Jedi Master

No, I haven't. I do it just for fun, and my two favorite parts are going out in the field filming and editing. Showing the result is my least favorite part. I have no illusions that I'm creating meaningful cinema of any kind. Using expensive, shiny gadgets doesn't make my work any better, it's just more fun using that stuff, just like driving a fast sports car won't make grocery shopping any easier, but certainly more fun. The projector and other stuff in my home theater is used 99% of the time to watch movies and 1% to watch what I film, so it's optimized for the former.

I work in an industry were the top guys are very well-paid, particularly in stock options. One of my co-workers is into sailboat racing and paid $400,000 for his boat. Another is into flying, and paid $700,000 for a plane. My hobbies are more modest in comparison, especially in recurring costs (it costs a lot to moor a boat or hanger and maintain a plane).

If I knew how my arm would feel after that I wouldn't have done it! It wasn't some big monster cine zoom--just a 35mm T2.1 prime. Fortunately, we had a very good driver (or whatever you call them) and the ride was very smooth. If I had to do it again, I'd ride on the other side so I could hold the camera in my right hand (I'm right handed) and hold onto the car with my left. My wife thought it was hilarious--you can hear her giggling in the scratch audio track.

Canon C300 Mk3. Just general travelog style video in various areas of SF--Ferry Building, Embarcadero, Fisherman's Wharf/Pier 39, Chinatown, Union Square, GG Park. Took the cam on the Powell Street cable car line from Market St to Fisherman's Wharf, and let me tell you, handholding a C300 with 2-1/2 pound cine lens and battery with my left hand while standing and holding onto the cable car with my other arm is a real arm killer! Got some good footage, however. Most interesting sight was a group of demonstrators demonstrating for a cease fire in Gaza who completely blocked Market Street and stopped traffic (we were half a block away waiting in the line for the cable car).They later went to Union Square (right after we left the area on the cable car) and vandalized the Christmas tree and some of the monuments.

I took my new camera to San Francisco last weekend to capture Christmas in the city. I filmed at 60p and showed the footage to family on Christmas day and I got the same reaction you did. No one said it gave them a headache or complained that it felt like someone peed in their eggnog.

I agree. Shoehorning 24fps into video systems with native refresh rates of 60 Hz is going to result in compromises that create artifacts. Before I replaced my home theater projector with a Sony VPL-GTZ380, which is a native 4K 120 Hz model, I could easily see judder and other artifacts on my previous projector, which was 60 Hz, especially during panning. The newer projector is able to handle 24fps material better because 24 divides evenly into 120. Most home systems are still 60 Hz, and until they all get replaced with 120 Hz and 240 Hz equipment, this will be a problem. The ongoing trend is shifting from viewing movies in theaters to watching at home, and this shift has been happening for at least the last twenty years. People are tired of the high price of theater tickets compared to prices streaming services charge*, and they're tired of exorbitant prices for snacks and inconsiderate people texting during movies. They're also used to conveniences home viewing offers that will never be possible in theaters: watching movies any time they want, and the ability to pause a movie (and rewind and replay sections of it). I expect this trend will continue as more and more local theaters close (four near me closed over the last few years) and home theater equipment gets better and cheaper. *Local theaters typically charge $12 a ticket in this area, so that's $36 for a family of three, not including popcorn at $6.50 a bag and a drink at $4.50. By contrast, rentals on Prime Video are typically around $2.99-$5.00 once a movie has been on streaming for a few months, and that's the price for an entire family.

Nope. The screenplay seemed wooden and amateurish, the character development was poor, and it was a mishmash of overused sci-fi themes better done in other movies.

Watched it over the Christmas break. Gave up after 20 minutes and switched to something else.

Depends on whether the sink device (the smart TV in this case) supports QMS. The Netflix app does , but most streaming devices either don’t or not completely.

I didn’t say the content on Netflix was originally shot in 60p. The devices most people use to watch Netflix at home (Apple TV, Amazon FireTV, Roku, Nvidia Shield) will convert the stream from Netflix to the native frame rate of the device attached via HDMI, which is usually 50p or 60p. Some of these devices have the ability to be set to match the content frame rate, but this isn’t the default, and the vast majority of people using these devices take them out of the box, plug them in, and don’t change any of the default settings, therefore they’re watching movies shot at 24 fps upconverted to 50p or 60p and that generates artifacts like judder.

