David Mawson

From my experience with stills, one issue is that cameras have flat DR response and a curve seems natural to the human eye. Getting an acceptable curve from a flat line means throwing away DR. Another issue is that engineering DR and practical DR are different things - you'll probably have a lot of noise and reduced resolution in dark areas of your frame shooting at full DR.

I'm going to get high CRI leds - the seller claims they're CRI 95 - put them in cheap parcans that I wouldn't dare use with hotter emitters, then bounce them off white ceilings the way I would flash, gelled to match the ambient. I'll use one in a home-made sabre light - basically a vertical metre long tube lined with reflector on one side and a window with diffuser material on the other - when I want a back light. Any thoughts on how bad the result will be, or suggestions, before I do this? I want natural looking, quick to carry about, safe, the ability to run off mains power, and cheap.

You do know that you can rent cameras quite easily? Try lensrentals.com. They may be able to rent you a rig and sound gear too. ..I'd forget lights and rent an A7sii. Or maybe a G80 and a speedbooster. Or take that suggestion about buying an f1.4 50mm... although won't crop factor make the lens narrower than you want?

I'm not in the film industry, but people sometimes pay me to analyse business plans for risk. This is what I see - - Film school degrees are expensive - Most programs seem to be of low quality and relevance - Perhaps ten or twenty times too many graduates are produced - A big % of the small number of jobs available in the mainstream movie industry will go to people with insider connections in the industry - family members of people already there - You can buck the odds if you're hyper-talented... But if you're that talented, you don't need to go to film school. Conclusion: going to film school means you get to pursue a hobby for several years and call it a degree. The degree will be of little value and you'll have incurred a lot of debt. Here's an alternative - it may well be completely wrong - - Get business insurance, sound gear and a camera. Then start shooting weddings, videos for local businesses and bands. Shoot showreel pieces for local actors - learn how to take stills head shots too, actors always need them. And shoot short films for yourself. You'll have to start at the bottom for price and work your way up as you build credibility - Take courses part-time or via distance learning that will count towards a degree. As you're running a business and shooting, you'll be in an excellent position to choose the right courses. - Volunteer to crew for selected low-budget movies, then as you get experience be more selective - take jobs that pay or which teach you what you need to know next After several years of this you should have an excellent showreel, great camera and editing skills, experience of managing budgets, contacts in the state film industry, and lots of clients who are willing to swear you are rock solid. You can finish off with a year of full-time school if necessary. You won't be in debt and you'll have a good idea what you should do next - maybe you are hyper-talented and should go to LA or try to raise the money to shoot a cheap feature, maybe you like shooting weddings and want to aim to be the world's top wedding shooter and shoot 20 or so 5-10K weddings a year with some corporate work on weekdays, maybe you're great at shootings videos for bands and clients are asking you to fly around the country. Or maybe it hasn't suited you as well as you hoped, in which case you're glad you're not in debt and can use those book keeping and computer skills so you don't have to work at McDonalds.

File Maker Pro is a great suggestion. It's proven, cost effective, and if there is anything you can't do yourself it should be easy to get cheap help by one of the freelancing sites. And the current version lets you create Android and IOS interfaces - http://www.zdnet.com/product/filemaker-pro-v-14-box-pack-hh272ea/