Celli

The Lumix S/R1 does have a hard switch for Silent Mode in front of the camera which can be flipped by accident. I think by default position 1 is normal and position 2 is silent.

Adobe Creative Cloud finally has some competition.
Communist Creative Cloud has been launched today in Berlin!
The three PC terminals are subscription based, and are wheeled to you once per month for the important competition of your communist propaganda leaflets.
Each terminal comes with a Nikon 1 series mirrorless camera with extremely large format sensor developed in Sochi by the renowned soviet scientist Mr P. Utin.
As you'd expect for subscription software, pricing is extremely low starting at $0*.
The true price you pay for this is in your committed allegiance to the "Die Linke" party and a green tax where you have to dissemble your entire apartment piece by piece and replace each brick with wood. You may also offer blood.
In keeping with the famous Moto "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs", the software ships only with the level of tools for your feeble abilities. YouTubers get a version of Communist Premiere Pro with a thumbnail creator containing two special presets - "Amazed face" and "Shocked expression". A special Chris and Jordan mode is available which gives all ex-camera-salesmen the belief they are famous filmmakers for the glorious region of Kamerastalingorsk. All editing tools are removed apart from the digital zoom. Wedding photographers get a special Communist Photoshop that only allows photos shot wide open at F1.2 and a clarity slider that ends at -20.
*The use of the terminal is limited to 1 hour due to radioactive emissions from the special CRT monitor.
EOSHD hands-off report
On a tour of the Communist Creative Cloud offices in Berlin today, I could see a hive of activity. Proud workers huddled around a machine (of course adhering to the mask policy of the German C.C.C.P regime) putting images of Stalin into a transform tool. The beta test programme had gone well with only several deaths, and minor spillage of radioactive material from the Robotron CPU.
I was not allowed to go near the software but was informed by a member of the Stasi CC that the Communist Creative Cloud doesn't just feature apps like Premiere and Photoshop. Office productivity tools are included and these I'm told are expected to be a big hit with the Berlin city authorities, like the municipal vaccination coordination offices.
Meanwhile you may sign up to Communist Creative Cloud by creating a special personalised profile of yourself and uploading it to the Communist Cloud server based in Moscow moderated by Mr V. Puttit.
Dubbed "Sputnikbook", it is part social media photo sharing website and part personal activity tracker.
Already 100,000 people have gladly taken part all on their own accord.
I am told Communist Creative Cloud (CCC) Premiere Pro can handle 12K video, the K standing for Kosmonaut. For videos not shot with 12 Kosmonauts you are limited to a standard resolution of just 12  green lines and the standard CRT refresh rate of 1 frame per month. Still, more productive than the average leftie! Long live Communist Creative Cloud!!

I have a look if I can find some dngs as i mostly shot prores. I am rocking the mini 4K since 3 years now, also got it because the 4.6 was way out of my reach. I was skeptical at first as well mainly about DR and the never ending rumors about the necessity to rig it up.Well, slap a small v-mount battery on it put in a cfast card and you are good to go; no cables no flimsy stuff. About DR, yes...there isn't much headroom in the highlights in prores (even in 444). You just wont be able to hold the sun if it's in your background and you try to expose for the skin even a little bit; small sony or canon apsc cameras do have more highlight retention and more DR on first sight for sure. What i fell in love with is the color information in the given DR. There is just so much more color information and fine gradation in the mids and shadows. Also the global shutter is just magic for everything that moves...no matter if the subject moves or the camera. If you shoot fashion shows with lots of flash light..you just cant beat the look of global shutter here. It's bad in lowlight, as are my eyes. So i never cared about it.
thats my very first test shot with the ursa, shot in prores 422 hq in hd only, its a noobish clip for sure but I got quite a bit better with handling that camera since then. As you can see if you are not careful the highlights clip away easily in a sunny day. 
 

We shot this over a few days in Canada on the Panasonic S1 and Mavic pro 2. Honestly I can't be happier with the S1. Having shot on the A7iii and the A7sii for the past years the S1 is quite an advance in image quality. There is so much latitude in post and the dynamic range is really great in comparison.
 
