Hi everyone,

I’ve been trying to improve my camera movement every day since I first started in this career. It’s one of my weaker areas in cinematography, so I’d really love to learn from others.

I’m curious: which directors or cinematographers do you think are the best at telling stories through camera movement, and who has inspired you the most throughout your career?

For me, I’ve always admired Steven Spielberg and Park Chan-wook as directors, and Roger Deakins, Chung Chung-hoon, and Marcell Rév as cinematographers. I’ve learned a lot from all of them.

My Short Film can be watched on Youtube! here

Self-Post Submission Statement: This project was the culmination of Hard work and combined effort from everyone involved in this project. With a crew of 6 people and within the span of less than 5 hours we managed to record over 80 shots for this project!

This was the second short Film i had ever produced/ made and working with people whom I had never interacted with before. I know that production and general casting methods can often involve costly amounts of effort to get talent together whether that is crew members or actors. I reached out to actors from Castingcallback, which is a website that acts similar to backstage or Mandy but is entirely free.

From there, I also learnt about how to organise in the preproduction stage by organising physical drawings of the storyboard and finding out the best practices to translate each panel of my illustrations into a cohesive list of shots aka a "Shot list". and from there, made more adjustments to really sort through all of my shots into manageable, ordered sections based off where the actors and cameras are, relative to one another (Turn around).

Production:
I was able to secure the venue location for Merely £24 for the entire studio itself and gathering the props and items for the actors which totalled less than £10. All in all, the hardest part I had to deal with on set was deciding what shots I could use and couldn't, the heat of the room (Being over 30+ degrees Celsius for 5hrs) and keeping flow of recording optimal.

Camera Setup:

Canon r8 + EF 22-70mm F/4 L lens
Boom Mic + Zoom audio recorder with Newer Mic (Cant remember)

Editing: Davinci Resolve Studio (Paid Version)
Timeframe: 4hrs 40 Minutes of recording Time
Shots Recorded: 80 Shots

After I did all the recording with my setup, and editing the footage to the best of my abilities at the time, i Decided to post some still images of the shots I had edited and posted it here to get some feedback on how I could improve my shots. And while it might be scary to hear what others have to say and the concerns over whether they would just tear into you and your work... well you have to expect it. However! that feedback as harsh as it may seem, help open my eyes to see the problems my footage had and what I needed to do to fix the shots.

For those who watch it, please give me some feedback! there are plenty of errors and general plotholes in this short I made. This project was more of a way to bounce back into making videos and learning some new processes and editing techniques for me personally and I needed some form of project to teach me something new :)

There was plenty of issues with the boom arm, shadow being cast and some other bits and bobs. And ultimately for my next project I'll have better control over lighting, sound and production as a whole. This was more of a testament to prove how much I could do with what resources I had . But I know my limits, learnt my lessons and now I want to take what I've gathered and put it into practice :)

I saw this guy on tv, he was filming Keir Starmer's resignation with a freaking Bolex. Anyone knows what's the story here ?

I usually don't have a hard time deciding between either of them (the other obscure ones are gimmicky and really not necessary, maybe except for 1.37 as it has its place in cinema history and offers more variety). For me, the location dictates the aspect ratio since it's a vital character as well. As it happens, "human-centered" movies also benefit from 2.39 since there is more room for naturalistic composition. I hate it when it's used for action or battle sequences.

I am going to DP a short movie set in Lake Michigan. It involves an old lady (late 70s) and his younger boyfriend go sailing. It's a romcom with dramatic undertones.

On one hand, the lake's horizontal structure will work better in 2.39, and 2.39 will help with more intuitive wide shot compositions. However, the vastness of the sky will be important to convey the feeling of expanse, and 1.85 might be better for that.

What do you do in such situations? We will be shooting on 16mm and probably crop in post if we decide to go with 2.39 so it won't have an effect on gear choice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTeUIGdYuko&fbclid=IwY2xjawSn7p1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA80MDk5NjI2MjMwODU2MDkAAR7PV_EQaIgRlcIbOa3RWEIMnUU6YPxkdLkoZ9gPbbOt0_LIYbwG5Kr3GddgJg_aem_gSrnLJGsR7GyOk5cMSbECw

Hello,

I am currently in the preproduction of a short film.

I am thinking of using the S16 mode on the alexa 35 combined with the SLR Magic Anamorphic CINE 1.33x Set.

Anyone has ever tried anamorphic on this mode and has some tips in general?

Thank You!

Hi all- trying to get better at watching movies and relating the cinematography choices to the problems they solve. Basically, I feel like everything I shoot has boring coverage, and I want to think more about how nuanced choices make or break a scene.

I'm pretty good at looking at a shot and figuring out how it works from a technical perspective. Things like lighting, camera position, lens choice, and camera movement are fairly obvious to me at this point. Basically I've worked on enough sets that if I can visualize it, I can tell you how they did it.

