The closer we come to NAB...

Whoever is making a living from the profession he/she chose and doesn't want to be called a professional is fine. I am making a living in many different aspects of image making and that is what counts to me. I can wear different hats for different ocassions as need might be and most important of all I do it all with passion. Not for fun or enjoy, but because I love what I do for a living! I really enjoyed the part were I take money, do a lot of research and invest it in new gear. It is a wonderful feeling to open that box and see a gift your hard and creative work has brought you and I know for sure that 100% of the guys and gals around here who own their own equipment feel the same way.
 
John Caballero said:
As a still camera the D90 produces very professional results. As a video camera you wouldn't earn a penny with it. The GH1 should take very good pictures but of course the video is an open question. On the lower end of the camera spectrum IMO the HPX 500 is the only camera able to compete in true quality with the higher priced ones.
Click to expand...

There is a TVC in production here at the moment that a friend of mine is involved with. The client brief called for an edgy street look that the D90 would be perfect for. The production company is shooting with something like a HPX. It's going to need a lot of work in post to look anything like what the D90 is capable of. And I doubt very much that it will look right. Unfortunately I found out about the job too late in the game. If I knew earlier my D90 could have earned me 20k.

Renting gear for my feature would cost more than buying it. I can also use it for future projects and commercial work. I've always hated hiring anything. it's so time consuming filling out paperwork and picking up/dropping off stuff. My DSLR rig fits in a backpack and is ready to shoot at a moments notice whenever I feel inspired.
 
squig said:
There is a TVC in production here at the moment that a My DSLR rig fits in a backpack and is ready to shoot at a moments notice whenever I feel inspired.
Click to expand...

I never did find out what exactly constitutes your present DSLR rig. Do tell!
 
mattsand said:
sure, but what's really interesting is whether you need your own boat to be a fisherman. ;-)

/matt
Click to expand...

are you a pro if you own your own rod?

I can't find a rod with manual control so I can't get any paid commercial work

I must look into this "alternative porn"
 
lasvalley said:
I never did find out what exactly constitutes your present DSLR rig. Do tell!
Click to expand...

Well it's still a work in progress.....and will continue to evolve.

So far-

D90, 2 batteries, 8 and 4gb sandisk extreme III cards
Steadytracker extreme
Rode NTG-1 with hotshoe shockmount
Zoom H4 - just sold it and upgrading to the H4n
Nikkor ai primes- 24mm f/2, 28mm f/2, 35mm f/2, 50mm f/1.4, 105mm f/2.5, 135mm f/2.8.
Hoya ND8 filter, various hoods
17" 2.5ghz macbook pro with 2 gig of ram
final cut studio 2
a few cfl work lights
bob sport utility jogging stroller dolly

still to arrive-
16mm f/2.8 fisheye, 50mm f/1.2, 85mm f/1.4 and maybe a 20mm f/2.8 to complete the collection.
Mathews M25 tripod
Hoya polarizing filter
21" Sony bravia
made in bollywood follow focus/whip
Cavision rods
Cavision eye piece
Hasselblad bellows
Twixtor
Rode boom
suction car mounts
more cfl, tungsten and led lights
f-stop camera backpack
a couple of 500Gb 2.5" 7200rpm FW800 hard drives
low mode bracket for steadytracker

future upgrades-
A DSLR that works properly
some wireless mics
magic bullet looks

total cost around 10k US
 
John, you truly make me laugh when you claim that you can't make money with video on the D90. I mean seriously.
Personally I started making money when I got myself the D90.
So I am really puzzled with your analysis.
What am I doing wrong :) ?
 
John Caballero said:
Good for you, really.
Click to expand...

I know it is but I can't see why so many of us here claim that it is not THE tool.
Last time I checked we are not in 1998 or something when media content production was reserved for people with either serious money, serious gear or serious connects.
Now neither applies.
It goes for both music, video and art in general.
Nowadays, if you are good and you believe in what you are doing there is a big chance you will make it. Especially if you use the D90 which to the 80% of your potential clientelle delivers results they were not even dreaming of.
This is if you know what you are doing ..obviously.

I may be biased, cause I do not do weddings nor sport events.
Not that there is anything wrong with it.
But like Matt said
"i know your world exist, why do you think mine doesn't?"

WORD !
 
If you can make money with your tool it is excellent. If you are in business thats the ultimate goal. Nowadays you have to be flexible. The truth is that I loathe shooting a wedding, pictures or video, but once in a while I like to put a grand in my pocket shooting for a few hours, while I eat some nice food.
 
John Caballero said:
The truth is that I loathe shooting a wedding
Click to expand...
that's my point. while it might sound like i look down on wedding photographers if that's true it's not because they're not artists, as someone suggested, but because most i've met have been doing it even though they hate it.

/matt
 
John Caballero said:
Whoever is making a living from the profession he/she chose and doesn't want to be called a professional is fine
Click to expand...
but it's you who don't call them professionals. you started all this by claiming that all professionals own their own gear and that said gear had to be something like an hvx and definitely not a d90. are you now taking that back or not?

i'm amazed that you don't see that the satisfaction of seeing your work in theaters or on tv easily matches that of opening a new box of toys. a lot of us, yes, on this board too, got into this because of the results we wanted to produce, not the gear we wanted to use. we love movies, not necessarily cameras.

/matt
 
who needs to watch soap when you have matt and john to entertain you

speaking of loving movies I saw a Scottish film on DVD last night called sweet sixteen. Bad title but I highly recommend it. It's the best teen film I've seen since kids, city of god and christiane f. I've had a hard time lately trying to find films to watch that are in the same vein as mine. Most of them I have to switch off after about 10 minutes because they are so bad. This one got me thinking about my script development. If anyone has any other recommendations on something to watch I'm all ears.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top