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I never used it but i was considering it too for my next short, it seems a nice camera and the price at the moment is very interesting (and usually it comes with a DaVinci Resolve Studio licence, at least the shops i checked here in Italy) .
What made me change idea about it was the lack of stabilization (but it couldn’t be a problem for you, if you don’t shoot handheld and you use a tripod or a gymbal or other tools) and the fact that the monitor is not very bright and can’t change angle (unless you customize it someway, i’ve watched some videos about mounting the monitor on an external case or something similar but i don’t know if the warranty would allow that), so it could make it complicated to see the monitor outside.
Summing up i’ve read gread things about it and the quality of its image and i’d like to try it for a while, but i think you’ll have to find a way to stabilize it and perhaps an external monitor to fully develop its potential. Let me know how it will work, i’m curious about it!
And good luck for the movie! 🙂
After countless nights on DaVinci Resolve i hope to have found the right look for the short. I know how i want the scene to look like, but translating that in DVR is a completely different matter. The Team Deakins episode with James Slattery perfectly described my problem (“ok, i know i need a bit more of blue here, but how much exactly?”) .
So, this said, here they are a couple of frames from my short. We worked with no budget, no real lights (Just Natural light and some led bulb for night scenes) and just my Sony A6400 with kit lens. Add to this the fact that it’s an horror short movie (and it’s really easy to fall in the trash style with that genre) …and the disaster is served! Please believe me, i rarely felt as ashamed as in this moment, but i need to start from somewhere. 🙂
Thanks a lot David!
From what i’m experiencing (little or nothing, but one has to start from somewhere) the core of the problem, as you said, is finding the right way to tell the story with the right camera movement, the right lens, the right lights, the right composition (as in the example you described) etc etc. As i think everybody at their beginning i tend too to fall in the trap to mistake “nice, pretty and cool” cinematography with “right” cinematography
And that comes with talent and experience, but unfortunately i lack both at the moment, ah ah! Not an easy journey, but a great adventure as well! 🙂
Thanks!
At this point i am slowly beginning to suspect that perhaps the secret could be to follow the istinct, since it’s like the thousandth time you answer that way to every “rule involving” question. 😀
And by the way, we know Roger’s admiration for Tarkovskij’s movies and for the emotions they convey in an almost abstract way: i think this explains a lot. I think that emotions and instinct are important aspects of Roger’s approach, maybe even more important than the lens or the camera or the Digital vs film debate or whatever (at least It’s the impression i have, only Roger can actually explain his approach and i think the new book It’s the best way to Discover that) .
I think that Roger’s style is an example of “Total bigger than the sum of the parts”. With the same equipments and lights and the same naturalistic approach i think one can obtain the same visual effect, but it will be still miss something i think. As Stip suggested, It has a lot to do with camera movements and placement, but in general i think the story plays a big role in It. Think to Jesse James death’s scene. Perhaps It’s not technically impossible to recreate something similar. But when you see It in the movie, with the story that far, the music, the actors talent (they tell an entire story with just theit eyes in that scene) , their movements together with the camera ones, the angles that Roger used, etc etc. One can create the same scene from a technical point of view, but you need a great story and great actors to create the same emotion and you need a cinematographer like Roger to know exactly how to transform this emotion in a movie frame.
Thanks a lot David, you’ve been very kind!
I’ve the impression that darkening a (slightly) overexposed shot it’s easier for me than the contrary, it makes noise more controllable in low key scenes. But next time i’ll do my best to obtain it right in camera! 🙂
Let me see if i understood.
F/2.8 to F/8 is 3 stops less. So you need 3 stops of ASA more to compensate (from 100 to 800).
2 stops more from that means 4 times the light.
So 100 fc x 4 = 400 fc (for f/8 at 800 ASA).
Is It correct?
Hedging your bets like that isn’t the most effective way to learn and grow as an artist because you never risk failure.
I find this point quite interesting. Errors and failures are opportunities to grow, but sometimes recovering from failures may be difficult or even impossible. One should find a “safe” way to make errors, i think.
Congratulations for the ASC award, by the way! 🙂
I can’t help you with finding jobs because my day job has nothing to do with cinema (i’m a school teacher) , but i’ve been in a similar situation in the past in other contexts and perhaps i can understand you.
A couple of things you may consider:
– your job is not you, it’s what you do for living, support family, pay the bills, buy nice things that make you feel better, etc. You are yourself even when there’s not work. There’s zero work at the moment, you are not zero. They are different things.
– when your job is what you like to do in life and make you happy, congratulations! But it’s not so common. So: if you dream of a career in cinema but the moment is a bit complicated, you may consider finding a new job while waiting for new opportunities in cinema. You can use this time to deal after some personal project, shot your own things in the spare time, learn and study.
– from what i’ve been reading for at least a couple of years, jobs in creative industries (cinema, vfx, games, illustrations, music, etc) are fewer and fewer. I am afraid this is the first immediate effect of AI. Why hiring a [insert human artist category here] when you have AI? I used to do some illustrations jobs time ago, before having kids (i worked at school at morning and spent hours drawing at night) : the same small editors i worked with are publishing their things with AI generated images. It’s happening everywhere and the better the AI the worst for the humans.
Be realistic but don’t give up. Quoting Calvin & Hobbes : “when life gives you lemons throw them back to it and add some other lemons by your own.”
From what i know they are currently on Facebook and Youtube (if you count it as social media) as Team Deakins. I think James has a personal page too.
Roger seems a very fun but quite reserved person, i would be a bit surprised to find him on a social media. Maybe a social media about fishing? Fishbook? Instafish? 🙂 (perhaps they actually exist but i’m too scared to search for them, ah ah!)
Hey James, Really hoping to grab a signed copy here in the UK – any chance Roger might pop by the BSC Expo? That would be amazing! Also, gutted to report that my Amazon pre-order (placed ~6 months ago) just got cancelled out of the blue. Got an email saying earliest delivery is now Feb 2026, even though it was meant to ship today (Nov). Already spoken to Amazon support but they seem clueless. Any chance you/your team could nudge Amazon about what’s going on? Would be hugely appreciated! Thanks so much and congrats on the book!
As i suspected i think that on Amazon they confused publishing date in US and Europe and they didn’t consider ghe shipping cost from US to Europe, so now they are noticing the problem.
Since James mentioned the possibility (if i understood correctly) of an european signed edition we (in Europe) can either order directly from US or wait next year for that edition.
Any other suggestion? 🙂
