Jethro Randell's Lounge Discussions

The only one I know of is No Film School

The blog right here on Stage 32 is all member curated! You can email your pitches to me at taylor@stage32.com https://www.stage32.com/blog

reach out to websites that do movie reviews or article that are similar to yours and reach out to them directly, you may be surprised how easy to do so, if they don't respond the first time, wait 3-4 days and send them a gentle/professional reminder.

Can anyone help Jethro? I’m bumping this post up with a comment hoping some people in my network can help you out.

Hi Jethro, this is not a short answer.... haha....it really depends on your budget and location, and of course, what type of work you do..... .... i'm from argentina...we have crazy taxes for electronics, so it is not the same 500usd here, that in the UK, however i will give you some choices so you have an idea... the Sony alpha line its pretty good for begginers (e mount) the a6600 its pretty good camera, it has ibis 4k, log, and tiltable screen, however, for that price you can get the blackmagic pocket 4k, which is a much better camera, thing is ,for the pocket you need a bunch of extra accesories which are not cheap (for example, on the pocket you need to record into a solid state drive... with the sony you can just record into sd cards) other pretty good camera is the panasonic gh4 and gh5, these cameras do it all... you should always look for reviews and comparission between cameras in youtube... you should also keep in mind sony cameras are 8 bit... and blackmagic is 10 bit... with the gh4 you can record 10 bit externally, with the gh5 is internal.... also.... sony a6600 it has in bodi stabilization (ibis) as well as the gh5, but the pocket and the gh4 do not have.... as you see.. there are many factors to consider while recommending a camera.... if you are gonna use a stabilizer such as a gimbal "maybe" the best option is to get a gh4 used... i think that would be the less expensive choice.... as i said...depending on your budget...

as you may see i left out 2 of the big brands...canon and nikon.... i'm not a nikon guy, for many years nikon mainly made cameras for photography only and in the past years they started releasing cameras with video functions, however i never looked into them.... canon has some good cameras for video...but the "entry level camera" are behind its competitors.... they don't bring log or ibis , however there are some cameras with a crazy tracking focus.... which would work for something like sports, but not that much for film... and their pro line is way too expensive for the functions it offers...

Well it all depends on what you want to use the camera for. My partner and I were thinking about replacing my old Nikon DSLR with something newer in 2018 and it took me half a year to decide what would be best.

I was considering everything and anything from super expensive RED cameras, which would have been a complete waist of money, to mirrorless cameras that give a pretty descent image.

But in the end we ultimately decided to get a Blackmagic Pocket 4K because we do mostly film stuff and the raw filming ability was a real asset to us.

At the same time it is a cinema camera and not a conventional video camera and this has a few drawbacks. Files are huge, battery life is not that great and you always need to work with the image to get something usable. Plus the camera is not great when you're trying to shoot something fast because it's all manual.

All that being said if all these thing work for your type of shoots then I still believe that the Pocket 4K or even the upgrades are the best bang for the buck.

But if you just need to shoot something every so often and ultimately don't shoot films and music videos or something then you're gonna be frustrated with a cinema camera.

All that put together I'm very happy that when my partner and I got started out doing music videos we had to use a DSLR because we learned how to do stuff right, as in get the right exposure and white balance right and when we bought the Pocket 4K it was a breeze to use because there's always a safety margine and we never worry if the footage is OK or not anymore.

Also for bigger paid stuff we usually rent equipment because it doesn't make financial sence to keep buying equipment when you can rent high end stuff affordably.

Hope it helps.

It depends if you intend to shoot film or video, but generally I would say get something used with three prime lenses, and one zoom lens. The glass will make it look way better than it really is. I've shot with a T6i and a 50mm prime before and the lens immediately elevates everything.

Hi, Joel Henderson. Great to connect with you. Sometimes when I have writer's block, I write scenes that I know won't be used. Doing this helps me get ready to write my scripts.

Creating an outline before starting the script always helps me. Then I plow my way through the first draft. As the wise man said "Writing is rewriting".

Thanks so much everyone for your ideas! It really means a lot!

You're welcome, Joel Henderson. What genre is your script?

Find this weird but going for walks or long bus rides help get me out the block. Sorta turn the brain on auto pilot and let it figure itself out. Some people say showers are good for that, but I never had that epiphany there.

Welcome Lisa DeSouza and keep in touch here. We on Facet.tv are looking for great independent series and features - send your favorites my way!

Hi Lisa DeSouza - I am new myself :so much to take in as regards to information and learning. Great to always learn about a new Film festival!

