Matthew Hartman

27 minutes ago, heart0less said:

I hate to admit to, but with time I find this unremarkably true.

All the more so, because this is just a hobby which sometimes allows me to learn some cash while still enjoying doing it.

[Unsolicited advice] Keep it a side gig, you'll thank me later.  [/Unsolicited advice]

6 minutes ago, webrunner5 said:

Pick your poison from these pictures.

https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=AwrEwNbPhK1asggAR2QPxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTEyNGozbWZ1BGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjQxMjNfMQRzZWMDc2M-?p=camera+shoulder+rigs&fr=yhs-iba-1&hspart=iba&hsimp=yhs-1

And this:

https://www.google.com/search?q=camera+counterweights&rlz=1C2CHBF_enUS776US776&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjhq6POpPTZAhUN3GMKHZH9BegQ_AUICygC&biw=2560&bih=1239

And especially this for Sony:

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C2CHBF_enUS776US776&biw=2560&bih=1239&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=hoatWszwNoGsjAOy0aDoAQ&q=v+mount+batteries&oq=v+mount+batteries&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0.26765.29673.0.31112.17.14.0.3.3.0.84.693.14.14.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..0.17.697...0i67k1j0i10i67k1j0i5i30k1j0i8i30k1j0i24k1.0.RBpY-Gp8f0A

7 hours ago, Dude_ger said:

 You won't use it all the time- it's a tool for special scenes like a Steadicam or Dolly, you only use it when needed. (Or if you do like an event all day long)

^ This in spades. ^

I've learned this quickly over the years. So many people understandably focus on the camera, but really that's only half or less of the entire picture. 

In my view you want a tripod, a shoulder rig, a 3-axis motorized gimbal, a glidecam, a slider, a vest, a drone, a jib/crane, a gorilla pod. You want it all basically. It is not very difficult to find justifications to purchase or rent it. 

To not have it available to you is like a mechanic trying to fix everything on a car with just one socket wrench. It's not happening. 

This is an expensive field. You're going to be paying considerable costs for this interest and profession regardless how big or small your setup is. The tools of the trade are pricey, and if they're cheap they're pricey in other ways that make you uncomfortable on location or set. 

37 minutes ago, ntblowz said:

This guy done a reasonable compact shoulder rig without overboarding 

 

me went overboard the other day

Give us your set up time. ?

Do you show up to the gig early or are you having the client waiting on you for setup? 

I always try to show up early. I personally hate having clients and talent watch me set up my rig and start asking technical questions, or look at me like, "Is this really nessecary, can't we just point the camera somewhere and hit record?" 

I worked recently with a very impatient Director. It was hell. Instead of mitigating the expectations of the talent on the ground, the director made setups much worse by trying to rush me through them and encouraging the talent (mostly amateurs) to start telling me what my job should intel and how long it should take. I mean, how much time does it take to whip out a smartphone and hit record, right?  

Lots of sighs and moans and sideway looks. It put a lot of pressure on me and ultimately the shoot suffered big time. Also, the Director didn't believe in blocking or storyboarding or anything that resembled planning.  

Never again. ?

On 3/15/2018 at 12:08 AM, Jay Bates said:

I created an account just to share this. Sorry to bring up an old thread but I had the same problem and found the solution. Hopefully this can help someone else. 

For me the solution was to go to chrome://flags/ and press Ctrl+F (probably option+F on a mac) and search for Force Color Profile. I changed mine from default to sRGB and now FINALLY my 4k files look like 1080 files. I was getting the same muddy magenta cast to my 4k output files when viewed in chrome. Not anymore. 

People forget about color profiles all the time. You can't expect different apps to automatically display/read the same colorspace even in embedded ICM profiles, some apps simply don't respect this, rather use a profile that best covers a wider gamma by default. 

So what you did was force your app, in your case Chrome browser, to match the embedded ICM color profile of the video file, because Chrome was overriding it automatically, prefering a different colorspace instead.  

Also, don't forget that monitors and TVs all have their own preferred calibrated colorspace too. When you talk about color calibration and conformity, it's not difficult to get in the weeds quickly. 

2 minutes ago, VisualFX said:

I sold my NX1 and all lenses early last year and now regretting it. I need a new hybrid camera, one mainly for 4k video to create a film reel to give to employers. I'm finding it hard to find something that is both a good still and video camera. 

I'm about to drive myself mad and may just purchase another NX1 and lenses in the meantime. The GH5, GH5s, and even the new A7iii seem to have drawbacks. 

They either have a video crop, no phase detection AF, or other drawbacks. The GH5s looks nice, but only 12mp and that won't work for me for stills. I'd have to get two different bodies and I can't hardly afford one now. GH5 no phase detect and Fuji X-H1 is way expensive for me now. 

