Best subscription magazines for Digital video / And for photography

[Matt Stevens]

I am trying to learn more and was at Barnes & Nobles yesterday, stunned to see how many choices there are for magazines. All are insanely expensive, but subscribing means the price is cut by an average of 66%.

 

Only which magazines to subscribe to?

 

I'm interested in...

 

A magazine that will deal with photography, especially actual film shoots involving 35mm, 16mm and 8mm.

 

A magazine devoted to filmmaking via digital means, be it DSLR or more pro-sumer High Def vid cameras.

 

What are the best of the best? Are there any or are magazines just too dead?

[KH Martin]

I'm probably prejudiced because I write for them, but HD VIDEO PRO (despite its title) does cover a certain number of film-based shoots, even though most columns and reviews focus on the digital tools. They are very big covering DSLR and Red.

 

International Cinematographers Guild does likewise, and their pieces are usually longer, though they can usually only cover stuff shot by their membership. Lately ICG has been very big on covering mocap and 3D and lots of tech issues that sometimes help drive production choices.

 

American Cinematographer does even more complete coverage, usually with lighting diagrams and tons of tech details.

 

Usually at least a couple articles from each of these turn up online for free, but to get all the content, you have to subscribe.

 

I can't remember the last time any of these mags covered Super8 though ... maybe AC when Badham used some for a sequence in POINT OF NO RETURN? ... but there is a dedicated Super8 mag available, I think it started up a couple years back. I've never seen it anywhere except an ad on a webpage, and I can't imagine it could be as fun or informative as the 1970s era Super8FilMaker mag that I used to inhale as a teenager, but it would be a dedicated source.