Parker

Personally I'm a fan of Tiffen's warm black pro mist filters, I alternate between 1/8 and 1/4 depending on whether I'm using vintage or modern lenses, I love the warmth and I feel like it helps me nail skin tones better, and of course the soft, subtly blooming highlights are lovely. 

I really liked this movie. It had an amazing creepy, 1950s paranoia vibe. That being said, the cinematography and editing choices were definitely "avant garde" (to put it politely). The grade was murky and brown and generally too dark, and I didn't think the framing device with the old tv and twilight zone-esque show worked very well. 

They definitely used very long takes vs. more coverage, easier and cheaper that way. But all that being said, while clearly being a low-budget film with pretty amateur-looking cinematography, the story more than made up for it in spades, which is more than I can say about a lot of big-budget features. 

@mirekti Yep you shouldn't have a problem using the LUT on the S1H, @Sage is right, I use it all the time on the S1, it requires a little bit of tweaking, but can be made to match the reference gh5 very closely. There isn't any visual difference between the S1 and the S1H, same dual-iso, color space, and same full v-log profile. 

4 hours ago, Emanuel said:

https://www.cnet.com/news/sony-xperia-1-ii-review-for-phone-filmmakers-these-cameras-will-be-hard-to-beat/

The "pro" version of this phone looks super interesting with the full monitor/HDMI capabilities. I wonder how much more expensive it will be. 

I love photography and do quite a bit of pro photo work, but for me it just doesn't quite scratch the itch like video does; I dread the drudgery of endless hours editing photos. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy post-processing a few of my favorite pics from a shoot, but then I feel satisfied, and it just feels like a chore to have to get through the rest of them. 

Video, on the other hand, the post process is so satisfying! Cutting a sequence together, adding the perfect music, finessing the story... I can't get enough of it! 

Video vs. photo, particularly of the same event, is also an interesting comparison; the moving image just captures the moment so much better. Last month my sister had her first child, and I shot a handful of clips between photos as my parents got to meet their first grandchild, and ended up with enough footage, as it turned out, to cut a little sequence together. The photos are great, they're precious, they'll hang on the wall for years to come, but the video truly captures the moment, the emotions, the environment, in a way the photos never can! 

That's what keeps me coming back to video; photography, particularly on vacations, will always be a hobby, but with video, it is just so multi-faceted! I enjoy the scripting and pre-production phase, then get tired of it and can't wait to shoot, then after long production days I'm exhausted but very excited to start playing with my images in the edit, and by the time I'm through with that process I'm dying to get away from the screen and get back out shooting again, all the while constantly trying to improve my skills, hone my craft, better my storytelling abilities. I don't think I'll ever get sick of that. 

8 hours ago, zerocool22 said:

I read the aputure spotlight will not mount on the forza?

Yeah that's right  

Only downside, really. The other accessories attach properly, I use it all the time with the lightdome. However, the spotlight attachment (which I also own) doesn't mount properly, which is too bad. So I can only use it with my 120d at the moment. 

At the same time though, the reason I wanted the Forza was to use it primarily in softboxes or booklight-setups, where the extra punch really matters. 

8 hours ago, thebrothersthre3 said:

any color cast on that bad boy?

Nope, not anything that I have noticed, anyway. I have used it on countless shoots over the last few months and it has been awesome. 

It has plenty of output and cuts in just fine next to my 120D and Lupo Superpanel. 

There are certain small aspects of build quality and physical design where I prefer the Aputures, but the Forza hasn't let me down, and recently got price-reduced by about $400 bucks making it even more of a deal. 

12 hours ago, zerocool22 said:

Yeah I hope not, hope the price will be good as well. Worst case scenario we will see a lot of used 300D ii's popping up when its released. 

I just decided to pull the trigger on the Forza 500 about six months ago and be done with it, and have been happy with my choice. If/when the 600D is available I will re-evaluate, but I didn't want to wait, and now I have a nice, bright new light on every shoot. 

@jgharding just keep using the emotive color Luts, they're not an exact match like they are with the GH5, but I use them on the S1 all the time and it looks awesome. Can get both cameras to match quite easily with minimal tweaking 

I can't seem to find any information anywhere about whether the h265 offers 10-bit or not. Anybody see that anywhere? 

I loved the original air's physical design and it clearly has better IQ than my original mavic pro, but the terrible wifi-only transmission was an absolute deal-breaker for me; both copies I have flown have completely lost signal even just orbiting around a house or building, and I have lost signal even with clear line of site less than 100 meters away. I will never buy another wifi-only DJI product. 

Edit: So thank goodness the leaks say this one has full-blown occusync 2.0! 

7 hours ago, Gregormannschaft said:

Really? I'm kind of surprised. I find Patrick to be pretty down to earth and find his own takedowns of his own 'shitty' work make him pretty likeable. Most of the time he just sounds exhausted, if he was all 'awesomes' and 'supers' I wouldn't have kept listening. 

I find a lot of other podcasts a bit light and appreciate the level of depth Patrick puts into his lighting breakdowns, although they might only be available to Patreon subscribers.

Maybe I need to give him another shot! 

His patreon content does sound pretty interesting

On 4/15/2020 at 10:40 AM, User said:

Is there anyone else who couldn't get into his talks?

I agree, he's super over the top and kind of annoying to listen to for more than a few episodes. For filmmaking-related podcasts, I prefer the Go Creative show and its short, really good interviews with top-level DP's and actual pros about what they're shooting. 

The T-Stop Inn is also pretty good, lots of really cool insights from legends of the industry. 

If you're more interested in the purely entrepreneurial, 'from the bootstraps-up' type of indy filmmaking that Wandering DP provides for a lot of people, then Alex Ferrarri's Indy Film Hustle is decent, although I haven't listened to a huge number of episodes, his personality can also be a little much. 

