Vital Butinar

Well the thing is I got into film because it was something I had always wanted to do as a kid and when I was able to work as a dancer(I'm a salsa dance instructor) on a shoot, my girlfriend encouraged me to go chase my dream. The funny thing was it was both of our dream. So we learned as much as we could and tried shooting stuff. Soon after that we got working for a couple of our dancer friends making dance video and stuff when everything kind of took off. We both do a lot of stuff, I used to have a thriving IT company, she used to do makeup on film sets and now is a sculptress, but in either case she became a really good cinematographer and editor and I became a good director, writer and producer. So a lot of the time we do work for TV stations or different type of TVsh productions where she's one of the camera crew and I either plan the shoots or even get to direct and produce some of the lower end stuff. But they're not full time gigs since we don't want that. We've done a few shoots with a production company where they do commercials and it was great, nice money but I only did the on set directing and got everything so no pre production and not post production. But what we've always loved doing was going down our own path so we kind of love the indie path if you will. We did a bunch of music videos and shorts and it's actually really satisfying stretching the non existent budgets to the point that we actually get something that looks good out of it and at the same time still learn a bunch of stuff doing it. Having creative control over almost everything and in the end getting something you produced and are proud off. While my hopes and dreams have always been to do "big budget" feature films I'm perfectly fine for the time being doing our own stuff with very limited budgets. So gear had always been a problem. We either didn't have a good camera or didn't have lights etc. But start of last year we decided to bite the bullet and bought the BM Pocket 4k and a couple of accessories one of which was the Tascam DR60mk2. Just so that when we wanted to do something without a budget we could do it without using crappy equipment or having to rent something on our own dime. It's worked out great. That's why I'm a little reserved when buying equipment. We upgrade and find a way how to make a little more money on our own with the equipment we've got and then slowly upgrade again not to overextend anything. You know I was actually working on a shoot a couple of months ago where the sound guy used SD 788T. I didn't know what it was at first but then had a look and it's funny how this thing really looked like it was from another century. I didn't have anything to do with post production there but everyone knows I'm the kind of person who likes to know a lot of stuff so I hang around everywhere a lot and I did go to check how post was going and there was no problems with sound. So I concluded that the sound guy with the SD788T was well experienced and had the right gear. Anyway thank you again for the information. I appreciate it and definitely the next thing I'll be upgrading is the shotgun mic. Thankfully I have one lined up from a guy who's got a sound studio and is changing some of his gear and might part with something good for a good price. Then we'll see what's next.

Oh yeah I completely get that. Thank you. But you know how it its. I don't buy equipment that I know I'm not going to be able to make money off when I can I upgrade. That's why we shoot our own stuff on DSLRs for so long and why the first drone that I'm getting is a Mavic Mini and not something more expensive and it's the same thing with the sound recorder. The DR60mk2 was the best bang for the buck at the time and as usual I know we're going to squeeze every thing that we can out of it before I know that we're ready to upgrade. I also always buy equipment with future compatibility in mind. Like the next thing I'm probably getting is a better shotgun mic which I can then use on a better recorder eventually. Same thing with lenses, tripods, basically everything and I think it's a good way to go because we never over extend our means and as a result never have financial problems or even have to worry how we're going to be able to pay off a peace of equipment because I always buy it after I already have saved up the money for it and I'm sure that this is the peace of gear that we really do need. But heck I've done that my whole life that's why I drive a 20 year old car that I love and works great and don't have any debt to my name. ?

Nice blog post. Thank you. You made quite a few valid points and I agree with you.

I think the attorney is right and that it's a good time to send out material to people if nothing else because people have time and are looking for stuff to do. Maybe it's not going to lead to anything right now but if nothing else to peak interest of someone on something. I've had multiple contacts with people who would otherwise probably not have been able to give me the time of day because of being so busy. I'm a 100% that some of the things that get read these days will eventually be created and I think that people who work with this stuff executives and financiers alike have an interest to get working on producing stuff as soon as possible and I'm sure that even though it might be tougher in some cases the saying goes "where there's a will there's a way". I'm the same way I keep working and working. I actually love the fact that nobody bugs me to need to go somewhere and which most of the time is just a waist of time. The thing is I guess I'm such of a workaholic that I'd like to see even more work or find even more stuff to do. ?

Wow. That's a long book. What's it about David?