 

I have a look if I can find some dngs as i mostly shot prores. I am rocking the mini 4K since 3 years now, also got it because the 4.6 was way out of my reach. I was skeptical at first as well mainly about DR and the never ending rumors about the necessity to rig it up.Well, slap a small v-mount battery on it put in a cfast card and you are good to go; no cables no flimsy stuff. About DR, yes...there isn't much headroom in the highlights in prores (even in 444). You just wont be able to hold the sun if it's in your background and you try to expose for the skin even a little bit; small sony or canon apsc cameras do have more highlight retention and more DR on first sight for sure. What i fell in love with is the color information in the given DR. There is just so much more color information and fine gradation in the mids and shadows. Also the global shutter is just magic for everything that moves...no matter if the subject moves or the camera. If you shoot fashion shows with lots of flash light..you just cant beat the look of global shutter here. It's bad in lowlight, as are my eyes. So i never cared about it.
thats my very first test shot with the ursa, shot in prores 422 hq in hd only, its a noobish clip for sure but I got quite a bit better with handling that camera since then. As you can see if you are not careful the highlights clip away easily in a sunny day. 
 

I have a look if I can find some dngs as i mostly shot prores. I am rocking the mini 4K since 3 years now, also got it because the 4.6 was way out of my reach. I was skeptical at first as well mainly about DR and the never ending rumors about the necessity to rig it up.Well, slap a small v-mount battery on it put in a cfast card and you are good to go; no cables no flimsy stuff. About DR, yes...there isn't much headroom in the highlights in prores (even in 444). You just wont be able to hold the sun if it's in your background and you try to expose for the skin even a little bit; small sony or canon apsc cameras do have more highlight retention and more DR on first sight for sure. What i fell in love with is the color information in the given DR. There is just so much more color information and fine gradation in the mids and shadows. Also the global shutter is just magic for everything that moves...no matter if the subject moves or the camera. If you shoot fashion shows with lots of flash light..you just cant beat the look of global shutter here. It's bad in lowlight, as are my eyes. So i never cared about it.
thats my very first test shot with the ursa, shot in prores 422 hq in hd only, its a noobish clip for sure but I got quite a bit better with handling that camera since then. As you can see if you are not careful the highlights clip away easily in a sunny day. 
 

I have a look if I can find some dngs as i mostly shot prores. I am rocking the mini 4K since 3 years now, also got it because the 4.6 was way out of my reach. I was skeptical at first as well mainly about DR and the never ending rumors about the necessity to rig it up.Well, slap a small v-mount battery on it put in a cfast card and you are good to go; no cables no flimsy stuff. About DR, yes...there isn't much headroom in the highlights in prores (even in 444). You just wont be able to hold the sun if it's in your background and you try to expose for the skin even a little bit; small sony or canon apsc cameras do have more highlight retention and more DR on first sight for sure. What i fell in love with is the color information in the given DR. There is just so much more color information and fine gradation in the mids and shadows. Also the global shutter is just magic for everything that moves...no matter if the subject moves or the camera. If you shoot fashion shows with lots of flash light..you just cant beat the look of global shutter here. It's bad in lowlight, as are my eyes. So i never cared about it.
thats my very first test shot with the ursa, shot in prores 422 hq in hd only, its a noobish clip for sure but I got quite a bit better with handling that camera since then. As you can see if you are not careful the highlights clip away easily in a sunny day. 
 

