Lessons

Lesson Info

Discussion: Moving From Still to Video

t here. And, uh, Dan's gonna walk us through what's happened from the time we started shooting B roll to now. Yes. So we've gone ahead and we've moved the files from the interview section over to the machine that we're gonna be editing on. Everything has been placed in its proper place and everything's been logged. Um, I was taking notes while we're doing the interview, and I've gone through and put everything on the timeline, sunk all the audio sources of sunk both of them together in using floor allies, and then have gone through from the timeline. And I've made marks based on the notes that I had. So now, when actually start cutting quotes together, fitting it together. And right now, the footage that was just shot for the B roll as Miguel was working that's now being ingested into the machine will have that typical What are you gonna be looking for? As we would have a short discussion here, while you kind of get a chest at least view all the foot it is important that give you time ...

to actually look for every clip and kind of pick out little pearls of wisdom and the ones didn't work to kind of explain to us in the last part, this workshop. But what's your process? Generally, in terms of doing that? Um, especially when you get rushed like you will be. In this case, my process is really defined. I think what you so elegantly put it like what? The point is really on on that. I have to for for purposes of today that I just have kind of making an executive decision. You're gonna be busy, but I'm sure you optimally would love to be having these conversations all along being there, right with the editor, as you're working with the director, we don't have that lecture today, so I'm gonna try to figure out what the points and I know we got some great visuals. I know that way. Got a great interview. I just finished going through all that footage listening to it. So I think we've got good stuff. Will be looking for assume contextual stuff to help the interview flow to cut over little parts of the interview that'll be putting together that didn't necessarily, you know, were said to get to cover my cuts, but also to give a nice spirit flowed in an atmosphere to peace. What does other things you guys think? What's the point for having shock? She shot and, you know, shot the interview as well. Shot the B roll. Has anything changed during that process is still the same as to what you expected. Um, you know, what should he be looking for That surprised you, or what should you be staying away from it? You don't think every kind of came together? You know, for me, it was kind of difficult because, like you had mentioned trying to hear the interview portion while you're focusing on the camera operations side support, so especially its equipment, you're not particularly used to so trying to kind of work through that you almost turn off to some extent. So it's really important. Have someone monitoring that way had Dan doing that in this case. But even just someone else way didn't have that. I don't think any of us, you know, besides the person interviewing and Dan really kind of got to that. So it's hard for me to say what the point was other than the visuals when I looked at it, that's a great point is that when you're an operator or first day, see, the only thing the first day sees keeping track of is is the image sharp? The only thing the operators keeping track of is, you know, is the frame moving correctly? Is he well composed in my two static should be moving along with him. You're kind of dividing your jobs, and, uh, it's absolutely normal for you to walk wife interview and have absolutely no idea was said, Unless you're told by the director that, you know, I want absolute locked off shot, you just kind of sit back there and just kind of make sure the focus move every time he moves. You might want to go ahead and make adjustment, and you can listen in. But, you know, that's that's why it's really important to have someone watching this and hearing it on a monitor. And, um, you know, these H diesel rigs air fantastic. When you're by yourself shooting your thing and you're a solo operator, The moment you start working on a team, you gonna have to try and start to split that signal so that the other people that you're working with are are, are seeing what you're seeing and, you know included. And that's why these rigs content to get complicated quickly because they weren't designed to share a signal. They weren't designed to have an operator with the feet going right out of them gets a lot of the times, a lot of difficulties We had technically here, where try and split the single out to make sure that live audience can see that you can see it all so that we can see as a group So you can see why that is so important. If you're gonna work with a group of people that everyone's able to see an image and especially that one director, you know, has that understanding because ultimately the other day, it's not the camera operators job. First A. C's job, the gaffer's job to know if this is coming together because they each have their own a little fiefdom that they're the master of. And that's why the director needs to be a kind of left alone during the process, ideally staring at the modern listening with headphones, Uh, and maybe not even making notes, just surely seeing if they're getting entranced by the performance. If it's drama about a documentary and that's why you have a script supervisor, maybe you're