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I work in a factory running cnc machines and lately a waterjet. I dabble in video for a hobby. I got laid off, not long after covid hit here in aus and nearly everything got shut down. Spent about six- eight months off work. Ended up withdrawing 20k out of my super, as allowed by the government at the time. Paid the mortgage off and bought a 3 year old Mitsubishi outlander. Some might say I haven't had it too tough, and I can't say that I blame them for thinking that. Here in Australia we haven't experienced the death rates in other countries. Whether that's due to the government initiatives or a smaller population more spread out or dumb luck, I couldn't tell. But I am however grateful as I have some rare bug called sarcoidosis which would probably not play well with covid, if I were to catch it. While covid hasn't had the same impact here mortality wise, financially it's probably near crippled a lot of people, families, government. Long time ago I remember a saying ask not what your country can do for you, but rather, what can you do for your country. Personally I think it might the time to focus a bit less on myself and some more on where I can help others,and maybe video something along the way.

One aspect that is driving so many of us nuts these days in cinema (both for theater and streaming serials) is the excess of political correctness. It seems film studios have a Rule Book which requires every new series or movie to have a quota of actors which represent white people, black people, hispanic people, oriental-looking people, a woman, someone in the LGBT+ community, someone with some physical handicap, etc. This is simply ridiculous, the real world does not function like this and it drives me (and it seems, most of my friends and family) mad. And the worst is that if someone complains that James Bond should be played by a British White Male (as it was conceived by its author) instead of an American Black Female, we're called racists. This is getting ridiculously out of hand...

It's Inevitable, given the expense of filmmaking, and the realities of distribution today (it costs a fortune). Herzog and Fassbinder were state subsidized; in Fassbinder's case, the more movies he made, the more he could finance. So he was making 2-3 features a year, for years running. Few actually made money. That era is long dead. When "Marty" and "Francis" were young, there were producers like Roger Corman who would finance movies by unproven filmmakers, because the films didn't have to be blockbusters, to turn a profit. The American indie scene is unique in that the U.S. is the only major country without an art-house tradition; Robert Redford and a few New Yorkers murdered it. One of them currently helps run Amazon Studios. Today, what you see at Sundance is Hollywood movies with the commercial value removed. They love it Park City, but nowhere else. Face it, guys: moviemaking is for people who lack the talent to succeed at pre-industrial art-forms. That doesn't mean art is impossible, but it takes a major miracle, and congenial conditions.

Helpful point about stabilizing in post! True observations about gear lifetimes, I think. Good mics can last a career, and beyond, as can lenses. My 2008-released Panasonic HPX170, bought used, has great features and taught me lots about video. As problematic as the sensor limitations/ image quality look now, I’m loathe to sell it. But I won’t use it for any client work, so it’s time to move to better image quality with good features, on a used, new-to-me camera. Which I’ll probably squeeze every last pixel out of, too. Though a Ninja can be very useful, for now compactness and minimal rigging is a priority. And, max quality out of the d850 is still only 8 bit. (Nikon, what???) The increase to 422 can be marginally useful, but seems like a minimal return on investment. I appreciate your experienced and considered comnents.

Only 8 times an hour? I reckon I’m more like 9 or 10 😉 Nah, not really... Yes, slight concerns in 2 regards and these are: A: Not had the opportunity to shoot a wedding yet (for obvious reasons) with the system. However, 4 commercial shoots bodes well...but ain’t nothing like a wedding shoot to test your skillz + any kit! B: I’m still toying with getting an S1H instead of the second S5, but whichever way I look at it, it’s relatively low priced kit (that I have or am looking at other than the S1H) compared with the comparable Sony or Canon kit and if I get ‘only’ 3 seasons out of it, the investment vs the return negates even zero resale value. I’ve done the maths and it’s a lifetime cost of between 4-5% vs turnover. There has been a lot of talk about Panasonic and Nikon shutting shop but I can’t see it being any time soon. Unless Panny do not pop out a GH6 and don’t sort their video AF out!

Think it’s any different now than, say, 1961? Theres always been a big ratio between good and bad movies.

S1H has 29.7ms RS in 6K and 24.2ms in FF 4K which actually places it around 1DC (25ms) & A7S (24ms). Definitely poor RS performance by 2021 standards.

Yes these are just your opinions. The majority of which don’t jibe with the industry.

