fuzzynormal

As storytellers, let's consider that the "media" is always chasing good narrative thus they're chasing conflict. It's what we all do as filmmakers, if we're any good at our profession. Considering that parallel, it's not difficult to see why hard journalism based on straight-facts is more or less dead. How boring, right? It's not because good journalism doesn't get accomplished, but because not enough people respect it anymore or pay it any mind. Worse yet, many viewers and readers don't even distinguish between an Hannity, Maddow, or O'Reillly as opinion pundits vs. actual journalist. Less respect should be given to online info-tainment ideological websites. It's all an imbroglio, but I don't know if we should blame the media as much as ourselves. Information outlets seldom worry about objectivity these days simply because there's not enough viewers, ratings, or clicks in doing things that way. Why do they do it? Because we ask for it that way. They know EXACTLY what we want and what we're asking for. Believe me, they're doing all they can just to cater to us. They're a mess because we are as well. Actual journalism has marginalized to the corners of media organizations. It's there to lend legitimacy to their more popular opinion commentators, but make no mistake, the end game is to sell advertising. It's not to put forward integrity anymore. If that was the case CNN/MSNBC/FNC would hide in shame. Those are broad strokes. There are a few authentic sources out there, but a consumer needs to be savvy about the game being played and search them out. Typically we don't. For me, this whole discussion can devolve into an existential plight, and a serious reflection of what the health of the republic actually is --for I believe that we ultimately get what we ask for. And we, like all humans, turn to a strongman when life gets challenging. Not because it's smart or a healthy thing to do, but because there's easy comfort in it.

That would be yuge. Really great. The best camera. The best. I gotta say though Ed, surely you sensed this coming. You have an unvarnished view of Clinton. And anyone that's spent time in the rural midwest and then really looked hard at Hillary...well...considering that she had this locked up was never a reassuring thing. Americans are many things, but attracted to the pragmatic aloof intellectual? Eh, not so much. In regards to cameras and production, I am curious to see what the economy does as this odd amalgamation of Trump and the GOP burp out their supply-side ideas onto the nation. If the economy withers, will the corporate gigs get even thinner and anemic than they are now? Or, would potential self distribution of my work become somehow more viable? After all, the one industry that tends to thrive during tough economic times has always been entertainment.

I got me the EM5II. This is an issue with that cam as well. Minor, but it is one. Kinda annoying. Head phone jack is low on the EM5II battery grip so it's not a problem, but still that mic port gets in the way.

Try Best Buy. Looks like the readers are in stock in Orange county.

FWIW, Disney LAND. Not Disney WORLD. Anyway, wouldn't the Anaheim Fry's Electronics have one?

Too bad they couldn't get it to 72. Three second slow-mo bursts in RAW? Could be fun for video. Two seconds? Still interesting.

I'm encouraged, but still waiting for the reviews. The thing about Olympus, for me, is that it actually encouraged me to explore more stills photography. Usually I kept those cameras separate, even though I certainly use all sorts of "hybrids" that technically do both. I'd normally shoot stills on Fuji and video on whatever else...until I used the EM5II. Liked it so much it became my stills cameras AND motion picture camera. At least until I started shooting 4k on the GX85. Anyway, would love to parse down and just have one camera, two primes, and my 12-40 f2.8 for my upcoming 2017 work. If, and only if, it makes sense for video. We shall see. https://robinwong.blogspot.com/2016/09/olympus-mzuiko-25mm-f12-pro-lens-review.html http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Panasonic_Leica_DG_Nocticron_42-5mm_f1-2_H-NS043E/ http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/tag/olympus/

FWIW, I used the ZOOM R16 recorder a few years back to do 8 channel live recordings of a garage band while touring. Worked great even if the fidelity wasn't top notch. Just the allowance of being able to live record the band separate from the house PA was wonderful. I'd certainly be more partial to the Roland gear however. The pre's on 'em are impressively smooth.

2015.3 works on my PC somewhat smoothly. On my Mac it has the strange "conforming" bug. Not the most elegant software, I admit, but it's like a supped-up cheap Japanese sedan running on a race track. It can do what it does half way decently. However, it just feels like it might fly apart at any given moment and wasn't engineered to handle the stress put on it. I never feel like I can totally trust it. FCP7 had a lot of limitations, but it felt solid within its parameters. Maybe with Premiere I just need to add a huge spoiler to the back of the hatch? That outta do it.

FWIW, macintosh apples don't make for good pies.

Yeah, but I think they made a MarkII version that only used SD cards. I'm pretty sure of it. Google would know. As for the film, it only screened 2 times 'kuz we never really finished all the scenes. It was an incomplete edit. Now-a-days it sits in a hard drive on my bedroom shelf asking, "Won't you complete me!?" The answer is no; probably because we decided to try to do stop motion animation for some of the monster shots --and that shite is HARD to finish... My co-creator did load one of the scenes I shot in Michigan to youtube: (man, showing this stuff is like admitting that years ago you dated the neighborhood crazy person that bathed in tomato juice and would only eat a lentil/candy diet.)

Yeah, I don't get the Julian pie thing. I guess I was spoiled by my grandmother, her baking skills, and our own apples growing up.

Good adivce. Great camera for handheld video. I own two. I'm selling one of mine at the end on November when my current gig is in the can. I'm sure folks could find a cheap used one on eBay.