Just tell 'em that what they're shooting should be motivated by the story/emotion it's trying to convey. And always ask yourself the 'what?', 'how?', 'why?' of things.
Everything begins with a 'set'. Doesn't have to be a legit studio set, it just describes the location you're going to have your shoot at. Pick/create a setting that itself supports the story; to make it believable within its own reality. Often when people are starting out, they care too much about the camera and technicalities and forget about things like location and wardrobe/props (like kids (in their everyday clothing) playing actual warfare (guns, bangs, bullet holes, blood) in their urban neighbourhood (without any real interaction with/response from their environment)). Once you have your story, create a universe where that story is taking place, be consistent and make it believable ('believable' doesn't neccessarily mean 'realistic', I could imagine a comedic take on previous scenario and kids are playing warfare with cardboard costumes on and having cardboard guns that shoot Skittles, people coming out of their homes to collect the yummy richochets). Thing is... you've got to really sell it to the viewer, suck them into your reality and make sure they're not thrown off.
On set, before any legit shoot, there are checks for 'light', 'sound' & 'camera'. When everything is in order there's the call for 'action'. These are the principles you need to think about. The impact of light (and shadows), sound design (maybe more so a 'post' thing to think about (foley/SFX/ADR/music)), camera set-up/use and the actual action (it's about 'motion picture' after all). What mood are you trying to set and how do these individual elements work together to create said mood?
When you introduce a change... make sure it's done with purpose. A lot of times when people get new gear, they start using it... because they have it, not because the story asks for it. It gets boring quickly if every shot is a slider shot. It's just too much. Don't be a slave to your gear, let the gear work for you. Do things with moderation or when it actually supports the story to do it otherwise. Think more about your framing, about the movement of the camera and that of the subjects... what can you do with that? What does it (subconciously) tell the audience/what impression would that scene make?
I think we all agree... you can shoot something enjoyable on $0 budget and a potato, if that potato was used to tell a interesting and engaging story, that took its audience's mind offa things for a second and made them experience 'something'. Sometimes I say, it kinda is emotion pictures. It's conveying mood and emotion. It's visual storytelling. It's art. Like a painting, but one that is in motion. There's a mood, there might be a message, there's room for the viewers to explore these things for themselves, wonder and try to figure it out, but hardly anything ever is something completely random without a pay-off or reveal. Just make sure there's some motivation behind what you're doing and you'll be fine. In the end it doesn't really matter all that much if you shoot something on a RED or a Panasonic Lumix... in 1080p or 4K... or in potato quality. Just make sure that what's in front of the camera is solid and makes sense... that's the bigger picture.
Technically... most you might ought to know, if applicable at all (smartphone or GoPro could just be as easy as hitting the red record button), is just the basics of light capturing. Framerate, shutterspeed, aperture & ISO, with the possible addition of light or ND... what each does and the relationship between them. Maybe lens characteristics (effects and use of focal length, compression, focus and separation). And how to edit everything together in post... especially when and how to make effective cuts. And well, it does help to make sure the audio doesn't completely suck before they show it to anyone. But that about it. Technical information is always at your disposal. Ideas and creativity... they need to be sparked. It's much more the global understanding why one would do certain things a certain way, rather than knowing specific technical details.

and we still don't know how many people are "a lot"(or someone really has reliably numbers of the percentage of broken units?). The voice of those complaining about a supposedly broken product will always be much louder than those who are outside actually working with their product of choice. Then we always seem to have so many people joining the discussion without even owning the camera. Plus beginners like me who suddenly got a professional camera, but have no idea yet how to work with it. All this gives a really fishy picture when it comes to info's and reviews on certain products or manufacturers. I say grab a camera go out and shoot...if not happy sell it and buy another one until you are happy with it. Then post about this camera and why it's great. That might actually help others to make a choice. Because what are we looking for after all? A great camera or a broken camera? Of course we can also do what everyone else is doing...only complain and highlight everything we think is broken?

In part 1 of the Sony A7R II review we will look at the A7R II not as a consumer camera but as a professional cinema camera.
The benchmark for this camera is going to be the Canon 1D C.
Read the full article

​The real irony seems to be a bit lost on you. But let's address your made up irony first...
I have not "sacrificed" raw, 10bit, 422, colour science and other aspects merely for resolution.
I still treat the image as a visual whole and not a mere number.
I have shot with the Digital Bolex - lovely raw and tip top colour... I have shot with Blackmagic for 10bit ProRes and of course 5D Mark III raw, and could go back to any one of them any time I please... in fact it would make my life a lot easier not having to cover all these cutting edge new cameras that just so happen to be 4K, for ungrateful bastards like you....
But I don't and that is because the current 4K cameras look lovely.
14bit Raw or 10bit 422 and the best colour science is a spec like any other... and it is rather overrated itself.
For example the highlight roll off is smoother in 8bit SLOG on the A7S compared to 14bit raw on the 5D3 - go and figure.
Indeed I prefer the 8bit 422 LOG image from the 1D C to Blackmagic's 12bit raw for colour. Again, go figure...
Hands down my favourite image at the moment is the Canon 1D C so I am not a brainless 'Canon basher'.
Those you will have followed EOSHD for a while or those in the know will get the satire... others won't... If you don't get it, then hopefully it will tweak your interest in the current state of play enough to research into the subject a bit more.

There is a good dose of irony here.
EOSHD is happy to sacrifice things like raw, 10 bit, 4:2:2, colour science and various other aspects that make an image, just to be able to shoot 4k (no doubt in big letters on the box).
Marketing works!

