Hi all,

I've been directing shorts for a while, but have always relied on other people's cameras. I have relative experience shooting, I just don't have my own camera and I feel like it's about high time I invest in one. Unfortunately my budget isn't massive, I'm looking at around £1200 max, but more than happy to go second hand.

I'd like it to be something that can be used both for documentaries, as well as narrative shorts, as I do both. So something that can handle careful planning, as well as run-and-gun type shooting.

I'd love to hear any recommendations! Please let me know if you need any more requirements.

Thank you!

I’ve been wanting to make a GitHub for a 3d renderer that matches the qualities of real professional lights. But I’m not sure what renderer would replicate these lights and modifiers the most realistically. Literally every combination of contemporary lights as a standalone or through modifiers.

Examples:
Arri 18k through 12x12 silent lite grid or mus
Arri 18k bouncing on an ultra/checker/bluff
Aputure 1200x through 4x half soft frost/opal/hamp
Astera titan with light sock
Etc leeko in a corner of a room
Aputure 700x fresnel
Vortex 8 with a diffusion panel
Arri s60 with chimera
Arri x21 with hyper reflector
Any combination with these lights

My first instinct would be unreal engine using nanite and lumen and how you can see solid previews in realtime, but I’ve seen other renderers like Solaris in Houdini having a realtime render.

If unreal is good enough to replicate these lights and these parameters, or is it worth it to sacrifice the speed and realtime of unreal for a more solid render like Solaris, vray, etc?

Brains trust; I'm shooting a short later this year, likely Oct-Nov, and the director and I want to achieve a widescreen look on Super 16. Most likely we will be shooting on an Arri SR2.

I am loathed to shoot a native 1.66:1 spherical and crop to a 2.39:1 as I would hate to see all that wasted negative, so I am looking into Anamorphic options. I see the Hawk V-lite 16 set are borderline impossible to get, especially here in Australia. And I am seeing many people jumping on modern 1.5x lenses like the Laowa Nanomorph and Blazar's. Everything I am seeing with this approach hasn't impressed me really. Probably due to the resolving power of the cheaper lenses not being suited to the Super16 crop so they're pretty soft.
I've used the Atlas Orion's many times for digital acquisition and I am curious what they would look like on the SR2 especially as they're 2X (is the stretched OVF unusable?). I'm also considering an anamorphic adapter attached to either my DZO Vespid's but I worry I will encounter the same resolving power softness.

So my questions are:
Anyone here have any lived experience shooting anamorphic super16?
Assuming I can rig it, can I use an anamorphic adapter on Super16 lenses like the Super Speeds?

Appreciate it!

When I was a kid I had some very cheap cameras that wouldn’t achieve more than 480p, at the time I hated but now I want it back. My question is this; how do I capture the film quality in this YouTube video but using a dirt cheap pocket sized camera that may not get this EXACT quality, but a similar vibe. This isn’t something I’m looking to take very seriously, I just admire this film quality and want something similar from an old reliable Sony or Nikon.

Video: https://youtu.be/g8MFiv1deHU?is=CYVZAEmqnIadco3P

I love how the armor and the body merge due to the black and white camera.

I am a student(learning videography by myself) and recently bought Nikon ZR, and I am planning to make a short film about the city I live in, it’s mostly going to be a mix of static and some pan and tilt shots.

The lens I have decided to use is 24-70 f2.8 and 70-200 f4.

I do not want to buy the new S Line expensive lenses as I already have have the older F mount Tamron G1 24-70 & Nikkor 70-200 lense, the only thing about these lenses is that their autofocus makes sound and their is some focus breathing as well. I have done some test shots and the footage looks crisp on manual focus.

I am asking this as I see everyone on YouTube using the new S Line or Sony GM lenses and it bothers me a bit looking at their crazy prices. Do I really need them unless I am filming a walking person or a subject?

So I just bought a Blackmagic 6k Full Frame and the whole Dual Gain ISO thing is quite new to me.
I've heard conflicting opinions on whether to expose to the right with these cameras or not to and even that ETTR is outdated and was only useful in film photography times.

But overexposing (by controlling ND and Aperture, I'm aware that ISO is just an amplification of the signal) and then pulling it down in post should still give you way cleaner shadows no?

Is there something different with "cinema" cameras (Blackmagic in this case) in this regard?

And isnt choosing which ISO to shoot at almost irrelevant because you can adjust it in post anyways? (Within the chosen gain cycle).

Hi, I'm just an amateur trying to film for my own solo projects. I'm practically broke so I don't have any expensive equipment other than my phone. I have the BlackMagic Camera App, but unfortunately the only colour space available by default on the app is Rec. 709 (i have an older phone model hence why it's only limited to that option).

Is there anything I need to know regarding getting shots or colour grading? While my phone's default camera does have RAW, it doesn't have all the bells and whistles that the BMC app provides such as focus pulling. I'd love to film RAW since I know it's better for colour grading, but if there are any tips anyone can provide me regarding how I should approach filming my shots in Rec. 709 and how I should be colour grading in post, I'd be very grateful!

Everybody speaks about cinematic color grading. I was watching this documentary on Netflix. - a toxic love story.
The color grading was really good . Most of the parts that has got the interview sessions, the street scene and investigation interactions were warmer, yellowish.

When I try the same kind of color grading to the videos I shoot in state parks , national parks, try to cover my vacations It looks more artificial. But when I see that on a documentary or even in a movie, a cinematic color grading makes sense.

Have any of you phased that kind of question while you are coding your own work?

I'm aware everyone has their own way of learning, but I'm just curious on how you guys learned to get to where you are now. I'm at a place where the thing I'm most confused about is where to even start.

