plz critique my learning plan and offer advice

[William Gould]

I am currently a later life student going for general film production (they dont have a cinematographer specific role or classes fwiw but i've taken a variety of classes from directing to production to acting to understand how to better interact with actors, etc) in moorhead minnesota, though I still have another 1.5 or 2.5 years left before I finish between need to work (no relation to film) and take classes that are spaced out/only offered every 2 years kind of thing.

I'm not even sure whether "graduating with a degree" matters - other than if i'm interested in learning some masters level whatever in the future and I need an undergrad for it - however i'm trying to get as close as I can to graduating in case I have to finish things out.  (by which I mean I don't think I can get my last classes done in 1.5 years right now but I just wanted to jump into work if I have it - if that's not good i'll take the last year and finish the degree)

 

I'm not waiting til graduation nor planning to not work on film related projects though.  I'm just going to start with "lowly" youtube stuff because it's a place I can make stuff, post stuff, and get feedback easily.  Its also low risk and I can fail without consequence. I wont mind doing some projects for free or minimal cost more for learning and building a reel than actually expecting to make good money at the beginning unless I get lucky.  I dont want to just jump into the lowest level of some job that I repeat for a decade, i'm trying to advance my skills before i'm through school hoping I can show some skill at a higher level worth maybe hiring at a higher level.  Or maybe that's delusional, comment if you want.  : P  I suppose it comes down to who you impress and whether they want to hire you though.

 

Enough of that talk.  I am slowly building up both a list of film and videomaking type equipment that i'm hoping to learn to build skills.  Some i've already bought over xmas (like the classic hardware store lighting kit) and other will be hopefully coming in the next year.  I'm going to share what i'm hoping to get and what my logic is for each.

 

Hardware store lighting kit - I figure if I can learn to light with "improvised" equipment I never need to fear ending up on a budget shoot where something was forgotten or you have to make do.  Any professional lighting gear will be an upgrade.  I actually have a portable "proper" lighting set with two halogen lights already but i'm treating putting together hardware store lighting as a learning experience - clamp on lights, halogen bulbs or LED bulbs with 90-95 CRI ratings, lamp cord dimmers.  I also picked up an Apurture B7C and Nanlite Pavobulb 10C to experiment with because I wanted to learn their app ecosystem and how it works and because theyre supposed to handle high framerates even 1000hz footage on digital sensors without flicker issues, i'm aware LED's are hit and miss over that.

 

First DSLR I plan to be a Canon EOS M because of Magic Lantern, I want to capture 14bit RAW footage for use in chromakey and VFX use.  I'm not too worried about manual focus or recording time - the first is a learning skills issue the latter only relevant for longer projects.  I'd considered eventually upgrading this to a nicer camera for Magic Lantern like a 5D Mark III but my current thinking is when i'm looking for VFX-usable footage i'll go for something from Blackmagic since they shoot 12bit and have BRAW which will be more relevant for any longer projects where quality matters.

 

I want to use adapters for Nikon manual F-mount manual SLR lenses - great image quality for my use, they can be cine-modified/declicked fairly easily, they are rugged, like a proper cinema lens, and they are very affordable, letting me access a number of different lenses and types (primes, zooms, macro, UV-capable) and they can adapt to both the Canon EOS as well as the next cameras i'm listing AFAIK.  As they say you date the sensor but you marry the lens, I hope to opportunistically watch for and buy a number of different F-mount lenses because of these priorities, and I still plan to treat it well but also less expensive equipment you're willing to take more risks with/if i've got some $5000 cine lens i'd be terrified to run with it for run'n'gun cinematography but if it's $50 from ebay and I fall oh well.  I hope to learn the skills on less expensive equipment like this and then transfer the skills for a "real shoot" where we can rent the expensive stuff to get max possible quality imagery.

I'm willing to consider other lenses, including AF/AA type things which have their use too.  Feel free to suggest - esp if something with another separate adapter fills some need, or at some total price point better than the F-mount lenses will.

 

Sony A7S Mark 1 - at some point I want to add this camera to my plans because of it's reputation as the low light king.  I wouldn't replace the 14bit Magic Lantern footage but this is going to be better for alot of common cases.  Eventually i'd like to upgrade this to a Mark 3 because it's something like 1.7 stops more light gathering at the same noise level, but also at 4x the price sooo... learning with the Mark 1 to start.  

 

Whenever i'm willing to make the transition from fulltime learning student to "starting to do some professional work" i'm wanting to go with some kind of Black Magic camera because of it's BRAW and ability to record direct to SSD's which is going to be alot less painful whether i'm shooting hours of footage for a documentary or whatever.  I haven't nailed down exactly which camera yet but it's at least 18 months away so I was less worried, I have alot of learning to do between now and then.