There's no doubt the NX1 was/is a camera ahead of it's time when it was released in 2014. Samsung truly packed feature forward technology into the system, which some speculate it actually hurt camera sales. 

That being said, you're never going to find a perfect camera at any tier and/or price point. Manufacturers have to sell product, which means they have to focus on a handful of features they believe will hook people into buying, while other features get poorly supported or neglected altogether.

There's a finite amount of resources in terms of money, and overhead/expertise, not to mention not all supply chains are unlimited. Samsung is an a well-suited position to accomendate all these things. They are bigger than all the other camera manufacturers combined, and they can secure/supply their own components. For Samsung it's not a question of if, its a question of when, or at all. 

Panasonic, Sony, Fuji, seem to develop decent cameras. But of course, just like the NX1, they have some flaws too. 

What I do is look at the image. Not so much in terms of resolution, but look and feel. For example, what does the motion cadence look like. I then work backwards from there and decide if certain cons are workable to acheive what's most important to me in any camera system. This is going to be different for everyone. 

That being said, as an NX1 owner, we are in a unique position to understand that Panasonic, Sony, Fuji, Canon, Nikon and the rest could be doing a lot more with each new product cycle. Samsung proved this to us in 2014. There seems to be a slow, iterative trajectory that's common within the industry.

Let's be honest, a lot of consumers are willing to throw their money into the pot for iterative features. The manufactures have little incentive to adapt to a more progressive model because they're raking in the dough regardless.  

Another factor is Samsung didn't have any internally competing flagship cinema cameras like the other manufacturers do. The flagship was the NX1. Now it's the Galaxy line of smartphones.

If you truly want to go back to the NX1 system, DM me, I may be able to help get you there with a handful of great glass for a bulk deal.  

Highly recommend the BenQ, which several are truly 10bit. The color calibration and brilliance is amazing on these guys. 

13 minutes ago, IronFilm said:

I feel this is a complement of this camera!

Has any new release got quite this response?

Well it would be if 50% of it wasn't centered around adolescence. ?

Well that did it. Now my obsessive curiosity just kicked in. ARGH!  

If this is true and the record time is decent (get ready for large and fast SD cards) this renders this camera up there with the top of the line cinema cams. That image sensor has a 14bit 6.5k RAW signal. 

1 hour ago, Arikhan said:

Im have good news for you: I just shot RAW video with the NX1...RAW VIDEO in 25p - nice workflow with 25 DNGs per second. Just an unbelievable quality (in my eyes).

Problem: I'm just writing my graduation exams...after that I'll download the footage (DNG images) and describe the methodology. It's quite special but it's great for my purposes. With the 60mm 2.8 at F6 an unbelievable detail and sharpness.

It's quite exciting...

Dude, you're going to have quite of few of us on the edge of our seats for this one. Please do update us ASAP. 

Of course this is speculation, but the current 15fps RAW photo buffer is quite short. 

4 hours ago, Snowfun said:

In terms of making it popular even something like the Hydrogen faces significant obstacles. Let’s assume it works as “advertised” (and to be fair it hasn’t been subject of hyperbole except for certain people on reduser) and is capable of capturing and displaying stunning 3d images. Without glasses. But who can watch it? Only - as far as I know - other Hydrogen users.  How do they break into the consumer (rather than producer) market?  I failed to persuade my wife to order one (preorders end today) so I will have precisely no one to send my stuff to. Gather round folks... squeeze closer... closer... it’s my 3d cat! 

Good news - the 3d works only in landscape (or only in portrait for the selfie mode)

If you remember correctly Amazon was the first to employ this "3D" technology into their Firephone, which I need remind you flopped like no other flop in the history of smartphones. The only thing in my opinion worth the Hydrogen will be that snap on image sensor module RED is touting. 

10 minutes ago, Snowfun said:

Not sure what our respective other halves might think if we ended up sending each other 3d cats...

On the preorder list yet?

Approximately $231 for 5 minutes of entertainment. 

54 pages on this freaking camera. (Or any) Why is this particular camera so controversial here? I feel bad for the people that actually bought and like this camera, I'm sure they came to this thread to enjoy talking about it with others that like it too. I wonder if Andrew can close this one and start a new one for those that actually care about it? For those that don't, simply disregard it, it's really not that hard. 

I have to say, it's been a long time for me where I've seen people so vehemently debate each other's opinion and preference, as if that were even debatable. It felt like I was reading an Android vs iOS or Windows vs. OSX comment section. 

I'm officially checking out of this one fellas. Seen you on the flip side of the moon. 

4 hours ago, Kisaha said:

Except if Samsung went f%#& all about everything, and have a cine camera with the guts of an NX2, for 3000$€£ and 265/264/pro res internal and external raw! 

"Buy this if you want to do cinema, for everything else an S9 will do the job"!(without the exclamation mark, because they will be dead serious about that statement!).