Hi Lisa. Just checked out your festival's website, looks really good. I know they're not easy to run, and want to wish you the best with it.

Hi Lisa, I am a Celebrity Writer for 20+ magazines. I would be happy to connect with you.

Hi Lisa DeSouza and a pleasure to e- meet and i am definitely connecting.

@Johnny Have there been pieces of equipment that you thought "you honestly don't need this"?

Aye Vital, that's a good rule that

Jethro Randell plenty, I have right now: 4 gimbals which I may just needed 2, a slider, which I never used (only once) 2 slypod (motorized slider/monopod, which I actually just needed 1), 10 different wireless mics, which I may only use 3 sets. So yea, I have a lot of gears that I actually don't need. (not to mention a tons of lights that I got that only used 1% of them)

Thanks, @Johnny - you just made me so much better LOL Although, I just dug through my equipment storage, and I still see what I need more than what I have too much of LOL - the gear acquisition syndrome continues! O.O

LOL yea, I need to get rid of a few stuff now...

During filming you're at the mercy of the sun. You don't want a partly cloudy day with clouds moving across the sun. So go with the sun, or go with overcast (great big diffuser). Harsh sun means actors will be squinting, and then there's shadows. Sunlight gives you harsh shadows and high contrast. Cloudy/overcast gives you diffused light and low contrast. In post, color correction, you'll reduce your contrast, reduce your exposure, and desaturate your colors a bit. Toss a light vignette on it (optional).

Is there a reason you're trying to shoot during the day instead of at night? I'm assuming there is a wide shot involved?

Also, I found this recent video on DFN filming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0AyCAQaxnU

Yeah, quite a few wide shots. Want to explore that option as it would be better for budget and scheduling to do it in the day time. If I can incorporate it into the style and give it a good look, think it'll be a win-win. Also thanks for the link, will look into filters too

Day for night is workable, but there are a number of pitfalls that end up being problematic. With the software we have available it is easy to replace the sky (try to avoid shooting the sky if you can to cut down the VFX) bring the exposure down, and tweak the color. Problem is the discrepancy between what you see in your imagination and what others see when you present that on screen. Much of the day for night and night work I’ve seen in the past while are frankly unwatchable. Literally, unwatchable. Can’t see anything. Make it dark, blue, and replace the sky. A formula that guarantees bland flat hard to see images that take the audience out of the story.

Forests vary, depending upon the density of growth, height of trees and the layers. For a successful day for night I always find that it is important to have highlights so that you as least get some shaping and depth in objects. Some sunlight dappled on parts of the background goes a long way toward bringing texture and something to silhouette people against. An audience trying to see what is happening and who is talking will quickly turn on you. That same sunlight must be kept as a backlight on performers while the contrast on their faces can be adjusted with either lighting instruments of reflectors. Knowing what your camera sees and the lighting ratios you need to achieve what you want might take a little experimentation, but once you know what you need a few light readings and you should be good to go and consistent in your lighting ratios and exposure. Costumes need to be given careful consideration.

As so much of the image will be dark, it is really import that the camera you use has very little noise in the blacks. If not, then you will have to crush the blacks to eliminate the range of exposure in the toe that will be noisy. I can think of cameras that I would need to crush the blacks by 3-4 stops for the image to be acceptable. You need to know. TEST. If you are unsure of exactly what you wish to do, give yourself some leeway. The most adjustable image will be a normally exposed one, but critical to the day for night effect will be that nothing is overexposed including highlights. You can look at establishing the degree of underexposure that gives you your desired look in camera, but that will lock in your images more than shooting a normal exposure then applying the effect in post. If you are unsure, then making the adjustments on post is a good idea in this one situation. Same goes for the color you use. Moonlight is the same color temperature as sunlight since it it the sun reflecting off of a pretty neutral grey surface. How many solidly blue night scenes have we all seen? When lighting a night scene, I find that layering colour as well as light and shadow works well. You will not have that luxury. The layering of light and shadow is somewhat doable if you shoot on a sunlit day and choose your locations and shooting times so that you have shadows you can use.

One other thing to think of is that for any artificial light to look real, be it a flashlight, house light, fire or a match it will have to be really bright because of the ambient daylight you are actually shooting in will be quite high. Remember that sunlight is around 10,000fc and more so any lights have to be very bright. I recently watched a series where all the night scenes were day for night. Decently done but those scenes with flashlights ruined the illusion.

I cannot stress this enough, test everything to establish your look and shooting methodology.