Ed_David

I think keep the a7s - rent or borrow or steal a NX1 - do a test side by side.  Don't base your desire on other people or forums.  It is indeed highly subjective.

the reason I like the NX1 is because it's small and light and the battery lasts forever and the screen is excellent and right away very nice skintones.   But the a7s has nicer motion.  SO yes, don't give up - just yet.  Don't listen to any of us.  Trust your gut.

god that is beautiful stuff.

​I try every creative angle I can to get anything I work on - either as a DP or my own films out there.  The right people.  And at the end of it, it's just banging down on as many doors as you can.  Finally someone will respond.  How do you think Quentin Tarintino got Reservoir Dogs made?  Did you ever hear that story?  There are some amazing stories of persistence in many people trying to get their foot in the door.

Even, unfortunately for a lot of male and especially female actors - having to hit the casting couch.  And they do it.  Ugggggg.  

What's also interesting is that once they are big, if they remember the struggle they went through when they were younger or if they blocked out the hard times.

​There is truth in that - but the other thing - is in any artform, more and more people have access to trying to get their voice heard.  This is the democratization of film - now anyone can shoot a film on their own on a cheap camera and help connect other people to ideas.  

Yes that will of course create a ton of crap, but it will also create some truly great work.

Anyone who promotes themselves may be seen as "egotistical" and "selfish" or also "brave" and having the bravodo to believe in what they are doing.  There are certain people who share both qualities - myself included.

I will not deny that I am highly selfish and "trapped in my head" but I am promoting a work that's free and there to start a discussion - not something for profit.  Maybe that's something.  Also I'm a professional DP - I do this for art and because I am fascinated by all of it.

Here’s my story - I promoted “Lessons for a Tailor” I film I shot for Galen Summer back when Vimeo first came out.  I submitted it to tons of blogs.  That then got buzz and that was the start of my career.

Later, I helped my friend and former roommate Sean Dunne promote the film I shot for him, “The Archive” - that eventually got picked up by a hip hop blog then the big break - Gizmodo. That then led by his own submission to Sundance, then acceptance!  Then it went on PBS POV and got a Doc and News Emmy nomination!  Me and him were the perfect team of promotion!

That was then, around 2008.  The land of blogs.

Now in 2015, we have facebook and twitter and instagram and I still promote films the old fashioned way - well not so much - but I still try to email people about the film.

But I think more and more “Gatekeepers” of good online films are more immune to this than ever.  Now you need to get creative.  And of course it’s just persistence - knocking on doors, believing in your film, not caring about rejection.  It always has been and always will be.  Eventually someone will give it a chance and play the film.

Recently a lot I have taken to twitter to promote my work - most recently -”the Quiet Escape” - and overall it’s been great.  It got the film to be seen on Gothamist.

But today I got called out by a blogger.  I won’t name her name, because maybe she’s just having a bad morning but this is what she said:

@eddavid

 delete your twitter. You are spamming ppl and idk who told you to do this, but whoever it is hates you.

Fair enough, that’s par for the course.  I did tweet to about 10 bloggers today, because I still haven’t beyond gothamist for non filmmakers to see the film, which is of course an important thing for me.  I want my film to spark a conversation on whether living in NYC is worth it or not.  That’s my goal.  To start a dialogue.

But the blogger on twitter’s reaction was so visceral it hurt me emotionally and made me stop trying to get my film out there.  And I’m sure she didn’t mean anything personal, she probably doesn’t know I’m a real person and an artist to push myself, but jeeze, I feel so bad for everyone who is just trying to get their idea or book or blog post or film out into the world and can get that kind of response..  

I remember years ago I got a direct message from someone on vimeo about their film and I was snappy about it because I thought it was just a long impersonal “hey look here” and he got upset, then I apologized, I watched it and enjoyed the film.  I felt like a douche bag.  And never again, after this one tweet from this blogger will I treat any email from a person just trying to get their 2 cents in, their viewpoint or their film, with anything but respect.

At the end of the day there is a person on the other side of that keyboard or phone.   The energy, negative or positive, must go somewhere.

And maybe in the future I send out customized twitter messages only - tailored to that blogger so they don’t think I’m spamming them. Maybe that’s my take-away.

He can say whatever he wants.  

And you know what Andrew you were right - I shouldn't listen to critics and I didn't - I revised the Quiet Escape and made it better - I tried to incorporate what I heard but in the end I modified it more to what I wanted it to be.

Thank you again

Ed

I like this post a lot - I like your rage at it all!

I love it - damn the man!  I am with you Andrew - get Canon to make the camera you and all of us want and crave!

​No it is - because it helped me become a better person.  I make art, people react, I react to their reaction, I change, I modify my art.  

That's the whole essence of art and filmmaking, right?  To learn and grow and connect - give and receive?