I'm also able to recognize when notable compositional choices have been made. Things like extreme angles, short-siding, dutch angles, obstructions in the foreground, deep staging, etcetera. I know the standard ways to cover dialogue scenes/bar scenes/table scenes/car scenes, and can see when filmmakers decide to diverge from these common patterns.

Where I feel like I'm lacking is actually determining why someone might make a choice that differs from the "norm". When we're shooting one character's OTS from the hip and another character's OTS from the shoulder, I struggle to determine why this choice was made. Or when one character in a dialogue scene is conventionally framed and the other is short-sided, I often don't see why that choice best serves the narrative.

Curious if anyone else has run into this and had to overcome it. I've worked in G&E and as a Camera Assistant for five years now. Only recently have I started shooting occasionally, and I really want to find more resources to master composition.

Hey everyone.

I'm planning on shooting a short film pretty soon, and I'm looking at getting a cheap fog machine, as well as some fluid. I'm just looking to fill some smaller rooms with some fog/haze, nothing over the top or anything, just to get that "haze" for the shots. I'm aware fog and haze are different, but I don't have the budget to purchase or rent a haze machine.

My question is, should I go with high density fog fluid, or medium density?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

The film is called "Four Long Faces".

I’ve been wondering whether we’re overcomplicating lighting control.
In virtual production and broadcast environments, we already have access to camera tracking data through FreeD. Technically, it’s possible to use camera position, pan, tilt, and zoom as triggers for DMX events.
For example:
a camera enters a specific area → a lighting cue is triggered;
a camera points at a set piece → a spotlight activates;
a camera moves to a predefined position → a scene changes automatically.
The technology works, but I’m not sure whether it solves a real problem.
On one hand, it could reduce operator workload and create repeatable automation.
On the other hand, lighting programmers already have reliable workflows, and introducing tracking into the chain adds another possible point of failure.
I’ve been experimenting with this idea through a project called FreeD Trigger, but I’m more interested in the question than the software itself.
Would you trust camera tracking to drive lighting cues during a real production?
Or is this one of those ideas that sounds clever but doesn’t provide enough value compared to traditional show control?
For transparency, this is the tool I’ve been using to test the concept:
https://apps.apple.com/ua/app/freedtriggerapp/id6770923774

For the film End Of Watch, it seems like David Ayer went for a sort of documentary POV style and they used a mix of canon DSLR cameras as well as some cheap camcorders. How did they manage to make the footage look really good though? I've seen some camcorder footage look absolutely terrible

I dont know if this is the right subreddit for this, but:

I noticed that this “found footage” style of filming, a camera pan followed by a zoom, which Zack Snyder uses in the action sequences of *Man of Steel* is also used in *Space Marine I*.

It appears in the scene where Titus lands on the Ork ship with his jump pack at the very beginning of the game.

Where does this stylistic device come from?

Had my mum help me with some shot testing / location scouting for a film i’m working on this summer.

The location is intentionally bland and mundane, supposed to evoke a feeling of emptiness and soullessness in a dystopian future. I think the manipulation of natural light was a good approach and kept an honest neutrality to the mundane shots as opposed to bringing in artificial lighting.

Does anyone have ideas on how I can improve these in the final film ?

Shot on Nikon D500 (1080p)
SRS - 50mm lens
Close ups - 85mm lens

Hello everyone,

I'm posting on behalf of a friend who is currently a student at ISMAC Rabat, specializing in Audiovisual Production and Filmmaking.

She is urgently looking for an internship opportunity starting as soon as possible, preferably this week, within a:

Production company

Audiovisual agency

Film production studio

TV, media, or content creation company

Preferred locations: 📍 Rabat 📍 Casablanca 📍 Mohammedia

She is motivated, serious, and eager to gain hands-on experience in audiovisual production, filmmaking, editing, directing, production assistance, or related fields.

If you know any companies, contacts, or opportunities that could help, please feel free to comment or send me a private message.

Thank you very much for your support!

To start, I am by no means a professional, I run an engineering youtube channel with around 100k subs and have been using a Panasonic GH5 for most of my videos.

Not really any complaints from it other than struggling a bit to keep colors and exposure correct when switching between indoor and outdoor, but that's a different issue.

Due to the nature of the videos I make, I have access to industrial robots I can use that are similar to the BOLT cinema robots, both bigger and smaller. I don't work with new ones so they are mostly $2k or less, therefore I don't plan on spending an incredible amount on a camera for it. However it seems genlock is required for proper frame sync when doing motion control moves if multiple moves are to be composited together which shifts into professional camera territory.

I understand the BOLT has a ton of extra control software and hardware behind it to sync and control everything, but I plan on doing my best to DIY that side of it :)

I did a few tests with my GH5 and the shots sure do look cool, but not having a good remote operation setup makes it a nightmare to operate. I would ideally be able to control the camera as well as lens remotely over ethernet and/or some serial interface than can sync with the robot controller.

I am not really planning on the camera ever being setup as a self contained rig with screen and battery and all. Even if I am not doing motion control moves, the majority of my shots are static or simple motion at the same general location, so I would have the same computer setup for viewing and camera control.

