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2 hours ago, Dave Del Real said:

Can't imagine what FHD will look like on the R5 or why it's even an option at this point.

Knowing Canon, they will squash the shit out of the FHD. But I for one, like 'good' 1080. Let's see what comes.

Happy to see you the site and forum still up and running... big thanks Andrew, and to the rest of you folks.

5 hours ago, HockeyFan12 said:

How are you metering? Since most of us are just metering by eye the ISO setting feels kind of irrelevant relative to how we expose, or at least can only be discussed in that context.

Thank you for the insight.
I'm in a long hall edit with the material now. So looking back, I'd run with 850 ISO until I run out of light and then pump it up as needed. Shot the first night (of a 3 month period) in Clog and realized something was way off. Lensed everything after in WDR. Simple solution for a run and gun in a difficult situation.
 

3 hours ago, OliKMIA said:

I'm talking about the C200 here and I'm not sure about the C100mk1. Just check the user manual and official canon resources. The recommended "native" ISO values are there. Get the info from the source, not just a bunch of nobodies on forums (including me!).

- Absolutely. Guilty as charged. Love the self deprecating levity.
 

3 hours ago, OliKMIA said:

In one of the Canon papers they also show the distribution of DR in highlights and shadows based on the ISO. Basically, my understanding is that lower than native ISO will give you less noise but also less DR.

- Yes, this was my understanding as well. And I imagined pulling down the shadows to hide any buzz. But if there had been more time and support it would have been good to really tune the camera to the situations and light as necessary.
 

3 hours ago, OliKMIA said:

More than the difference between ISO 800 and 400 in log 2, I don't shoot in log low light. I stick to WDR for that (which again, is not a log curve). Log 1 is also acceptable as it was designed for 8 bits capture. Usually, low light situation doesn't come with the need for great DR capture. Just my 2 cents.

- Exactly. And I like WDR. For what I do it seems the best of Clog, without limitations.

Thanks for the refresh and insight folks... I'll remember the bring the white paper (so I have something to wipe myself off on in that infernal heat of whatever lays ahead)... onward.

Just now, OliKMIA said:

 

Not sure about the C100mk2 but lower ISO should give you less noise in general (at the expense of DR).
Also, optimal ISO for C-log 1 is 400.

So:
ISO 400 for C-log 1 and WDR
ISO 800 for C-log 3
I'm not sure about the ISO for C-log 2 but I would say it's 800 (to be confirmed)

 

Thank you. I asked because I always shot WDR at ISO800 on the C100MKII even on bright days as I had the idea that this was the native ISO and the best way to get the most out of WDR. Was this wrong?

4 minutes ago, OliKMIA said:

I think the recommended ISO for WDR is 400 but ISO160 will give you the best result on the shadows.

Interesting. Is this exclusive to the C200, or does it also apply to a C100Mk2 as well?

1 hour ago, fuzzynormal said:

My opinion is that earnest melodrama in sci-fi has a solid place in populist film.  Dumb movies have a better chance to thrive than cerebral as they can reach a broader audience.  Exceptional intelligent stories will endure, but lowest common denominator stuff is a safer financial bet, especially on the low-budget indy side of things.  Fan films are a good indicator of this.  We're now seeing highly crafted indy film work on YouTube, but bland story telling.  Folks seem to love it.   The whole thing where there's 3D rendered super heroes doing nothing but fighting each other for half an hour is a case-in-point.

Absolutely, these films have a solid place. But is it possible to move this forward?
Progressive sociologists - and it's where we'd like things to go as doc makers - ask important questions on how we can move our collective selves towards higher states of consciousness through more thought provoking narratives. So in a way, we - though I'm not always so comfortable with this - have a responsibility as filmmakers and programmers.
Or will it always be, as George Steiner puts it, "At the slightest possibility of provocation, the back of us takes over and the bestiality has its fun — which doesn't mean that the front doesn't have its fun also. We are basically a schizophrenic creature, part bestial, part profoundly artistic, cultivated, loving, responsive and so on."

Leaving camera gak on the side for a moment...

Anyone who is working on long hall doc projects certainly understands the lack of resources available to them.

https://roughcutservice.com/ is a lighthouse in what is easily one of the highest art forms within cinema: documentary film editing.

Within the site, editing resources (talks/ links to articles etc) here:
https://roughcutservice.com/?fbclid=IwAR0hFmAJP60ehpHfpVIzUE8ZHEokWZArfftRAxE1R9STvH0_z51m8YBz5WI#editing-resources

Iikka Vehkalahti has loads of great insight.