just not resident. That's the one. Or there's a comment and just kind of really focused because it's so easy with all these people to get lost. Everyone else is assuming someone's paying attention. At the end of it, everyone's gone ahead and done their job. And guess what looks around you like, Do we get it? And there's not a single person on set that knows if we got it. You were asking like what we thought didn't work, and I've been racking my brain, trying to come up with something I can't because I didn't do everything and I wasn't around when everything was shot. I think Justin might be only one who might have kind of an idea. Yeah, because I know what I didn't shoot. So I don't know if that's any good or not. That stuff I was around it was shot this decent usable. We'll find out, look at it, but I have no idea what was shot. What's good, what's wrong? But I didn't let me ask you that, Um, your background as a photographer. Right? And when you go out and you come back to, uh, other, you edit yourself. Do you work with Medgar yourself and you come back and you say my stuff was decent? Is that good enough for you? On daily basis? I usually go home thinking I got nothing good. I surprised myself. Okay. All right. So I party personality. So actually think did much better than average then because you're decent, or you just say you like you're kind of where you would be as a photography somewhere, just like I don't know. I have. No, that's always That's always my personality. Like, I'm just gonna have to look at it later, because the little screen on the back, it's just not enough for me. I got to see How do you know when you leave as a photojournalist, the events don't Basically, I usually stick around until you know their sweeping up. Okay. And you never were kind of said yourself. Nail that. I got that moment there times where I'll see something. Okay, that was it. That was perfect. Okay. All right. So either you're, like, ridiculously high standards. Just definitely possibility. Or maybe you need to, you know, be thinking more. I don't know that it was just so new to me. It's a time of photography. It's not video. Because as a photographer for me that the number one goal was always, you know, because of deadlines, how quickly possibly leave where you are. You ready? Thank you very much, Joe. And start prepping. We're going to see this conversation is you know, you have to have you have the artists inside the insecure guy. You got the guy who's, you know, I got the deadline, but you gotta You gotta know deep down, Like, you know, when is good. Good enough. But also when is good enough. Not good enough. No, you know, decent. You know, um, I it's not a word in my vocabulary. So and I'm just I'm not putting on the spot by saying that stole your talk. That's cool. But you gotta like, you gotta be trying to say that shot, you know, rock. And if it didn't, you know, I worked on it until it did. You know? And I think regardless of your examples that we all should be saying, you know, we now this this one or two or three shots each. That was fantastic. And collectively, you know, with each of our one master shots, we're gonna bring together, you know, six shots. Hopefully, you've got to have 12 shots they're gonna line up would be awesome. That's what you're striving for, you know, is part of a group process. Daniel was your your photojournalist. You know, you're working on multimedia. Um, you know, what was your experience on this one? You know, going from working solo as a photojournalist with, I assume a very kind of simple basic. It even have any attachments, or you just kind of have I have, like, a Goodman on the back. I'd be, uh, you know, I have shocking, like on the top in some wireless synthesizers. That's what I need, button. That's, you know, pretty basic. I've gotten everything else. Is my still photography here? Yep. And you know, as a journalist, you're out and you're working, and it's like, Okay, I'm the person asking the question, setting this up. That's why I was really hard for me working a camera during the interview, because it's like, you know, my tendencies to be like, Oh, I'm asking the questions to on the journalists. You know, it's not like you can tune in out focus on this one thing. And, you know, as I said, why you had your nope. And you're you want. Really? Oh, yeah, like as a journalist. That's what you would do. Yeah, you would make notes to yourself while it was locked off, and you're you're looking for the story like What's the most important? But I mean, as a photographer, it's funny because you're so used to controlling everything yourself. But you know, because that's it's just you. But when you walk onto it, you know such a production like that. It's like you just you almost get overwhelmed and you're like trying to figure out what is it that I supposed to do? And it kind of is, you know it's intimidating because it's more gear than you're used to. Um, and you're not trying like you said, Everyone has their specific job. It's not like everyone, I mean, depending on what your circumstances. But so that was like a challenge, definitely. And I could definitely see where it's intimidating because it's new. But the irony is, you're being asked to a lot less. Yeah, that's how you hear so much more comfortable doing everything. One man band. But when you're asked to simply operate a camera, you find that intimidating. Yeah, because there's, like, a tendency to want toe like I don't know, like you said when you first started to be in