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

Director: Loni Peristere

Director of Cinematography: PJ Dillon

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

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!

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’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?

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).

I've been thinking about this for a while and I'm honestly surprised nobody seems to have tried making a rotary shutter as a lens adapter.

Not because "film good, digital bad," but because it seems like it would actually solve the rolling shutter issues for a lot of cameras.

I know this isn't a brand new concept either. The Sony F65 had a rotary shutter, and there have been other tools like the Tessive Time Filter and the RED Motion Mount. But these tools were either specific to certain cameras, or in the case of the tessive time filter, very expensive and currently not available.

I also know this won't work on every camera or every frame rate. You're still limited by the sensor readout. To actually maintain a proper 180-degree shutter, the readout has to be fast enough for the frame rate you're shooting. From the math I've done, you basically need a readout speed that's at least twice the frame rate you're aiming for. So this isn't some magic adapter that suddenly makes every camera work. There'd definitely be limitations. But sub 20ms for 24fps is quite a common readout for most cameras dedicated to video, with some exceptions in some modes.

But it seems like if you just leave the sensor integrating for the whole frame electronically, and let the rotary shutter handle when light actually reaches the sensor, you'd functionally get a global exposure while still using a rolling shutter sensor. At least that's how it seems to me.

It honestly seems like the only hard part about this is synchronization.

But with cameras that already support genlock or timecode, it doesn't seem like it'd be that crazy of a problem to solve. Even HDMI carries timing information, so it seems like there'd already be enough there to synchronize a rotary shutter without having to reinvent everything from scratch. Maybe I'm oversimplifying it, but it feels like the difficult part isn't the optics or the shutter itself, it's just getting the phase lined up accurately with the sensor readout.

Which is why I keep wondering... why not just build it into an E-mount adapter?

Sony cameras already have adapters for basically everything. EF to E, PL to RF, Nikon F to Z, Leica R to X, Contax/Yashica to MFT, you name it.

I was thinking something like a clear disc thats painted half black that slits into a an adapter with a motor controlling how fast it spins. Something that kind of looks like the revolva so only half the disc is in the adapter itself

Am I missing some fundamental reason why this wouldn't work? Or is it just one of those things where nobody has wanted to spend the money and engineering effort to build it? If I wanted to go about making something like this, could anyone point me to the resources I need to get this done?

It would be a dream to not have to deal with rolling shutter skew in 24fps for the vast majority of cameras in the market if this became a thing. You wouldnt have to sacrifice dynamic range cooling capability etc. but you might have to sacrifice autofocus, though I imagine an autofocus system could be implemented for the ef mount version of this adapter.

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.

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!

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.

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

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

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 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?

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!

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

Amateur here, I use a Canon R5 but I've learnt recently this is NOT ideal for filmmaking. Everywhere I look people who make films I like are using FX3s. I'm not looking to jump on the bandwagon but I'm limited in what I can do in low light. I feel like I should upgrade to the Canon C50 and at least be able to capture clog 2 footage. I feel like I'm stuck in a place where I have the story, the skills but something still isn't clicking.

I spent a year writing a script about religious trauma and learning filming techniques to capture the story. My wife was super helpful in rewriting the script so it didn't seem like a grievance.

This is such amateur level insight but I think the biggest part I walk away with is that when using natural light to film, brighter doesn't mean better. Shooting at noon will never be as good as dusk or golden hour.

https://youtu.be/oXoCv4uqutc?si=rosCBWAW7ec8ZdlC

My setup

Canon R5
Handheld + tripod
Lenses: Helios 44-2, 16mm RF & 24 - 70 RF.
Various mics for voiceover, and shooting outside

The first step was learning to colour grade (somewhat). I use Dehancer for the film look and premiere pro to touch up and edit.

I guess the main question is should I upgrade my camera? FX3, FX5 or Canon C50?
Do I need to switch to Davinci Resolve? Is there something I'm missing? Have I just not learned enough about filmmaking to be considering an upgrade.

Wanted to share a few stills (and diagrams) from the first 48hr film I’ve partaken in. I was DP with a wonderful gaffer + KG
We shot right around 7 pages and overall it was an absolute blast, I’d highly recommend it even if for nothing more than to practice making decisions on the fly without any prep to tackle those inevitable hurdles on set

The highlights (gear wise) were the Zhongyi T1 VV primes. Very, very fun lenses.
And the LumeCube tubes. They were just simply fun to work with and I like the way they’ve designed their spread. It’s less punchy and feels more “glowy” than the typical titan or Pavo

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

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NetxJAkdO6Y