Tim Sewell

So an update, if anyone's interested. I shot the first scene, which was made up of 5 distinct shots. They came out OK. They were... competent, but only that. The lighting was good - nice contrast, nice colours, well-motivated, but that's all.
Can you tell I'm dissatisfied?
I was so focussed on getting everything 'right' that I didn't pay enough attention to getting it good or interesting.
So I'm going to reshoot and one of the things I'm going to do is lean in to the limitations I have - first among which is that I'm doing this almost completely alone. I am both crew and talent! The biggest limitation caused by that is that camera movement while I'm on screen is not going to happen, which means that to create interest I need to make my angles and composition more interesting.
Also, the lighting as I did it the other night looked, basically, like a commercial, not a movie, so now I'm happy with my ability to get decent levels etc, I'm going to really try to push the envelope with ratios and temperatures and try to have some fun with it.
Once I've reshot I may post both versions for comment before I continue with the remaining scenes (it's going to take a while to complete the whole project given that I work full-time and my main set is our kitchen, which is in near-constant use as my 3 children attempt to bankrupt me purely through food costs!).

I've had some great bits of luck recently by using search terms that reflect what a person who didn't know what they had would use as a listing title - 'camera light' and so on... then sorting by Ending Soonest.

I've had some great bits of luck recently by using search terms that reflect what a person who didn't know what they had would use as a listing title - 'camera light' and so on... then sorting by Ending Soonest.

I've owned many cameras (too many) and i think I've only ever bought 2 from new. Thing is, there are so few moving parts on cameras these days that there's not a huge amount that can go wrong in normal use. That said, unless an eBay or similar deal is just too good to pass up, you are safer doing it through a dealer, as @ac6000cw says.

Reasonably well thanks - will write it up soon!

Reasonably well thanks - will write it up soon!

Reasonably well thanks - will write it up soon!

My intention is to document this journey here and I’m doing it for the entirely selfish reason of keeping myself on it!

Script and partial shortlist written. Ready for action tomorrow night when wife is out, so hopefully no interruptions!

Script and partial shortlist written. Ready for action tomorrow night when wife is out, so hopefully no interruptions!

Script and partial shortlist written. Ready for action tomorrow night when wife is out, so hopefully no interruptions!

Awesome! Have fun and good luck! I am also making a short film tomorrow. Definitely looking forward to hearing about how well your shoot went!

Script and partial shortlist written. Ready for action tomorrow night when wife is out, so hopefully no interruptions!

Script and partial shortlist written. Ready for action tomorrow night when wife is out, so hopefully no interruptions!

Script and partial shortlist written. Ready for action tomorrow night when wife is out, so hopefully no interruptions!

PS... order placed with cvp so we'll see how it works out!

Picked this up second hand at a good price as my introduction to anamorphics. Here's some tests shot last night.
 
 

Thanks for watching! I've wanted to get into anamorphic right from the get-go for precisely the reasons you mention. One thing I like about this adapter is that the flares are pretty subtle.

Picked this up second hand at a good price as my introduction to anamorphics. Here's some tests shot last night.
 
 

Absolutely. They have a place though as not everybody can justify having a bunch of single density NDs and the trade-off (if you're not doing absolutely colour-critical work) is worth it. But definitely one has to be careful when using them to avoid the issues you mention.

On my FS7 I set a ND filter that is reasonably correct then ride the aperture to fine-tune. A stop either way in aperture isn't going to significantly affect one's artistic intent.

On my FS7 I set a ND filter that is reasonably correct then ride the aperture to fine-tune. A stop either way in aperture isn't going to significantly affect one's artistic intent.

K&F Concept are pretty good at a lowish price. For a bit more, SLR Magic certainly used to have some nice ones.

The biggest thing for me, using it, is the realisation that a huge proportion of the features we pay extra for in hybrid cameras are really just workarounds for the problems caused by using a completely inappropriate form factor for shooting video.

The biggest thing for me, using it, is the realisation that a huge proportion of the features we pay extra for in hybrid cameras are really just workarounds for the problems caused by using a completely inappropriate form factor for shooting video.