Yeah, here's the silly trailer. Funny thing is, our main actor became best buds with Matthew McConaughey after our shoot while doing that HBO series with him. Oh, timing! Fair warning, this movie is pretty ridiculous. Man, to think this was a decade ago. Too many drugs, not enough script. (not me doing the drugs, the actors) Good combo? Probably not.

Personally, I still prefer OS X, but if you're on Premiere and are just doing prores for preview, I think you could get away with any of the DNxHD to ProRes transcoding solutions. Thus, a cheaper Windows machine might be an option.

I think I've reached the point in my life where getting disconnected is an asset rather than a liability, so maybe worrying about connectivity should be low on my priority list! Thanks for the advice.

There you go. If you want to run the maths with this stuff, fine. Obviously the photo world is full up with these sorts of folks, this is a technical and artistic medium, but ...dang y'all... Just LOOK at the images a camera/lens produces. If it works good 'nuff for you, get to it. Go make something. Don't worry a wit if anyone says what they do is better or worse. Just do your own thing.

Oh yeah, appreciate the cooking tip. Very important. Thanks! Bigger seems like a good bet, but we're hoping to be able to move in and out of residential neighborhoods with this thing while, literally and figuratively, keeping a low profile. We're closer than most couples insomuch we're around each other non-stop every day. Seldom do we spend time apart. Our tolerance for each other is pretty established. Which, to be honest, I truly don't know how women can handle male hygiene. For that alone they should be granted sainthood. How's that Verizon coverage out in the boonies?

blah blah blah blah blah. If you're truly worrying about this kind of stuff, chances are you're not really MAKING anything worthwhile with any of it.

Ha! I've been trying in vain to talk my wife into getting a Vixen RV or a Travco, but she's not interested in anything retro at all. Anyway, we're doing it to help pursue our next project while also visiting midwest family, making our movie while living on the road is the commitment. So, what are the top 3 things you learned?

You can get all sorts of cool old cameras on eBay for not a lot. Those early Panasonic cameras with their proprietary SS drives? P2 was it? Maybe look those up. Probably only a few hundred bucks or so. Man, I shot an unashamedly horrible joke-horror movie on a XH-A1 years ago. Such a bad movie. I love it. Not only for how truly Corman-esque it was, but the fact that it was shot on a small sensor camera. Looked good, in a bad way. Or is it bad in a good way?

Same. I'm wrapping up a big project now and getting ready to sell off the PC gear I built up for it. My wife and I are going to live 2017 on the road in an RV, so a laptop is in order. We were considering a brand new PC or Mac laptop, but have realized that our workflow for post is actually leaning on proxy-editing more than we would have first imagined. Proxy editing is NOT demanding on a computer. This reality informs us that buying a used laptop, like you did on eBay, would be more than adequate --and save us thousands of dollars. (...and if anyone wants to buy a loaded PC for 4K editing in February of 2017, just let me know)

Oh yeah, most definitely. Self distribution is the new (only) way to go for filmmakers like myself. Sundance gets a ridiculous amount of submissions (tens of thousands) from earnest people unable to be self-critical. I'm working with a producer now that shipped off a proof-of-concept video I did with her to Sundance. It was ridiculous. I wouldn't even think of putting it into my own festival --and I made the thing! I thought it was decent...for a corporate video, but that was the extent of it. So, yeah, knowing the inherent value of your work and being self-critical seems to be a tricky skill for a lot of people. Trust me when I say that exploiting such naivete is the financial backbone of many a film fest. Those submission fees add up.

I made my last doc for basically free. Just my wife and I doing everything. Paid for flights to and from Japan, that was pretty much it. As for the current film festival circuit: They're a legacy thing. Back in the day festivals had clout simply because they were a bigger deal. Now-a-days they exist to prop up the purveyors on the things and, maybe, actual filmmakers every now-and-again. BTW, I'm a film festival producer for our local shin-dig here in SoCal, and I also helped (years ago) to launch one of the current premiere film fests in the mid-south, such as it is. Ultimately, fests are like everything else these days. Everybody's doing it since digital made it easy. It's not a problem to get into some sort of a film festival. However, it's not easy getting into a good one. I just got back with my film from a rather lousy fest, that had no serious networking, horrible screenings, poor attendance...yet it was a lot of fun. My wife and I even gleaned a great nugget of financial info from one of the panels that was wildly invaluable, so you never know... We have our last one in Toronto coming up, and it's gonna be the most "legit" festival we got into. Still, that might be a lesser experience than our goofy no-budget fest we just attended. We enjoyed our time at the goofy fest. We made some new friends. If you can do that, that's the main thing. Just be gracious, try to get on the same wavelength as the interesting people you'll meet, and you'll be fine. At the middle rung and lower rung of festivals, these things are just glorified parties -- if you're lucky! (Some aren't even that) That's the best you can hope from it. Having fun and meeting some good folks. There's really only two or three festivals where industry stuff actually happens and films get "launched." Because of that, there's only industry films represented. Unless you're a creative wunderkind that made something uniquely awesome (and entertainingly so) you're probably not going to get into any serious festivals on your own. Actually, in spite of making something awesome and new, that actually would probably get you rejected from most film festivals. The reality is that most selection committees are community regular-joe/jane types. They're not savvy about film. If subject matter floats in front of their eyes that they can relate to, they'll ignore all the shortcomings of the flick and give it a big old bear hug, filmmaking craft be damned. Arguably, this happens with "savvy" festivals as well. Three actors and three crew. Make something with that situation. Learn how to be smart with your time and talent. It WILL pay off; creatively and professionally.

Could it be a circle of confusion?