Fri Feb 28, 2014 9:41 pm
Oh, me and my rants...(and to second Michael Weatherby)
The photography term is GWC ("Guy With Camera") to differentiate from a Photographer — someone knowledgable in the technical and scientific attributes of photography, but also has the ability to consistently capture interesting and artistic images while getting along with the people around you. The professional part nowadays only seems to mean someone is getting paid, so I'll attribute a photographer with having human qualities since I know plenty of professional GWC's.
A GWC will chimp. A photographer will shoot confidently until a break and then glance at the polaroid back. A photographer works with models in a comfortable, fun, mutually-business/working relationship. A GWC is just trying to get laid. You see my point.
Anyway, a GWC will pixel peep and moan and complain about not having enough K's. Meanwhile Anthony Dod Mantle comfortably shoots DV, HD, servo 35mm stills and S35 motion picture film, in both natural daylight and big movie set lights, all mixed for the same movie. Because a photographer can find the art relevant to the narrative with whatever medium he is to use regardless of the bells and whistles and marketing talk.
Really, the only good thing to come out of the internet, DSLR's and the democratization of independent film is it has now become a buyer's market. I can get a S35-ish 4K capable camera with better-than-video dynamic range from $3000-15000 and a set of nice PL mount cine lenses for $14000-$40000. Twenty years ago, you couldn't buy one nice PL lens for less than $10000 and the good cine cameras still resolved like video and could only be rented. The "film look" was exclusively film's. Now, any jerk with a credit card can buy a "cinema camera" with a business card and a Wix website and proclaim himself a cinematographer. Philip Bloom and many other photographers have been competing against this new wave of GWC's who only know that their camera can hit 160000asa so why bother with lights at all? Especially when Youtube compression makes the artifacts look like film grain, kinda, I guess.
What about barrel distortion, breathing, vignetting, soft focus, inappropriately mixed color temperatures, lack of production design and continuity, on-camera sound, on-camera lighting, flickering ballasts, low CRI's, cheap LED lens refractions, source halation, dirty lens smears, low signal to noise ratios, carrier codecs, transcoding, the loss of thousands of bits of color information, the grade, storage and backup, blocking, rehearsals, a good script, walkie-talkies, catering, gas money for the crew, et bloody cetra?!
"But, my camera goes to 11."
Oh, ok. And that means you know what you're doing? Let me know when you're ready to put your gear up on eBay to help fund your next toy. I'll make you an offer.
Anyway, most of the time, these trade show floor videos are hosted by pixel-peeping GWC's who wax on and on forever about the K's because that's what they get paid to do. Then it's on to the next bright shiny thing to pitch sales for. Because if you stay on the bleeding edge with the manufacturers, they'll always send demos to you to "review." Hey, a good review lists the crap parts about a product. Bloom's reviews have always done that, even when the manufacturer supplied him with the product and he wasn't only borrowing or renting for the sake of his blog's visitors. At least Bloom knows what he's talking about and has the resumé and reels to back it up. I honestly believe Bloom has a viable opinion, cares about his reputation and how that reputation affects peoples judgement and tries not to be a salesman. So, trade show floor videos? Take them with a grain of salt.
Clearly, the BMCC 4K is the best bang for buck camera on the market today. At this point, DSLR's are for hipsters because now, hipsters who are also photographers, see value if the BMD cameras or the Digital Bolex. Being hipsters, they'd go with the DB cuz it's retro, whatever that means anymore.
Next best camera? I dunno. What you want? For me it's Amira or Scarlet, possibly Epic. C500, maybe. GH4 with that module sounds interesting but, it's still just a DSLR wanting to be a motion picture camera. I mean, Red's ok but the image still looks plasticky to me. I really like those Schneider Xenon FF lenses. Those BMD cameras really have nice colorimetry and add a lot of production value to a show if used correctly. And to think the worst BMD camera is actually the Pocket, which is still a damn fine little camera, says a lot.
Meh. Grain of salt these trade show floor videos.
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