Zak Forsman

I played with the Rangefinder at Cine Gear. Works as advertised. has a 77mm rear thread. Eddie from Vid-Atlantic was there too and it worked on his Isco Ultra-star.

I beg to differ. unless you're saying that a little fat girl + her daddy's video camera + a $630,019 budget for 30 minutes of content is somehow a game changer. I've seen better, made with fewer resources. we all have.

Any word on if v12 will improve performance-wise over v11? Even on an i7 iMac, it chokes on 1080p prores and stutters during playback. This same machine has Avid Media Composer 8.3.1 and FCP7, both of which handle HD and even 4K beautifully. Would love to see Resolve up their game considerably here, but not if it's going to require a $10,000 Mac Pro just to be stable.

This was all at T/4. I didn't have enough ND to get much more wide open. But the blades on the SLR Magics are rounded so the bokeh stays smooth-ish.  I have shot at night with the 25mm at T.95 and the Kowa and the only complaint I'd have is purple fringing, which can be reduced/removed in post, but still. But it's still sharp. Sharp enough anyway.

Did an impromptu test to see how well these paired up. happy with the results. I need stronger ND for these bright sunny days we're having.

Panasonic GH4
Kowa Bell & Howell
SLR Magic 25mm T.95
SLR Magic 35mm T1.4
SLR Magic Variable ND
Hoya IR UV Cut
SLR Magic 0.33x Diopter

Okay, whatever you say. I'm not arguing distributors don't want 4K content. I'm saying that globally, even 1080p is overkill in many of the 130+ territories a movie will be sub-licensed to by your distributor. Profit motive will always come first for them. Also, when it comes to physical media, in my experience it's very easy to get a DVD deal. You'd have to have made a real dog of a movie not to get one. But it's much, much more difficult to get a distributor to commit to a Blu-ray release. 

I just renewed VOD and DVD rights in the US and Canada for my first movie. It was made in 2007 and shot on a Panasonic HVX200. The master we delivered is in Glorious 720p!!!

The S5 is very highly regarded. Here's a thread you can follow that started with he S3 (which suffered from backlash) but soon segued to the ​much improved S5.

http://www.bmcuser.com/showthread.php?12428-New-Budget-Duel-FollowFocus

they've done studies, you know. 60% of the time, this advice works every time! 

never in a million years will a distributor let something like "it's not 4K" stop them from distributing a movie they think they can make money on. 

I haven't seen it yet, but are you talking about actual shutter speed, or shots that were undercranked? the latter has been a part of the visual aesthetic of all the Mad Max films. i read an interview with the DP on Fury Road that said only about 50-60% of what they shot was at 24fps.

looking forward to it. seeing it tonight.

​

​it really does not matter. the first two movies I made a distribution deal on were shot on a Panasonic HV200 and at 720p. i've never had a distributor ask what camera it was shot on. and if they did, it would be a red flag for me. most distributors you deal with are going to be more focused on what your key art (poster, etc) looks like, the trailer, who is in it (stars?), etc.

that being said, the only hiccup i could see is if you shot it in a 29.97 framerate (found footage horror?) as most are expecting 23.976 for delivery. not that it would be a dealkiller, but that should be made known upfront. most places are expecting a 5.1 mix as well.

yeah, all of our productions have been with a SAG-Aftra agreement. our domestic distributor said horror and documentaries were doing well for them. paramount was looking for titles with action when we signed with them. it depends on the distributor. each has their own ideas about what's trending, what is appropriate for their label, etc.

ask away, i'm happy to share. this is our first feature film to make a healthy profit and we're not even counting future revenue from the paramount release. believe it or not, it's a very good feeling to be able to pay residuals to your cast because the thing is actually making money. we've made enough to make two more movies this year. and we plan to make a small slate of movies following this model (quickly, before it changes yet again). working with a micro budget still enables us to pay our tiny cast and crew. but will also keep us profitable so we can do it again and again. we work within the parameters of genre movies so they can be sold as such, but the content is still personal and challenges us creatively.

​yeah, netlifx is pretty bad. it's the last place you want to put your movie. cable and satellite VOD should hit first. then transactional VOD like iTunes. save the subscription VOD platforms for last. very little money in them.

​i missed where he said if you don't shoot 4K, you're in trouble. what I heard him say was it can be an advantage when dealing with places like Netflix who are leaders in providing 4K content. So of course, if you shoot and finish in 4K, you're checking a box for platforms looking for 4K content. But out of the thousands of regional distributors all over the world, that's an extremely small number.

also, notice at the beginning he says they finished their theatrical exhibition DCP in 2K. the current reality is that there are so few places where 4K can be delivered to an audience that it's going to be the case for a couple years. remember, I just licensed my movie to Paramount Pictures for int'l VOD a few months ago and their requested delivery specs didn't go any higher than 1080p.

all that being said, a distributor will take a movie they think they can sell, even if it was shot on SD and upres'd to 1080p. they aren't going to let something like resolution get in the way of making money.

​at the time, we already owned it, so no further camera rental costs. was shot for under $40,000 in 2012.

Look for other horror films like yours that are out there, with good ad-supported multi-platform distribution and contact those producers to find out who their domestic and international distributor was. chances are, they have a "type" that you're likely going to fit. I went with Gravitas Ventures for domestic and they have been fantastic. 

if you're looking for contact info, you can ask for an introduction, or get an imdb pro account and call them up. Also, I remember getting a compiled list of direct email and phone contacts for a ton of distributors as a member of the film specific web site.

Shot on a Panasonic AF100 believe it or not.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/down-and-dangerous/id791920040

No, I think distributors requiring 4K is a few years away. Most theaters are 2K. Most countries do not even have HD television yet. 

one day, but not yet. we recently licensed a micro-budget crime drama titled Down and Dangerous to Paramount for international VOD and all they are asking for is a 1080p/23.976 master. this is about as current as it gets, by the way. worldwide release date is May 18, 2015.

​it's a nikon mount. I'm transitioning to a camera with an EF mount. will actually be re-buying the lenses with EF instead.

Never had a reason to think the Sigma 18-35mm wasn't accurate at f/1.8. I see a significant difference between it and my Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8 wide open.  As it happens I'm selling both of these lenses at the moment. Nikon mount versions.

Maybe they sent you an EF to Nikon adapter? Rather than Nikon to EF?

at the sabi company, we've produced and licensed 3 or 4 features over the years to different distributors and each time they had a company they could recommend for this. and often, they had pre-negotiated a good rate for creating the closed captioning. 

that being said, I believe adobe premiere has the necessary functionality to generate the appropriate file. but there are conventions of placement on-screen, syntax and duration that I would prefer to leave to a professional, rather than pull my hair out learning yet another "skill" the hard way.

here in the states, ​in 25p, you'd set the camera to PAL which results in severe rolling bands under many types of artificial lights. also HDMI was entirely deactivated while shooting 4:3 before this update, so you couldn't monitor or record it in 10bit 422 externally.