control and like Jay said this morning, like he had to be like, Oh, that's not my job. You know, that's a weird thing as a photographer to move into that. And you know, it's not personal. Just that's just what you think. And, you know, it's just learning. No, absolutely. And then the big point you made is not. This is not a job that's meant for everybody, right? You know, whenever I give a workshop, I saved some people. Some of you gonna come out of this saying, so I want to the rest of my life. So I'm gonna come out of this saying I never want to do this. I'm really happy shooting steles because it's a different type personality. This is a team effort. This is, you know, an effort where things are compartmentalize and segmented. Everyone has little fiefdoms and you know where your limits are and learn to work together. And the beauty of it is when you make a product together that you could never do on your own. That's why it works out. But how did you feel? I'll come back this on you, but I really want to talk about what was to operate the camera. Let me ask. You can see. But, um, I think I was kind of the mindset like, Oh, this would be a nice still, This would be a nice shot right here, But then you came over and you were like, No, no, no, it's OK. If it's not always in perfect focus, add some movement to it And you were showing me how to, like, move around with my hands on my hips and stuff like that Added to add more motion to it, just make it more interesting. And so just a static shot which imposed company a little boring. Yeah, I think a times I'm not sure if it was, you would just see people just standing there. They just kept rolling and rolling and rolling and rolling. And the subject it wasn't really doing anything and I'm like, you know, there's always something going on to be shot. You know, you said created if it wasn't there, if it's not there, make your shot happened. You know, go find it just as you would in a still photographer. I just think we have this this, um, this bad tendency thing just because the cameras rolling or were shooting something interesting. On the contrary, you've got to make sure that whatever you know, you're you're contributing to what's there because we do. That's photographer all time, right way. See something? We had a little spotlight or we had an angle. Was for an aperture to make something, You know what he was saying with emotion coming over and helping. That was the hardest part for me with this at all. This understanding when went to utilize the motion of wind to be still with a still photographer. It's like cars driving by do a slow showed and drag. But with this, it's like we into motion all time. But when this motion good and when it's not like that, and that you could only be expect to learn with experience in time, you know, and I know that I probably ruined one or two of your great shots by forcing you to move. I'm sure I did, but I needed to at least realize that that should be your first tendency. But that being said, you know, you can shoot. Entire motion piece is still shot. Still shot still shot, still shot. They each have two masterpieces, though, to keep your attention. And I am going to assume you guys know how to do that already. I want to get you guys usedto moving around. Travis? Yes? What? What have you taken away from us? I would say my biggest thing is understanding. I guess I don't understand pulling focus as much shooting wide open how incredibly hard that could be and how important Setting points and marks and really blocking it out to start and then rolling with your motion and, uh, something I've never really had to deal with before. So I thought that was interesting. Yeah, and it's I think you gotta be able to switch from two months rather quickly. One is where you tomorrow. I think we're going to much more setting, you know, focus points it's taking with them and hopefully reactors, hoping the actors hit their marks. But in documentary piece, you can try that for a little bit. If you really it's just not working out. Then you would see him, and he did just kind of reckoning it out and try and catch little moments and you'll see that what he did work really well. And a documentary affords you that luxury because, you know, in a narrative when the actor delivers that key line, you can't be out of focus unless it's a TV episode where it's okay in a drama dramatic moment to have the key actor out of focus delivering it because the camera swishing around, you know, in a documentary it's okay to mess up. It's okay, you have multiple takes. That's kind of a different, uh, idea behind that. I found I found you guys getting very obsessive with Focus more, and I did initially, you know, like let's just make it go 10 x and make sure it's tack tack sharp. And let's hit these two marks right? I still photographer is like not obsessed with tax rap industry and in video is it's about a lot more than that. Johnson Um you know, I had struck, struck a little bit with trying to decide what kind of cut in the camera in a way versus followed that motion. You talked about that a little bit. One of the things that I also kind of realizes that the vision of it, you know where it's going to me kind of dictates a lot of that. So in this case, you know, in some ways I'm thinking, Well, I'm gonna get in trouble with Vincent if it's out of focus, right? In a way, you're not pressuring me that way, But I'm placing that on. Why would you think that when the first piece I show you this morning had nothing but