The slow-mo capabilities of the new Sony RX cameras are groundbreaking.
I've been shooting at 100fps to 1000fps and everything in between.
Here is everything you need to know.
Read the full article

That shot is spellbinding. It has a 1940's technicolor look to it. Almost unreal.
If you are going to push colour this much in post then it just has to be raw.
Full frame helps a lot here too, with the separation of the foreground subjects even though there's a lot packed into the shot, it's quite wide.
I think it's time for me to dust off my 5D Mark II again for raw (5D 3 is going to be sold soon so can't use it) and see if the 1D C's log can do the same fascinating 'extreme' colour grades, without falling apart.
If this shot looks rubbish to you, it's time to get a proper monitor that can do colour right.

Here's a good explanation from Fujifilm expert.
What is LOG?
What is LUT? 

With which cameras? On what settings? Makes a bigger difference to which parameters?

I'm more of a writer and director than a cinematographer, so I tend to evaluate images by feel. Looking at 10-bit, I see a much greater depth, tonal clarity, and a richer palate of colors than any 8-bit 4K. This is exacerbated by everyone shooting their cameras super flat, even though we've known for years that shooting 8bit codecs flat ruins their tonality and definition in the midtones--ie, skintones. 

In this test, for example, there's a huge, marked difference between internal 4k and the externally recorded files. https://vimeo.com/101350338 It's not something easy like just sharpness, either. It's an overall aesthetic difference that's easy to notice but hard to explain. The aspect we CAN put a number to is dynamic range. If you squeeze 12 stops of dynamic range into an 8-bit bucket, you only have 21.3 tones per stop. This gives you muddier tones with thinner gradients. With 10-bit, on the other hand, you get 85.3 different tones for each stop of dynamic range. That's huge. It also affects the richness and accuracy of your colors, since the same color with a slightly different tone is in fact a different hue. To me, this also gives a sense of richer detail since the shadows (a huge visual cue for resolution) have better tonal definition. 

I feel like we got caught up in this whole 4K thing to get rid of moire, aliasing, and manufacturers pawning off upscaled SD garbage on us instead of proper HD. Now we've gotten rid of those problems but forgotten what we wanted in the first place: a cinematic look. And in that regard, bit and color depth were always bigger obstacles than resolution.

My two cents. 

In this last year I shot a bunch of rather meaningless clips and pictures while out for a walk or when biking to familiarize myself with a rather modern camera (Sony Nex-5R). Last time I used a video camera was 20 years ago. Me and my friends enjoyed shooting short movies alot at that time and we plan to come back to it before we are too old for this shit. Anyway, I am able to use a rather nice set-up reminiscent of a mini western saloon (from the outside at least).
We are huge fans of Terence Hill/ Bud Spencer movies and its only natural we want to make a short based on those. Script is kind of finished, it will be an assassination attempt like the very first part of "my name is nobody". Dont get mad about the the gun thing, there wont be any. This assassination attempt will have a strong comical twist. Also me and my buddies were rather skilled in martial arts when we were young, so any action involved will be some kicks and punches (hopefully still good looking)
Just watched "my name is nobody" recently to get a feeling for it and man those old movies are really nicely framed and shot. I would like to use this movie as base model. But those nice dusty browns and yellows with tons of color seperation within them will probably be very hard to match. Same for those reddish glowing skin tones.
So my question is: What else is important to consider when shooting a western like this? Any kind of advise is highly appreciated. Never done that before;)
-Camera will probably be my trusty moire and aliasing happy Nex-5R (Kit-lens and 35mm T1.4 lens, maybe some FD primes and zoom lenses)
-Grading in Resolve
Ah, and this is just for fun, neither me or my friends work in any way professional in this field. But still I want it to be as good as possible.
Here some screen grabs from the set-up trailer I shot to get my buddies hyped...and one from "my name is nobody" as a reference.
 