You're so right. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with taking it easy and getting some rest. But I find myself looking for more and more stuff to do and the most frustrating thing is not being able to do more. I think one of the things that's important to being able to keep motivated is not trying to do only one thing until it's done but alternating between different things. So I work one some projects that need editing or grading, then I do some writing on a couple of screenplays or plan some future shoots, make some calls and try and get some stuff going, sometimes I find something to try and shoot something, maybe take a photo of something I find interesting. Then I help my girlfriend work on her sculpting or maybe fix something (wish I could fix my car). A couple of times I've ran out of ideas on what to do so I watch a movie or do some research on something that I'm interested in but then I find my next thing and the cycle repeats. In between I squeeze a couple of salsa dance classes that I teach over video conference or do some one on one classes over a video call but all of this is not every day. I'm hoping that I'll be able to figure out a short that I could shoot at home. Just keep things interesting. Not that my usual days was a lot different, except for a shoot here and there and salsa dance classes that I teach a couple of times a week or when my girlfriend and I go dancing. This is mostly the thing that have been affected. I was able to shoot a couple of minutes of the moon a few days ago. They said reach for the Moon so I did.. and I am... ?

Yesterday I had to fix my girlfriend's camera's shutter that some how broke. It was a more than 10 year old camera and I figure if I had fixed a couple of lenses I could very well at least try see what went wrong. After disassembling everything I found that the problem was a broken rivet on one of the shutter blades and I was actually able to MacGayver a fix with a nail and a hammer. I put everything back together and it's alive. I do still have to calibrate the auto focus but I'm saving that for tomorrow. ? Other than that I'm helping my girlfriend with her sculptures, working on a couple of screenplays, two of which are in development. A feature and a TV series pilot episode. Editing some videos and doing some grading and animations. But what I'm really thinking is how to shot a short film. What are you guys planning after all this? All of our short term gigs fell through because they were during this time. I'm hopping they'll be rescheduled. Thankfully the long term stuff is still on as well as some stuff that I've been able to do from home. Hope you guys are all well and spending your time creatively. ? Here's a couple of shots:

Wow. Thank you. This was very informative and interesting.

So my girlfriend got invited to write an article about her connection between sculpting and cinematography, or in other words creatively connecting different types of art. https://www.stage32.com/blog/How-to-Become-a-Dynamic-Film-Creative-with-Different-Art-Mediums She's a really good sculptress that was supposed to have an exhibition in Venice this month but it got postponed due to the current situation and on the other hand she's also a great cinematographer and editor. Hope you enjoy it and best regards, hope you're all safe

That's a really interesting explanation and one I would tend to agree with as well as that most TV shows don't complicate with some shots as much.

Doubtful...

Well so much for 4K. I guess it's time to bring back our old Sony Trinitron. ?

I'm about to shoot a proof of concept TV series pilot episode in a couple of months. It's going to be a full 15 minute episode to show the story but I haven't seen any difference in pre production. I'm also considering shooting a short proof of concept for the feature I wrote that I'm talking to with a producer. But I haven't figured out a way to do it yet. I think that I would do it like if it was a proof of concept for a feature, I would create a short and if it was a short I'd shoot a shorter short. It definitely a dilemma.

I myself do not have any real experience with either feature films or TV series. But I've producer and directed a few short things and I'm just now getting ready for my first pilot episode for a tv series. I actually don't see much of a difference between the cinematography of the shorts that we've shot or the pilote episode. The main difference for me might be for having a budget to work with if we get approved. As far as how much everything might change if we actually get the series I can not tell but I'm guessing it will be somewhat the same except planning will be a little different.

Well basically it doesn't matter what software you use to sync the clips. The only difference between Resolve and Premiere that I can see is that in Resolve you can only automatically sync via audio when you create a timeline (haven't found a way to do it directly on the timeline) and in Premiere you can do exactly that throw it in the timeline and sync up stuff. But if you've got to sync stuff manually anyway it literally doesn't matter what NLE you use as long as you've got the scratch and original audio. I don't know I guess I'm old school or something but whenever we shoot a music video or something where we have something being played over that we're going to put over in post I always edit in some kind of audio marker at the beginning and end. Makes life so much easier and when we've got external audio I always want to use the slate. Hope you don't have too much f a rough time syncing it manually and best of luck.

Waw thank you. This looks amazing. I did a try right now but I wasn't able to figure it out quickly so I guess I need to take my time.

Thank you Bruce. I thought that it was something that I might have to do by myself since when I was researching it I came up with nothing substantial. But in either case I'll have to play around with it myself since it's a personal project. The roto is actually the part that I was afraid of and I did kind of try it that way. Thanks again.

