Press release for AF100 cinematographer

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Few would want (or dare) to disparage Vilmos Zsigmond and his body of work, yet everyone generally agrees that McCabe and Mrs. Miller was a disaster from a cinematography standpoint. I've had several artisitic missteps in my career and the day you stop learning in the crafts is the day you stop working in the crafts.
 
You are absolutely right, everyone is entitled to their opinion. And I shouldn't have snapped.
But I have gotten so tired of students who have never sat in a professional edit session with clients, and are not privy to the reason for a particular effect or edit to offer up such gems. Much the same way I get fed up with kids who are instantly expert DPs because they have a hacked GH1. I guess I have gotten cranky in my old age. Sorry!
 
David W. Jones said:
You are absolutely right, everyone is entitled to their opinion. And I shouldn't have snapped.
But I have gotten so tired of students who have never sat in a professional edit session with clients, and are not privy to the reason for a particular effect or edit to offer up such gems. Much the same way I get fed up with kids who are instantly expert DPs because they have a hacked GH1. I guess I have gotten cranky in my old age. Sorry!
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Damned kids! Get off David's lawn! :D
 
Nineteen to mid-twenties is a magical age for production. On one hand, you quite often know everything and fear nothing and on the other hand you quite often know everything and fear nothing.

So you can take chances boldly that no one in their right mind would take and you can get away with them and come up with something so good it's amazing. Then there are the chances you take, where everyone thinks you're wrong, you think you're right, and oh brother are you wrong.

Throw some money in there to up the pressure, an experienced crew that has no end of suggestions for different ways of doing things, clients, repeatable performance, stock music, three days instead of 4, rain instead of sunshine...all of that and if you are still working, you get to be old and cranky complaining about the 19 year olds.
 
David W. Jones said:
You are absolutely right, everyone is entitled to their opinion. And I shouldn't have snapped.
But I have gotten so tired of students who have never sat in a professional edit session with clients, and are not privy to the reason for a particular effect or edit to offer up such gems. Much the same way I get fed up with kids who are instantly expert DPs because they have a hacked GH1. I guess I have gotten cranky in my old age. Sorry!
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David, I never said I was a DP, let alone an expert DP (and I don't have a hacked GH1;)). I have never sat in a professional edit session with clients and I don't know the backstory behind why a particular effect or edit was used, whether it was asked by the clients or whether it was shot in 2 hours for a 0$ budget, but the truth is I don't care because I didn't come across this vid on a corporate videography site, I watched a video linked by a Panasonic representative it thinking it would be a visually attractive video that showcases the AF100 since it was used as an example at a Panasonic press release for the AF100. And what I saw just failed my expectations, that's all. When a 4 min video has a fade out overlay transition for every shot to me it screams bad, at some point I thought I'll see a page peel transition. the black & white switching back and forth had no emotional impact on me and for me didn't serve any purpose, it was just distracting. I also didn't find the purpose in the diffusion kind of effects like in 0:42 - 0:50 in some shots that blow out the highlights and generally just contribute to a fake dreamy kind of aesthetic, like the ones we're used to from slapping baked magic bullets look presets onto video . And now that the trend is big sensor cams, I expect to see DoF control used to your advantage and so I didn't really care for the background and the paintings being in focus and distracting. And I'm not one of those who like shooting at F/1.4 on a 5d but a few shots I truly believe need subject isolation, and could have benefited from a bit of shallow depth of field. And since a pianist was being filmed, it's not like they had to shoot really deep DoF not to loose the action;) I also didn't like the framing at all but this is the one thing that is really excusable to me since good framing is very time consuming and a lot of effort, and I'm sure no one's intentions was to make the video of their life with this video. The last shot of the mountain and the clouds was nice though;) And I mean, I can understand clients like tacky and that's cool with me, but I can't understand why Panasonic would choose this for showcasing their latest camera. But again that's just me and Panasonic has different tastes than me. Personally, watching a video like this would make me not want to buy the AF100. Again, I respect most of you will disagree with me. Anyways, I rest my case and will shut up about it now.

