What expensive camera obsessions are doing for filmmaking

[Guest Umbrella]

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that tells me GH2 can deafly be projected effectively lol.

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[Guest Umbrella]

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only reason there is so many cameras so much gear aimed at us is because if they made the perfect tool we would buy that and thats it. they wouldn’t sell anymore gear which is not good for business. why can’t people see that? why are there several types of cereal? haha several types of toothpaste? bollocks. it’s like we learnt nothing from history..blinded by business minds at work.

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[Guest Umbrella]

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the day a well known film makers shoots a feature on something deemed as non pro is the day we all wake up.

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[Guest Andrew Reid]

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New DSLR porn films? Where can I download these!!??? [img]http://www.eoshd.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif[/img]

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[Guest DaVillalvazo]

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I agree with your article. I think DSLRS are what really have made a revolution on Indy filmmaking and the film industry ( C300 is a consequence of 5DmkII), like mac computers back in the 80`s, DSLRS are the tools of hobbysts that became extraordinary for “profesional” mainstream people . Cameras like 5DmkII and GH2 are delivering what RED/Scarlet concept promised more than 3 years ago in terms of lightness, price and image quality ( not to mention that now Scarlet, instead of a revolutionary camera it is a crippled version of a High end model)

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[Guest studio17b]

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Seek, and ye shall find. Heh. There’s a whole series of them by now, last I checked (which was, erm, 2 nights ago). Unless of course I am mistaken and they were shot with RED cameras. *shrug* But they look like Canon shots to me, based on experience with the corporate video work I have been involved with.

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[Guest biginvegas]

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Who do you want me to start with? Godard, Andy Warhol, Mike Figgis, Michael Winterbottom, Abbas Kurostami, Lars V Trier, Takashi Miike, harmony Korine….

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[Guest hdslr4ever]

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Why is he Buying a Scarlet with 2k slowmo when what he should be doing is renting an EPIC for the 4k slowmo??

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[Guest danyyyel]

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I see the red announcement will have much more implication to the indi world. Now you can’t announce a product with less spec for less than $ 15 000. So realistically cameras like the F3 with the slog update won’t be able to cost more than $ 10/12k. At least $ 4k less. The c300 not more than 8K, if they want it to sell in volume. This will put those prices much closer to the indi crowd. An F3 slog is a mini Alexa. All this has a cascading effect and when you get something as disruptive as the Sarlet-X price, it put the market in turmoil because all the manufacturers will be under pressure because they won’t know how each and everyone will react to it. So no 8 bit camera in the $ 5000 next camera etc etc. Higher native bitrate etc. It will speed everything. Which will result in a win for us customers.

Canon for example could even sacrifice the C300. These companies (japanese) don’t like to loose face. They might keep it as a flagship even if it sell much less than planned. But they could respond to red with the new Cine Dslr. But with much better image spec than the C300 (omit one or two thing like the xlr imput etc) and competitive price. To try to keep their dslr indi users.

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[Guest Andrew Reid]

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It is like putting the cart before the horse, the sales before the product even exists. It is a leap of faith enough to buy a product that already exists, buying one that doesn’t seems to add another layer of ‘I made this possible’ aspiration to it. In some cases it is justified, but sometimes it is just a consumerist mind washing exercise. There are a lot of good marketers out there, if only there were as many good filmmakers.

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[Guest Andrew Reid]

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I didn’t to go film school, but at no point during my arts class at university in the UK did my tutor encourage me to go out and spend $20,000 on camera equipment. I wonder why!

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[Guest Philip]

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Andrew, your conclusion of artistic creation and the vision to make it possible comes within goes without saying. Now if an artist is confident in himself, he can create a good story with any camera as Art Adams have said himself. If you’re confident and other artists are confident in their own abilities, there is no reason to bring up a specific person’s name and make example of him/her. That ain’t cool. So what if someone uses a RED or an Alexa? What if they have a 20k budget and I don’t? I personally don’t care because GEAR doesn’t really matter. I believe in my own artistic skills.
Your blog isn’t really promoting how to hone the inner filmmaker either which, I’m sorry to say makes you a hypocrite. Where’s the article of how to make a great story, composition, character development, writing skills…etc?
Your blog itself promotes this trend of seeking gear first. That’s where the trend of our aspiring filmmakers are going, it’s gear obsession and be honest, I’m in it and you’re in it as well.
Democratization of filmmaking? It depends on how you see it. Anyone can shoot with a cheap DV camera, edit on their computer with an affordable editing program.
You think Koo is setting a bad example for us poor hobbyist filmmakers? If you’re insecure, YES. If you’re confident in your artistic skills, NO.

