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There is also the Z-Cam cameras (E2 and other models) which could be useful for interior shots. I think they have the possibility to record to external ssd as well. It would be useful if you would have the ability to mark the good shots immediately after the events so that they are much quicker to find. An external recorder could be useful if it would record multiple streams at the same time (for immeduate sync of the cameras) and you can add markers real time when recording. It might also make it easier to offload the footage if it would be on large ssds instead of memory cards

you would need to dim the brutes down considerably if wanting that look. or might use normal "blinders" dimmed down if you find suitable models. Stage lighting guys always warned us to not keep standard Blinders continuously on because the bulbs would overheat and blow very quickly. some models may stand overheating better than others so you could ask a stage lighting rental place if they have lower wattage blinders which could be used for longer periods dimmed down without them overheating. there may be some LED options as well. we always used tungsten blinders for low budget music videos for similar style effect because not having enough money to rent Brutes. worked well as long as having a person on the dimmer board to shut them down unless they were absolutely necessary and the camera was already rolling. I think they were dimmed down to something like 20% of the full power or something like that 🙂

it is easy to find 12v nimh batteries made for other purposes. for example 12v rc car batteries are easy to find. attaching a 4pin xlr to that would be a 5 min job and it is also possible to create a adapter cable so that you would have for example a tamiya to xlr adapter cable and couple of unmodified tamiya batteries you can use with it. the lower quality batteries self discharge relatively quickly and are not very pretty but otherwise should work fine. a v-lock plate with a voltage regulator should also work

Did they manage to get in in the end? are they working now? are they decently paid for their hard work? if they changed to another profession how long they tried before giving up their film dreams? or still dreaming even if seemingly not getting anywhere? these stories are always interesting examples though one rarely can learn anything useful from them because every story is different and one has to find ones own path... if wanting to do high art then the best film school will be very useful... if wanting to do movies for living then the best contacts are most useful. High art and commercial high budget filmmaking is generally not a very well working combination. Some may not consider all movies to be "art" for that reason, of course they are that to some extent but not likely much more than some pulp fiction novels or generic pop music :P

both of those sound like pretty unrealistic to me both as starting points and motives to want a film career. and the odds may be off too... I don't believe one could really calculate ones chances to become a film director that way. It is lots about the right timing and contacts and what you have previously done with whom. talent is less important (everyone is talented some way or another, that seems to be the reason they start to dream about a film career in the first place. They have some talent and they want to put that in the use and will thus start to learn the craft on their own. They also have some stories in their head wanting to come out which drives them nuts if they don't have some way to tell them to the outside world. ) and the small choices you do on your way will matter much more than anything else. Right timing +contacts + pure luck + resume . everyone is talented who even wants to try film career

those Sony cameras are extremely versatile and have great image quality and also work perfectly as owner-operator documentary cameras for higher end productions especially if you can use the raw recorder with them when the xavc is not enough. Red also works pretty well if you can live with its quirks and even for it not being very robust for outdoor use. If you are doing nature documentaries for cinema release you may be shooting almost exclusively RAW btw. You will really need that extra quality to be able to correct the lighting differences afterwards and there may be very high contrast and lots of gradients and challenging colors at times. Especially on drone and underwater footage but on normal footage as well. You will also shoot lots of high speed probably even in low light situations so there really is lots of difference . if shooting something easy like talking heads in a studio then pretty much any compressed footage would probably be OK...

my regular recommendation for low budget use is Nikon AI-S primes. you need to stop them down from 1 to 1.5 stops to get rid of the CA but you can get very good price-performance ratio with them and they are easy to adapt to anything. more snappy look than normal Rokinons (never tested the Xeens) . don't bother with the ai-s 35/1.4 though, it needs to be stopped down so much to get rid of the CA (somewhere around F2.8/F4 split) that it is pretty much pointless to have it I think. Most of the others are pretty great (for example the 50/1.2 is a wonderful lens and still pretty affordable) and have the added benefit of working usually very well in very low temperatures if needed. used them in -40C without any issues. the mechanics are fine if the lens is in good condition but they are still lenses so the scales are very short. adding a larger diameter gear and you should be fine in most uses.

If you are projecting a feature length movie from real 35mm film you are usually working with at least two larger rolls of print film. the Reels of the movie are on those larger rolls in correct order so that for example the first roll contains the Reels 1, 2, 3 and the second roll contains the Reels 4 and 5. That is the whole movie. If you want to put the movie in one big reel before projecting it you will need to take the 1, 2, 3 reels from the first transport roll, cut out the tail leader which is after the reel 3. Cut out the leader which is before reel 4 on the second roll and then do a tape splice to attach the reels 4 and 5 directly after the reel 3. Then you will have the whole movie on one very big film roll so that it can be projected from start to end without any interruptions. After the show you will split the reels 3 and 4 to separate the movie reels from the same position than originally delivered to you and then you will attach the leaders back and send the two film rolls back to the distributor. When watching a film projection you may see the tape splices between different reels of the movie. If one would want to attach some sponsor logos and announcements etc. before the first reel of the movie that is called "Reel Zero" or "0-reel" because it is not actually part of the movie but is just attached before it to the projection print. This is done in DCPs as well for example if there is lots of screenings where partner and sponsor logos or other content needs to be shown just before the movie and that is done in more than one screening