whizzing in and out of focus would be my question, I guess Part it was that I wasn't sure when looking that if that's what we're trying to do, you know, because in that case, then it would be pretty clear to kind of go in and out. But that was really something that as a operator in that case, uh, I should have clarified, you know, getting back terrifying. Did you ask? Ultimately, I think Justin was effectively the director on that piece. Did you ever stop and say, Justin, you know you want me and focus all the time? Or do you want me to rack focus or do you care? That's the part that I you know, it helped to have you come over, correct me on that. But that's the part where I needed to go clarify the vision on it because I'm thinking, you know, five minute piece or something like that. Where am I going with that? How? How much a week? Kind of going for that more emotional piece versus. So Those are some things I should have clarified, but I didn't help. Have you kind of come in and tell me from the thing? And I think that's absolutely important to understand. Um and, um you know. Okay, um, we're basically, um you have to communicate back and forth in two directions. Everyone in the crew and as a director or as a director, we've got to make clear to you to our job to kind of set that ground works that kind of the style we're going for, um and, um and I think it was mentioned a few times, you know, just go with the flow moving errors there. Okay, it's look at Steven McGee's work, you know, it's just, you know, there's no care in the world whether it's focus were not shaky or not just kind of just go with it and just let their let life, you know, like yourself breathed life into that piece as opposed to being is perfectly square caught, you know, perfect framing and focus all the time, which is more static. I was sort of all day have been thinking about a story that we're telling here, you know, and then to Mackenzie even said something. Boat making sure we have a story almost in B roll, right? So we have an entrance, are beginning and ending to the B roll. That's something I never really. It's almost like a story that goes with the story, just, uh, and some combination of creative shots. Shots that supplement the interview that way have not just crazy track shots, No, but actually having something that's part of that fits into it overall spoken story and then also just not being afraid to get in there and go for it, you know, and that the sparks shot, I think I don't think any of us. We're gonna forget that. Especially Mackenzie. His burn spot. It's gonna go throw back. Really? Yeah. That was That was impressive to me. Just like you see, you just get right in there. You know, we're always so afraid of of hurting our gear. It starts raining or whatever, you know, And you got right in there and we could see the shot. It's gonna be incredible. Sparks whipping up straight out the lands I couldn't believe you're doing. It's just it's equipment to tool, you know? It's didn't get damaged. I don't think so. No, you know, I mean, if it was pro ing, like, you know, pallets of something, I wouldn't do it. But sparks start, You know, they're pretty harmless. Must at your skin. Maybe you're here. What about you? Well, I was just really impressed with kind of called action. It was pretty crazy at first, and I can't decided that much directing. I really let these guys get in and get shots that they wanted, but, uh, I just would see someone didn't have anything going on. I mean, like, hey, just grab this camera and get this. We need some of this and tools on the table of your wide of Miguel working. And I just really impressed with everyone. Just work together and way got everything. We need it in an hour and 1/2. Super present. Yes. I think it was really nice to see you guys come together and do this. And, um, the only mistake I ever saw waas either being too trepidation is expected. But the one on Lee mistake I would kind of say is you know, sometimes I think there was a point where you're sitting for your shot And who was it that was shooting the two of you guys building or the shoulder? And then you came around right when you were done and you let him do his shot in. The question is, Well, you're no longer in a show on this side. Go and find something else like there's just keep going. There's no reason to just be staying there doing nothing roll material and we keep going some points. So should we open some of the questions? Teoh Susan cannot. Now I'm gonna I'm gonna put, uh it's less on the spot. She she held up a sign that said, Show me the sign because we need just clear the air here sometimes is best Come over here on Bring it to me And I think this is what what she wants me Teoh address switching from photography to filmmaking. So that's what we're going to try and focus and focus on with these questions in here to me. I thought we were, you know, in terms of having them talk to us about what it felt like and what the ideas were. So let's have the audience ask us. You know what? We're not answering if that's the case, because I'd love to. Okay, The biggest thing for me was talking about this team. It's like when you were talking about the other day, I was just like, Okay, we'll see how that goes. But now, doing if you weren't kidding, it really is. Working as a team is like, really getting to your head. Just add onto that like I know, like it should be easier working with more people cause like it'll be more help. But like as a photographer, you're always working by