aapo lettinen

So the low budget is probably faster route but you most likely will never end up in the highest level productions in your career. As long as you are happy and can manage financially it does not matter much if you shoot sub 3mil movies instead of the 50+ mil ones

That generally requires going to the film school and getting the first jobs via internships because you need to work on pretty high profile productions for this to be usable. I an pretty sure that it would take more time and money for the op to go this route instead of the low and mid budget route. The goal was to get to shoot something as soon as possible and that does not work if you first do 10 years something else on sets and then can at last start to build your cinematography career

probably they have used it for something in the past but probably not many productions, maybe one or two before the USSR fell. The biggest issue with this type of rare cameras is that if some critical mechanical or optical parts are missing or broken it is extremely difficult and expensive to replace them because you need to manufacture the parts out of scratch which is very challenging for optical parts of movement parts and mirror shutter. If the electronics would be broken one could just design whole new ones out of scratch which was difficult back in the old days but much faster and more straightforward nowadays when CAD design and microcontrollers are used. Still takes lots of time and effort but not so much so than back in the old days 🙂 If critical mechanical or optical parts would need to be replaced one would need to manufacture new ones which are similar manufacturing quality than the old ones. that is HARD to do well and will be very time consuming and expensive in any case because it can't be automatized and everything needs to be measured, manufactured and fitted manually by an expert with at least 15 or 20 years of experience making those parts

isopropanol or some other alcohol should remove the wd40 remains easily I believe. another stuff which removes rust is oxalic acid (by converting it to soluble clear substances, it is handy when removing rust stains from stainless steel surfaces like kitchen sink etc) but it of course corrodes steel as well to do this so if the normal rust removal solutions work, then of course use the most gentle method of removal

I could personally purchase this if it cost less than 1k but it is "collectors only" for that current price. This is because I am able to make new control electronics by myself to get it electrically working. Would still need to have Olex cla it and made the needed repairs and possibly manufacture new parts for it. You should ask olex what he thinks about the repair project begore buying. But personally I think it is a bit risky to expect to get it fully working for reasonable price if it is possible in the first place. Cool camera anyway as a props or collectors item

It is a Soviet copy of the Aaton35-3 but has a lot of differences. A somewhat experimental camera and extremely rare. That package on ebay is missing the batteries, cables and external regulator and is most likely not modified to BH perfs but it is likely that one could get it working if having it bh converted and the motor and control electronics updated and with full CLA and repairs. Probably we are talking something like 3k or 4k extra to get it in good enough condition to shoot serious stuff with it. I think there were something like 20 or 30 of them made total. Don't expect to find any spare parts for it. The last time I saw parts of this camera on ebay was maybe 6 years ago and never seen a full kit with batteries and cables and mags anywhere. You may need to get some parts manufactured from scratch if wanting to use this one for work

What do you currently do then? it should be possible to combine most professions with occasional photography work (depending on what your employer allows) because you already have great photography portfolio. Then you can expand that to combined stills + video work. Then, more video and less stills. That should work too. You can look for a stills photographer work on music videos, small commercials etc. where the main product is the video someone else is shooting but stills are also needed to support the video on social media etc. when it's published. this way you can get to the sets and learn from watching the others working without needing to actually run the set by yourself. You can do the first one "for free but if you pay me if you publish the photos" so that they don't have any risk but you will still get some money out of it. Next time you get hired you can charge for the work already and soon you can start to offer to shoot some "making of material" on video at the same time, because, well, you will be on the set anyway and always have the camera around. Then you are already doing paid video work and it was not risky for either you or the client and happened pretty quickly and you already got something for your reel 🙂 Do cinematography experiments and small projects on your free time and make a gradual transition from shooting stills on set to shooting some kind of video on set to actually running a small set as a dp. then transition from smaller sets to bigger sets slowly but surely

I collected some Cinematography related videos some time ago to a playlist, they are very useful for aspiring Cinematographers. I recommend watching them all in that specific order whether having seem them previously or not, there is a reason why I chose them and why they are in that specific order on the list 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXvIUtmF3OxuGDEXV50C-1K4U81Jut4nu

Did I understand correctly that you are a professional photographer who has now completely given up photography work because you want to pursue cinematography instead? You will need a "soft" transition if wanting to pursue this cinematography stuff and photography is the field you already know so you should definitely still continue doing paid photography projects until you get enough video work to support your family (this can take couple of years or can be quicker depending on your contacts and luck and how much you get to work) . Otherwise you will quickly run out of money and then you need to take 2 or 3 "normal" jobs to pay the bills, working in MacDonalds and such. Then you don't have enough time and energy to pursue cinematography in the first place... So if you already have paid photography gigs, then keep it up and just start to do DP stuff as a "side job" when having time. When you have enough experience and contacts you will get more and more DP work so that you can phase out the photography section if you want. But "jumping off the cliff" by instantly stopping doing anything else and just concentrating on the Cinematography where you don't get any money from yet is clearly a mistake and will probably reduce your chances to became a Cinematographer in the first place. It is just too big leap of faith at the point when you are just starting out and don't have any income from this new field of interest yet. Additionally, the photography clients will bring you contacts which are helpful for video gigs too. They probably will even start order videos from you by themselves when finding out you can do much more than just photography 🙂

