I spent three weeks on a documentary in a coastal village last summer, and I saw more people staring at spec sheets for new LED panels than actually looking at the way the sun hit the subjects’ eyes. There is this exhausting, pervasive myth that if you just buy enough high-CRI gear, your image will…
I spent three weeks on a low-budget indie feature last year, sitting in a damp van outside a location in Wales, staring at a script that was technically perfect but felt entirely hollow. The writer had clearly spent more time studying structural templates and software than actually watching how people breathe when they’re lying to…
I remember standing in a beautiful, sun-drenched villa in Tuscany ten years ago, nodding along while a director pointed out the “vibe” of the rooms. He saw a masterpiece; I saw a nightmare. I saw a ceiling so low we’d never get a meaningful backlight, and a hallway so narrow that even our smallest prime…
I remember standing in a damp alleyway in Bristol at three in the morning, shivering under a single, poorly placed HMI that was blowing out every face in the frame while the shadows looked like spilled ink. The director was staring at a monitor, convinced that if we just bought a more expensive sensor, we…
Read More “Night Exteriors: Everything Takes Twice as Long” »
I spent three hours last Tuesday watching a kid in a coffee shop try to “fix” a muddy, flat-looking interview by scrolling through sensor specs on his phone. He was convinced that if he just upgraded to a body with more stops of dynamic range, he’d suddenly understand how to work with available light. It’s…
I remember a documentary shoot in a cramped apartment in South London back in ’04. We had three people, a heavy tripod, and enough cables to wire a small village, all crammed into a kitchen that barely fit a toaster. I spent half the morning apologizing to the talent for bumping into their bookshelf, while…
I remember standing in a muddy field outside of Galway in ’98, watching a producer stare at a weather app like it was a holy text, convinced that a high-end weather-sealed sensor would somehow stop the sky from falling. We had spent three days prepping a lighting plot for a sunset that never came, only…
I spent three weeks on a documentary set in the Pyrenees once, staring at a script that was technically perfect—beat for beat, structure for structure—but it felt like reading a technical manual for a machine that had no soul. People spend thousands on masterclasses and software, obsessing over whether they know how to write a…
I remember a shoot in a cramped, windowless basement in South London back in ’04. We were burning through the last of a precious roll of 16mm, the producer was breathing down my neck about the daylight robbery of the rental fee, and the director kept asking if we could “just try one more angle”…
Read More “Getting the Scene in Four Setups Instead of Nine” »
I spent the better part of my twenties hauling heavy Arriflexes through rainstorms just to get a single usable shot, back when every foot of film felt like it was being pulled directly from my own bank account. Nowadays, I watch kids spend three months’ rent on a mirrorless body with a spec sheet longer…