yourself when Will was helping me pull focus like in the beginning was it wasn't working because, like, I wanted to pull the focus and move in there and I wasn't working with him. So I was always out of focus. But then I let him. I'm like, Alright, you'll pull focus, I'll just move in. And then we started getting better shots as like, I let him do his job and I start doing my job. So it's a marriage, you know, it's first a c an operator are working in tandem. And, you know, the more you work together, you gonna get to know when you know if he's operating, you know his style. He's gonna want to move in here and you're ready for it because, you know, you get to know each other and you feel it or he'll go. Okay, Ready? And you say huh? Now. And shorthand is what it's called, you know, or heal quickly. Say I'm gonna push in just a soon as he hits the spark. You know, I think I don't think you guys need to work on a little bit. Was communicating your subject. You know, um, he would often be like you guys ready and no would say no hay and just went Boom did his thing. And you guys were like, What? We have a camera yet so I can get you gotta take control of Morris. They hold on, Not yet, you know, And be very specific, specific with your language, you know, so that everyone understands around your exactly what you're asking for and the timing of things. Let's go ahead and launch it over to the to the to the World Wide Web. World Wide Web. See? So way definitely had a lot of questions coming in before while you guys were working over there. Um, and the one that does keep coming up is people have been asking about how you're securing the exposure. Um, while you're filming, So everyone was kind of confused as to how that was working. Only with the exception of the light, you know, outside which I didn't see fluctuate too much, I think, Yeah, at some point, that was when people were asking because they thought it looked like it was getting darker, what happy it might, and you make small adjustments. But this is a relatively well controlled lighting environment. It wasn't exterior. So it wasn't that much of a worry. Uh, the main issue you gotta watch out video is that you don't blow out those highlights. So sometimes you're closed in a little more than you know is perfect for that image. To retain those highlights, you open them back up, you know, in post. And also when you you know, you do reverse shots from the from the front. It's closed down one stop, and you go in the reversed backlit. You might open up one stop for dramatic effect. So in this case, you know, if you remember, if you paid attention right when we started, we made sure all three cameras with, say, my s o same color balance, same picture styles, same aperture to start off with, at least. And I did mention shutter speed. Right. So, um, we were all sink were exactly predator mode, stand markets. Predator remote is this is this feature called false color that the marshal monitors have you consigned to function. And what does shows you kind of like an infrared predator mode. Everything and, you know, yellow is getting blown totally blown out. Red is completely blown out and just make sure that you haven't your eye. That pigskin might look like it's OK, but you push predator mode on and you can see that it's actually blown out. Would you called in your first work? Did I really care about your markets? A full five, Marcus. Yeah. Oh, good. I have a question. What would you say, Vincent, are the biggest obstacles technically for for you moving from photography to filmmaking. The biggest obstacles are learning entire new language, you know. I mean, when you leave, when you are a photographer, you have you are working on mastering or have mastered a friend. And that frame is four corners that does not move with a moment that's frozen in there. And what you're focusing on is capturing geometry, light color in a moment in that in those four corners. But stopping, having it all come together perfectly that one moment. And if you get it, you're the hero. If you miss it, you zero okay, but you're done. You mean that picture is done forever? That moment is past. There's nothing to do to go back and get it. Except look for the next one. If you missed it, uh, that image will live in eternity, frozen in time and on its own. Now there are, of course, photo essays out there where you try to make a series of images. We're doing a campaign or something. Most part, though, most photographers and most pictures live by themselves. When you go in the film, biggest challenges, understanding that it's a sequence of hundreds of shots back to back, and the way they relate to one another is that's the new art form you're gonna learn and how to make people's attention span. You know, stick with your story. You know what? What moves Help engage your audience versus moves like, you know, MTV. You know certain people I can't stand watching that kind of motion. Then you lose them. And you know, there's certain techniques that you learn to kind of assemble these pieces that will work, and some that won't. And it's an art form, of course, just to kind of riff off that it's really no. There's a rhythm to it. It's learning its time, you know, So like you're saying it's, ah, photographs or a moment frozen in time, and when you move into motion not only your thinking about the motion in one shot, but how that shot Who's into the next? That one who's into the following shot. So you do have to kind of learn rhythm and how how these things go