 

I'm also wanting to look at yet other cameras (or even *gasp* smartphone videography, but i'll try not to offend people by mentioning the topic most of the time 🙂 ) for special effects type shots like the Sony RX100's do super slow motion for instance, and so if I ever stumble across one of those at a good price i'll look there, there's full spectrum modifyable cameras that i'd be curious about getting those otherworldly effects from UV and IR videography - ones i've looked at that are half-affordable or easy to modify arent even 1080p but if i'm about learning skills first, including the skills to know what something might look like when shot in UV/IR by having the freedom to actually go do it and use it.

 

There's other related things I could go into - i'm not sure how much money is to be saved for what things, or whether it's even worth struggling over $10 here or $20 there at times if the nonprofessional solution actually is a step down or not really worth learning that much from people using white bedsheets or shower curtains as diffusors to using silvered car windshield hot weather reflectors for bouncing sunlight onto a subject, but i'm simultaneously cash-poor, ambition-strong to really learn this, and motivated to learn skills that will really stand out because i'm later enough on in life that spending 10 years taking too long to climb the ladder to higher levels that i'd like to work at might mean I never get a chance to do any of the indie film projects (both narrative and documentary, and music videos, and others) that I really really want to do.  I'll seriously consider any and all advice including people who think i'm going down the wrong direction.  🙂

 

[Tyler Purcell]

Yea, I think it's for sure challenging if you have no money. 

When I didn't have money, I actually went with Blackmagic because I liked the all-manual, ProRes and Raw recording. Where the original pocket cine didn't have much dynamic range and was only 1080p, I used the living crap out of that camera. The fact it was small, light and had a short flange distance, meant I could adapt any lens I wanted AND it looked like a still camera, so nobody knew I was shooting video. I gotta say, it was great for that perspective alone, with far better quality than any phone at the time period. To this day, I think they are great entry cameras, including the Pocket 4k because even though they are very flawed, I think being able to work within the flaws, helps you grow as a filmmaker. You need to light, you need to learn how to do focus pulls/racking, you need to learn about exposure and things like shutter angle and ISO range. 

Where it's true, the EOS M is very low cost, I don't think it works like you think it does. The media type really limits the potential of Magic Lantern. Plus you'll not learn the proper nomenclature with such a camera for your work in the future. It's basically just a stills camera, with stills camera features that happens to also shoot video. The Blackmagic Pocket cameras are cinema cameras, which act like other professional cinema cameras, so you'll learn a lot more using them. Plus, having a camera with a high ISO range for learning, isn't a great idea. You want to be forced into lighting because that's how any real production will be. If you get your lighting chops at a young age, it will pay your dividends in your future career. 

Lower end cameras (including the blackmagic ones) have horrible rolling shutter, the original pocket is around 17ms, so is the pocket 4k. For comparison, higher end cinema cameras are around 7 - 9ms. The Canon EOS M is the worst readout of any camera of its size/class at 33ms. This basically creates jello when shooting anything that has motion what so ever. Poor read out speed is one of the quintessential low-budget problems that can't be fixed easily. You will wind up hitting a brick wall before you even get the camera because your footage will always look like jello. This is the case with ANY stills camera that happens to shoot video. This is why all of those more inexpensive cameras you talked about, are so cheap today. Heck, Sony didn't really address the 22 - 25ms rolling shutter in their A7R and A7S series cameras until very recently. This is again, part of why I suggest more cinema specific cameras, because I feel in the end, you will simply get far better looking material. 

Stills lenses are also a major problem for video, it's not just the stop clicks, it's also focus repeatability on electronic lenses but focus range and markings, which really make them tricky to work with. Many companies make EF/FD cinema primes, but if you're looking for $50 dollar lenses, you will be extremely disappointed. Plus with zoom lenses, you aren't going to find anything parfocal for low cost, which means you can't really do zoom shots. Cinema lenses are parfocal, which means they stay in focus when you zoom, still lenses aren't parfocal, because they don't need to be. It's far more expensive to build a parfocal design zoom than not. With an AF cinema adjacent camera like the new Nikon ZR, you can get away with non-parfocal lenses by purchasing Z mount lenses, but that's A LOT of money. 

I wouldn't worry about things like slow mo and high ISO, they're gimmicks and they don't necessarily build good skills. People who over crank everything, are being lazy for emotional value. People who run high ISO are also being lazy, because they don't want to light. I shoot everything at 1600 ISO or less, 1600 is literally the cap/top I will ever do if it's on digital or pushing film two stops, that's the max. With film shoots, I try to light for 200iso if possible, with digital I'm generally doing the same thing, tho I can push it to 800 if need be. I prefer the tighter grain structure of lower ISO workflows and the cameras just work a lot better. So focusing on higher ISO's is something that isn't necessary unless you have a particular application up the road where you need it. 