Hi guys. I've got a question for the more experienced people among you. I have some footage that was shot on 8mm stock in black and white and I'm trying to find a way to colorize it. First thing is that it's getting scanned into something digital. But I've got no idea where to start about colorizing it except for masking everything and trying to color it by hand. I'm sure there must be a better way to do it. Anyway so if anyone has had any experience with this your help is much appreciate on what software to use and how. Thank you and best regards

I actually bought the Tascam DR60 M2 and it's a really nice sound recorder and for our small production of short films it's great. I don't see the need to buy too much equipment because if there are bigger project the clients always pay for renting the equipment but for our smaller projects stuff like the Pocket 4K and the Tascam DR60 are great.

During the summer we shot as short film and if I remember correctly there were about 18 or 20 pages. I think there were 11 scenes. Everything from top to bottom was shot in one night where we shot in the narrow streets down town of my home town from about 11 pm when the streets cleared until 6 pm when it was getting light so about 7 hours total. I think these were 2 scenes. We shot 2 master shots, 1 follow gimbal shot that followed the two actors, 4 coverage shots, 1 vfx shot that was used for compositing, a few close up shots like the actor taking their gun or falling down or the third actor watching the other two and then a bunch of B roll from the locations. Then the next day we shot we began to shoot at 8 am and finished at 2 am next day so 17 hours but there were about 5 hours of down time because we had a scene set up but one of the actresses was stuck in traffic 100 miles away. We used that time to shoot some ambient sounds and a few thing we could get away with. The biggest problem was the last scene that we shot because it was the end of a really long day and everyone was getting really tired so I made the last minute decision to just shoot all the shots with one take since it was a sitting conversation, so if anyone made a mistake they'd just repeat that part of the conversation. We shot the same way all the coverage and just a few B roll shots. I wasn't happy with a lot of it but it was the best way to finish before everyone died of exhaustion. I did however neglect to mention that shots except three that were shot on a gimbal were shot hand held to save time. We did it, we shot everything and was able to edit together a whole short film. But I'll be the first one to say that I have no idea how long it takes to shoot something. All I do is estimate how long it takes to shoot something and add it up. Usually I decide to shoot something in one go because two day shoots are usually out of the question because getting the crew back together the next day is harder than pushing it the same day three more hours. But we're a small crew and the projects we do get paid the same if we work two days or one and if we don't finish we don't get paid. So my moto has always been keep it simple and if it doesn't work simplify even further and it has worked. Best of luck.

Yeah it's the same with prices around here too. Everything has gone crazy. Rent has gotten several times higher even though there are a lot of empty places that could be rented out or sold. You can't buy an apartment let alone a house as the prices have gone up so much that a sane person can't imagine the numbers involved. On the other hand people aren't prepared to pay for any kind of services regardless of the quality involved. Like it doesn't matter what you do or how well you do it as long as it's cheap or even better free. Who cares if you survive or not as long as the person finds the someone to help them with whatever they don't know how to do. Just for reference the stuff that I complain about how much it costs is the stuff that I know how to do myself which is a whole lot of things and I rarely have to rely on someone else for some kind of services. On one hand some things are expensive or going up like taxes, when the road tax has gone up so much like I was driving a Bentley and not a 20 year old Jeep that keeps breaking down because of the crappy state of roads. On the other hand some stuff is so dirt cheap that I don't even understand how that can be. Cell phones, electronics and even service stuff like internet or phone bill which is so cheap that I can't even contemplate how these prices come about. So yeah doing something creative as it seems everywhere is loosing it's value. The problem is that if they don't get it from you they get it from someone cheaper regardless of quality. That's why some stuff things seem to be of such low quality or it just looks the same as something else. Unfortunately this is unsustainable because once creative people stop creating and turn to "regular" jobs there will be a deficit of supply and there will be no one left. That's teh worst case scenario but I keep wondering what would happen in a situation like that. A sort of Art type Boston tea party if you will. What would happen if someone would wake up and notice that there are no more graphics on websites, that advertisements in the mail have no more design or photographs and when they switch on Netfilx the only thing they could watch was the weather report or couldn't read anything but the tax law or phone book if that still exists. Not to mention no architecture or product design. I wonder how that would impact peoples lives. And this is not mentioning a lot of other areas like art in the sense of music, paintings, sculptures, etc.