together and the biggest challenges it with a photograph. You've gotta catch someone's attention and freeze them and have them focus on it. But you have no control over how long they're gonna watch or look at your picture. It's up to them ultimately and probably the morning before her after more than study it, whereas in a film you've got a guarantee that they're going to start and make it all the way to the end. And that's that's what really is challenging as you're tryingto ensure that that audience watches your to our movie or your five minute documentary or your two minute music video and not get bored and flipped channels, which is so much harder is captivating. Someone, for one moment is one. I wouldn't say it's harder. I would just say it's different, but it's it's it's they're both equally hard, but you have to respect both, you know, cause I know some brilliant filmmakers who couldn't freeze moment say their life. You know, it's It's a different set of skills, you know, different type of pressure have, like that one player of suitable one play of the game. The game winning touchdown will only happen once. No one knows what's gonna be on the field, and there's only one perfect, persistent position to capture it from. And you're only one photographer. You don't have five cameras going. That's a pretty special set of skills. That's hard, you know, to Yeah, that's for sure. Yeah. Uh, okay. So I have a clarification question of what? The people in the chat room we're asking. So the question from Chad was, how did you measure the exposure? Was it with built in meters? That was That was the main question of was talking about a guest versus his journal me. We used ultimately predator mode, you know, which is false color on the monitors. So you can you can judge off the monitor just looking at the exposure if you're in the ballpark and if you want to get more specific, you press that false color mode, and it's basically a new miracle. Representation of the color values, you know. And, um, they will show that at some point tomorrow just to kind of show you the example on the monitor. Yeah, that kinda hoping that the behind the scenes crew caught that, But I guess, Yeah. So Canon geek would like to know what photography habits should be dropped when switching to video. One of the first ones is you're gonna want to push push the stop button when you get the moment. So as soon as you get that great moment you're gonna want to hit stop, which he was actually trigger figure. Right. And you need to let it roll. Um, And the other photography habit is, uh, thinking that if you've got that perfect frame that you have a perfect Siris of frames and you have a film that once you've got one, you have to worry about the next and how interrelated. The question from a recess was for a one hour documentary. Approximately how much time? My issue? One hour or 15 years? I mean right. It depends on the documentary is you know, um, and if it's in one country, if its historical, you know, on average, it's a pretty high, uh, amount of hours to what you see on film. You know, on, uh, they can definitely be said about documentaries because you were burning. No film or hard drive space waiting for the moment. You gotta wait for that moment to happen. You never know what's gonna happen As a photographer. You're gonna wait and wait and wait. And that alone takes discipline until it happens. When you push the button. Promise videos, you gotta be rolling. So you have a lead into the moment, and you never know that most gonna happen. So it's a lot of footage all the time. Adam Nullah ass. What are some good practices to train your brain from looking for the perfect shot to capturing the perfect feel? Good question. The perfect feel for the perfect shot, I would say, Watch a lot of films learn from the masters. Um, you when you're trying to communicate what feel you want, what you want your child to be like, references are the best way to go. Um, it's It's a I don't know how intuitive it is. I think it's something that maybe it's a little intuitive, like, you know, some people have rhythm you can pick, you know, they pick that up a little faster. But learn from the master is really And I think you know, to take that step further, it's to get that specific feel. You know, you have to set your audience up. You know, it's you have to You have to put them in an emotional state that is going to surprise them when that moment happens. You know you can't just expect them to get it right away, and you're going to realize that, you know, do I need a certain type of music? Set it up. Do we need a certain type of movement? Set it up and every decision you're making there is how you move the camera and how much time you lead up to this moment, what we'll do tomorrow. The narrative is going to allow you to get that emotion from the audience. Where is just go that, uh, feel happy? It doesn't quite work, you know. You have to, like, build up to it or release. You know, we'll talk about in their narrative arc. You know, in terms of storytelling, is also kind of an emotional arc. You know there's a building release. And, uh, you have to understand that you can't keep going 100 miles an hour the entire well, you're obviously be exhausted. You've gotta, like, given stuff and release and relax. Evan Flow Sounds like music. Like writing. It's like most yes, I keep making these music references, but right, I think that song writing and in some ways making music is Mork into filmmaking and photography. Um, because