This looks like the rumor set to be released tomorrow:

https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-and-ucsf-introduce-my-bp-lab-a-smartphone-app-for-blood-pressure-and-stress-research

1 hour ago, Don Kotlos said:

Wetransfer

Mediafire

Hightail

Google Drive. I have 2TB for $10/mo. You can upload/link anything you want. You can choose to sync or not. 

There are a handful of Android storyboarding apps on Google Playstore, but nothing as refined and polished as "Blocker" in terms of including augmented reality into the workflow.

To avoid platform restrictions (which is an old business model approach for successful app building in 2018) we can start looking at web based tools, so that anyone with access to browser can use them.

I've played with the following application for a few months and it does require some massaging but it has a pretty nice feature set and it's 100% free too:

https://wonderunit.com/storyboarder/

Some others for Android

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.plotagon.plotagon

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.webgames3d.shotproandroid

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.PowerProduction.StoryBoardQuickDirect

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.brakefield.storyboard

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.us.hollywoodcamerawork.shotdesigner

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.reelapps.RAShotListerApp

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chemicalwedding.artemis

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.celtx.script

Cheers

6 hours ago, frontfocus said:

and Sony fixes their mistakes by pushing out a new camera, is this really the way people prefer?

No. If manufacturers would instead build better cameras from the start with longer support cycles I believe most people wouldn't feel the urge (as much) to replace it with something new and shiny. The tech blogs/journalists do not help. At the end of the day they're not your pal. 

Not to sound hypocritical but I've picked up the Ursa Mini Pro 4.6k not because it was a camera that as released in 2017, but because I like what it has to offer my workflow and ultimately the image is is priority one for me. I will end up sticking with it for a good while and learn how to get the most out of it despite newer models sure to be released and other new cameras hitting the scene too. Oh well.

This philosophy is better for the consumer, but not so great for the manufacturer who needs to keep rolling in that dough cycle after cycle. But I don't care about them more than I care about my own needs, and neither should anyone else unless they own stock in a particular company. These companies have no shortage of profits. They don't need anyone's charity. 

This very thread is a prime example of the negativity that comes from fanboying way too hard over something that's only trying to meet a small niche. People end up placing more importance in things rather than each other, when in any other circumstance that wouldn't be the case. Even though no one likes being reminded (or preached to) of that it's important to stay grounded and focus on what truly matters in life. I doubt anyone on their deathbed was like, "Damnit, I should have gone with the Fuji".  

On 3/12/2018 at 1:51 AM, IronFilm said:

You could switch to 1080 just for a few shots if you know beforehand you'll have major rolling shutter issues in a particular scene 

You're probably right, but I hate upscaling to 2k, which is what I typically target for my output resolution in case my clients want to take their work to festivals. 2K is still the main theatrical standard with 4k projectors on the rise, which is probably why Arriflex stuck with that resolution for so long. It's a tradeoff, and I would consider lower resolution in fast paced scenes as opposed to that rolling shutter. 

Thankfully, the Ursa Mini is on it's way and I won't have to worry about so much pronounced rolling shutter, just my back instead. 

On 7/11/2017 at 9:09 PM, Hanriverprod said:

If it was under a grand it would do well. As it is it's a monitor to a red camera that receives calls from the producer complaining about setup times

Bet you never wanted a monitor that can also verbally abuse you on the set. 

On 3/10/2018 at 12:32 AM, kaylee said:

yeah id love to see what people are doing with this. my storyboards for my project rn are pencil on paper lol. NOT that theres anything wrong with that~! ?

Paper and pencil will always be the quickest way to get things from your brain to materilization. You are using different centers of your brain doing this, as opposed to other methods like navigating an app. 

But as far as refinement, polish and the details of focal length, sun direction/light source, this app looks promising. I'm going to try to find something similar for Andriod...

5 hours ago, MKSN said:

This may be the case and the device may turn out to be awesome. I think most reasonable people can accept the time it takes to develop technology like this, especially as a mom and pop venture, but that's no excuse for long periods of silence. Does it take a lot of time to jump online and post a weekly status report? A paragraph or two?

You're sitting on people's hard earned money, they deserve updates just as any investor would and typically demands. 

Had I been working on a project for work and gone silent in communicating status with my director I would probably end up getting fired.

Do what you want with your own money, but you have certain obligations tied with investment. When you have to repeatedly apologize to your backers, you're doing something wrong. 

This is good news for the product and I'm interested to see what it offers, but I'm hoping the creators can pull away with some valuable take aways on better PR practices. Again, I dont think anyone was asking for much. 

On 3/9/2018 at 2:17 PM, sam said:

Turned off all the typical motion, sharpening,  contrast,  etc...  Still horrible. Oversharpened with terrible motion. If this is the type of image folks are used to viewing,  no wonder no can ever agree on what cameras look good. Drastic difference in the look of shows I know and you tube camera tests.  Shocking a $1400 panel can look this bad in comparison.  

