F-Stop Academy

Gone are the days where you had to pitch an idea to a Tv station to get some funding for a show... Many new platforms now exists that offer content creators more opportunities to have their program ideas funded. In this podcast Mick Jones from Lit Up Digital discusses the research he's been doing on different sources of funding. **Click here for details on: Next Advanced Cinematic Documentary Intensive is September 23-25 London** Listen on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/f-stop-academy/id694161373 The different ways productions are being financed New media distribution models, Youtube, Apple TV, Vimeo The prestige associated with the old model, Theatrical release, primetime, cable Robbie Williams and Samsung using YouTube as prime distribution channel YouTube now increasing ad exposure on pre-roll How Commercial Broadcast TV disrupts your viewing experience through ad breaks The opportunity to het your con ten seen has never been so accessible Traditional broadcast financing can take 2-3 years to get a production off the ground Crowd  funding are opening massive opportunity sot raise massive capital very quickly 'Video Game High School' case study $250k in first month of crowd funding then $800k on 2nd round of funding The importance of having a voice as a film maker The accessibility of web series because it available on demand Everything you carries an element of risk - embrace it! Your content still has to be good and excite your audience in some way   Robbie Wiliams Podcast link   Mick Jones can be found at the following url's: www.litupdigital.com @micky_jones Even Kevin Spacey agrees Double Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey has challenged TV channels to give "control" to their audiences or risk losing them at his address at the James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh Television Festival. The Hollywood star, whose recent foray into television -- House Of Cards -- has been a commercial and critical hit after it was released on streaming service Netflix, said there was a danger of "thinking that something which is working now will necessarily work a year from now". Spacey, who gave the keynote James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh Television Festival this evening, said: "Clearly the success of the Netflix model -- releasing the entire season of House Of Cards at once -- has proved one thing: the audience wants control. They want freedom. If they want to binge -- as they've been doing on House Of Cards -- then we should let them binge." The actor said that way of working "demonstrated that we have learned the lesson that the music industry didn't learn -- give people what they want, when they want it, in the form they want it in, at a reasonable price, and they'll more likely pay for it rather than steal it". Spacey, who starred in and was also executive producer on the show which was nominated for nine Emmy Awards, warned the audience of media executives that "labels" were becoming meaningless and they risked being "left behind". He said: "If you watch a TV show on your iPad is it no longer a TV show? The device and length are irrelevant ... For kids growing up now there's no difference watching Avatar on an iPad or watching YouTube on a TV and watching Game Of Thrones on their computer. It's all content. It's all story." You can read the full story at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/10261424/Kevin-Spacey-urges-TV-channels-to-give-control-to-viewers.html

Click here for details on: Next Advanced Cinematic Documentary Intensive is September 23-25 London W. Asley Maddox on Shooting in the Grand Canyon Sending out a monthly email newsletter to keep contacts informed about what you are doing not doing jobs for free especially for friends Arizona Rafting Adventures shoot Taking time to prep gear for an adventure   trip What Top 2 tips Ashley has for shooting in an environment like this. How to Manage power and media for 8 days What Ashley took away from learning with F-Stop Academy on a Lighting class What impact this film is having on the rafting Companies bookings Understanding the true value of the film you are making as a marketing tool for the client Growing in confidence as a result of going out there and shooting a lot to improve The value of making mistakes and the danger of too much positive reinforcement. Always carry a lens cloth with you   Ashely can be found at the following url's: blog.missionaryfilms.org missionaryfilms.org @missionaryfilm @wamaddox     The Film    

This podcast runs for 38' 17 and as always you can download it and listen on your devices or in the car. This episode was recorded back in June after Cinegear... and is packed full of cool insights. We talk about the Backlot of Paramount Studios and the Cinegear experience and the accessibility of the gear and manufacturers and bumping into the who's who of Film & TV
plus our observations of the MOVi Freefly - and what it will open up in terms of creativity. • We talk F5 /F 55 and Sony cams and why I'm buying an F5 in 2K • The epidemic of new 'DP's who don't light anything… • The demise of quality control in online content broadcast TV… • The road to experience… and how valuable that is in gaining the necessary skill set • The importance of broadcast reference levels to ensure consistency of your online content. • Bumping into Chris Marino and Nate Weber and the Mick's impressions of the Schneider Cine primes and the value of glass. Mick talks about the Rokinon lenses he bought. • The importance of having a business case when buying higher end gear. • Mick talks about his business case on Lah Lah and also how they lit and filmed it with et yelp of Bruce Logan ASC. • And the whole Calling yourself a DP thing..

