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User

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Everything posted by User

  1. I've got $25k into my own finance structure... but 700k is quite a feat. Great that paid off. Seems like a reasonable amount to wager for a shot at the big time. The trick - as we know - will be to pull this off again... with someone else's money. Good problems to have. Fool me once... shame on...?
  2. It's clear that the web is changing the nature of how and what we watch. And it is here, in the stats, that funding decisions can be made in the indie realm where there is the perception of avant guard. I'm closely watching outfits like Cinereach (doc funding) A24 and Dogwoof (distribution) as I know they have their finger on the pulse of mostly original ideas that can 'actually' make money. That's important. And I like to think that most of us can appreciate it when far out media artists cross over into this area with something fresh and right off the rails - this is a highly coveted space that only a select few can crack - but when they do, you know it's going to be good. Truth be told, the most exciting material I'm witnessing these days is security camera footage from largely 'failed states.' But I digress
  3. - Khalik Allah is one name that comes to mind with his film Black Mother. Not to say that his approach hasn't been done before... but this film is fairly recent and funded by some bright folks outside the mainstream. - Good question. But of course it's reasonable that the answer depends entirety on the level of audience sophistication. And in an age of bean counters foisting Spiderman 10 etc.... it's hardly been dumber. The good news is that we can now vote with a click... and that has shaken things up quite nicely.
  4. User

    Anonymous?

    The only thing that is proven here is the rot of your continued unconsciousness. Now please, go hump someone else's leg.
  5. User

    Anonymous?

    The problems of the mind can not be solved on the level of the mind. Tell that to George Floyd. And all the others like him. By living and making experiences in the world beyond the insular small minded place that I was born into. I also live, work and travel across the world (including the U.S.) and can previously be found flying over places like Mosul... peering down on the long arm of exploitive military operations that serve the fat and stupid who no longer (if ever) deserve it. At times. Is that the only measure? No. Who reads Fb and Twitter as news? I'll tell you... people who are so fucking lazy that they should be rounded up and sent off world to used as sexual bait for an arriving species. The trouble with this is that the aliens would be easily bored and then come here... which could be both good... and bad. Let's see.
  6. User

    Anonymous?

    There is more than one kind of 'news.' And, since when is 'news' the only yardstick? Come on, you're going to have to step up here.
  7. User

    Anonymous?

    Lucky? "In many cases, incompetence does not leave people disoriented, perplexed, or cautious, Instead, the incompetent are often blessed with an inappropriate confidence, buoyed by something that feels to them like knowledge."- David Dunning Careful my emotional friend.
  8. I sometimes run the original 24-105 on my C100MkII, and although getting focus (even with peaking) can be a challenge on this lens, when things are right, the images are fantastic.
  9. User

    Anonymous?

    Nationalism isn't just confined to the U.S. But yes, what a mess. Years of selling itself out by its own people, the glory days or certainly over. The future is Mandarin. Ugh.
  10. User

    Anonymous?

    Hilarious. It's actually staggering how little I live on to do the work I love... with food being my main luxury these last years. If I can just keep it together enough to cover my living expenses over the next 6-8 months and I'll be able to bring forward this decade-long deep dive double phd on one of the most fascinating cities in the planet! Let's see what comes.
  11. Thank you for bring this to our attention Dimitris.
  12. User

    Anonymous?

    I agree... and it's also resistance against a culture of apathy, indifference and ignorance that helps bring perspectives that can offset the singular voice of corporate media empires and unethical self-serving governments. Carry on amigo, we need you, let us know how you proceed and... vive la revolucion! I didn't inform that nation's government of what I was doing, otherwise they would have simply refused and I would be forever marked as a journalist (which has consequences). So shooting the doc wasn't really the problem - despite continually being taken off the street for police questioning (where I would feign ignorance, silly tourist etc). The trick is going to be releasing it and somehow remain 'anonymous enough' so that I can continue to travel there after release. How that will be done, I've haven't quite worked out yet. The easiest path is to just use another name, but the weird part is that part of me wants my work to be correctly associated with my name and perspective... because like you've mentioned, this has a certain 'brand appeal'. However, one thing for sure is that I ain't no big brand... so what to do? I wonder what Banksy or Josh Oppenheimer would say?
  13. User

    Anonymous?

    - Bread and butter... it can take you there. Or at least buy you a meal when you get there.
  14. User

    Anonymous?

