I once spent three days on a documentary shoot in the Highlands, fighting the wind and a dying battery, only to have the entire project stall because the assistant editor couldn’t make sense of the drive I handed over. It wasn’t a codec issue or a lack of bandwidth; it was a lack of basic…
Read More “Delivery Specs You Should Ask for Before Shooting” »
I was standing in a damp basement in Bristol, three hours into a twelve-hour day, staring at a sensor that had suddenly decided it no longer understood how to talk to my lens. The light was coming from a single, poorly diffused window, and I was losing the magic hour while my camera sat there,…
Read More “Never Update Firmware the Night Before a Shoot” »
I remember a shoot in a damp basement in Bristol, twenty years ago, where a lighting stand slipped and took out a client’s vintage sideboard. I spent the next three hours not worrying about the light or the frame, but staring at a crumpled piece of paper, trying to figure out if we were actually…
I spent three hours last Tuesday watching a kid on YouTube explain how to choose editing software by comparing bitrates and codec support like he was discussing the structural integrity of a bridge. It was exhausting. He was talking about the engine, but he hadn’t even sat in the driver’s seat. We’ve reached this strange…
Read More “Choosing an Editor Based on the Work, Not the Argument” »
I spent three weeks on a documentary in the Highlands once, working with a kit that was essentially held together by gaffer tape and prayers, and I still got better coverage than half the kids I see today with $50,000 cinema rigs. There is this pervasive, exhausting myth that your talent is locked behind a…
I once spent three days on a documentary shoot in a coastal village, sweating through my shirt and fighting a dying generator, only to realize at the wrap party that I’d forgotten to charge for the extra day of prep. I wasn’t just short on cash; I was short on the respect my time deserved….
I remember sitting in a dark control room ten years ago, watching a client’s face go from excitement to pure irritation as they struggled to balance a commercial against a music video. They were obsessing over peak levels and buying expensive, shiny new limiters, thinking a bigger number meant a better sound. They didn’t realize…
Read More “Delivering at the Right Loudness for Each Platform” »
I once watched a production assistant spend forty minutes arguing over the rental rate of a specialized anamorphic lens while the sun was literally setting on the only natural light we had for the entire scene. We ended up with a beautiful piece of glass and a shot that looked like it was filmed in…
I once spent four hours in a humid terminal in Djibouti, sweating through my shirt because I’d insisted on bringing a secondary lighting kit that ended up being useless for the actual location. I had followed every “pro” checklist I could find, yet I was the one fighting my own kit instead of focusing on…
Read More “The Complete Guide to Travelling With Equipment” »
I once spent three hours in a humid rental house in Marseille, watching a kid half my age obsess over a pressurized air canister and a specialized micro-fiber cloth, acting like he was performing surgery on a saint. He was terrified of a single speck of dust, convinced that his $40,000 sensor was a fragile…