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[Guest Philip]

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Comments like this make people backing Andrew’s point of view look real stupid and ignorant. Not really helping the cause there. Stating the obvious. Of course everyone would want to see a good film made. That’s not the point. And what’s up with the last comment? “I’m betting Koo’s film wont be.” A lot of hate man.

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[Guest Philip]

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That’s his DECISION. He chose to go with the RED. You want to shoot an action flick with 2 DSLRs, by all means, go ahead. Have some respect for what others decide to do with their film.

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[Guest Philip]

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And I see a lot of insecure posters (won’t name names) who act very childish. They have to defend their point to all means and attack others that threaten their security. Grow up. We should be congratulating a fellow filmmaker for finally being able to get the budget to make his/her film. Not criticize how the budget is managed/handled and which gear is being deployed or how horrible the film will turn out. Have an open mind. Some will do it their way, it won’t conform to how we do it but it doesn’t mean that it’s wrong or subject to hate. Open mind is the way to go if you are a filmmaker or desire creativity. There is no one way of doing things. That’s the definition of an artist.

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[Guest paulning]

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Gear is matter. Especially a camera which can shot 1920 X 1080p@120fps MAX sold for $2K already fulfill my near. However, neither Panasonic nor Canon are going to show their muscle shortly. However, someone just hacked the GH2 to shot 10,000 fps @480p. Although, I am not totally agree with Andrew’s POV but definitely, being a starter that’s really no need to invest the hardware for the film first. There is another way, rent it! Buy hardware when your position are getting close to Steven Spielberg.

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[Guest newone]

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I liked the original article because it goes to the heart of a lot of especially small-business people. Many I know want a business as a way to get gear for their enjoyment. I know one person who put her 401k up to start a business that went down the tubes after 6 months. None of the bankers bothered to check the viability of her business. It was sad. I read photo forums and many people want to start a business just to buy a camera they read about and want. To me, that’s why this article was good.

You didn’t accuse anyone. I looked at nofilmschool and the kickstarter project site and the twitters from koo to see what was being discussed. But I also saw koo’s comment saying you need to correct yourself, but that seemed odd to me because he didn’t say what he was going to do with the extra $15000 – that would have been the first thing I did, not jump up and down about buying a camera. When you ask the public to spend money on set things, you are really accountable to them. For someone who spends so much time posting to twitter, I thought he should have spent the time on the money issue and clarifying what changes to the production or plans the purchase would have. I think he waited too long and he still didn’t seem to give a specific plan. What he did say, which is interesting, is that he would put it into the movie or rent the camera out for free OR for a deferred fee to the production. Deferred could be used to say he’s going to pay some or all of the camera at a later time, for example with kickstarter funds. But he doesn’t say exactly what he means by deferred, so I’m not sure if he means deferred in the sense that there will be no payment or a payment made at a later time. So it is now open to interpretation that kickstarter funds will be used to pay for the camera, but it depends?? If he knows enough to know exactly how he’s going to do this then he should have said so instead of asking for a correction because by his own wording, it could mean that he will eventually use kickstarter funds to pay for at least some of the camera depending on how he means deferred and depending on what is done with the fees paid. I think he should have understood why there is confusion about what is going on with the extra money.

As I’ve said, filmmakers are being prosecuted right now for fraud and other issues. The link below relates to filmmakers taking advantage of tax credits. And I encourage everyone to read it. I believe it’s relevant to the discussion of accountability for all of us.

http://www.state.ia.us/government/ag/latest_news/releases/aug_2011/Elgin.html

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[Guest studio17b]

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So when you see a neighbour abusing his children you… just watch and keep your peace? Bit extreme, perhaps, but the gist is similar: the funds used are public funds, and therefore it becomes a public matter and is open to public scrutiny and comment. Just because a majority of the funders would happily give money to him again after this one doesn’t make it morally acceptable, as a concept. The fact of that $15k explicit expenditure still stands.

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[Guest studio17b]

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“They have to defend their point to all means and attack others that threaten their security.”
Hmm. Isn’t that precisely what you’re doing?

“Grow up.”
Et tu.

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[Guest OverCranked]

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hmmm…. one would wonder why you and your type are afraid of accountability.

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