I always endeavor to get as much right in camera as possible. Focus comes first, of course, followed by framing, then exposure, and anything that just can’t be fixed in a program like Premiere or Resolve. I’m also careful to get the camera as stable as possible on a sturdy tripod and shield the lens as much as possible from flare-inducing light. Most of my subjects move in geological time, so I have plenty of time getting things set up and dialed in. Your mileage may vary.

I use a Sekonic C-500 color meter. It reads directly in degrees Kelvin.

Innovation comes from trying new things, not from being stuck in the past century. Sure, not all new things will be better than the old, but how will people ever know if they don’t try? Traditional cinema may be on its way out. Four big theaters in my area closed in the last two years, leaving just one. It’s moot for me anyway as I rarely go see movies at a theater. Why put up with inconsiderate people texting during the movie, sticky floors, and $8 popcorn when I can watch movies at home? And theaters will never have something I have at home—a pause button. Most of my viewing is via streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime, which use 1080 60p. Shoehorning 24fps theatrical movies into this format causes motion artifacts that wouldn’t be there if the movies were shot at the native rate used by the streaming services. As the old guard ages and dies off, the younger generation, who grew up playing video games and who are used to higher frames rates, will determine the future of cinema.

That's something I can't explain--it just looks better to me. I also can't explain why I like chocolate ice cream more than vanilla, or why purple is my favorite color.

Why would you think I’m trolling? I watched the video and it did look better to me. So that’s your definition of trolling? When someone’s subjective opinion on what looks better to them differs from what looks best to you?

Yes. To me it does.

Looks fine to me.

Just because something has been invented doesn't mean it can't be improved. Like the wheel. This is probably what it looked like right after it was invented. Can you imagine what today would be like if the wheel was never improved? We'd all be driving horse carts with wheels sliced from the cross-section of a tree trunk.

Sorry, no. There's a difference between saying "the wheel is invented" and "the wheel has already been invented". It may seem like a small, meaningless nuance to you, but to a native English speaker like me it really alters the meaning. The meaning was clear in your Portuguese text, which is why I asked you to use your native tongue.

Yes, that helped. I would argue that forward-looking is, more often than not, going to lead to improvements that weren’t necessarily obvious from first inspection. Saying the wheel has already been invented seems to imply what’s done is done and there’s no room for improvement, but I feel there’s always room for improvement. Otherwise we’d stagnate, both technologically and artistically.

I have no idea what you’re trying to say here. May I make a suggestion? Try writing your responses in your native language and run them through the Google translator to translate them to English. It’s worth a try.

I would point out that saying only 24FPS is cinematic is a tightly held, narrow idea. Just depends on your perspective.

Sorry, but no matter what you think, I'm not trolling. People generally troll just to get a rise out of people and don't really have any interest in a topic. I genuinely have an interest in the artistic and technical aspects of filmmaking, and yes, I do have some strong opinions at times. So your usage of words like trolling and antics are not warranted here, at least not from my perspective. I chose the name Jedi Master because I like the Star Wars movies, not because of any felling of superiority. I'm not a professional filmmaker (far from it), so my opinions come from my own interests and research into the subject. I'm especially interested in the technical aspects because of my educational and professional background. I can speak authoritatively on subjects like signal processing, low-level hardware and firmware development, and the like, but cannot speak with professional authority on narrative filmmaking (but I can offer my opinion).

The thought of Roger in a thong is unsettling. 😆

Good point. The technology is now there for anyone to make movies. Granted, for every 10,000 movies made by the general public, probably 9,990 are not worth watching, but there's always going to be a few gems. Hollywood seems to be producing mostly derivative stuff and remakes these days with very little true innovation. This leaves lots of room for indies to fill the vacuum with something truly new and innovative. Looking back on my recent Netflix viewing history recently, indie movies have comprised about 80% of my viewing.