jgharding

I think this will be the first year I do something on 16mm film... I saved so much cancelling the BMD 4K I can probably do a film on some lovely Kodak...

I reckon just do yo thing. The celebrity camera blogger thing is a bit embarrassing, my influences are film makers, when one of these guys makes something that isn't dull as dish water I'll eat my hat. Saying that will never affect my career, otherwise it'd be a career I wouldn't want, and I'd quit ;)   Personally, I pretty much don't care what anyone else makes as when it comes to what I make, I make the films I wanna see, and talk to fellow film-makers for technical tips and watch movies for influence, and practice to get better. If what I make is out of fashion, fuck it. I'm not a banker, I don't work for numbers.   I don't need to pretend one bit of gear is best or be loyal to one or change every five minutes. I need to find me i need to find my voice in vision, how i tell stories and light and compose, in how i make the viewer feel (the hardest thing to do). When I get a paid job and the client wants bread and butter I give it to them, but no one else ever sees it with my name attached. When it's my work I seek to be unafraid, and to blend my influence and my own expression into something new.   Most of those who worship are just lacking in confidence. They imagine that sucking virtual c**k will get them some kinda giant career step. It's teenage fantasy. The greatest teachers are films themselves, or the quiet, smart people who know lots and just get on with it. Blustering pseudo celebs who self-aggrandise but produce bland plastic work will be remembered for what they are: salesmen.   There's a whole scene of "I'm better than you because X" in film and music and everything creative. I'm always annoyed the kind of clean cut guys who have all the technical kit, love talking about permissions and rules and licenses and so on because it makes them feel part of something special, but then produce bland dross. Unsurprisingly they always moan about kit being cheap and kids being able to create, because they're scared that meritocracy might actually arise. The classic dude with his Canon 1D with L lenses and Zacuto rig (and more money than sense), but no ideas, sniffing at kids with 550Ds. Meanwhile a big chunk of A Field In England was shot with a rented C300 and a lens cap with a hole in it.   My goal is, in every way, to always be the opposite to that kind of "exclusive club" film-maker in my personal work.   I've even pulled it off on paid jobs, you just need the right client. This weekend I have some stuff screening on a stage backdrop at Secret Garden Party, all shot on 600D. It cost me 12 quid in materials and I used one lens. The world is full of people actually doing creative stuff. The internet, however, appears to crammed full of digital "id" (in the Freudian sense) and adverts.   Too many people expect to become great or learn lots just by sucking up to a blog or copying an "accesible" online "celebrity".   What they need to do is find real selfless teachers (there are some online), and to go out and make what they see in their head a reality. Use the cheap kit to break boundaries, work with what they have, not aspire to the next more expensive model. Tell stories, shoot footage, learn rules, break rules. Find their own path...   I'm rambling now, but you get the idea. The truth will out, and the cream will rise...

  Thanks for the tip, I'll give a try if I do another export after the competition, for Vimeo!

There's no stealing, only influence ;) I doubt I'm the first to do it... That's closest to the script I feel. As I don't write it, i also have interpreted in my own way. I talked to Chris but it was more of a arcing development process... I feel he is someone at his wits end. He hears the voice but that's all I know, is it god or is he hearing his own collapse? Is God revealed making our man a true Messiah, or does he need to hear the voice to save himself? I preferred to pose a question rather than give a "truth" Sounds a bit deep for two minutes.... But we didn't treat it lightly just because its short. It's not my favorite entry this year though... Also yes I think it's pointless to be precious. It's a performance of sorts, once you put it out there people own it in their own way, it's not just mine, it's also every viewer's. the authorial intent is important to an academic, but not a viewer really... What's is important is that they have a reaction full stop. It's hard to move people at all these days.

  No it isn't disrespectful, it's great to see how everyone interprets something differently!   I think it's supposed to quite dark, but with a dryly humorous edge. I mean, at the end of the day it's toast, and the big voice is kinda fun, but it's also an examination of mental illness, religion, willpower... is there a God or is God man? and so on... If things are far too serious they lose their punch, so I like to keep a little wink in everything i do...

