I use it as it is the only grading plugin that will work on my 2010 MBP ...it is slow but actually quite sophisticated for it's age. ...In the end basically all you need is curves and a way to set saturation.

The curves in the picture above tell you what I did with the tools available ColorFinesse. The waveform shows I crushed some of the lower levels and the histogram shows the new cloth of the emperor
It would really be cool if the 400mb/s is going to help out but I don't have high hopes.

Looks real nice, Jonesy. So, are you only using the GH5 now? Or do you still have the Ursa?

I really enjoyed grading the shot.

...but if I were you I would hold on to the Ursa just a little bit longer. Especially now you want to focus on grading.

All three have the same curve (red channel) applied. The Terra holds up, The Ursa holds up and the GH5 falls apart.
I think their compression tech is top of the bill ...so much that only after grading you find out that literally every nuance was squeezed out.

Well hopefully the new 400 Mbps codec will fix this also. Not that most would every need such an extreme grade.

Thanks for the link!

Get a 5D3 and shoot ML Raw. It's like having a cinema camera in the DSLR form factor. 

Don't think Canon has a colour advantage any more. I am getting often superior results with EOSHD Pro Color on the A99 II, and the GH5's 10bit is something else.

Point taken, but it's not really an issue with the C200 is it?

I believe you can find some static stock footages of old 8mm film online.  
Using that, it's not too much trouble to motion track the image and apply it to your own shots. 
This'll give you that old looking analog/mechanical image shift and jumping. 

But in terms of being smaller, lighter, and cheaper than the C200, it leaves something to be desired. 

If you want to ban someone for pointing out real log is different to your flat profile (which is really good and useful, btw)... Then ban away.... I thought you liked honesty though?

I had to sign up here just to reply to all of this. It is extremely comforting to see that others are having issues with TMB. I've been a loyal user for 3 years, and have probably given them well close to $5K worth of business during that time, and yeah, they have lost their way. I actually get bad anxiety anytime I go to purchase a license due to their cumbersome parameters. I also recently had a customer service rep email me accusing me of fudging a parameter (number of employees), and upon asking how they were making this assessment, I was told that my client's LinkedIn had been investigated, which hadn't been updated in years. Not cool at all, especially for someone who has been THAT much of a repeat customer. I recently discovered Artlist and MusicVine, both of whom are extremely affordable, very filmmaker friendly, and the music is pretty damn good. There are even artists on MusicVine who are also on Music Bed and the tracks are substantially cheaper. 

Just got my GH5 (earlier than I expected) so I ordered VLog today and it should be here Monday. I'm going to do a head to head test with the UM46K.

FWIW, I do agree that right wing niche content creation is a more viable market.  I think it's a psychological thing.  Affirmations appeal to that sensibility more.  This is neither good nor bad, just my impression.
Then again, films like "Forks Over Knives" that tend to cater to certain left wing notions have done well too.
As it happens, my wife and I are angling to create a niche film for a very specific market.  
Seems to me with so much digital content flying around, unless you're a creative savant on the genius level --and you can create a mass appeal film that's head and shoulders above all the other stuff out there, ( I know I can't do that ) you're not going to make successfully commercial products in today's market without catering to specific niches.

Jeremiah from artlist responds pretty quickly to email queries. I did cheekily suggest to him that beta adopters should be immune to any subscription price hike. I don't think he liked that idea. 

If there was only a dislike button and I'd be in the negatives.