FS7: "DP decided he wants an F5 instead"

Regarding the Canadian #saynotospec video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=essNmNOrQto), while it's funny and charming it's not that black and white. New restaurants do give away free samples, personal trainers offer tests/training sessions for no charge, and I bet architectural firms would do things for free or heavily discounted in the right circumstances. Who knows if they believe in the campaign? It's unimportant - 2M views and countless article features is probably a huge success for them. The campaign probably could've been #sayyestospec..

So say no to spec, say yes to spec, find middle ground. There's no blanket attitude to adopt for every situation, each scenario is unique and requires assessment.

Tim Sewell said:
And, as others have mentioned, no-one planning a wedding ever tried to chisel the florist, the caterers, the hairdressers, the printers etc - only ever the photographers.
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I doubt it. I'm guessing all professions involved have been asked about discounts many times over. It may happen to photographers more often but why pretend like we're the sole business people being hit up for reduced rates?
 
I was shooting In Haiti right after the earthquake hit. I was following a group of newly arrived doctors in the disaster area.
Most of their kit was still in transit from the dominican republic. One of the doctors borrowed my Leatherman disinfected it with a bottle of rum and started amputating.
The leatherman did the job but once his tools arrived he gave it back to me he obviously preferred his medical instruments.

Sure you can shoot with fiddly AF photo lenses on cameras which require you to be spot on who's codex can't take the heat, you can frankenrig it all and build lighting out of Home Depot stock- the problem is its very very stressful to achieve good results, possible but very straining. How long do you want to work like that? If you are doing this for a living you have the right to do the job as comfortably as possible.

Weather you are amputating limbs or shooting a doc about it.
 
Guys... I didnt say that having an expensive camera ,or someone who rented one for a day not knowing how to set it up.. makes anyone good or better at their job.. ( that F5 footage was probably from me :)... but there are intrinsic differences between a 5D,and a Fs7/F5/Amira .. that will have a qualitative difference to the footage .. presuming a decent level of proficiency in the first place.. although of course I,d rather be shooting with a 5D in riot than an Amira with a CN7.. thats just common sense..
Another thing.. although yes its bollocks.. is that very often actually showing up with a "big" camera and mattbox and lots of shiny stuff.. looks alot better for the client.. Ive been told this by directors too.. esp in the corp world .. the big boss comes into the interview.. see,s all the gear .. and their attitude changes.. its a serious shoot .. they often say.. "oh that looks like an very expensive camera, this is a real shoot isnt it.." Ive heard this many times.. I,ll be the first to agree is lame.. but its basic psychology .. and its true..
 
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It's an interesting era. And given that I'm now seeing older Alexas selling in the $20k - $25k range, I think it's not too long before we see them for $10k. Budget isn't the same constraint it once was for quality.

We can go in circles about the 5d versus Alexa type argument. For me it comes down to the client. As others have said, clients can see deficiencies in footage, and point them out. The good client is the one who recognizes the limits of what they paid for. The problem client is the one that expects a product quality the is out of line with what they paid for, and either doesn't understand or care about the difference. Some potential problem clients can be educated - others can't. The key is to recognize the potential clients who will never be satisfied no matter what you (reasonably) do, and simply not work with them. A client that refuses to trust your professional guidance isn't a client you want.
 
This just came up on my feed. I kid you not. This guy is hiring himself out to do cinematography on his iPhone.

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Viddovation said:
It's an interesting era. And given that I'm now seeing older Alexas selling in the $20k - $25k range, I think it's not too long before we see them for $10k. Budget isn't the same constraint it once was for quality.

We can go in circles about the 5d versus Alexa type argument. For me it comes down to the client. As others have said, clients can see deficiencies in footage, and point them out. The good client is the one who recognizes the limits of what they paid for. The problem client is the one that expects a product quality the is out of line with what they paid for, and either doesn't understand or care about the difference. Some potential problem clients can be educated - others can't. The key is to recognize the potential clients who will never be satisfied no matter what you (reasonably) do, and simply not work with them. A client that refuses to trust your professional guidance isn't a client you want.
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This is all bang on 100% in my opinion. Clients that trust that you are the expert and that bring you in from an early stage to discuss what can and can't be achieved tend to be fantastic.
 
Years ago I shot for Apple ,a promo video for iMovie .. young hipster kids in the snow toting DSLR camera,s.. we of course shot on a very high camera that I was told to wobble about a bit to look as if they had shot it.... Ive also shot for Sony for a early XDCAM disc promo, but we shot with a F900R.. !
 
If i recall correctly a recent iphone advert with the 'shot on iphone' caption clearly shows a Red Dragon being used in a window reflection, and I think even Sony's recent big 4k promotion was all shot on red too.

EDIT: Was possibly a Nokia Lumia advert.
 
Getting very off topic...

Here the 'shot on iPhone' commercials are boxes surrounded by the apple white. I know they're mixing picture with video but do you think they don't want them seen full screen? It looked like the videos would hold up full screen but the photos wouldn't look as good.
 
It's good branding, and it draws the viewer in, it doesn't purport to be something it's not and all the while the voiceover plays with your emotion. Very clever. Pretentious, but they work.
 
Yep, just because they are transparent and cynical at making things which are pretty much the same as everything else out there seem like gateways to an aspirational lifestyle, it doesn't mean the Apple campaigns are not hugely successful.

People love that stuff.

Strangely, in Cologne this last week, the number of German cars with anti-Apple stickers emblazoned on them was really weird. You might not like them but to stick a crude image of someone pissing on the Apple logo on the back of your M3 BMW seems really bizarre to me, unless you invented Android. Or the mp3 player.
 
Ben Scott said:
Yep, just because they are transparent and cynical at making things which are pretty much the same as everything else out there seem like gateways to an aspirational lifestyle, it doesn't mean the Apple campaigns are not hugely successful.

People love that stuff.

Strangely, in Cologne this last week, the number of German cars with anti-Apple stickers emblazoned on them was really weird. You might not like them but to stick a crude image of someone pissing on the Apple logo on the back of your M3 BMW seems really bizarre to me, unless you invented Android. Or the mp3 player.
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I am living in Germany and I can't remember having seen one at all. (an anti sticker, M3 BMW I see here an there)
 
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