Cheers my good man!

Ha! It's odd I've had two people say "it's a funny punchline!" and many think it's very dark! Interesting...

Many thanks! :)

I just can't support this "business model" I'm afraid. Hence I pulled out my cash. Getting lots of enthusiasts to fund your product, then delivering below spec and late, releasing things effectively in Beta and trickling out features over another year.   You could see two years pass between paying cash and getting what you were originally promised. Why not just bring in some investors and release it when it's actually ready? I'm staying on the sidelines for now. A friend has an original model so I'll have a blast on that.

Here's my film for this year's Virgin Media Shorts. I don't think it'll embed so if you want to see it you'll need to follow the link.   If you like it, please share on Twitter with #VMShortsVote as they count the shares,   Let me know what you think! Has anyone else entered?   http://www.virginmediashorts.co.uk/film/5002/messiah#ooid=sxZndkZDq3xJs2shDeKoCPKp_abn8Txh

I cancelled my Blackmagic Order for the 4K model. I spent the money I got back going to see the Adam Curtis and Massive Attack documentary in Manchester (whihc as you know was amazing) and pocketed the rest.   I couldn't deal with heaving no idea when they were going to ship, and thus whip the money out of my account.   I think I may sell all my S35 old cine lenses end up with a MKiii before the year is out, just for practicality's sake...

Dude, I was there too, I went up especially for it, had I known I would have given you a shout!   Definitely in the vein of Koyaanisqatsi... apocalyptic and amazing...

Here's my latest vid using a macro lens for a lot of shots, you can achieve the same lossless effect using extension tubes.   http://www.eoshd.com/comments/topic/3018-gyunel-paris-part-one-bath/

A dark fashion mood piece for Paris Couture show... Retro grunge horror style and Lynchian lunacy   https://vimeo.com/69454379

I love your macro shots...   You know, I just shot a piece with 600D using a lot of macro, and yes, if you get to 1:1, and then use 3X crop you have insane magnification, but controllable depth of field.

Back on David Lynch, I like the lack of fear, the embracing of flaws and faults.... working with the broken and so on. He's not the only one who does it, but it's good inspiration. There's more to film than raw ;)   Jello is a uniquely violent form of image distortion, or a flaw that breaks the mood... it all depends on context.   Personally I'm now obsessed with low resolution, noise, flicker and motion... so some of his work is a good reference.

innit. I would be very surprised if it's not all moire madness. They'll wanna trickle it all down from a high-end model.   so the 800D should have no moire. I-frame, and this 20.2MP sensor... but still 8-bit 4:2-0   Meanwhile I'm shooting a 600D with anti-moire filter, lossless 3X crop video mode, all the ML hacks including I-frame varying between 50-165mbps...   Lord.    The only upgrade in their range for me is the 5D MKiii...

mmmmmm, JPEG    -_-

http://www.viddler.com/v/7fadd6ab   This example is so compressed I can't tell much about moire. Looks pretty much like standard Canon stuff. Let's hop the moire is gone, though I'm not too hopeful...

The latest Superman on the other hand, is packed wall to wall with thinly veiled anti-Chinese, anti Communist, and pro Christian propoganda.   One the bad guys (girls) with a "generic evil East European accent" even says "Evolution always wins" before Superman (who is compared to Christ two or three times throughout the film) gives her a kicking. It's packed with allusions to communist art, except unlike when Superman was first knocking around fighting Communism, the enemy is now China not Russia. Zod even has what looks a lot like a sickle on his chest!   So the Krypton elite have head-dresses resembling those from traditional Chinese opera, Maoist posters are used for the visual reference when the story of Zod's evil is told, the bad guys talk about "the people" and controlling the number of births and what jobs people have, while the American Superman talks of how a man can become anything he wants to because of "freedom". The US military machine is presented as a benevolent, ultra-reasonable guardian of the known universe.   It was 80% funded by product sponsorship, placements and tie ins, with a big chunk chucked in by big-ol baptist churches. I assume that's where the creationist angle and Superman asking for advice from a man of the cloth comes from.   As unnervingly beautiful as it looks (Kodak Vision 3, Panavision Primo Anamorphic), it's a combo nasty flag-waving propaganda, adverts and religious messaging. It's US interest and corporate machine propaganda of the highest order, and thus probably exactly what Superman should be.   It's insidious anti-art, far from innocent entertainment in my eyes.   Michael Shannon is still my favorite actor at the moment though.   I first saw Shannon in Shotgun Stories, he was amazing. Take Shelter and Boardwalk Empire he's great too...