@Hayk Here are the Heavy duty light stands, as good as c-stands but much cheaper and lighter: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1274797-REG/impact_ls_96habi_9_5_heavy_duty_air.html

Here is a link to an affordable C-Stand: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/372016-REG/Impact_CT40MKIT_Master_Century_C_Stand.html

And here is the large, octa-dome 150cm softbox/grid combo: https://www.essentialphoto.co.uk/product/pixapro-150cm-octagonal-easy-open-umbrella-softbox-with-4cm-grid/#image-4

My advice: try to get repeat clients to go on contract for a monthly retainer. My freelance work was up and down and very unreliable for years, but once I got my first client on a retainer, things have gone much more smoothly for me, the consistent monthly paychecks have been awesome while still being able to enjoy the flexibility of freelance. 

One tip for negotiating these kinds of deals with clients is to look through job listings for full-time video work in your area, contacting the companies in question and pitching a freelance retainer solution instead, which they might be happy to do since it will save them a lot of money in the long-run, so it's a win-win. 

Best of luck! It's a lot more fun doing what you love. 

19 hours ago, Hayk said:

Got it, can you tell me, during interviews with 120dII or with forza do you use light dome II, aputure fresnel with or without barndoors? I mean which from the accessories do you use mostly, maybe light dome?

And can you tell me which stands do you use for holding properly forza (300 or 500)?

Mostly I use the light dome II on a C-stand (Matthews or Impact) but for much cheaper you can also use Impact heavy duty light stands, which are also quite a bit lighter and more portable. 

I also have a larger 150cm softbox from pixapro (very affordable) which looks great on both lights. 

One downside of the forza is that I cannot use it with my Aputure Spotlight, as the Bowens mount on the forza doesn't go deep enough, so I can only use it on my 120dii. Awesome and very versatile attachment though. 

3 hours ago, Hayk said:

Agree, better to have brightest one, but after watching this test Forza 300 vs Aputure 300d II i understood that Forza is brighter than  300d II, but  it's too noisy and i am mostly shoot interviews, so i can wait until Aputure 600 will be available, but price would be too high (((

so Forza 500 would be more noisy than his youngest brother.

 

 

It could be a little louder I'm sure. I use a 120dii quite often and don't really notice a functional real-world difference in fan noise between the two. I use my forza for interviews too, almost every single week, typically with a shotgun above the talent, occasionally a wireless lav for backup. I have never had any problems with it being too noisy, since it is very rare I'm shooting in a perfectly silent environment anyway. 

Air conditioning I can't turn off, or sinlke ambient room noise is usually much louder than any fans from lights, it's all neglible anyway by the time I run audio through audition and add music overtop anyway. But the aputures are awesome regardless, I also have my eye on the forthcoming 600D, hopefully it's not too pricey. 

Take a look at the Forza 500. It is a little out of your price range, but not by much. 500 watts definitely puts out substantially more light than the 300Dii. You can always dim it down and diffuse it, but you can never make a light brighter, so I always say you should buy the brightest, most powerful light can you afford, and then adapt accordingly. 

@Darganslayer I also shoot with an S1 and GH5, mostly corporate and marketing talking head/multicam stuff. 95% of the time I use the GHAlex Alexa LUT on both cameras, shooting in Vlog. If, occasionally, it's not quite the right look, I use panasonic's "nicest" conversion LUT on the S1, which does a good job maintaining the dynamic range of the log image but pushes skin tones very red/magenta, and is not always the most pleasing look, or the Skye LUT, which approximates a Panny "natural" look,  designed for GH5 but looks okay on S1 with a few tweaks as well. 

Hope that helps. 

I use a GH5 for a b-cam to my S1, they can be had for pretty cheap and match together very nicely. 

22 hours ago, Darganslayer said:

I have this same question- do these Sigma 1.8 zooms work well with the S1/S1H or do they effectively put it into S35 mode? I wonder if anyone has done a real world test with video samples.

Putting the Sigma 1.8 lenses on the S1 automatically puts the camera into Super 35 mode. Unfortunately, short of gaff-taping the contacts and losing aperture control, you can't use these crop lenses in full-frame mode, even though (at least with the 18-35) it covers the ff sensor just fine from about 28mm and up. I just had to buy a new ff 35mm prime for this exact reason. 

@mercer The thing I always notice about GHAlex compared to other luts is how it just adds a nice sort of clear separation to the skin tones, in both color and b&w. It just adds a midtone pop that I really like. 

2 minutes ago, mercer said:

One thing I am curious about is if GHAlex affects B&W footage? After shooting raw video and the post corrections it affords, I have found fixing WB in post to be tedious on footage from cameras with compressed codecs and in-camera processing. Since I love B&W, I was contemplating using a second camera primarily for B&W.

I'm just finishing up a project right now, shot on the S1 and GH5, using GHAlex, turned out quite nice. (These are just low res grabs from frame.io) 

 

I was on the same hunt for some comfortable, all-day-shooting footwear last year. I was initially looking at ultraboosts as well, but decided instead  on a pair of New Balance Fresh Foam Cruz, half the price and lots easier to find, their fresh foam soles are very similar to the boosts. I also added powerstepper orthotic insoles and I have literally been around the world in these shoes, fantastic. 

The Z-cam looks really interesting, but it's already $1k more than the S1h, not to mention the necessary cost of still needing to add a monitor, and of course the lack of ibis and need for rigging to make it more suitably ergonomic, all of which the S1H can do out of the box, which is still a fantastic hybrid for still-use to boot. 

That being said, I'd love to see how much of an IQ and potentially DR-edge the Z-cam raw files give it over the Panasonic though. If it blows it out of the water, hopefully that can spur Panny in to giving us some raw-love as well. Gotta love competition!