no, those individual source material clips are just called clips or footage clips. Reels are the smaller parts the final movie is processed in to make the post processing easier in some workflows like when doing photochemical post. Typical film print reel length is approximately 2000ft which is normally around 20 minutes in the final movie and the last reel is typically shorter because not usually needing the full 2000ft to print that. The final feature length movie can consist of 5 or 6 or 7 reels for example and the finished reels are spliced together to make the final continuous print. In case of digital post workflow and projection one could do the "splicing" before doing the dcp and still process the digital movie picture and audio together in smaller parts before "making the final continuous print out of them". raw material film rolls are called rolls in post prod to differentiate them from Reels. the Reels are generally used to mean the finished movie parts and they have the final picture and audio tracks. In case of editing digitally you can edit "reel at a time" so that your movie is divided in smaller parts split to different sequences("timelines") . You can for example do the first 15min of the movie in a sequence, finish and lock the edit and send that 15min part to picture and audio post and start to edit the next "reel" which may be for example 20min or so. Doing the post in this way may be sometimes beneficial if there is lots of post work to be done so that it is necessary to start earlier with some parts of the movie when others are still in editing.

yes still called reels. here the projects are often posted full length but reel based working is also possible and may be useful sometimes if some of the reels are already picture locked and some other aren't and you want to start doing grading and sound work to the finished parts of the movie.

Reels. intermediate and print stock is normally delivered in certain length rolls (normally 2000 feet I think) so it was necessary to do the audio work and printing in the same length chunks or shorter to be able to handle it easily

Yes dry ice mist tends to lie low close to ground but I would worry about it being white so it can actually be seen in the image as well. If wanting to use dry ice one could first wet the grass and then throw dry ice grains around. Here they sell dry ice either in blocks/chunks or small grains. The grains have been easier for fog effects use for us when needing to throw the dry ice around, no need to crush the big chunks to get usable size bits

Here it is almost impossible to get mortgage if only working short freelance gigs like most of the film workers tend to do. It will help a lot if your wife or husband has a stable job like being a doctor or a nurse etc and the bank can count on that when discussing about the loans. Especially difficult if one has his own company or self employed...they treat you like your being a pennyless hobo even if you make couple of Ks a week on your own business all the time and can prove it too. They may not even give you a credit card here if you are self employed, that is how hard it may be. The whole society is built around stable "normal" jobs and can be very tough for a freelancer. It is much easier for a rich person to get through to the film industry...

as for encouragement, try to get mentors you can learn from a lot and try to get in other filmmakers/students projects to learn how they do things and how many different ways there is to cleverly solve on-set problems in time when they arise. Of course do everything included in your school program but you need to do lots of extra as well to have better chances to get forward. maybe 3 or 4 times more than the school requires. Always try to get on set of higher end productions than your current level to continuously learn from people who are much more experienced than you. You will also get more important contacts that way. sometimes you need to do very tough decisions. like sometimes needing to decide do you want to graduate in time or at all or do you want to do movies for living and will need to give up the school degree temporarily or permanently to be able to make a living in the film industry if your best change to get there arises. I personally had to do that decision years ago and had very little time to choose. would work in some other industry by now if have chosen to finish the school like everyone else did.

by my limited experience, working in the film industry is much more about "puzzle solving" than just chilling out and creating art like indie filmmaking may ideally be. Everyone who manages to get though MUST BE talented and knowledgeable of course but one needs lots of trust from other people as well and they need to know you in some way to hire you for anything. That's why there is lots of friends and friends of the friends and family members and ex classmates etc. hired... even if they are not the best possible choice it is at least known HOW GOOD they are in what they do and if it's possible to work with them without much of a conflict on not. I think that doing films in general as a independent filmmaker is so completely different than doing it for living that it is challenging to even compare them. when doing it for work the talent and passion is not enough anymore and contacts and resume and awards and even pure luck will matter much more. everyone who wants to do any movies tends to be passionate and somewhat talented but it can be overwhelmingly tough to be crushed down and stepped on day after day. It has been tough for me as well to see dozens of talented fellow students, filmmakers etc. to never get to do anything serious even when I know how good they are and how much they could contribute if they would get financing and distribution for their projects. It's like hearing bones crushing all the time when someone walks over their bodies. Not wanting to be discouraging or anything but I am sure most of the new persons who want to do movies for living would much rather do some other stuff if they would know how cruel and difficult it actually is to get in and how crushing it can be to ones dreams even if they get in because they see how they can't actually do the films they want anymore and have to compromise everything. I think it is indeed a dream factory... a dream CRUSHING factory to be more precise. one need to be tough and unbreakable or just incredibly lucky to get through. in worst case it will cost you everything you got including your health and still not getting much anywhere if not lucky enough