you're going through these movements and you're trying to evoke emotion. It's not that you're not trying to locomotion photography, but you're using. No, because photography is, uh, it's like there's photo feel, you know? Where is this is a crescendo or D crescendo? It's Ah, everything is working to orchestra together. Your sound, your image and, um, it's a symphony. Very poetic. A question from the chat room, M. J J D. Um, if a still photographer wants to shoot a full feature documentary, what steps to get to that point? Should the still photographer take can one be successful going straight to feature without being in a film environment? Or should a short film project be done first to get the experience? Um It definitely does not hurt to do a documentary on someone on your mother or sister that's like right there, or a self portrait in a mirror and start simple. There's no road map to becoming a filmmaker. You know, you don't have to shoot a documentary to become a filmmaker into narratives. Um, does it hurt? No. You know, it really depends on what your end goal is. You know, a lot of people shoot commercial work and become filmmakers. People shooting music videos and go As long as you study the craft and understand it, however you get there is kind of your choice. I do think the easiest thing about maybe doing a documentary first if you're just make me move into this, is that everything is already there for you. Your, um, your subjects already there their stories already there. You're not gonna have to create anything or build anything, so you can you can just go film that and then you can build your own story out of it. Jamaat has asked how and when do you decide which lends to use on the fly? Or is it all figured out in pre production? Well, It depends on type production, you know, here on the fly, totally on the fly today whereas on a narrative when you storyboard it is pretty much when you're deciding what's gonna be. Because the whole point of storyboard is to pick lenses for two reasons. One is to not only make sure you have coverage, but also to help build that emotion and bring you closer to the subject or further away, and the same way you picked the way the camera moves. It's a cinematic language. And so when you do documentary, none of us really knew what Miguel is gonna do today. You know, What kind of had I had a general idea? Justin did. But until you actually got to doing it, you know, you didn't know. She kind of bring your bag of lenses and trying to attack each thing and trying to discuss what you don't you need but different processes, depending on what type of filmmaking you're doing. That's very similar to photography. Some depending on what kind of shit you have. Sometimes your lenses on the fly and sometimes you playing out exactly depends on the photographer or the filmmaker. There's some filmmakers that come in there and they don't want scripts. They don't want rehearsals. They don't want storyboards. They wanted the actresses, you know, add live and go. They refused to do that. Or is there some filmmakers that know exactly what they want? And don't wanna veer from that at all. Question from Kelly Hoffer was our good lenses so important? One shooting video versus photography Because when shooting photos, you need the higher resolution, whereas film limits at a wonder two megapixels preferring it depends. I mean, the honest answer is, if you're going to the Web, it's really not gonna matter that much, you know, unless you're doing full 10 80. But if you're doing, you know, Sander deaf or, you know, on your IPhone doesn't matter if you use a, you know, $100,000 lens or a $50 lens. You know, realistically, if you go to a television or a full 10 80 or onto this little spring, yeah, definitely matters more. But, you know, I like crappy lances, especially for film. I like when things are kind of funky and flares, you know, I mean that famous Panavision flair that blue line that you see that everyone like wants tohave that J. J. Abrams got obsessed with Star Trek eyes actually result of poor optics, you know, it's And now it becomes thing it sought after. It's kind of funny, you know, Uh, but whereas you know, certain Zeiss lenses so perfectly don't flare and you'll say, I don't want to use that lens for this one cause I want flare. I want Messi and to to like anything else, Yeah, Adam H would like to know how important formal education is in today's industry. I I went to film school. Um, that being said, just watch movies, take the money that you spend on film school and put it into a film. I don't I think Are you saying don't go to film school? Yeah, I'm saying nothing of film school can say what you want. Yeah, from a USC film to USC, best home schools in the country. Yeah, and it was a school. It was great. I got to spend four years like focusing on my craft. And, you know, at that point in my life, that was That's cool. And that's why I got to do. But you know you don't you don't need the formal education. Oh, everything's out there. Everything that you need to learn you can you can find on your own. You can learn from watching films. You can learn from reading books and you can learn from going out in the field and just given it a shot. I wouldn't ask Vince by that, my saying that for certain people, you don't need to go to film school. It's also much easier to say only go to film school once you've been there and realize that what they taught you could have learned in books. But when you don't have someone telling you, read