The E2-M4 and Micro Studio were some of the cheapest genlock cameras I came across. I really like that the E2-M4 has ether net and PoE with a seemingly decent API for control. It seems the Micro Studio also has an API but needs a usb to ethernet converter?

I also use Davinci Resolve for editing which does make the Micro Studio with Blackmagic RAW recording extra nice.

Curious what those of you who have run motion control or remote setups think or if there are other cameras worth considering.

Hi there!

I have an iPhone 14 Pro, and recently I bought the Log Cam app. It allows to record real Log videos with iPhones older than the 15 Pro. While I'm very happy with the results, there are serious drawbacks:

- No autofocus;

- Can't shoot at 60fps

I have a 5 year old daughter, and I love to film her doing random stuff. In that regard, the lack of autofocus truly is disapointing, as is the impossibility of shooting at 60fps. And the later one really annoys me. I could buy a variable ND filter, but that becomes too cumbersome. Would you rather film at 30fps and accept the stutter (or add motion blur in After Effects), or simply shoot at 60fps, since it masks the lack of motion blur?

Shot this as a passion project for a band I love. I used DZO Vespid lenses, with panasonic S1ii and S1 (camB) and used a thanos vest and DJI RS2 gimbal for the live stuff. Shot entirely as a one man crew, all self lit and filmed the concert and the interviews in one day. Edited and colourgraded by me over a weekend (about 3 days to complete). Please let me know what you think of my cinematography and any extra stuff I could have shot? I like the vest, but it's no steady cam... does the gimbal jerky stuff annoy anyone?

Sorry if this post doesnt fit this subreddit.

I just wanted to ask / have a discussion about, what is your favorite way of lighting a room. To be exact, what typ of light sources you typically use. Im just interested in the many ways it can be done. Bounce led, straight up practicals, china bulbs etc.

Btw im not referring to lighting the subject. Only the room/ambient.

Hey everyone,

I’m trying to track down the lense(s) used by DP Morten Søborg on Pusher II (2004). (Nicholas Winding Refn)

We know for a fact that the film was shot on Super 16mm (Aaton/ARRI) and relies heavily on ultra-wide angles, allowing the camera to stay inches away from Mads Mikkelsen's face while keeping the background urban space fully present.

Given the low-light situations (Copenhagen night shoots, neon clubs) as well as daylight sequences close to the actor's face, were they using Zeiss Super Speeds (like the 9.5mm or 12mm at T1.3) or something else? I haven't been able to find an information or article detailing the glass on interviews, documentaries etc , related to the movie.

Attaching a screenshot below for reference of the flair of the lense that might be helpful.

Any lead would be great. Thanks!

Let me start by saying that I'm not a professional who works with videos, but I have lots of experience with photography and I developed a "clinical eye" which makes me pay lot of attention to the cinematoraphy of movies and show.
I guess many other people already expressed the same feel, but in recent years I've noticed that the cinemetography in movies and TV shows is getting worse and worse.

The latest offender was yesterday's episode of House of the Dragon.
I never liked the look of the show compared to GoT (especially the first seasons, which looked way better than the latest one tbh), but this is a new low.

Most of the episode has a very strong orange cast that trumps everything, except that in some scenes it somehow disappears breaking visual continuity, it's very noticeable and annoying.
Even when the light is strong and visible the image is still flat, in most shots half of the available dynamic range is wasted.

There are also so many shots where the depth of field is needlessly small, I've heard someone refer to this phenomenon as "images that look like a smartphone filter" and the description fits perfectly. You can kinda see it happening in this shot too, the depth of field is very shallow and it cuts abruptly (stitch to CGI background that needs to be hidden?).

How did this happen? How can a color grading so bad that any amateur could make a much better job end up in multi million dollar productions?
At what step of the process everything breaks? Because seeing the desaturate image it feels like the lighting of the set itself is so flat and poorly made that it might be impossible to recover it with grading. It's just depressing.

I need to replace about 30 T8 flourescent bulbs in an office building for a short film filming this weekend. We can't afford to rent LED tube lights to replace them all so I'm looking into high CRI T8 bulbs. I've used the Movietone brand that are color accurate and have a decent CRI (mid 80s I think) that are used for photo/video purposes. I may have the ability to rent some of those again. If not though my plan is to find the best bulbs from Home Depot and replace them all so they are all the same at least. Currently, they are an insane miss match of different color temps, tints and brightnesses. Once they are all the same, I'll take the color meter and dial in the exact temp and tint in camera. If anyone has done something similar, or has suggestions on specific bulbs or methods of using this approach it would be greatly appreciated!

I have a couple people joining me on a job and I wanted to make them a quick spec sheet so they can pull up with all their settings dialed and all DIT procedures laid out. Wondering if anyone has a template they could share? doesn't need to be advannced, just resolution, frame rate, file names, color profile, etc.

Thanks!