yes there is lots of persons competing with gear, especially in the town I live in. The issue is, by just buying expensive gear and "starting shooting stuff" this way and learning on the fly means that one is just copying what everyone else is doing and just does stuff "in the way that works for everybody" so they don't have their own style or voice and thus they are replaceable whenever the producers find someone cheaper who has newer and more expensive camera to show off. I actually just 5 minutes ago turned down a indie feature because I had a bad feeling about them not appreciating my style and experience enough and them being mostly after cheap gear (but my camera is not the newest so they were not happy enough about it). They used a relative newbie to shoot their demo for the movie and asking about it I got a bad feeling that they don't care enough about who shoots their films as long as SOMETHING is captured to finish the edit. This type of stuff is incredibly common so one has to be careful and especially not to purchase anything expensive for a single project so that others can exploit you

normally you would want at least double the load rating needed to get a stable enough combination for cine work. I would look for something which has the maximum load rating of about 18 or 20kg (for example the Sachtler Video 18 and 20 heads were common in the past for this type of cameras here on lower budget shoots) . You can surely find something useful for under 2k or 3k and you can always purchase the head and the tripods separately if getting a good deal

How about first making a short fashion film or a music video with this type of b/w stuff? It would help to get you noticed and to get the first small projects started

my reasoning is, you are used to tell a story with a single image when working on photography. Now you will first need projects where you will combine couple of images to tell a smaller story (commercials are ideal because they need to be short and you generally only have those couple of images to tell complex things and emotions) . Music videos usually have couple of simple scenes stitched together with no dialogue and are easy to shoot and edit so they are equally useful as a learning tool. So you have started with a single image in the past, now you will continue with from 3 to 8 images combined together to tell a story. After that it is easier to use 20, 30, or 50 images and more complex scenes and storytelling. This is where the cinematography differs a lot from the stills photography: the connections between the images are much more important than a single image itself and the dynamics tell their own story as well. The images are not "single enclosed entities" like they are in stills photography where the whole dynamics are built into a single image to compress the whole story into a single shot

if having still photography background I would investigate the possibilities to shoot small commercials and music videos first. They are short projects and rely heavily on making people and products look beautiful which you already know how to do as a photographer. You just need to start with something small and build your experience and reel from there. After a while you can shoot short films more confidently (I would concentrate on the about 5 min short films first) and from short films it should be possible to gradually transition to indie features. Just make sure that the first projects are ones with easier schedule and that you have time to prep carefully so that you know how to block and light the scenes. You need to be able to solve problems on the fly and to keep up with the schedule. I would concentrate on the cinematography on these projects and would have a gaffer and a key grip who already have experience working on such projects so that they can help you with the gear and working methods which differ a lot from the stills photography

One could easily design and manufacture such a camera completely out of scratch in 6 months even working on it part time. So it is probably safe to say now that it is not a real product at all

in most Finnish productions it seems that they generally lack about 20% or 30% of the budget and time to make the show great without counting on luck and the freewill of the workers. So the script and schedule is usually about 20% or 30% too optimistic and then corners need to be cut on set to try to stay on schedule and still make the show worth watching. The issue is that everyone is doing this so every show needs to be 20% or 30% bigger than they have resources for because, well, every single one of your competitors is doing that as well and you would look cheap if doing everything by the book all the time 🙂 In most parts of the world it can be worse than this I have understood. but it is generally with films and tv-series just like it is with your jeans or t-shirts or a nice jacket which is comfy and nice cool looking: if it is cheap and still great it is absolutely certainly made in a sweatshop and someone suffered greatly stitching it together

most shops selling stage lighting gear should have the coated safety cables too. BHphoto seems to have them for example.

Well, the real issue here is that there is lots of talented and somewhat experienced people around who DON'T HAVE ANY WORK ETHICS . that is really destroying the whole industry for everybody. They are willing to work for lower pay and in unsafe working conditions and to cut corners whenever asked whether it being wise or not. Then you have to compete with productions who use this kind of people who are willing to do double the work hours for the same pay and don't care about safety at all unless the producer specifically asks them to. I get it that for some people it is life and death to get the single movie done and they are willing to risk anything to get the merit out of it and not to be labelled "the cowards who had to go home after 20 hours when the others still had to continue on the top of the skyscraper without any safety harnesses and 40mph wind" . But for most persons it is just work. Myself included. I could just as well drive a cab or something and it would be just as fun as working in the film industry. Would probably get even more money out of it with less hours... but that is an issue for sure. People are either unethical daredevils risking everything all the time OR they are so used to the film business that they could not care less about a single project and are mostly interested about when they get to eat and sleep and where the nearest bathroom is