"The importance of imagination, create a multilayered narrative. Give a lot of space for the audience so in the end it is the audience that is actually creating the film in the heads. There are lots of docs that are so well made that in the end they are boring and forgettable. The ones that stay with us are the 'imperfect' ones. So the question is: how to achieve 'imperfection?' He answers by saying: 'By creating curiosity and not confusion. And giving space to the audience.'

5 minutes ago, Anaconda_ said:

I guess we both like different kinds of films. 

All good and I'm happy for you remarking on the film... I guess I  had higher hopes that the director would offer a more original take. It felt as though I'd seen all this in other films....albeit in slightly different ways. And at one point, with all the earnestness, I was actually hoping for some kind of Mars Attacks or Men in Black satirical moment that would take things off a cliff. Ah well.

27 minutes ago, kaylee said:

I'm gonna leave tentacle p0rn to my Japanese friends lol

Exactly 😉

1 hour ago, kaylee said:

my bad lol!

yeah I'm writing a pilot and story bible for my new ufo show... I need some inspiration 😂

Forget everything else and start here... you'll be glad you did:

I watched The Vastness of the Night... and I'm hoping someone can clarify... was this film really just about the protagonists hearing a sound only to later walk out into a field to see a space ship? Was that it, or did I miss something?
And yeah ok it was the 50's but, the earnestness of the characters had me levelling comic levity insults at the half way mark. Hipster eyewear on the move.
If this film garnered a bunch of raving critical reviews... then the bar has been significantly lowered.
Camera ok, story bah.

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...?

3 hours ago, kye said:

How do you see that "voting with a click", as you elegantly summarise it, has pushed things?

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

1 hour ago, kye said:

Bringing that logic to the current day, what does that look like?

What are the 'rules' and who is breaking them?  

- 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.

1 hour ago, kye said:

Are the rules so broad now that breaking them can remain watchable? 

- 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. 

The legend grows. Looking forward!

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

The problems of the mind can not be solved on the level of the mind.

48 minutes ago, Super8 said:

As I said, locally you have people living their life together from different backgrounds and no issues. 

Tell that to George Floyd. And all the others like him.

48 minutes ago, Super8 said:

How do you form your opinion of the U.S.? It's from the internet. 

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.

48 minutes ago, Super8 said:

Does your day to day interaction away from the internet match what's reported on the news?

At times. Is that the only measure? No.

48 minutes ago, Super8 said:

The news is passed around from FB and Twitter and other ways and people form opinions based on what's passed around.  If the news sensationalizes and only reports the negative and leans it's opinion that way then how are people suppose to responded. 

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 minutes ago, Super8 said:

Do you live in or from the U.S.?  The glory days aren't over compared the the rest of the world. The world is fuc$% up together.

But if you look at real cities and towns across the U.S. you see life that's normal and the way it used to be.  Now take that same perspective and put it on the internet and media and you get a twisted picture of reality.  The same highs and lows have always been around forever. 

The media only reports the bad and is one sided. The media doesn't report the news anymore they report what they want and what they decide to report.

I have no preconceived notions of Europe because I've never visited there.  If I watch the news I would say Europe is just as messed up as the states.

 

 

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.

1 hour ago, sanveer said:

You're lucky it's a right winger country. I know a few friends who've lost family members in communist countries. Genocides are common there, and nobody dares to report things. Much like China and the whole curious Covid-19 story. Nobody in the media has lived to tell the tale. 

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.

11 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

I quite like the look of Canon's older zooms... the original 24-105 F4L

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.  

6 minutes ago, Mark Romero 2 said:

Oh... so you are filming here in the United States???

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.

1 hour ago, kye said:

whereas I'm sure you probably could do with a bit more of that (unless you're secretly a famous rich person hanging out here talking about consumer cameras for some reason!).

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.

 

Thank you for bring this to our attention Dimitris.
 

8 hours ago, Katrikura said:

I personally believe that documentary cinema has a commitment to historical memory and is a small act of cultural resistance.

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!

18 hours ago, kye said:

I have no idea how you would film a doco and hide your real name to the point that a government couldn't find out who you are, but I guess if you want something badly enough then sure.

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?

31 minutes ago, fuzzynormal said:

I've had way too many projects I've certainly wanted to "Alen Smithee," but they were just corporate videos, no production credits involved.

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

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.