Yeah it's true. Two creatives as a couple can be tough sometimes. I did have a very successful IT business until a few years ago when the economy tanked and my girlfriend used to be a successful makeup artist and supplied makeup for other artists as well. So we are not just "artists" but once upon a time we both had successful businesses. I believe that there are "artists" everywhere and a lot of them may not be as good as they think but as a contrast my girlfriend is a really good sculptress. She's had quite a few exhibitions and gallerists really love her work because she has an new take on some sort of classic theme. In other word's her art doesn't just have some kind of meaning (like shoes on the wall or something) but has an aesthetic to it as well. Besides being a sculptress she's still a makeup artist but in the last couple of years has become a really great director of photography and editor. But is also a really good photographer. On the other hand I have tried to perfect myself as a director and producer. But I'm also well versed in story telling and filming and editing. Actually my girlfriend was the one who encouraged me to get into filmmaking since I realized that this was something I wanted to do after my IT business tanked. So I learned everything from a to z about everything so that at I know something when needed. But I also do work in other areas. I still try to work in IT if there is any and I also do graphic design from time to time. Not to mention that sometimes I do website design and I am also a dance instructor and have been for years. So all in all among the two of us we can do pretty much anything. The problem is that prices are so high that we have to work all the time to pull it off financially. Sometimes I start thinking that it would be easier if we had a regular 8-5 job and wouldn't worry about anything. But on the other hand whenever we have a great film project we're really excited about it and give it our all. The thing is that both of us strive to work in the film industry. For myself to become a film director and my girlfriend as a sculptress and a DP. Anyway all in all it is hard to make it as an artist but I feel that with the right drive and determination I believe that they can make it even in the creative world. Hope I'm not wrong. By the way just to show here's one of my gf's sculptures so you can see what she does since I mentioned it.

I was actually doing research on this very thing a couple of months ago. I tested if it made a difference if I uploaded videos in many different resolutions, codecs and compression. But in the end the result was the same the most compressed stuff exported in an h.264 was just as good as an DNxHR. All the footage was captured in raw format. Then it got me thinking and I reached out to some know youtubers and we did a comparison test because I suspected that the more subscribers a channel had the less compressed the videos were. No dice there either. I tried vimeo and actually had less compression there. At the end I actually realized that if the videos were encoded as sRGB when exported they looked better on youtube and it didn't matter if it was uploaded as HD 1080p or 4K.

Well with us two our creative work does pay. My girlfriend got a really good review form an art critic, crediting her with starting a new style, she had gotten an award in NYC last year and more. Anyway her sculptures are really great. The problem is that it takes a lot of work marketing her work and this area is not really the right demographic for sculptures because her sculptures have to be under priced to sell in our country. Internationally is a lot more difficult because you need to know people to get anywhere but art can be sold at a much higher price internationally. As far as film goes getting funding around here means getting a couple 1000 grand for any kind of weird film. So not much in the line of films to do around here unless you do it on your own. Which we do most of the time but it's for our own learning purposes. We do some music videos but the problem is bands around here have no money so you can't really charge them the amount that you'd need to sustain a business for a music video and I don't like doing stuff for cheap because it looks cheap. So usually it comes down to too expensive or working under the price but it means we make almost nothing. Great for the band not so much for us. So we need to shoot other stuff like events which brings additional expenses and again you're not making enough money again or they just decide to go with someone that will do a bad job for really cheap (like $150 for shooting a wedding) and you can't compete again. Basically if we want to work in film or art we need to find a better place meaning we need better connections elsewhere. Anyway I'm not complaining because I've been very fortunate I owned my own IT business for years before it tanked and have always been able to work with my creativity. I only wish the paycheck was a little more consistent but for that time will come too.

Yes being an artist sucks if you're an upcoming artist. My girlfriend how is also my DP most of the time is also a sculptress and with both of us working in the creative fields it's hard sometimes. Right now I prioritized not registering my car because two registrations and a major fix of a car just wasn't in the plan. The thing is we both work all the time either it's shooting or producing something, photography, graphic design, website design, etc. Or my girlfriends sculptures. I mean there's enough stuff to do 24/7 but yet we still struggle with paying the bills sometimes with rent being high. Since my girlfriend is a really good sculptress she asked to be credited as an artist by the state and this would mean that the state would pay her medical insurance and the equivalent of a retirement fund. But of course it was denied because of lack of things that other approved artists didn't have. So it all depends on what who you know in the art world and as far as the creative part goes with film it's basically the same thing. That means being an artist is really hard in this day and age. Not that it was any easier in the past. I think the problem is that with all the new ways to comunicate a lot of good things get lost among all the noise.