the issue is, loyalty towards companies or employers is not rewarded in the long run in most cases. they just squeeze you dry when you still think that they are on your side and then get a non-paid intern to do your work (or a low paid newbie if free interns are not available) . no matter what the end result looks like or if the newbies get someone killed as long as it cost as little as possible to hire them 🙂 One solution for this issue has been here that the production companies make their own "training programs" to quickly train unemployed workforce from other industries to do basic film work. The issue here is that they need to train new ones for every production because the previous ones are asking union rates after working for low pay or for free in one production (first thinking that "it is cool making movies no matter the cost" but now they know what it is and want to do it for work which requires them getting enough money from it to pay the bills) What a wonderful world it is for a capitalist 🙂

they are compensating overtime just like that when using the "periodic work" model: you do one hour of overtime, you get one hour off. If you still have some overtime hours left at the end of the month (when the period ends) THEN they have to actually pay for it. Otherwise it is just "free extra work". They have adopted this model from other industries and it does not work that well for film/tv-series shoots but it is cheaper for the production companies so they just use it anyway. Previously they had to pay 50% more for the first overtime hours over the 8hrs day. Then 100% more for the next hours. And 200% for the last ones until one could not legally add any more overtime hours to a single day and you had to wrap. With this old model the director often got a talking to if the day went over 11 or 12 hours because it was so expensive for the prod company. Then things improved in the following days to prevent the budget going over. So it was a self regulating system but did not work on high budget shoots where there WAS money to pay for the ridiculous overtime expenses... or for the shoots where overtime was not paid for at all like the music videos and some commercials. It is more of that one does not want to abandon one's friends in the middle of the shoot just for the working hours going over to a limit. Then your friend would be even more screwed and would take even longer for them to get home. So it is more of helping out your friends when the production screwed something up or there was just "bad luck" for the day going over the planned hours.

oh, and travel hours to work and back are in almost all cases your own time here. Not paid, not taken into account when calculating if you have time to sleep or not. Driving to the set and back takes always at least 1.5 hours or 2 hours per day, every day. I still like our local model more than the Mexican one where it seems you'll start to wrap only when you run out of money for that shooting day and after that you might actually go to the bar instead of going to your room to sleep because you will be so tired anyway that the sleep would not help much anyway at that point . Well, we do most music videos and commercials here with the similar attitude so it is not a "Mexican thing" , more of a case where no one wants to admit that the day has been too long and now we really really need to wrap... no more extra shots even when the director still has 200 extra shots on his list! Didn't most the Hollywood films get made like this just recently before the Unions kicked in? the producers clearly miss those old days where no one went home until the budget was done for the day

here it is common to do 10 hour shooting days (8 hours + 2hours overtime per day. the prod companies can't afford paying more overtime in most productions) and most tv-series have transferred to 8-hour days but with a "periodic work hours" model where overtime is not compensated but instead the next shooting day might be a bit shorter or at the end of the month you get more days off to compensate the extra hours. This "periodic model" is because the production companies don't want to pay for overtime but want to have the possibility to get people work a half hours or a hour extra every day if needed. They risk the whole crew getting angry (they generally will every time the shooting day goes over 8 hours) but no one has left their job yet because of this free overtime work so the production companies are happy. The length of the shooting day does not necessarily reflect the real work hours of all the individual workers. In one production the shooting days were about 12 hours generally but my real work hours were about 21 to 23 hours a day, 6 days a week and at the 7th day I had to do some maintenance work which was "only" an 8 hours day so no days off at all. I got paid for only the 12 hours which were on the callsheet and got a lot of nasty health problems because of that shoot

Here people of course say that "it is not good to drive if you are sleepy" but they often don't do anything to prevent the conditions which result in these situations in the first place. The worst I have had to do so far was not getting more than a total of couple of hours of sleep in two days and then had to drive 800km back to home which was a 9 hour drive. It is scary when you have to literally use your fingers to keep your eyes open so that you don't fall to sleep and are still having those one or two second micro naps which can still lead to disaster. From that I learned not to drive if I have slept less than 3 hours... -------- I see it like the behaviour of a wounded animal when it does whatever it can to get back to its nest to die in the safest place it knows. People just feel ill and they are doing whatever they can to get home even if it may cost their life

with video taps one has a beamsplitter prism (most cameras) or a pellicle (for example Aatons) which directs some of the viewfinder light to the video tap. Removing the tap itself and plugging the hole does not affect the beamsplitter so it does not make the viewfinder brighter. With some cameras, one can move the beamsplitter out of the way (for example the Aatons) to get full brightness to the optical finder. With most other cameras this is not possible and one would need to change the viewfinder optics to remove the beamsplitter out of the light path if wanting to get more light to the finder

exactly similar than this one https://www.ebay.com/itm/353632866991?hash=item52562952af:g:pvsAAOSwhu5hHrJ5