PPNS

Bigger, heavier duty fixtures are probably outside the budget you're willing to spend, but I'll just offer the devil's advocate view to the other posters here, that you can never, ever have too bright of a light. 

I generally use a Nanlux evoke 1200 as my keylight, usually shooting through a 4x4 frame of magic cloth, and I am frequently at 100% power and needing more output, sometimes ganging it with an additional 1200B, 600D, Prolycht 675, whatever I have available. 

Granted, I am usually trying to hold some exposure through windows and the like, and I prefer to light with big, soft, beautiful keys, but still. You'll never regret having more power at your disposal. That will just allow you to bounce more, diffuse more, shoot through more material... always an advantage!

Also worth mentioning, but bigger fixtures are more portable than you might think; until I recently upgraded to a full-size production van, for the past several years I've been able to easily carry a 1200d, Prolycht 675, 4' pavo tubes, in addition to a Nanlite forza 500, aputure 300d, spotlight attachment, 4 or 5 turtle-base c-stands, 4x4 frames and diffusion, various softboxes, not to mention all the accompanying bits and bobs of grip, power, dolly and of course, cameras, lenses, etc.... all within the confines of my beloved '09 Honda Civic. 

Now that I am finally in a bigger vehicle, I've got the Nanlux 2400b on my soon-to-purchase list as well. And I'm sure I'll very frequently still want more power. 

im going to be very honest, i think its crazy you can see the difference between cameras with their stock 709 lut. To me they all look samey, boring and bland.

Now nikon gets to be the patent troll. Red will probably get to pretend to remain a company for 2 years and then nikon will probably fire the entire workforce, and we get to hear about “the constantly changing landscape of media” in some press release justifying the gutting of the company.

Now nikon gets to be the patent troll. Red will probably get to pretend to remain a company for 2 years and then nikon will probably fire the entire workforce, and we get to hear about “the constantly changing landscape of media” in some press release justifying the gutting of the company.

what else would you call it?

you don't have to, your value judgement is irrelevant. the fact is that nikon now gets to control red's patent, and now gets to decide who gets to use "compressed raw" on their terms: 
either we get more more cameras with internal raw from other companies, where nikon will be profiting from the income of licenses (imo unlikely) or nothing changes. instead of red going after other companies in court, it's going to be nikon, and thus having another source of income by claiming damages (imo more likely) this was red's business model after all. nikon probably doesn't care all that much about making products or entering the cinema market. my prediction is that red as a brand, as well as their cameras will cease to exist in a few years. nikon will probably keep making hybrids with a focus on photography, and i doubt that any of the red tech will trickle down. why would it after all? Who's going to buy a nikon branded camcorder in a world where sony dominates the market? reds are kinda dead in the european high end rental market, why would nikon even start?
 
here's a value judgement from me: lol

Now nikon gets to be the patent troll. Red will probably get to pretend to remain a company for 2 years and then nikon will probably fire the entire workforce, and we get to hear about “the constantly changing landscape of media” in some press release justifying the gutting of the company.

Now nikon gets to be the patent troll. Red will probably get to pretend to remain a company for 2 years and then nikon will probably fire the entire workforce, and we get to hear about “the constantly changing landscape of media” in some press release justifying the gutting of the company.

Now nikon gets to be the patent troll. Red will probably get to pretend to remain a company for 2 years and then nikon will probably fire the entire workforce, and we get to hear about “the constantly changing landscape of media” in some press release justifying the gutting of the company.

theyre marketing themselves in a way that makes the tech seem special to try and gain infinite investor money just like any other tech company does

I really enjoyed your material and quality you achieved as a dp. The editing imo does not show that to the fullest potential. Editing reels is a pretty thing and art by itself, of course. Your cinematography still shines through. @PPNS

finally finished that reel.

finally finished that reel.

finally finished that reel.

finally finished that reel.

Thank you for your honest and vsluable post and glimpse into the hardships of an upcoming DOP @PPNSHopefully your hard work will pay off a big deal this year! I had a branch fall on my head when setting up a butterfly with the gaffer. Whenever i was being the gaffer i took great care of my lighting people. That accident made me decide to stop working on sets of narrative features in the low budget world in Germany for sure as most of the films made here are not dear to my heart at all. Wish you the best and good choices and instinct regarding projects.

I’m working on a new reel and website. I had a weird year.
Jan 23: got fired from my full time job
feb - sept 23: got fairly depressed due to being rejected after around 350 job applications.
at the same time i tried out freelancing while searching for a new job, done a little decently paid corporate work, a lot of barely paid and unpaid work as a dp, gaffer or colorist on short films and music videos.
oct - dec 23: got lucky due to a cinematography bootcamp i followed and ended up working as a DIT on a feature.
income wise it ended up being almost the same as 2022, so hopefully the freelancing thing will pick up more steam. I’m going to try making some spec ads with some directors i know this year, so we could get work that way.
 