I changed the post - now made it much more special - taking negative and putting into art - feeding off the negative energy.  

​this is super good to hear - thank you!

http://eddavid.tumblr.com/post/113334610539/the-response-i-was-wanting-for-the-quiet-escape

After a week I finally got the response I really wanted for my short film, "the Quiet Escape" that you can only get from posting something online and having the anonymous bathroom wall writing comment on it:

"I don't mean to be rude because a lot of the shots were decent but hearing you call NYC a shithole made me disinterested .... just felt like a lot of whining. And its not magic most 20 something living in Williamsburg can afford rent they have there parents paying the bills so don't cry for them to hard. I mean why is this even a on here? What did we learn? sorry but Phillip Bloom teaches more in a simple instagram post. We can do better..... Good luck in the country buddy I was born and raised in Manhattan and it usually spits out most transplants eventually so don't feel bad"

This is a good thing.  Comments that are positive are nice, but you need the bad - to feed off of.  That’s probably one of the greatest strengths of NYC.

This comment is the underlying air that exists in New York City that you have confront after living in NYC for a certain period of time.  This feeling that you are never legit, you are never part of it, that you are always an outsider and that people want you to leave.  That you never really fit in, that you're not a true New Yorker and you'll never be one because person X has lived there longer than you.  

I dealt with this a lot on a website called Diehipster.com - it was a anti-gentrification website that featured fantasy scenarios where the blogger, Diehipster, would post videos of people who looked like hipsters getting beaten and stomped on, and also a sectio n where he would write a fantasy story of beating or maiming a hipster in a variety of cartoony ways. He was big when the hipster thing started becoming a thing around 2003-2005, or at least his hit counter clocked in at a million views.  He kept the blog going for years, but I think now it's over - maybe he moved on.

The undercurrent in NYC is grumpy and negative, like your grandpa when he's off his meds.  Maybe it comes from the rents raising and the food prices raising and the amount of people living there increasing - a feeling of loss, of being hurt by forces around you.  It makes people grumpy and have that "New York TUDE" that is celebrated in many of films about NYC.  

And it’s there and it’s something to celebrate.  So much art comes out of “difficult” situations.  No one made much of anything during the PAX Romana.  Right?  I don’t remember.  I was sleeping in class that day.

Is the "Quiet Escape" really taking a "dump" on NYC?  No it's not, well yes kind of -  but it's not that simple.  It's a study of the city - yes - and it's showing the flaws of the city - but that doesn't mean I don't still love it and love everyone in it, even the grumpy diehipsters.  I love them especially because like me, they are trying to figure it all out.  

thanks guys - I still think these batteries can blow up - Globalmedia Pro is a pretty reputable company - but still, is it worth it if my camera's blow up on a shoot?

No it's not worth the savings from them.  Thanks guys, I couldn't imagine what I would do if I do have a fire at my studio!

So I was buying for a while grey market v mount batteries from Globalmedia Pro - because 160 wh and it has a d tap out.

Well past four months - since novemember actually I have had $700 in batteries locked up in US Customs - and well now they seem to be completely missing.

The point is, "going cheap is expensive" - I should have just bought IDX or Bebop batteries. Also their batteries and charger consistently falls apart.

It's not worth sometimes trying to go cheap - you just end up spending a ton.

​I think more and more people will start to dig the NX1 - and it will go up in resale and you'll get more parts made for it.  Happened with the A7S.  At first, no one cared about that camera.  Then MacGregor started to care and Andrew did and that started the chain reaction.  The end goal, for grander karmatic and thematic reasons, I guess, is to force Canon to make a camera again as revolutionary as the 5d Mark II.  We are all secretly rooting for you, Canon.  You were the little guy.  Panasonic and Sony towered over you guys.  Now we want you to keep doing well!  Especially now that Sony seems to be on its last legs.  

that panasonic lx100 looks great!!

​haven't seen the film - but the NX1 wins in the "least use of battery, most portability, best screen" vs BMPC.  Sometimes image isn't everything you need to factor in.  I'm glad I unloaded my BMPC - that thing ate so many batteries and had a very low res screen.  Reminded me of the screen on the hvx200 - hard to get things in focus!

​agreed - but i think i have to be a VIMEO pro member to do 4k files? anyway - i'll make a 4k version somehow - also I'll make a youtube version

So I screwed up - the grain I added some layers in resolve too - I fixed that - I also made a better sound mix.  Check it out now.  No more shifts - technical errors - that was distracting.  