I read an article about a year ago that Samsung has done extensive user testing/research on the "Samsung look", and they found that "most" consumers prefer the image "sharp" and really punchy.

To the untrained eye I could see why ppl would latch on to these qualities, they give off the impression of "high tech". THIS is why Samsung crams these characteristics into their display technology. Some like it, others don't. 

8 hours ago, mkabi said:

I don’t know... to build traction...?

Bring in the advertisers.

15 hours ago, BTM_Pix said:

Au contraire

Pizza today...Broken limbs tomorrow.

23 hours ago, dbp said:

How is the video production scene there?

I imagine pretty similar to Vancouver. If you don't mind corporate stuff we have Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Expedia, Valve, Google, Twitter, insert huge tech company here...:)

EP Review is also here as well as the guys that make the Filmic Pro app. Moment lens is here as well. 

If you like narrative work, we have a large underground indie scene here with tons of festivals. We also have several short film oriented meetup groups. You can be as busy or as chill as you want to be. 

One of the best investments I made for my family and career and hobbies is moving here. You'll pay out the ass, but quality of life is very high in context to other areas of the states that are not doing so well. 

I'm not going to drone on about the rain and overcast, you already know what that's about.  

Some advice, keep dual citizenship. You're not going to like our healthcare system one bit. 

10 minutes ago, markr041 said:

Exactly. But most of the people here are discussing and shooting with mirrorless cameras or DSLRs. The FS5 is not "lower end" in that category, it is in a whole different category - not cinema or broadcast but not consumer either.

The way I understand the FS5 is it's on the lower spec'd end of Sony's cinema line? Mainly to accommodate the smaller form factor? I agree, it's in an odd niche. 

20 hours ago, mkabi said:

There is a lot of those types... And, I get it... I know Engineers (Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, etc.) who take up photography as a 'hobby', but instead of practicing photography they practice comparing spec sheets. Zooming in to pixel peep and complaining about DR... isn't really an art form (but thats just my opinion).

Yes, this a x1000 over.

It is an affliction and lots of ppl on every level of proficiency and skill get caught up in it one way or another.

It never fails on any set I've been on. Someone in the crew is going to start talking shop and I'm guilty of getting caught up in those conversations, even though I consciously try to aviod it, because the "mojo" is not there.

I honestly care only to the degree of whether or not I'm happy with the shot and the massaging is on point. Obviously, most ppl are not okay with a crap image unless that is the narrative. 

My highschool photography teacher was a huge technical shooter. I spent so much time making sure I was exploring my creativity in every assignment and all he could do was comment and grade me on nitpicking my "exposure". (Celluloid) He was awful to me and would shame me quite often. I would hate having to bring up my contact sheet or review. The bastard would call out my last name and then freaking let out a loud sigh. ?

My second year I took 1st place in a statewide competition, for the category of "creativity". (Not that my exposure had issues) My teacher had to eat his lunch. I was happier about that than winning the prize. ?

Not to put ppl in a box, but I learned a long time ago that there are technical shooters, let's call them craftsmen, and then there are creative/narrative shooters we deem as artists.

Both could learn a lot from eachother. That being said, creativity is hard to teach. I actually think to tap into creativity you have to be a little clinically insane, which is a mental state a technical person would find very uncomfortable, because it involves intuition and a bit of chaos, rather than hard-concrete controlled facts.

This very thread got really unhealthy really quick. People were attacking one another's preferences, which arent really debatable. You like what you like. And what you might like today, you might hate tomorrow. It just doesn't matter, and everyone here is worth more than the sum of their preferences.

8 hours ago, IronFilm said:

Are you getting the original monster URSA or the newer URSA Mini?

New mini pro 4.6k

I would never consider the original monster. 

5 hours ago, Robert Collins said:

Sadly. Absolutely correct.

And I totally respect those people who have managed to succeed in turning their passion into a career - it is simply a risk I am not prepared to take - in that I dont want to risk killing my passion.

Back on topic. I do buy some stock footage occasionally because I am too lazy to shoot it myself. Stuff like 'smoke' or 'chalk dust'... My guess is that it is this that sells ...or say glitches, flares or flashes - rather than the sexy girl on the beach shots we take on holiday.

I worked as a graphic designer back in the day, and evn as a UI/UX designer today I still have to work with stock images and videos all the time. 

Practical keyed effects are used, but moreover the "sexy girl on the beach" is used way more. It's whatever has broad market appeal, which for many clients is the stuff that's the cheesiest, most canned bullshit out there, but that's what these clients believe works for their demographic.

I also see the content that doesn't sell well. It often seems it wouldn't fit easily into marketing messaging, abstract, arbitrary and non-strategic in that context.