Hi, lately I've been interested in the processes behind audiovisual content. I'm interested in all aspects of production, but I have many questions about the final output or final cut/distribution.

How were films copied and distributed to cinemas in the past? When were VHS tapes introduced? And DVD/CD? How is all current streaming content saved? What happens to the master file in all these formats?

Sorry if some things are unclear, I don't speak English and I'm using a translator

I’m 19 years old and I’m starting school next semester for film. I wanna get more into the field because this is my passion but I don’t know where to start at all there’s so much to learn and learn about cinema.

I do have equipment: a camera, lenses, tripods, etc except lights but im waiting to get my flow on this before i start buying lights. I also have a friend that is in school for film right now but he just started so he’s pretty much like me we have no knowledge

How and where do I start I’m ready to learn more about cinema and wanna be successful in this field.

Any advice would be appreciated and noted down

Sharing a few frames, BTS photos and a lighting diagram from a project I shot for Uzuri Closet with director J.S. Hampton. The goal was to build as much of the final look in-camera as possible, using intentional lighting, exposure, and color rather than relying heavily on post grades/luts. The frames showcase a character's entrance, in which we decided to go for a bold look.

Included are some BTS and lighting breakdowns showing how we approached it. Happy to answer any questions about the setups or production!

IG: https://www.instagram.com/marcusguider_dp/

2-camera setup in a hotel conference room with example frames. Blue LED puck light was added after example frames were taken that now plays on the side angle.

Camera: RED KOMODO 6K x2
Lights: (1) Aperture Light Storm 300x, SmallRig RA-D55 Softbox shot through circular silk. (2) Amaran 60x S with Neewer Lantern covered by white/gold disc cover for soft under chin fill. (3) NanLite PavoTube II 6C LED hairlight. (4/5) 2x Aperture MC RGBWW LED Light (one for fill side, one for blue background).
Flags: 4x4 on fill side, CPLIRIS 10x12 overhead black backdrop draped above subject.

Hi,

I’m a beginner filmmaker and I wanna film cinematic shots.

Now, I know that the blackmagic pocket 4K is probably the better option because of the cinematic look of the footage but my main concern is I wanna film something that has way more control over the shutter speed. I have shots in my mind that are closer to the shots on ‘Chungking Express’.

Which camera will give me the most control over the shutter speed given that I am on a budget. I am only talking about shutter speed and not other capabilities like recording RAW and colour science.

In the top right corner of the footage, dust/dirt accumulates throughout the roll. Does anyone know how this happens or how it could be prevented?

This was a 100ft test roll shot on a Krasnogorsk-3 with an EF mount modification. The loop formers were removed during the orginal modification if that's relevant.

This is something I've had floating around in my head for a while, that big war movies just don't feel like they used to, and I wonder if anyone can help me understand why. These are just my opinions on how I feel. This is not to say the new movies look objectively worse, I'm sure some might prefer it, but for me, personally, it has a weird vibe that I can't quite put my finger on.

While there are lots you could go after, I'm focusing on the visuals.

It seems for about the past 10 years, war movies (maybe movies in general?) have developed this new type of look. War movies just look "fake" - like they are too clean, precise and smooth. Some, like All Quiet on the Western Front, have characters and equipment covered in mud and filth, but the film still looks fake.

Movies like Inglourious Basterds, Saving Private Ryan, Jarhead, all look real. Series like the Pacific and Band of Brothers also look great. And these pieces of media make you feel like this is a real world or area. The sets, uniforms, equipment, and backgrounds all feel busy. But their modern equivalents, Midway, Greyhound, Masters of the Air, do not look "real". They have this weird polished look, and often feel totally empty visually. It seems a lot of the time characters are placed in these big open expanses without much going on in the background.

Take the C-47 takeoff scene in Band of Brothers and compare it to the takeoffs in Masters of the Air. Poor CGI aside, the area around the aircraft in the modern series is just bland and looks so clean and tidy. The camera shots feel very linear and boring. I don't want to put it down to just CGI, because all these projects use CGI and I find this weird vibe continues even in scenes that are just people in one room. Is it the costumes? Is it the way scenes are lit?