​here's the last script I wrote - it changed a little in the final version but still it's mostly this plus some adlibbing.  About rolling shutter - yea - I wish I shot at 180 shutter but what can you do?  Also shooting the footage I had no idea I was going to turn it later into a short film - I started it just for fun. - 

The Quiet Escape

by Edward C David

I do want to leave

this city but I’m

always half in or half out with it

but I really want to leave it

but then I don’t but I do

then I don’t then of course I do

when i’m here i want to be there

but the truth is when I’m there 

in the country

I don’t want to be here, the city

it’s a drug to get off of

its safer now this city,

new york city

but it’s

more crowded and, noisier

and very very expensive

even a single subway ride costs way too much

ten years ago I came here

from college straight to here, no where else

I didn’t like manhattan, I liked living in brooklyn more,

cheaper and smaller and more like 

my suburbs where I grew up

more peaceful  - 

but maybe not as much now   

And of course it’s my fault and other young turds like me

who gentrified areas like in williamsburg, brooklyn

I remember before those luxury condos on the water there 

it was kind of dangerous or maybe i was just a young kid and scared of everything

but it was more dangerous and cheaper 

i lived here and worked and worked and worked

just to move forward financially, my art on hold

I had a script I never made

about a man walking 

through the city 

and all his thoughts

mending, fluidllike 

the war forever fought in our heads

But I didn’t finish the film

and now I’m 33 years old 

 I can’t remember that much

the last 13 years at all really

just having some low rez photos

here I am

now talking into my phone mic recorder

out in the country

with my wife and my dog

and her family and I have time, 

finally,

to do my art.

And finally for the first time

well I’m being a little bit dramatic 

but  here I can see

what a waste it all is

to live in that city

to fight to survive

when you can just as the cliche goes, work to live

or is it work to live?

Unlike that city , I have time here

and peace and nature,

it’s not all candy land - i’ve been

confronting my flaws and 

my pain 

all bottled deep down in this well - 

ten years of tartar and plaque in my head.

but god I needed to do this.

I hope I can remember it

The precious luxury of all. Boredom.

The luxury to be bored, jesus that’s where

our lives have gone?

or maybe it’s just me and this city virus in me.

the constant stimulation

makes you numb

you tweet away as the world fades and burns

I have so many good memories of New York

because 

New York is such a 

romantic place, those lights at night.

how could anyone not love that

those walks thru the west village god it’s so charming

Riding my bike on and on and on thru brooklyn

god those nights are good but dry up the next day

and with the trash out  and that smell

and the loud noises

you start to realize you’re

paying an incredible amount of money

for a little plot of land you rent from

some slumlord far away

(not talking about my current landlord

who I love, he’s awesome, seriously)

I’m done self-sacrificing myself, thinking it’s

making me a better artist.  no, 

Great art only comes if your brain is clear

and your neurons and heart are firing properly.

I got this unique chance to get out of this

shithole and I’m going to take it.  

but still gotta be near some city

and those wackos are pretty lovable

but I see less and less of them

as those suits and young rich bastards

move in, with  their hands always on their phones

posting photos of themselves with their friends

when I think I know they go home at night

and are really secretly sad, a lot like me.

We humans spent a zillion years in nature.  With low noise, 

not in a city with  bus’s tire stretching or the sound

of a police siren.

My dog knows that.  

We lived in small communities, maybe tribes of 100 or so.

Not six million strangers

None of which are allowed really to care about each other

because there isn’t time.  Our heads would blow up. 

Getting smaller and quieter

increases quality of life.

I should put that on my fridge.

I don’t want to wake up tomorrow, ten years later,

in my little prison

with my noise canceling headphones on.

No, thank god for that little dog, he would never let me.  

DEDICATED TO MY WIFE LILY FRANCES HENDERSON

​I don't remember   - probably just high shutter speed because I had no variable NDs and was shooting sometimes in bright daylight.  

​I got lost in my work - and never really went with it.  In some ways, this is the film - it is about the thoughts of a man wondering down the street.  It's not quite what I envisioned years ago when I was 23 - but it's a similar thematic device.  Besides that passed - who I was then is not who I am now.  

Thank you so much for this Andrew - what an amazing write up you did.  Yes the small technology can empower all of us to tell stories and bring so much -to not worry about costs - just to worry about creating and telling as good of a film as we can.  What an exciting time we live in!!!

​No I think in my grading I mixed up two jump cuts and didn't keep the same grade - but after seeing it the mistake seemed really pretty like old film - so I kept it in.

It's all fixed up.

Thanks very much for enjoying it!  I love grading the NX1 - how it handles highlights at night is so beautiful- seems better than the Sony A7S.  I need to do a test on this asap.

My latest short film!!!  "The Quiet Escape."  Shot on the Samsung NX1 with 35mm Nikon AIS f2 lens and Leica R 100mm lens - one shot.  Used Filmconvert and Gorilla Grain to treat it in Davinci Resolve.    Came out so nicely.  THANK YOU EOSHD and Andrew Reid for this camera!!  

Minus 5 contrast

Minus 3 saturation

Minus 12 (all the way) sharpness

Before Gamma DR existed.  The olden days.