 

Well, doing "this" certain look or doing "that" certain look is nice and all (and you should strive for a cohesive aesthetic--even if it's just doing the whole thing on a cheap 50mm lens) but you should really save more particular image considerations for the bottom of the want-to-do list.  
Ultimately, nothing is going to make your film more viable and successful than a good bit of considered pre-production planning.  And most of that stuff has nothing to do with lenses or cameras.
Also, it's free.  
Arguably, you could shoot the whole thing on an old VHS camcorder and if the story was solid, people will watch it.  Heck, I'd argue that the IQ low-fi quality of such would be a helluvalot more compelling than contemporary electronic imaging.  
Obviously, good IQ is great for a film, but certainly over-emphasized here.  An old NEX and a kit lens is more than good enough in capable hands...IMHO.  Especially for a western where the limitations of a "softer" camera fit the rustic quality of the setting.  Would great dynamic range be nice to have?  Yes.  Is it a necessity?  Well, I guess that's for you to decide.
Again, the most solid advice I can offer since you're on a time constraint, is definitely do the storyboard.  If you're real ambitious, slide-show your story board and then do a real time edit with a dialog comp/music track.  This can be fun if you have willing and eager players involved to do their voices (it's even a sort of rehearsal) and it'll also illustrate any camera-shot holes you might have...before you're on set.
Recently I made an experimental short film wherein I attempted to film actors on-locations in a documentary style.  While successful on certain levels, ultimately it didn't hold together as too many shots where absent, the production went way too long, and the talent floundered too much.  A director with more tenacity and skill probably could have tied things together better and artistically, but I definitely ended up stretched beyond my capabilities.  So, knowing what to do going in is the best bet.  At least it was from my experience.
If nothing else, all that pre-pro that helps you stay on task.  Ironically, it seems like you have the initial insight and (most important) helpful crew, that'll allow you to be more accomplished at this --more so than some aspiring "pros" like myself would be.
Obviously, come back here and post your results when you're finished.  I would love to see it.  I wrote a Western script last year that made it deep into pre-production before the investor pulled out...and I have a soft spot for that genre...hope it goes well for ya!

Great Celli! Looking fwd to your work. I'm Italian (as your two idols are) and I grew up with their movies. +1 for you!

In this last year I shot a bunch of rather meaningless clips and pictures while out for a walk or when biking to familiarize myself with a rather modern camera (Sony Nex-5R). Last time I used a video camera was 20 years ago. Me and my friends enjoyed shooting short movies alot at that time and we plan to come back to it before we are too old for this shit. Anyway, I am able to use a rather nice set-up reminiscent of a mini western saloon (from the outside at least).
We are huge fans of Terence Hill/ Bud Spencer movies and its only natural we want to make a short based on those. Script is kind of finished, it will be an assassination attempt like the very first part of "my name is nobody". Dont get mad about the the gun thing, there wont be any. This assassination attempt will have a strong comical twist. Also me and my buddies were rather skilled in martial arts when we were young, so any action involved will be some kicks and punches (hopefully still good looking)
Just watched "my name is nobody" recently to get a feeling for it and man those old movies are really nicely framed and shot. I would like to use this movie as base model. But those nice dusty browns and yellows with tons of color seperation within them will probably be very hard to match. Same for those reddish glowing skin tones.
So my question is: What else is important to consider when shooting a western like this? Any kind of advise is highly appreciated. Never done that before;)
-Camera will probably be my trusty moire and aliasing happy Nex-5R (Kit-lens and 35mm T1.4 lens, maybe some FD primes and zoom lenses)
-Grading in Resolve
Ah, and this is just for fun, neither me or my friends work in any way professional in this field. But still I want it to be as good as possible.
Here some screen grabs from the set-up trailer I shot to get my buddies hyped...and one from "my name is nobody" as a reference.
 
 

In this last year I shot a bunch of rather meaningless clips and pictures while out for a walk or when biking to familiarize myself with a rather modern camera (Sony Nex-5R). Last time I used a video camera was 20 years ago. Me and my friends enjoyed shooting short movies alot at that time and we plan to come back to it before we are too old for this shit. Anyway, I am able to use a rather nice set-up reminiscent of a mini western saloon (from the outside at least).
We are huge fans of Terence Hill/ Bud Spencer movies and its only natural we want to make a short based on those. Script is kind of finished, it will be an assassination attempt like the very first part of "my name is nobody". Dont get mad about the the gun thing, there wont be any. This assassination attempt will have a strong comical twist. Also me and my buddies were rather skilled in martial arts when we were young, so any action involved will be some kicks and punches (hopefully still good looking)
Just watched "my name is nobody" recently to get a feeling for it and man those old movies are really nicely framed and shot. I would like to use this movie as base model. But those nice dusty browns and yellows with tons of color seperation within them will probably be very hard to match. Same for those reddish glowing skin tones.
So my question is: What else is important to consider when shooting a western like this? Any kind of advise is highly appreciated. Never done that before;)
-Camera will probably be my trusty moire and aliasing happy Nex-5R (Kit-lens and 35mm T1.4 lens, maybe some FD primes and zoom lenses)
-Grading in Resolve
Ah, and this is just for fun, neither me or my friends work in any way professional in this field. But still I want it to be as good as possible.
Here some screen grabs from the set-up trailer I shot to get my buddies hyped...and one from "my name is nobody" as a reference.
 
