Tag Archives: camera

Motocrane visit

If you haven’t checked out Motocrane, you should do that.
Motocrane

So this company is based out of Minneapolis. The CEO and one of the founders is a former student of mine from MCAD. Yesterday I took my class down to their shop and studio. Zach shared the ins and outs of their journey to get this product to market and what the future looks like. (it looks pretty awesome)

About a year and half ago I got a chance to use the prototype in a demo and the footage was stunning. Even if you are not doing car stuff this makes for a versatile car based tracking machine.

once upon a time

So once upon a time there was Cinema and there were cinema cameras. Along the way you have the democratization of Cinema. What a wonderful thing. A kid could make a film with an iPhone. A Hollywood director could film in a virtual world. All of this sounds very positive if the story is good.

I recently came across this article: http://doddlenews.com/cinema-cameras-complicated/

It really pisses me off. So if a cinema camera is too complicated, don’t use it. This attitude that DSLR/Youtube trash video should be easy to film is bullshit. What is the story? What is the right tool for that? So, yes the flagship Cinema camera from Canon may be too much camera for your Youtube channel. Is it too much for a film projected in a cinema? probably not. Is your DSLR, highly compressed, 8 bit footage good enough for the cinema? probably not.

Keep cinema cameras complicated for the artists and craftspeople that know how to use them.

2018 is here

It has been nearly a year since I’ve written anything here. What’s new? What’s old?

Current rig is the Sony Fs7. The only upgrade this year was a switch to V mount batteries but not the Sony accessory, just a dumb mount from Core. This years goal is to upgrade to better lenses. Perhaps Sigma Zooms and Primes?

Another tool I hope to get this year is an Easyrig®. After operating on a feature (handheld) in June my arm just can’t do it. We’ve seen the Steadicam get budget models over the years but this item is always expensive.

Excited to see what this year may bring.

insurance

A week ago my house was broken into and some stuff was stolen. My theory is that they came for the TV and stumbled on the production equipment. I don’t know, but I do know that a significant amount of gear was stolen.
How many people have renter’s insurance? How many of you have production insurance? Is your gear insured? for how much? What is the deductible? depreciation? replacement value? receipts?

Well now I know a lot more than I did. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough insurance for the amount of equipment I had in my home. Fortunately I did have almost enough to at least replace most of the gear that was stolen. Also, it is fortunate that the thieves did not steal more. You see under a rental or homeowner policy there is a limit to the amount of “work” equipment they cover. If they would have stolen more I wouldn’t have gotten anymore.

So 2017, a new-used camera and additional insurance. And some security shit for the house.

Black Magic Pocket

I’ve had a distaste for the Black Magic cameras since using the original cinema camera. I was tempted with the initial buzz of the pocket camera, but poor battery life and lens options deterred me to the mainstream.

Recently I had the chance to shoot a creative short film with one. The director of the project owned one and we decided to give it a go. Once caged up and accompanied by my SmallHD dp4 I could use it more effectively. The flat look that it displays was still difficult to focus with like using LOG on the Sony, but mostly everything was in focus. 😉

We shot in RAW or Cinema DNG format to give the most flexibility in post. We were using a Metabones speed booster converter to allow us to use Canon EF lenses. Primarily a Sigma 18-35 and an old NIKON 50mm. There was also a POLA filter and sometimes a vaseline filter on the lens.

I have to say the material looked pretty amazing once we got it into post and started applying different looks. Even simple BM to REC 709 looks gave it a very filmic-16mm-Ektachrome quality.

My initial bias aside I think it is a fine little camera. Maybe someday I’ll get to film with it again.

Here is a frame grab with the temp grade applied using Sigma lens at 35mm.
Screen Shot 2016-08-03 at 8.48.08 AM

This is a frame grab of the close up using the Nikon 50mm. Lit with F&V z96 light.
Screen Shot 2016-08-03 at 8.47.26 AM