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Music video I directed just went live! Shot on Arri Alexa Mini with Cooke S4/i glass and it was a pleasure to use! I'm always taken by the Alexa image every time I work with it. Wish I could afford to use one every time I shoot! directed by Dave Altizer produced by Jarad Clement director of photography Chris Adams edited and color graded by Jarad Clement here are some BTS shots

Went to Pinpoint Muay Thai and shot some test footage with the Kinefinity Terra 6K. Shot in 4K with a helios44-2 modified by vidatlantic to have oval bokeh. Hope you like it...

Look here fore an interesting camera shootout!: - with high-end cameras like the Alexa, Red Dragon, Epic, Sony F55, Canon C500, Blackmagic Production Camera 4K, Sony FS 700 4k, - and also lower priced rated cams, like the 5dmk3raw, GH4 4k and Blackmagic pocket camera... Guess the camera...:)

Canon cameras sell very well because they make people look great by creating very pleasing skintones. Apparently for technical reasons (silicon sensors, etc.), Canon makes skintones look great at the expense of color accuracy. ARRI is the undisputed* King of Color Science and reading about how to make a C300 somewhat match an Alexa may be helpful in setting up new cameras such as the GH4 and A7S to produce more pleasing skintones (at the expense of color accuracy): http://provideocoalition.com/aadams/story/color-matching-a-canon-c300-to-an-arri-alexa Art noted that digital cameras do the best in daylight (~5500K) due to sensor response to blue. While I too have noticed that Sony, for example, does much better in sunlight, I've found that cameras also do well in Tungsten (~3200K). While Tungsten doesn't have much blue, it is a continuous spectrum light, and that I believe is the most important issue. Cameras have the most trouble in mixed light (fluorescent + incandescent + LED, etc.) or light sources with large gaps in the spectrum (some fluorescent and many LED lights). I had no idea what kind of light this was, however AWB with the A7S wasn't too far off (minor WB adjust in post: still a bit magenta but that's the look I wanted): In the Art Adams article above, he had to make custom profiles (mostly the special Color Matrix) for each desired color temperature (two provided). This makes it clear that getting pleasing (and/or accurate) color for a wide variety of color temperatures and light sources is a very challenging technical problem. Face/skintone detection is one way manufacturers try to deal with the problem (regardless of race, all skintones have similar color properties (along the 'skintone' line on the vectorscope: ). It's not likely there's anything we can do to picture profiles on cameras to improve color performance vs. factory settings for general use. If we tweak colors for a particular WB and light source, it won't be correct for another light source with different spectral properties. Thus, if someone posts a tweaked color profile that changes WB colors or general color matrices, keep in mind those tweaks might not work correctly for your particular situation. * this is the internet, so the likelihood of disputing is much greater than zero. The Sony F35 and F65 can produce great color, and the new RED Dragon and associated color science is looking very good. The camera system most people prefer in terms of color is the ARRI Alexa (now +Amira).

According to DxOMark the dynamic range of the Nikon D800 is a whopping 14.4 stops. I have no problem believing that it is not the same as the Alexa and that the Alexa's 14 stops are calculated differently. It is interesting though that the Canon 5D Mark III only scores a mere 11.7 in the same test, making it almost a half stop less than the 6D (currently the best performing Canon DSLR in the dynamic range category) and 0.2 stops lower than the Mark II Nikon D800: http://www.dxomark.com/Cameras/Nikon/D800 Canon 5D Mark III http://www.dxomark.com/Cameras/Canon/EOS-5D-Mark-III Does anybody else find this a bit peculiar? Especially since the 5D is the "go to" DSLR for filmmakers, heck I even own one my self.

Shot on Alexa with 50mm Panavision C-Series @ stops between 1.4-2.8 with almost no second takes, so some of this is focus-pulling from the gods.

Some of the cons pointed out for Blackmagic Camera come from the point of view of casual DSLR shooting, not compared to other cinema cameras, which is what it's intended to compete with in a more budget-conscious manner. This was my thinking when pre-ordering the new Quad HD model.   A practical example:   The other day we were shooting an internal film for a client on Alexa Plus 4:3. Hey, if they can afford it...   The camera weighs 7KG (15lbs), that's just the body. Then you hang a Cooke prime on the front, a pair of Anton Bauers on the back and that's up to 10kg (22lbs) or so. Swap that for an Angeniuex or Arri Allura zoom for exmaple and you're up to 13KG (28lbs). That's before rigging, which needs to be heavy duty enough to hold such weight. As does your tripod.   We ate through eight big batteries in one day shoot, and they are bloody big expensive batteries. Also it wasn't really a full day in shoot terms. For day two we went to a an external tethered battery that was like a massive block of lead, so you have a person carrying that behind.   Does it look beautiful? Hell yeah! But it's not very easy...   The 4K (or Quad HD) BMD has an S35 sensor (it's actually smaller than S35 as most would think of it, but not enough to bother with, and not much more than the F55)  and you should be able to power it for a long time off of a chunky V-lok on a rig. You can then downscale the image in post or in camera to HD. You lose a few stops to the Alexa, but you can buy it for the price of a few days Alexa hire and use it every day til you know it like the back of your hand and you fill up your hard drive. And you can actually run and gun relatively stealthily due to global shutter and light weight. Seeing what could be done with the previous model of cinema camera actually made me think it wouldn't cut to bad with the Arri either.   Compared to picking up a 550D and shooting a friend or the trees outside, sure, Blackmagic cameras seem annoying, but compared to setting up a cinema camera? All the evidence so far from their previous camera suggests you'll get a long way to the wonderful look for less money, weight and hassle. Same for the pocket version, even if you have to rig it for batteries for some projects, I mean look at it, it's the size of a f***ing phone!   If you want to make narrative drama or blocked-out promo that is an amazing thought... you don't need to budget in a load of camera hire... just buy one of these, and that's all your films for the next three years sorted.   Now the new Red may have 6K, but I can't remember looking at a film shot on the old Red and thinking "oh that's not very detailed", quite the opposite, so it's quite excessive right now, and the cost is so high.   Let's just hope the new Cinema Cameras turn up in good time with no issues, after last year's debacle, all of those who have pre-ordered are rather nervous. There's quite a bit riding on these two models...   Now I just have to have a good idea... I knew there was a catch... ;)

Hi everyone!   Sorry if this is frowned upon, but we are looking to shoot a new short film, and have started a IndieGoGo campaign. We already have investors in place but are looking for that little bit extra to help us reach our full budget goal. If you could give but £1, or at least share/like the link,  that would be amazing. If you are as short of money as many are due to recent festivities, we fully understand! So if you could at least have a look, and share this link with everyone you know, just to help out, it would be highly appreciated. Here is the IndieGoGo link: http://www.indiegogo.com/twvfilm/x/126209/   Here is our previous film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soNR4aZkaAg Regards, Owen