 

Hello everyone! I'm a french film school student (however we don't practice often it's just mainly theoretical courses and film analysis) and we had recently to create a short fiction (we were to do around 7 shots). We had the plan with my teammate to explore an old abandoned coal washing facility and decided to make something with it, so here it is!
Sound is important so play it loud
Now some explanation. I don't have a lot of money, and our school doesn't have any gear to loan, so we made it a 0$ budget short ahah (well the only thing we paid for was the gas mask). For the prep we had only a few days, so we thought of a story, and we only did the storyboard for the first half of the short (until he enters the factory), as we didn't know what it looked like inside, and we had to improvise on set. It was really run'n'gunning as we only had 9h on location, and some shots are quite rushed...
I shot it with a sony a6000 in AVCHD, with for the most part in exterior the sony 18-105G F4, then in interior the Sony 35mm F1.8 OSS and a Leica Summicron 90mm F2 (pre-asph, which I found in my dad's old camera gear).
For the lighting setup we used an outdoor LED floodlight (which is what the actor is holding inside the factory) and a 200*160 5in1 reflector to bounce some light back.
I edited everything and made the soundtrack on Sony Vegas, then graded everything on DaVinci Resolve Lite.
I'm kinda in a love-hate relationship with it haha, during the edit and post-prod there was some moment I just wanted to delete everything, and I was noticing every little mistake or imperfections, but considering the time limitation, budget the result is fairly ok, and initial feedback was good so I wanted to share it more with people working in this field!
I'd love any advice or feedback from you!

​No One who is considering buying a Sony will buy a Samsung camera...... Honestly how do you even put the two in the same class
Sony A7s is a professional tool being used already in productions around the world with excellent dynamic range, asa and most importantly full frame. NO non FF camera will ever be a substitute. Same like the Samaung will NEVER cut into the Mark III sales, it just doesn't happen. 4k is great, but Canon is still the #1 seller and they don't even have that in any of their consumer/prosumer cameras.
 
Samsung needs to work on dynamic range and asa which is more important than simply resolution a GoPro shoots 4k at 30fps and while the resolution is very helpful it's simply used for another aspect of filming. Personally I think the Samsung camera didn't even sell and might be discontinued, specs aren't everything..... Samsung NX1 has sold poorly, has received price cuts and it's basically selling for $1300 and no one wants one..........
 
 
​
Blackmagic is a very intelligent company that worked on their dynamic range/color science / compression before just wanted higher resolution and frame rate. Blackmagic is the future, the only problem I see is still not very good asa, but other than that it's ticks A LOT of boxes. I plan on buying an Ursa Mini or Sony Fs7 sometime in the near future, but the Micro Camera is definitely an amazing tool at an Amazing price coming to everyone just like the Pocket Camera was. My serious drawback was I need 60fps, luckily the new Micro Camera will give us that.
 
Sensor crop ,1080p and Low Light Performance though is still a reason why 5D Mark III and Sony A7s will still sell though......
 

Hi mercer, I am using resolve 11 lite too, on a 2009 macbook:). So i know the trouble with the small screen. Basic color grading is possible, but masking becomes really too difficult with such a small screen. As it is a grading program, i think you should not actually use an auto color mode here;) ...that could be done in a program like imovie 11 just as easy.
-First you should make yourself familiar with the nodes in the upper right corner. Just create a new serial node....and in that one you can go crazy with all the sliders and learn what will happen when you push what slider. ⌘-D will disable your note and you can check back and forth with your original footage.
-Histogram scope is you best friend, never work without it if you dont have a perfectly calibrated screen.
-And last you should get some LUTs. There are free ones online. They can be really useful to achieve certain looks.