Was thinking about the exact same thing today after watching some of Herzog's very first films from the 70s. Dude was really "out there". Sadly, we're not even on the experimenting level of cinema of the 80s-90s right now, let alone the 60s and 70s. I swear the ratio of crappy-to-respectable movies and series on Amazon and Netflix is about 9 to 1. But hey...that's what the masses want 😶

My guess would be that S5 performs even a bit better. Reasons for that would be that S5 has V-Log and HDR recording possibilities, both being 10-bit options. Add to it a Dual Native ISO and low light capabilities should be fine on S5.

The D850 is a decent enough camera for filming with (especially for your purposes from the sounds of it, a D850 might even be called "overkill"), it is a camera many of us would have killed for only a handful of years ago. Rather than buying a secondhand Panasonic GH5, put that money into buying a Sound Devices MixPre3 & SmallHD Focus.

Heres a 'music video'. I shot using the Blackmagic 6k. It was very low budget and shot adhering to local covid lockdown guidelines. Production We used a Sigma 18-35mm, everyone already knows how much of a great all round lens this is. I prefer shooting on wider lenses anyway, (25mm being my go to prime). I didn't really find myself wanting to swap lenses. Also used a Hoya ProND 6 Stop on some shots, this ND does show IR pollution. I wish I had a 3 stop aswell. (Ive since sold the Hoya and picked up Nisi IRND 3 & 6 stop filters. They are cheaper and better performing than the Hoya. We shot 6K Braw Q5 on to 2 128GB Cfast Cards. This codec is incredibly efficient we used about 450GB over 2 1/2 days. I didn't have the camera rigged at all, the camera was powered by LPE6 Batteries. The camera burns though them, I needed more than the 6 we had! The only item attached to the top of the camera was a wireless video transmitter. I aimed to expose 'correctly' at 400ISO. A majority of the shoot was overcast so the DR wasn't stressed much so I found that I was often 1 stop over. In the grade I pulled the exposure on most shots down at least a stop and sometimes as much as 2/3. I recommend underexposing this camera at least a stop anyway. Even exposing for 800 shows almost no noise especially in a 4k timeline. All the exteriors were lit naturally. occasionally using a bit of diffusion in close ups. I just tried to use the sun as backlight as often as possible. The interiors, we used the affordable Godox SL60 and a ring light for fill. We used a variety of grip equipment (Tripod, Glidecam, Handheld, Jib). Grade/Post I also graded the video on a baseline 2017 13inch MBP, we imported the timeline from premier and used the camera originals. I shot to a Kodak 2383 LUT in camera but decided to grade from scratch. Gen5 colour Science in resolve is a treat to use. It reacts incredibly naturally to contrast a saturation changes. Skintones (with tint set to 0 in the raw tab) are very natural and lifelike. On a sidenote: Gen 5 Ext Video and Video gammas are totally usable now, much more than the Gun 4 versions. Other than basic adjustments, I just adjusted the hue of greens to remove IR in shots we used ND. I also added a subtle glow to the highlights and DaVinci's built in film grain. I set exposure for each clip using the exposure slider in the raw tab and the false colour effect on a timeline node, it really helped with matching shots when the lighting was constantly changing over the 3 shoot days. I am still shocked by the image coming out of the 6k, it has huge dynamic range, beautiful colour science and can be pushed and pulled more than you would ever without breaking. The extra resolution meant we didn't have to rent a dolly/silder on some shots and allowed us to crop and reframe in post without degrading IQ.

Great points Andrew. I think it'll be very interesting to see what the newly-enriched professional class produces on their own for less-lucrative ends after making more mainstream non-controversial works. In the USA Disney/Marvel financed Black Panther, which was respectful of Africans (so rare in Hollywood) but otherwise just a competently-made superhero movie no more daring than any of the other Avengers. However, because it made a billion dollars studios started financing other Black-empowerment vehicles, such as the HBO Watchmen series (the best show of all time), Black KKKlansman and the just-released Judas and the Black Messiah (a movie whose view of the police would never have been presented before). Without Black Panther's success none of those other daring works could have happened. So I hope other cultures and people can be empowered to risk their new success making original fare, even if only for their own creative vanity. Also even if you're not a fan of history or tragedy you should watch Judas and the Black Messiah just for the beauty of it's rehoused Arri DNA lenses. The film looks dreamy and aged despite having just been made.