these 15 books and study these 20 movies, then you know it's a little harder to figure it all out on your own. I do believe you know what I say to photographers is double photographer school. Go out and learn it out in the field. Personally, that was was my view. That being said, everyone learns differently. I'm totally great with you that watches many films you can, but like I said earlier, don't wash them passively. Yeah, don't sit back and be taken on a ride that that happened once or twice. I learned much more. Yeah, sorry to get job. I learned much more in film school from my critical analysis, classified from any my like, production classes. So when I was going to class, learning all the technical stuff, didn't didn't learn that much, I could have done that on my own. I think, Um, having an instructor, though walking through with critical analysis of film, taught me way more about filmmaking than, you know, putting a camera somewhere. You're trying back about a little bit a little, so I'm a non saying watch films, read books about films, learn as much as you can about the medium in the language, and, um, then you can take your camera out and translate that into your vision. Whenever it was a really bad TV show or film on TV or Netflix. Watch that as well. You learn so much from watching scenes that don't work and your girl like, How is it bad movie? And if you really want to learn, watch three times and realize why was it bad? Oh, because look, that shot didn't cut well into this. They never develop that character. Uh, they crossed the line or, you know everything's way too out of focus with Lighting is terrible. You learn as much by watching it. You know, bad results as you do good results, you know. But I think the critical thing I really want to try and get out there is, you know, when you did your critical analysis, the point is, instead of sitting down at USC eating popcorn, watching films all day, they broke those things down and wrote about it. So the point I'm trying to say is just as you would have photographed break it down. You know, it's it's when you look at a photograph, you're kind of forced to break it down. You're staring at it when you look at a film, you really wanted to have Tennessee. Just sit back and enjoy, and you can't do that but engaging engage it, dissect it and afterwards, talk about it with people. You'll hear what other people liked. You'll be able discuss what you like, what you didn't like, what they didn't like, and you'll find what worked and what didn't work. That's what we did in class Anyways. I watched a movie, then went to class, and we talked about it. I'll tell you the number one thing I hear the single best value of film school for people that generally go, there is the people they meet in their class because they will tend to work with them the rest of their careers. And I think you would agree with that. It's it's not a silly the education you get. It's the contacts you make. You know, when you want to go out in the world and make your first film. You have, you know, 10 friends work with over your four years or two years or whatever it is that air there, right there for you and same level. We've had experiences, and that's the real value if we have time for a couple more questions with that last one more. One more question. What did you mark this is? Sounds like it's a question of somebody moving from photography to video. Uh, from Mr Photos. How do you handle more a an alias ing knowing that the still camera internal filters air not optimized for video. Nothing to do with filters has to do with the way they analyze or take the data off the sensor and package tonight. It's called binning, Uh, but the way you handle it is you avoid it. So you tell your wardrobe person or your actors never to wear checkered shirts or lines because that will lead to more. A. You make sure that you don't have hard lines, your backgrounds. You shoot with child death field so that, you know, the brick buildings in the background are not in focus. Otherwise they'll dance around in multiple colors, so you're the best. The best technique is to know what's gonna lead to Moray and avoid shooting it. And the sad bar that is that you shouldn't have to compromise like that with a camera that is the, you know, the Achilles heel of thes cameras is more race. The one thing you can't do. That being said one of last things that I shot. We had 360 shots, and I had three shots at a 360. I had to fix Moray on from questions from Chad. Can you talk about the problems and experiences from doing reverie and because that's when you really moved problems every because it was just three friends going out having fun. No pressure. It wasn't a commission. Work can. It didn't pay for it. They weren't expecting anything from it. They wanted email on Monday with my observation on the five d mark two. So we went and had fun. And what was the only problem we had? I can't think of a single problem we had cooled. It was one call from Yeah, great time. I wouldn't worry about that slender red dress, Uh, you know, in Brooklyn And the one battery was a little bit stressful, I guess. Yeah. Keeping a charge. Uh, and, uh, that will always be like the most, you know, wonderful memory of filmmaking for me in that, you know, there was just zero pressure. 100% fun. No budget constrains, no clients to please. No expectations. You know, often your worst enemies are your expectations of yourself. And when you just go in there and have fun when you do some of your best work