One thing nobody mentions is sound, which shouldn't be done in camera. There are low cost recorders of course, Tascam and Zoom have been making low cost entry level recorders for years you can buy used on eBay. I would stay away from the DJI style self recording mic's, they're too big for any professional work and if you're wanting to do narrative, you need to hide the mic's. If you're starting with documentary work, you may be able to get away with a self recording mic, but I personally would stay away. Buying a nice on-board STEREO mic (not many, but if you research you'll find) will up the quality substantially of your non-dialog driven audio, but then you still need some sort of recorder. When I do documentary work, I always bring a good kit with me and record audio outside of picture to make sure I have a lot of base "walla" to work with. Then for recording dialog, I have a wireless lav plugged into my audio recorder. You can get wireless lav's for peanuts today, but it is an investment. You could also forego the typical boom mic for dialog if you have a good wireless lav and onboard shotgun mic. 

Lighting is also important and sure, you can get away with construction lights sometimes, being able to control your lighting and understanding how to shape light, are things that are challenging to do with construction lights. Tungsten lights are pretty inexpensive these days, you could save up and get a small tungsten kit with an open face and fresnel, that will teach you a lot. You can make your own frames for black velvet as negative fill and bed sheet as diffusion, that's fine. They just weigh more than buying them from a store, but oh well. If you can wood work, you can easily build a simple frame. The quality of light is the most important part and lower end LED's/construction lights, really struggle for that quality. So if your goal is to impress and improve your results, you will struggle without good quality lights. Tungsten lighting is by far the cheapest way to get professional lights, but you have to be aware of the globe (bulb) costs and stand costs as well. Due to their weight, you can get a bit lop sided with budget quickly. C Stands are great too, but again, an added cost. 

The final thing to think about is your computer and storage, because that's another huge cost. When you're talking about shooting raw and iFrame codec's, suddenly you're discussing needing a faster computer with a lot more GPU potential. Initially you can be good with something cheaper/weaker, but over the years you will need to put budget aside for something good and reliable. You will also need high speed storage. We have multiple raid enclosures, but I also work from Thunderbolt NVME SSD's, most of them Sandisk Professional. You need the performance of an SSD to playback the media without jumping and you need space because you will fill the drives up fast. You will also need backups so when the SSD's fail, you have the media somewhere else because they WILL just suddenly go out if you aren't careful. SD cards for the cameras are exactly the same; kinda expensive for the ones that work properly. You may spend as much money on good quality cards and a drive to put them on, as your entire used camera package. I know when I got my pocket cameras, I didn't consider storage until it was too late and I wound up spending a lot of money solving that problem because it was urgent. 

So yea, I think you have good ideas, but you will need to put together a good budget and buy the right equipment. If you just blow it on junk, you will never get your money back, it will just all be totally throw away and you will never be happy with the results. A modern Pro series iPhone in Pro Res or even Raw mode, will destroy any of the cameras you are discussing and you can get one for a grand. You can run them in all manual mode with the blackmagic app as well, so you can get a lot of education from them. But seeing as your budget is lower than that, you will need to be very careful what you buy and understand it's limitations and your expectations. That's all I'm after here, I just want to make sure you aren't expecting something worthwhile to come the super low end penny pinching aspect of low budget filmmaking. Where I wasn't disappointed with my original pockets, for the time period I used them most (2013 - 2017) there was nothing else like them. I stopped using them because I simply couldn't get work with them. That's generally what happens, people want to get work with their equipment and then can't because it has no value. When you're starting out and only shooting for yourself, it's ok to have junk, but the moment you want to expand, the cost of admission is generally more than people can afford. If you have good modern equipment, it's a lot easier to get work. So if your goal is to work in the industry, then you have to raise the money and buy good stuff that is accepting. Maybe not your first kit, but shortly there after, you need to get a job and start saving money. The people who don't, wind up giving up a lot of times because no matter what they do, other peoples work is always better and they get frustrated and quit. That's another thing to really ponder. 

 

[Stewart McLain]

One more thing to consider:  When I bought my first cine camera (a used Panasonic AF100) I decided to go the F mount route because my stills camera was a Nikon and I already had those lenses on hand.  I stuck with that when I started buying cine primes (budget level Rokinon) because I figured having easily interchangable lenses was a good idea.  

It took a while before I discovered that Nikon lenses focus in reverse direction compared to all other lenses.  So getting good at pulling focus on Nikon lenses means your instincts to turn clockwise or counter-clockwise will be backward from every other cine lens manufactuerer.