I spent a good chunk of the nineties sitting in dark suites, nursing lukewarm coffee and watching editors struggle with hardware that had less processing power than your current toaster. Back then, if you wanted to cut a sequence, you didn’t browse a curated list of “top ten” YouTube influencers; you learned the machine or…
I spent most of the nineties watching light meters dance while my hands were stained with celluloid, back when every foot of film was a literal line item on a budget. Nowadays, I see kids staring at spec sheets, convinced that the best ways to record high quality video involve upgrading to a sensor with…
I remember sitting in a dark edit suite at three in the morning, staring at a timeline where the audio and video were drifting apart like two ships in a fog, and realizing I’d spent six hours trying to fix a disaster that could have been prevented with ten minutes of discipline. People love to…
I remember a shoot in a cramped basement in Bristol, back when I was still lugging heavy Panavision cans. We had three cameras, a director who thought more angles equaled more magic, and a lighting setup that was essentially a prayer. Everyone was obsessed with the tech—the bitrates, the sync protocols, the glorious new sensors—but…
I spent three hours last week watching a kid try to explain how live streaming production works by pointing at a spreadsheet of bitrates and encoder specs. He looked like he was describing a particle accelerator, but all I could see was a guy who didn’t realize his subject was being washed out by a…
I spent twenty years waiting for the “right” sensor to arrive, thinking that once I had enough dynamic range, the image would finally stop fighting me. Now, I see kids scrolling through feeds, convinced that the secret to how to shoot for social media is a $4,000 mirrorless body and a specialized gimbal that makes…
I spent twenty minutes last week watching a kid on a set try to “fix” a vertical shot by swapping a prime lens for a more expensive wide-angle, as if the glass could somehow compensate for a complete lack of spatial awareness. It’s the same old song: people think they can buy their way out…
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I spent three hours last Tuesday listening to a kid in a studio apartment explain why he needed a $5,000 cinema prime lens to make his vertical clips “pop” on Reels. It’s the same old song: people think they can buy their way out of a fundamental lack of understanding regarding aspect ratios and eye…
I remember sitting in a dim edit suite in 2004, watching a junior colorist try to “fix” a scene by slamming a heavy teal-and-orange LUT onto a sequence that clearly needed warmth. He thought he was being profound, but he was just masking a lack of intent. People spend thousands on high-end sensors and expensive…
Read More “Colour Choices That Are Not Just Orange and Teal” »
I spent three hours on a documentary set in a basement in Dublin once, watching a kid try to fix a muddy, underexposed shot by cranking the ISO until the sensor looked like it was covered in digital salt. He thought he could buy his way out of the gloom with a higher spec, but…