RE: Suckerpunch, an interesting case!   The Movie Bob piece was a good watch, but IMHO Movie Bob is doing exactly what the neckbeard audience always does: read too much into their movies, books and games in an attempt to make them cleverer than they are. He may be attempting to stop people ascribing negative "testosterone fueled" intentions to the picture by revealing a plot underneath, but in truth the complexity or otherwise of any plot underneath doesn't matter if the film fails to rise above that which it attempts to parody or subvert.   If you followed the theory he's using here, every single dumb over-the-shoulder shooting game actually deserves our respect for its incredibly deep plot, just because it attempts to in some way humanise its characters, and throw in twists to seem smart. *slow clap*. This theory would make Dragonball Z genius, because it's both over complicated and  really violent.   In gears of war they chat for a minute or so between huge battles, and use ham-fisted ways to get us to connect witht he "characters": a dead wife, some other family nonsense, but it's still hackneyed tripe. Basically, Bob's line runs that because they gave it some kind of attempt at plot, because they bolted a puzzle-piece story around the action scenes they wanted to show, we are wrong to say it's a wankfest. I say it plays to precisely the same audience, and lacks subversion.   The theory seems to be that if you throw a load of clunky, disconnected and overt-thought complex metaphors into a graphics piece it's somehow clever. But it's not, it's still reams and reams of extended, explosive battleporn interspersed with minimal dialogue and a paper-thin storyline, which itself is cobbled together from the least emotive, most aesthetically pleasing parts of of other stories. The purpose of the so called story is to excuse the following action.   Setting something in multiple reality layers does not automatically render it clever or successful (see: Inception), it can give a superficial appearance of out-of-the-box writing, especially in a genre of movie where risk aversion is a way of life, but this swiftly becomes unraveled without the character empathy necessary to allow the audience to truly connect.   There's no real development of character in Suckerpunch, every single player in it is one-dimensional designed to drive the flaccid story in one direction or another in order to line up the next round of basement-bro bad-guy thwacking.   We have zero empathy with the characters, which means it doesn't matter how many levels of reality are there or how much we're 'being laughed at', we don't care. It's not good enough to go "Aaaaaaah, but you didn't get it, it's actually really complex...", so are all stories, especially if you start to project you own beliefs onto them vie in-depth after-viewing analysis.   The important thing is that it does not function as a anything more than a beautiful graphics showreel, because the graphics are beautiful, overwhelming and make you go "wow" while the plotline, characters, scripting, pacing, acting and attempts to make a point that may or may not be intentional, are all lacklustre.   Finally, the layer of "it's laughing at the audience" plays perfectly to the target audience, who always want to feel cleverer than the rest, like they get something no-one else does. In order to truly subvert you have to rise above. In order to be a Trojan horse it's not enough just to get in the gates, you need to bust out at night and take over! Suckerpunch just ended up in the stables with rest of em...

Ah I heard of dark energy but haven't tried it, I'll have to give it a go!

I was gonna say Neat Video... ha! It is the best from my tests, gives Red Giant Denoiser a kicking

What's odd is that Nikon want a piece of this action but won't move on it.   They are sponsoring Virgin Media Shorts, giving a lot of talks on the subject or DSLR shooting, but in fact most entries will be shot on Canon SLRs.   They should step it up and make a nice mirrorless with some real video features. Raw would kill it, but they do seem a bit too closely tied to Canon to compete so aggressively.

  I was watching this yesterday. Just insanely ambitious, if you haven't read the book it makes no sense! Everything is voice over...   It looks beautiful though...   Amazing art direction sets and costumes. Beautiful colours