Brenton Lee

That is absolutely epic. It didn't even feel like it went for 20 mins. Nailed it.

As someone who is also learning the art of cinematography, one thing I've picked is that it's less about the camera as it is the time spent making the lighting look good, making the audio sound good etc. It seems like the peripheral elements of movies make them what they are ... not the mega-10k-super ultra wide camera.

Enjoyed it!

Yeah, I'm kinda stuck at the $1500 point right now but I'm saving pretty quickly. I don't have high expectations for quality etc, just something cheap and nasty that functions okay. I might be in the $3-$4k bracket in a month or so, so any other suggestions - keep em coming. Thanks!

Hi, not on a huge budget and looking to buy a used lens to use for an SR3. I'm definitely not after anything fancy, just something that is versatile. I plan to rent lenses when needed, just need something I can use when I'm on the run. Open to suggestions really ... nothing too wide or long. Feel free to post here or PM me, thanks. Brenton.

Yeah I totally get you. I guess my initial goal is getting enough basic skills to be more of an asset than a pain in the ass when I do start hassling people to let me come work with them. So in that sense, it makes sense to put in the money and time learning some skills? Anyway, the vibe I get is that it's equal parts persistence, skills and dedication to make it in the job. So as long as I'm always working on one of those aspects I figure I can't go too wrong.

If you have a few minutes, I'd like some thoughts or advice from people who may have once been in my shoes ... I'm currenly enrolled to do the Camera Assistant and Camera Operator workshops at Maine Media in July, and have a chance to do another week in the Film Lighting workshop but that would be about another $3000 out of my savings (to cover tution and accom, which I can afford, but it's really stretching it). If money weren't as issue, I'd sign up for it in a flash but I feel like there is so many lighting tutorials and resources that perhaps I'd be better off sinking the $3000 into buying/renting lighting kits and mostly teaching myself as I go .... or would the money be better spent doing the workshop and gaining formal training? I know the obvious answer is "it depends what your goal is?" .... I'm only just starting out in the wide world of cinematography. I'm not 100% sure what my end goal is, maybe its to be a DP somewhere down the track, but for now I want to build up a good solid technical skill set. I feel like understanding the camera aspect is the core of what I want to do for a while so I'm trying to start as a camera assistant / operator and expand from there. I'd love to have a broad enough skill set I could take on any role in making short films, and collaborate/fit into multiple roles on larger projects. Thats why I'd love to learn about the technical aspects of lighting whilst learning about camera operation. Thoughts? Formal training or DIY? I live in Australia and Portland, Oregon so decent training opportunities seems to be getting rarer. Thanks for you time if you've read this far!

I figure being a film maker is more like boxing. Some people are born with a knock out punch but don't make it any further than fighting at the local bar. Others spend every day of their life training and focusing on every aspect of the martial arts and they're the ones that make it. Anyway. I'm in a similar boat man ... still trying to find my place in the world of cinematography with an end goal of producing movies. There's so much involved ... the lighting, the camera work, the direction ... If I could say one thing, it's that shooting on film can be an epic experience and is definitely a worthwhile goal but in this day and age there are so many digital resources you're crazy not to utilise at least some. I have a heap of ideas in my head around shooting short films on super 16mm, but with processing and telecine (and living in Australia) it's an expensive and hard way to learn. So i spent alot of time shooting 35mm still photos, learning about exposure and light and composition then moved in to filming motion with a BMPCC. I'm basically shooting stuff on the BMPCC that down the track I will be shooting on S16mm on an SR3. It's an amazing way to learn ALOT for not much cash. There's also so many online resources for learning coloring, editing etc.

Watched this film on the plane a few days ago. It's a good enough film, immersed me for its duration. Story is okay, visually it's pretty nice (even on the crappy plane head rest screen!). But wow ... that trailer in the original post is terrible. If i saw that trailer first, I wouldn't have been very excited to see the movie, haha.

Thanks so much for the feedback, it's good to know I wasn't doing anything completely wrong and that I just gotta fine-tune my approach a bit more. I have another question. If I was to start filming with an SR3 (Advanced), is there any similar light loss I need to take in to account? Whilst I somewhat understand the internals of the Bolex, I haven't really looked at how the SR3 works. I would be shooting with the shutter at 180 degrees.

Hey people. I know it's a topic that's done to death but there's just so much information out there that it's easy to get lost in it so I'd like some other peoples opinions. I've been shooting on a Bolex EBM (converted to S16) for a little while and have been getting "okay" results. Having a background in 35mm still photography was helpful but it's taking me a while to understand fully how to set the camera/lens up to expose the film correctly. And judging by other peoples footage on youtube, it's something a lot of people don't fully understand. I have been working with the following factors which I pulled from an old Bolex manual (feel free to jump in and correct me, as it may help with the inconsistencies I get in my footage): The shutter angle is fixed at 170 degrees. At 24 fps, this gives me 1/50th exposure time but because of light lost through the viewfinder mechanism, its more like 1/67th. So I would get my light meter out, set the ISO at 200, set the shutter speed at the closest speed (on this one it's T = 60) and take a measurement. Say it would give me an F of 2.8. I'd set the aperture on the lens and start filming. For the most part this worked out okay, especially in well lit conditions. However, for any other condition it was very variable. Am I doing this correctly? Is there anything different I should be doing? And once I start getting measurements outside of my set ups capabilities (I only have an Angenieux 12-120 lens right now) is it just a matter of moving to a higher / lower speed film, higher speed lenses, incorporating ND filters, etc? Anyway, thank you for reading this - feel free to contribute anything you like. I'm sure other beginners would appreciate it as much as I would. Brenton.

Okay, that sounds about right. So between different shutter angles and prisms on my two Bolex's, I have a lot of things to remember, haha. Thanks.

Hi, long time casual browser, first time question asker. I was wondering, when shooting film (in this case, regular 16) with a lens that has a view finder attached (in this case, a Som Berthiot 17.5-70) ... is there some type of optical prism in the lens to allow this viewfinder to work and does it effect your exposure measurement / setting? Surely it's robbing a bit of light as it passes by? Sorry if this has been discussed already on this forum but couldn't find a thread with the same question. Excuse me if I've doubled up. Thanks for your help Brenton.