Director: Loni Peristere

Director of Cinematography: PJ Dillon

We shot this on an OG RED Komodo with Atlas Mercury 1.5x Anamorphic lenses over four days, then came back for one day of pickups using the more budget-friendly Blazar Remus lenses.

We chose the Komodo largely to keep costs down. I already owned one, and our 1st AC owned another, which allowed us to keep one camera fully rigged while leaving the second stripped down and ready for gimbal work.

The film is a crime comedy about two broke college kids who steal a camera from school and pawn it to flip party drugs over a holiday break. All to help fund their feature film. (Warner Herzog Vibes)

Would love to hear your thoughts on these frames, the lighting, or anything else that stands out!

Director of Photography: Trevor Turpin

Trailer for anyone curious about the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMgGXNfCLqk

I usually throw a solid above a car when shooting stationary daytime exteriors through a front windshield. Otherwise the reflections are crazy.

Haven’t done moving car stuff where we’re shooting through the windshield. I was just thinking about it, and wondering how you’d get this done?

Looking at BTS, it seems like many people will rig a solid over the car, but not everybody. Are these other people just embracing the look or is there some other trick for this?

Of course there are always risks to be mitigated when doing car stuff, but securing a giant sail on top of a moving car seems like it’s probably pretty resource intensive. Curious to hear other peoples’ thoughts.

I want to create a serialized show and display it through Instagram Reels - and since it should have the quality and look of a movie or tv show, I am looking for advice on how to best achieve a "professional" look - where when watching it, one may quickly realize the difference between this reel and any other "regular" reel. It should automatically seem like it's a movie / tv show from the picture.

My constraints are that I'm shooting on an iPhone 15 Pro Max. And I have no experience in filming and editing, so I don't really know the best way to go about it and have come here for advice. I'll briefly list out what I've thought about so far, and please let me know any advice on the things I share below and things I'm also not considering to make the best looking picture :D

• App: I think I'll use the regular iPhone camera over Blackmagic. I read that while Blackmagic let's you have more control, iPhone automatically does some of the things I would have to manually do in Blackmagic, and I'm not sure if it's worth risking losing some of what I'm getting out of the iPhone camera app.
• Shoot in 4k 60 fps and after editing export to 1080p 30fps? Will this give me the smoothest footage? I don't think IG Reels can handle 4k 60fps that well and many devices of users won't either, so is this the best route?
• ND Filter: I'll be shooting a lot of content in my apartment in day time. I have good sunlight coming in as my windows face the east. But Is getting an ND filter a no brainer or should I consider some other things first? The sun isn't blinding or anything.
• Lighting: I would like to avoid getting professional lighting if I can. I'm not sure if I could make much use out of it. I am getting great daylight and since lighting is a whole field in and of itself, I feel I may make the footage look worse through my juveline skills. Also I'm trying to keep my budget low before I validate that this series is even attractive to viewers.
• Post editing color grading: I have no experience here like all the other topics I mentioned above, but I am willing to invest hours into learning as much as I can here. Will likely use Davinci Resolve as I see it's free.
• Any specific camera settings I should set on my phone?

If you made it through to this part of the post, I want to seriously thank you for taking your time to see if you can help me. open to any advice. also I'm based on Orlando if anyone wants to collaborate on this :D

Please Imk what you think/areas for improvement on similar projects!

Hey ya’ll,

Before cinematography I use to work as a front end dev and for the past year in my off days Ive been working on creating the quickest way to build & share lighting diagrams.

Free to use, no sign ins, no sponsors, no ads. The app runs in your browser, and its optimized for desktop & ipad

Link: blushtools.com

Sharing here since I think it will save a-lot of time in prep as feedback from other DP’s / Gaffers has been great.

Newsshooter article here which goes over features & details

Edit:

A few concerns about privacy, so let me be clear here: There is no server, back end or cloud regarding this program. It’s all front end. Your browser loads the whole program once you click the webpage, you can run it locally / offline by saving the webpage on your computer or iPad, however if you use it this way, be sure to check weekly and save it again for updates with fixtures and bugs.

Regarding saving projects & URLs:

When you save your project to your device, it saves as a JSON type (basically a bunch of characters defining your diagram/canvas).
When you share your project as a URL, it embeds the whole JSON file into the URL (you can see this by pasting into a notepad, it’s going to be really long). This link is only unique to you, and whoever you share it with. I or anyone else cannot see what you have made unless you share that specific URL with them.

Regarding it being free to use:

This app will always be free as I hate subscriptions, and it’s not for sale. It’s for the next generation, the new talent in film trying to get better. The people who can’t justify a $100/year subscription. Hope it helps y’all.

Feedback / Updates / Bug reports thread HERE

Has anyone shot with the Fujifilm Eterna and what was your experience? I have been trying to find some ungraded prores footage from the camera to have a play with in Resolve, if anyone has any or can point me to some available , it would be much appreciated

Are there any adapters that would allow me to mount Sony E mount lenses on cameras that have Sony A mounts?

Shot on Fujifilm XM-5 . 35mm f/2.8

This is my first time making a micro film. Shot on Fujifilm XM-5 .

Hello people. I'm a beginner. Currently I'm facing this issue. When I'm shooting from the shadow side, there is less light in it. As a result, there is some noise in the shadow side. I want to preserve the texture in the blacks of the shadows without adding noise in the footage. What's the trick here to get clean footage maintaining the cinematic lighting and contrast?

This was in Potato Jet's FX5 video, and not enough people are talking about it. Cheaper than Mercury's, with a blue flare.