Stefanos
 
Well, I don't mean to be rude to the producers of the video, or even to imply they lack talent or competence, but I have to enter the choir of people who didn't like this at all. For me it didn't fit the music emotionally, and had everything I think is tacky on a video production. Sure, there are lot's of people that like this, witch validate its value. Anyway, that's only my personal opinion, and nothing more.

But what really makes me astounded, is for this to be used as a display of what this camera is capable, because it's so soaked in some magic bullet type of thing that looks it could have been shot with any camera, including an HVX200.
 
taubkin said:
But what really makes me astounded, is for this to be used as a display of what this camera is capable, because it's so soaked in some magic bullet type of thing that looks it could have been shot with any camera, including an HVX200.
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Hi, it is as much of a display of what can happen with this camera as any thing else that has been shot with this camera. You can take a look at the videos that are on the vimeo group I started, some are similar, some are different, I really disagree with you on this one. I actually thought the music went with the images, ethereal and flowing.

Best,

jan
 
Jan_Crittenden said:
Hi, it is as much of a display of what can happen with this camera as any thing else that has been shot with this camera. You can take a look at the videos that are on the vimeo group I started, some are similar, some are different, I really disagree with you on this one. I actually thought the music went with the images, ethereal and flowing.

Best,

jan
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I absolutely understand, it's very subjective, and in the end, it's another competent job done with the camera. It certainly has it's place in the group. But it still don't do much for me, unfortunately.
 
Well Frank Sinatra doesn't do much for me either but he is no less of a singer for it and his art is no less respected by the people that appreciate it.
 
Jan,

As I lifelong musician I too felt frustrated when watching the video as I felt it didn't show off the pianist's talent or technique.

The very few shots of her fingers (except one near the end) on the keyboard were either in slow motion or framed to show their reflection off the piano. Also the front on shot through the piano lid was also slowed so even the key dampers were always shown out of sync with what she was playing.

Just a different perpective from (mainly) an event videographer!!!

Cheers,

Vaughan
 
A lot of flak, hmmmn. I'm hella curious now. Does anyone have a link to this so called Lisa Downing video supposedly shot on an AF100?
 
Stefanos said:
That video of Lisa Downing, I'm sorry but I think it looked awful and tacky in almost every aspect I can think of: framing, camera movement, colors, edit, color grading, lighting etc. only the last shot I thought was pretty. I'm sorry if it sounds harsh and I wasn't expecting to see a masterpiece or even sth great for sth that has obviously been put together quickly, but I just felt like watching a mediocre, tasteless, boring home video shot on a 4 year old HDV camcorder. I don't think it showed any of the AF100/M4/3 strong points and all the other , in my opinion, shortcomings like the cheesy overlays, B&W switching, lack of pace , weird soft/diffusion like effects, weird color casts, ugly framing etc made everything scream "bad home video" and I feel didn't do any justice to the camera.... just what I felt, please don't bury me:)
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I just had to see this... I think while you were very hard on the video, it definitely doesn't scream "Bloom Caliber" and true this could have been shot on anything, a DSLR would produce a better image IMHO. Not one DOF shot, which is why we're supposedly flocking to the AF, but was it as horrible as you say? I don't know, just not your taste, not mine either. Just bear in mind the video probably wasn't intended to be a paean to the AF100, which probably accounts for your sore disappointment?
 
To me some of the shots looked a bit muddy. Maybe it's just me or maybe the vimeo encode. Any idea what camera settings he was using?

I have noticed this on several cmos cameras of various chip sizes, especially when detail is turned down. Wondering if low detail = mud in the CMOS world?
 
Hi,
Can we just close this thread. It started off as a positive about a shooter/cinematographer that shot a project for a happy client that Panasonic had enough info to write about, it could have been anyone. It wasn't a thread about whether Rich had good, bad or indifferent skills, it was about the fact that Rich, a known entitity chose the camera to shoot for a client and got paid. It has turned into a negative thread like so many here that really makes me feel as though I don't want to come back here. I mean really folks, what if your work was castrated like this. Why is it that there cannot be a "happy" thread here? Maybe I am just having a bad day, but this thread is just the bottom end.

Thanks,

Jan
 
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