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…
I spent three weeks on a documentary in the Highlands last year, only to watch a talented young editor nearly break a workstation because they insisted on cutting directly into the original 8K RAW files. They thought they needed a more powerful processor, a faster RAID, or a bigger budget, when all they actually needed…
I once spent three hours lugging a “professional” hard-shell case through a rain-slicked alley in Marseille, only to realize the latch had seized and I was essentially carrying a very expensive, waterproof tomb for my sensor. Most gear reviews will tell you how to choose a bag or case based on crush ratings, waterproof zippers,…
Read More “Cases That Protect Versus Bags You Can Actually Carry” »
I remember standing on a ridge in the Highlands three years ago, watching a kid try to pull off a sweeping cinematic reveal with a consumer drone. He was so focused on the joystick that he didn’t notice the wind shear or the fact that he was hovering directly over a group of hikers who…
I remember sitting in a dark edit suite fifteen years ago, watching a sequence I’d spent three days lighting perfectly—soft key from a window, a subtle rim to separate the subject from the shadows—only to realize the whole thing felt dead. The image was beautiful, but the audio was just a thin, hollow recording of…