 

I’m working on a new reel and website. I had a weird year.
Jan 23: got fired from my full time job
feb - sept 23: got fairly depressed due to being rejected after around 350 job applications.
at the same time i tried out freelancing while searching for a new job, done a little decently paid corporate work, a lot of barely paid and unpaid work as a dp, gaffer or colorist on short films and music videos.
oct - dec 23: got lucky due to a cinematography bootcamp i followed and ended up working as a DIT on a feature.
income wise it ended up being almost the same as 2022, so hopefully the freelancing thing will pick up more steam. I’m going to try making some spec ads with some directors i know this year, so we could get work that way.
 
 

I’m working on a new reel and website. I had a weird year.
Jan 23: got fired from my full time job
feb - sept 23: got fairly depressed due to being rejected after around 350 job applications.
at the same time i tried out freelancing while searching for a new job, done a little decently paid corporate work, a lot of barely paid and unpaid work as a dp, gaffer or colorist on short films and music videos.
oct - dec 23: got lucky due to a cinematography bootcamp i followed and ended up working as a DIT on a feature.
income wise it ended up being almost the same as 2022, so hopefully the freelancing thing will pick up more steam. I’m going to try making some spec ads with some directors i know this year, so we could get work that way.
 
 

Thanks largely to Andrew's original post, many people here already know that Shane Carruth shot 2013's excellent indie feature Upstream Color with a pair of hacked GH2s. At the time, aspiring filmmakers everywhere found inspiration that such a masterful film was created with such an accessible consumer camera. It still stands up today as a beautiful, challenging, thought-provoking film:
I just happened across some behind the scenes photos on Reddit posted almost a decade after the film's release. I've always wondered about the technical particulars of how this film was made and even though what was posted is pretty low-res and deteriorated further with early Instagram filters, it does show some pretty bare-bones camera rigs and a lot of natural light.
As I enter my forties and the dream of creating a meaningful narrative film in my lifetime seems to slip further and further out of reach, this is just the kind of inspirational kick in the pants that I needed. If 8-bit, 4:2:0 AVCHD from a Micro Four Thirds sensor was enough to create an immersive story like this in 2013, then the never-ending pursuit of marginally improved gear and software really is just a giant, capitalism-fueled distraction -- one that I know that I use to put off the very real possibility that when I buckle down to make something deeply personal, I might not have anything to say. But I also know that it will be my deepest regret if I never even try.
If there's one thing I've learned, it's that my own thoughts and ideas aren't particularly novel or unique, so maybe others on this board will connect with this too.

you’re performing the correct task in this case. if you were to set your WB to 3200, you would neutralise your tungsten lights to white, which is almost never really the point of tungsten. By setting it somewhere between 4000-4800, you’re opening up the possibility of color contrast within a shot where modern sensors tend to perform the best. Everything with a lower color temp than 4000 will be some degrees warmer than your neutral point, and everything with a higher color temp will be cooler.

In the real world (as always) things are more complicated.
Getting things right in camera is normally considered good advice because it's assumed that the results will be higher quality than not getting it right in camera and then adjusting afterwards.  It can also be good advice from the perspective that depending on the situation it can take significant time / effort to process in post, and there's a risk that the desired results can't be obtained, and by then a re-shoot might be very difficult.
On the other hand, some situations will be made better by getting in wrong in camera, but in some way that provides an advantage.  ETTR is getting it wrong in camera, and can improve the image once adjusted in post.  There are other situations where this might be the case, depending on the situation.
Your shot might have benefited from being exposed normally and then be pulled down in post, assuming nothing was clipped.  Your shot might also have benefitted from being shot at a normal WB, and then having the red and green channels pulled down to make the image blue (ETTR but only of those channels).
Good old fashioned "movie magic" involves trickery from time to time, sometimes by a huge margin (e.g. shooting day-for-night) and sometimes getting it wrong in camera can be advantageous to aid in the illusions.  

Astonishment by the sheer sensation of a blue hour magical moment, dreamyness, a story possibly to unfold or having end. You got that right in(front) the camera. 🙂 @PPNS

getting things right in camera is one of those things im not sure how to interpret. Ive posted this still before on here, to put it in context, it was shot around blue hour, but it wasnt quite as blue as it was here. I maxed out the white balance, to get it this blue. is that getting it right in camera or am i being a hack? 

getting things right in camera is one of those things im not sure how to interpret. Ive posted this still before on here, to put it in context, it was shot around blue hour, but it wasnt quite as blue as it was here. I maxed out the white balance, to get it this blue. is that getting it right in camera or am i being a hack?