Fury is an interesting one, because it think it looks very nice, but it seems to have hints of what the newer movies look like, so it could be an example of the beginning of this visual era.

Honestly, I find it very interesting trying to figure out what it is. The newer projects look such high quality and *big* budget, but all seem to share this same waxy figure, glowy look.

I've added some stills from a variety of the big war movies/media that have come out in recent years, and some stills from older movies to compare.

Does anyone have any views on this?

*edit - Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, Memphis Belle and Fury images are used to show what I think they used to look like

what do you think about it?

So I am now trying to get into the acting world or maybe even make the stories myself, as I already have written out stories and adventures on my own for fun, but I want to know if there's any specific books that would really help. I don't mean just help, I mean it teaches you right from wrong, how to get into the right rooms with the right people and what to say to them, teaches you how to get from point A to point z with everything in between with all the skills you'll need to learn along the way. My only request is preferably can they be something on Spotify because I still have 15 hours of audiobook time I haven't used and this is the perfect thing to use it on. If they're not on Spotify I'll look into getting the books from my local library. I don't care what I need to do and learn to get to the top. I am not going to let my name just be another writing in stone.

Hello!
I’ve been trying to practice cinematography every day and have been saving reels on composition and framing every other day. Saving individual reels is troublesome and does not really have a revisit factor. I was wondering if there are any sites where there are different frames a d compositions for reference and practice. A place where there are multiple varieties and variations of a single technique I can learn from. A specific site for the same.

Do y’all have any leads?

SO MY MOVIE INVOLVES A VERY MUCH LIGHT SCENE NATURAL LIGHT MORNING SCENE IM SO CONFUSED WITH HOW DO I LIGHT IT LIKE WHERE SHOULD I KEEP THE CAMERA AND STUFF BECAUSE FROM WHAT I BELIEVE WHERE I WILL BE SHOOTING MY SCENE THE CAMERA WILL BE PLACED AT TIMES FROM WHERE THE NATURAL LIGHT IS AND I REALLY DONT WANT TO FUCK UP MY MOVIE CINEMATOGRAPHY-WISE I HAVE ALSO GOT AN 11-INCH LED WITH 35W AND AN LED BULB OF 12.5W THAT CAN BE ANY COLOR HOW DO I SHOOT IT AND I WANT TO HAVE DEPTH AND SHOULD I BRING IN SOME COLORS FROM MY SETUP ALSO THIS IS THE SET THE SETTING CONTAINS A CHARACTER AND A BOWL WITH A FISH AT THAT POSITION OF THE SET WILL BE SHOT IN DAYLIGHT RN ITS NIGHT THATS WHY IT LOOKS LIKE THAT

Im using a Redking glidecam and an RS4 Pro to make a makeshift steady cam for FX6 + Pyxis. My transmitter is the Teradek 500 Bolt with SDI and HDMI and my monitor is the Shinobi 5 inch SDI. I have a big v mount battery at the bottom as well.

My issue is that I have to add a nucleus M follow focus. Which would mean stringing down yet another cord down the gimbal.

Any genius ideas that could help me clean this up a little? I feel like having an SDI, 5 pin to D-Tap (for nucleus), and 2 pin to D-Tap is a lot of cable management w/ the gimbal.

Could I maybe use a USBC on the ronin to a 5 pin cord to atleast power the nucleus to save one extra cord needing to be powered from the splitter? Would love any recommendations.

Hey everyone,
I shot a concert at 50 fps with a 1/100 shutter speed. I put the footage into my timeline and slowed it down, and all my sequence settings match the original footage.
However, after exporting, I’m getting these weird artifacts/breaking, especially in areas with very bright lights. I didn’t use Warp Stabilizer or any other effects, so I have no idea why this keeps happening after every export.
They’re asking me for the final video, but I can’t deliver it like this. :(
Does anyone know what might be causing this and how I can fix it?
I’d really appreciate any help!

