To those who must have 35mm Adaptors to make Movies

What kind of pencil does Stan Lee use to draw?

His work with a chewed school surplus pencil seems to be better than my work with my $20 box of Derwent Graphic Artists Pencils.
 
Well, I'm not going to sell my cam and start shooting on Hi-8. Are we not supposed to buy better gear if we can? What is the point? (With all due respect good intentions from me to all of you-ward) Better gear, unless I forget to take the lens cap off, will make prettier pictures, and since the story is the same as before the new gear, this is a good thing, no?
 
Better is better, yes. The problem is when people think that the gear itself is going to advance their production to a more professional level, without knowing how to take best advantage of it.

If you find your current gear limiting, then that's the time to stretch to the next level. If you don't know why your productions fall far short of your expectations, it's a mistake to think "oh, it's because I need a new camera" or whatever.
 
Barry_Green said:
Better is better, yes. The problem is when people think that the gear itself is going to advance their production to a more professional level, without knowing how to take best advantage of it.

If you find your current gear limiting, then that's the time to stretch to the next level. If you don't know why your productions fall far short of your expectations, it's a mistake to think "oh, it's because I need a new camera" or whatever.
Click to expand...

To reiterate: Better gear is only better in the hands of a better user.
 
I think the video raised an interesting point. I felt it was talking directly to me, as I have spent the last several weeks accumulating all the gear I think I need to do music videos and later a feature. I'm 49 and IMHO only average at video work, even though I've been shooting for 25 years, starting with super 8 , 16mm in college, and every video format in between. I always made a living at something else though, film and video was a hobby. Now I have the time to pursue what I've always loved to do. I'm getting the gear (HVX,crane,dolly,
filters, WA adapters, etc) but I'm also spending most every waking hour figuring out what it takes to be a pro. This includes the digital cinema course, Barry's book (excellent writing by the way), this board, and a lot of other books and resources. And a lot of test runs and practice. Nothing wrong with
getting great gear if you put in the time to learn how to use it. Sunday will be the second days shooting of my first "pro" music video. Hopefully all the time I've put in will show in the final product.
 
The other side of all of this is, if you're trying to produce/sell a feature film, and most people (distributors especially) are used to seeing a feature film look a certain way, then it will help if your feature looks like what people are used to. That's why we all LOVE the HD, 24p, and Cinegamma of the HVX. The 35mm adapter is just the last step. If the tools had nothing to do with it, we could all have saved a lot of money and just kept makin' stuff with our VX1000s and XL-1s. The tools aren't everything, but they're not nothing either.
 
that was such common knowledge pointed out to make himself seem important and "in the know"... That dude is lame. he beter make dam ngood videos.
 
Kholi said:
What does a 35mm adapter paired with your points have to do with what he's saying? Is this a personal thing with 35mm adapters?
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No - I have nothing whatever against 35mm adaptors or any other quality piece of equipment for that matter. Quite the reverse, I love good gear.

And the point of Chuck's movie is far, far wider than that bt what he's talking about applies here too.

My point is that these adaptors are extremely difficult to use properly, yet there seems to be a headlong gallop to acquire them sometimes by people who don't have the photographic skills to use them properly.

Used correctly by a skilled photographer, they give a wonderful result - but too many of the examples I've seen are just a blur. Nothing in the picture is sharp. That's not shallow depth of field, that's bad focus.

As Barry so rightly said, use what you have until you genuinely find something's limiting you - then consider moving up a stage. But I'd say, find out whether it's your own lack of skill that's causing the bottleneck first. If it is, no amount of money is going to put it right.

As I wrote on Apple's FCP Forum, there's no cash shortcut for imagination and creativity.

I believe people are buying these things before they've even discovered the HVX's capability of limiting depth of field WITHOUT any adaptors.

Also, we read posts by people complaining about the HVX's low light limitations compared to other cameras. These adaptors seriously REDUCE the camera's low light capability still further.

We also read posts complaining the HVX is difficult to focus . . . (you guet my drift)?

As for the Red thing . . .
If they ever get on the market, they'll sell by the wagon load, purely on the hype.
People are convincing themselves you can't shoot proper video without the "Big Red"!

I look forward to it - hopefully it will mean I can pick up a nearly new HVX as a second camera - that would be nice!

We'll see!

Andy
 
I think we're all on the same page here. I had a chance to see the new Yimou Zhang (House of Flying Daggers, Hero) film, The Curse of the Golden Flower. It had a monster budget, name talent, and incredible art direction (and I mean incredible). But the movie suffered from, for lack of better words, amateur cinematography and editing. Every close and medium shot was made long lensed (and I mean really long-- 100-300mm). That was some serious shallow depth-of-field, but it got really old after a while--especially cutting constantly between these 35mm establishing shots and the 150mm close-ups. Sometimes it felt like an old Hollywood movie (think Frank Capra), not bad, but definitely not as sophisticated as we are used to. So, yeah, use your tools to their fullest extent; talent is more important than equipment; and don't stretch things farther than they are willing to go, yada yada yada.

Oh, and by the way, my avatar is Mr. Dylan himself--someone who definitely knew how to make a small amount of equipment go a long way. But even he knew when it was time to go electric.
 
rapsucks said:
my avatar is Mr. Dylan himself--someone who definitely knew how to make a small amount of equipment go a long way. But even he knew when it was time to go electric.
Click to expand...
That he did . . . pity his fan's didn't at the time!

Andy
 
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