    I chose the topic because I like projects that are difficult to capture and convey. And yes... my wish is to make more docs in the future, despite how terribly challenging it is. I've passed over a decade in that country and love the people and culture and it was always my plan to retire there... so I don't want some government stooge denying that. To give some perspective, a previous top commissioning editor for a very forward thinking European country was blacklisted because she commissioned a film about an extremely uncomfortable even that happened there. The director was also blacklisted. The film caused a necessary stir and was immediately banned and blocked from Youtube there. The good news is that the film was added to a growing voice of social media and consciousness that has brought important discourse, and change. My project doesn't mine this hard ground... it's more of a deep dive into the outlandish absurdities of daily life with some far out and tough characters who tell the story... but still, I don't want any issues from the 'high-minded' conservative keepers of cultural integrity. Managing another identity sounds like a pain if you are trying to leverage other peoples money... which the other cinema traveller I mentioned, is most probably not. But I quite like this... the freedom part.
  15. User

    Anonymous?

    I'm curious if there are any of you here who publish your works under another name... preferring - for whatever reasons - to remain anonymous? In going forward, I'm carrying a fairly large doc project set in a country where a bunch of right wing thugs have taken over and have previously banned Western filmmakers for mining socially relevant stories that society is still struggling to come to terms with. At the same time, part of me likes the idea of publishing works that are less prone to attacks because of my race, social class, age etc. And finally, I don't exactly have a name that rings with excitement. And as quiet confirmation, I noticed another another cinema traveller out there there years ago, who does wonderful work and goes under pseudonym... a big part of me likes it how he doesn't bring his name to what he does, though he easily could. Any thoughts?
  16. Absolutely. I love photography, you get to be a quick thief. Though we know that when everything comes together in motion picture - including evocative sound - little else can compete. Well... except for a high alpine stream.
  17. Please just make your comments in ONE post. You are lighting up the notification every two minutes with every post...
  18. Say it with me... EditReady. I took the unmodified files that FCP recreated for itself (in its Original Media folder) from the BPAV folders, and then fed them to EditReady which made short work of rewrapping them. Somewhere in the future, I hope someone gives a fuck about all this all this media we are all generating and giving our lives to make... preserve.
  19. I have some old Sony XDCAM BPAV Folders from an EX1 that I want to convert to something I can easily work with. I was hoping to just rewrap the files (not transcode) into mov files. In the past, one would use the XDCAM Transfer tool, but that is dead. Sony have made another tool (Catalyst Edit) that will allow to transcode to other formats. I'd be happy with .mov but it's not an option. One option is MXF but I have no experience with this. Can anyone recommend a codec that won't balloon the files and will be supported in the future... or the near future? I can import and open the files in FCPX... FCP does something where it rewraps(?) the files with a .mov extension... but when I import these into PPro they don't play properly. Anyone? Spent the past 6 hours trying to find software that would 'batch convert' (but not transcode) BPAV folders... ugh.
  20. Very cool Rawshooter, good to know. Thanks!
  21. Heartwarming On a side note, and as I understand it, Youtube uses ads for revenue. But I use Adblocker Plus (yes I'm a bastard), so I've never ever seen an ad on Youtube. So I'm left wondering why should I stick with clunky Vimeo. I guess it's like FranciscoB said, Vimeo is about some kind of community feeling. Vimeo viewing experience = Full screen mode, hit space bar to play film, full screen window then minimizes. Day after day, year after year. Half the time the player just hangs. 2020 folks. If you were to dine on the slow roasted bodies you Vimeo or Youtube execs... which would taste better?
  22. What happens to my material on Vimeo if I no longer pay? Anyone?
  23. I remember that Andrew had a thread going quite some time ago on just how fucked Vimeo's business model had become, never mind their player. I'm a 'Plus' member and I absolutely can no longer stand their super fucked up 'ANALYTICS'. They should just go with the first 4 letters in naming this asinine feature implementation. Is there anyone else here who is thinking of ditching them for something else? If so, what? Is Youtube the only other real answer?
  24. From 2002-2006 I traipsed the planet with a Sony PD 150 in search of the ridiculous and downright absurd. I then parked that camera for another and in going forward, took things right off a cliff. Though in truth, I often felt guilty for leaving the 150 in a cold basement away from the action it had known. In a world that I believed couldn't possibly get any weirder (though I always hope does), I just sold the PD 150 to a man in the Congo who will now use it to capture evangelical 'speaking in tongues' ceremonies deep in the bush. All kneel and praise... long live the PD 150! 😉
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