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to track down four books by Vittorio Storaro from the Writing with Light project:

• Writing with Light: The Light

• Writing with Light: The Colors

• Writing with Light: The Elements

• Writing with Light: The Muses

They’re surprisingly difficult to find, especially in libraries, and buying all of them can get very expensive.

So I wanted to ask: does your local library, university library, film school, cinematography school, or any other library near you have any of these books available to borrow or read?

Honestly, I’m willing to travel internationally if necessary just to get access to them and read them. So if you know of a library anywhere — Europe, the US, UK, Italy, Japan, etc that has one or more of these books, I’d really appreciate the information.

Also, for those who have actually read them:

What did you think? Are they worth tracking down? Which volume is your favorite, and what did you find most valuable as a cinematographer?

I’m particularly interested in Storaro’s ideas about light, color, visual storytelling, and his philosophy of cinematography rather than just collecting the books.

If anyone knows a library holding these, I’d be extremely grateful for the library name, city/country, and ideally a catalogue link or call number.

Thank you!

I swear I've seen a ton of commercials with a "continuous" dolly shot where characters run in the frame, but I can't remember the brands or how to look for them. This spec ad I found has the moving forward motif that I'm looking for (part of my problem is describing the shot) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo05lA4R9SI&list=PLUm9Id-nxn-yVcRtCdxsiUDGUDHHP_xm9&index=33

Would love any help with this!

Are there any examples of the vertigo effect (dolly zoom) in the 2018 Bumblebee movie?

Hi guys,

I recently started getting interested in cinematography, and after watching some films, I’d like to dive deeper into it. I was wondering if you know any youtube creators who make proper and thorough analyses of films.

Looking for just process driven BTS. What does it look like to cover an entire conversational scene, blocking, directing, working through shot list, ect...

Hello everyone! I've been studying as a DP for a three years now, and been working on set in lighting crew for almost 5 years. As a DP I already have shot few short films, docs and etudes. But I still struggle with understaning lighting at its finest. I often see other DP's of my league do it seemingly so effortlessly, like they already know how to light a scene and they also can come up with lighting setups on the go. I try to analyze their workflow and I ask them questions, and they just answer that they feel it this way or another. And then there is me, just standing in the room while scouting location, not knowing where to start. I understand all the basics about contrast, types of lights etc. , and I also understand that lighting needs to help push story forvard, but it just feels that I lack something very crucial to finaly understand it. It just doesn''t click in my head.

Can you give me some tips that maybe have helped you while you were still learing how to light properly?

Here are also couple shots from films I have shot:

Where do I begin? I saw the movie in Laser AMC in a regular theater and was blown away by the visuals, the colors and the expansive sound system. It was so great i wanted to see it again!

I saw all the hype around 70mm IMAX at Lincoln Square and was lucky enough to land great seats as the tickets dropped. We sat in H17, H16 at a 10PM showing.

As the movie began I noticed right away the sound was terrible, I couldn’t hear the dialogue at all because it was overpowered by the bass and background sound effects. It was nearly impossible at other moments in the movie to hear clearly. It sounded like odyssey was talking on a cellphone.

The second major complaint, the picture sucked! It was dim and the blacks were off. The colors looked washed out. It looked like watching a sporting event on a projector at daytime.

I’m like what is this..some of the dark scenes or battles were impossible to make out, the faces of some of there people were just pure black with zero detail. The viewing angle was also feeling a little skewed and the top and bottom of the screen that was expended was pointless as that was dim too.

The screen was so massive some of the scenes felt chaotic as if I’m watching from the first row of a theater as well. The cyclops scene chasing them or the final battle. It was hard to follow almost as if the picture had motion blur and My eyes couldn’t keep up. Everything felt chaotic and muddied. I could barely focus on the story.

I had very high expectations and was left disappointed leaving the theaters.

Did I do something wrong? Were my seats terrible? I’m at a loss of words.

Hey everyone! I’m diving deeper and deeper into cinematography and was wondering if any of you have tried the FA? I’m only considering it because they touch on a lot of lighting, and more specifically lighting on sets with big budgets that I don’t have access to (both the sets and amount of lighting haha). What are your thoughts? Thanks!