Warren Eagles is a Colorist and a very good one too.... I learned to grade with Warren at one of his intensive color grading workshops that he holds around the world.  He also set up icolorist.com along with some of the worlds top colorists to offer workshops and resources for anyone looking to learn more about  the art and craft of grading. We talk about: colour grading and what it brings to production colour grading panels and are they useful? the art of colour grading resources that can help you if you want to try grading This podcast runs for 21'16 and as always you can download it and listen on your devices or in the car. If you want to learn more about Warren and his workshops check out his great website icolorist.com

James Tonkin is a Director, Editor, Colorist and talented shooter.... James and I have worked on many projects together including Duran Duran Live Tour DVD in Dec 2011, Cristiano Ronaldo and the FS100 Tutorial, FS700 launch and 2 Music Video Masterclasses... James is currently on tour with Robbie Williams and is shooting a documentary about the stadium tour and life on the road. I was shooting with James for a couple of days and we recorded this podcast after the 1st night of 4 sell out Wembley shows. Podcast Highlights: 1:30 Talking about the 1st of four shows at Wembley 3:00 What is your brief for this 3 month tour? 5:20 What’s your approach to shooting this by yourself? 11:10 Glidecam HD 4000, how has it been working out for you? 15:10 What would your advice be for someone wanting to get into this line of work? 18:40 Closing statement on style and inspiration in James’s work. This podcast runs for 20'22 and as always you can download it and listen on your devices or in the car. If you want to learn more about James check out his great website www.hangmanstudios.com Here's the 2 films we shot at Wembley together.

Jem Schofield is a Producer, DP , Director and educator...just like me. He's lovely fellow and we have been communicating on twitter for a couple of years now. In this episode I caught up with Jem (back in August 2012 when he'd just wrapped a 3 day shoot for Canon on the C300) In this brief that Jem and I shoot the breeze on camera formats and the massive choice now available to film makers no mater what your budget.   Podcast Highlights:   1:35 What have you been doing here for the last couple of days? 2:20 Talking about how much of a powerful tool the C300 is. 3:15 Talking about crop factors and full frame sensors. 5:40 Q for Jem – What is your take on full frame sensors, and what the other options are? This podcast is a short one this week and runs for 9'22 and as always you can download it and listen on your devices or in the car. If you want to learn more from Jem check out his great website www.thec47.com The 10 x C300 'how to' videos are available from the Canon Digital Learning Centre http://learn.usa.canon.com/galleries/galleries/tutorials/eos_c300_tutorials_gallery.shtml

This podcast runs for 16'24 and as always you can download it and listen on your devices or in the car.   I first shared the launch of this product with you back in April when the Convergent Design Odyssey 7Q was first announced. Convergent Design have been making some awesome products for over 4 years now. We used the Nano Flash to record the Duran Duran Show and they were very reliable and allowed us to record the higher bit rates that HD Broadcast Specifications required. In this episode I ask Mike Schell to talk us through the groundbreaking Odyssey 7Q a 7"OLED monitor with a media recorder built in. I'm also joined by DP and technical Guru Alister Chapman (Alister was the technical director of the Duran Duran show) Alister also runs a very insightful blog at www.xdcam-user.com In this interview Mike explains the features of the Odyssey 7Q while Alister (a long time user of Convergent design products) helps us to understand the likely applications for this product. Podcast Highlights: 1:30 Talking through where the Odyssey 7Q is and what it does. 4:05 Alister Chapman’s relationship with Convergence Design products and experiences. 6:00 The functionality of the Odyssey 7Q 7:15 Why people have to use Convergence Design SSD and not a third party option. 8:30 How important is robustness of media to you – Alister Chapman 9:45 Walking through the on screen controls of the Odyssey 7Q. 14:20 What inputs can we get on the 7Q? 15:15 Power requirements of this unit. 15:50 Q for Alister – As a user, why are you so interested on this unit? For further information check out the Convergent Design Website www.convergentdesign.com   And to read the original blog post you can see that here [Blog Post]4K recording for NEX-FS700   There's also a post where I tested S-LOG 2 check that out here http://www.fstopacademy.com/blog/s-log-2-footage-from-sony-fs700-nex-fs700/

Mick and I were at Cinegear last month and on a rare day off we sat by the pool in our hotel and recorded a couple of episodes. This podcast runs for 21'21 but you can also download and listen on your devices or in the car. In this episode I ask Mick to talk through the challenges he just faced shooting a 2 month long project in 4K Mick runs a very busy production company in Sydney, Australia In this interview he shares how thee handled massive storage requirements on a BBC tv series called Lah Lah We also discuss How you might consider managing increasing storage demands in your post production Podcast Highlights:   1:00 Mick talks about workflow and his recent large-scale project 2:55 Explaining ‘Centre Cut’ 3:45 Explaining the choice of using 4K and Pro-Res to record 8:10 What storage was used and the size needed. 10:05 Talking long term archiving. 11:45 Choices of back up and LTO management. For further information check out Micks Website www.litupdigital.com

I recorded this podcast over a year ago and wanted to get the series up an running before posting because Justin has so many great pieces of advice and insights. Justin like me started life in News while I was shooting TV news Justin was a 'Snapper' In recent years Justin has been specialising in Car photography and has been shooting BBC Top Gear magazine for a number of years. In this interview he shares how he goes about his work and offers some great insights into how to engage and retain great clients... We also discuss the making of this exceptionally funny piece of Top Gear TV. If you have never seen this then you are in for a treat. This podcast goes for longer than usual at 49'53 but you can download and listen on your devices or in the car Podcast Highlights:   2:15 Justin’s intro and the work he specializes in. 4:00 Justin’s experience of working in News 4:40 Justin’s thoughts on repetition of working in News and how quickly it can change day to day 7:35 Planning and organization 13:00 The importance of putting in hard work whatever the budget 17:00 Was it a conscious decision to shoot cars and reinvent your career? 18:40 Unique challenges and opportunities working for Top Gear. 21:00 The situation of being a single stills photographer on up to a six camera shoot. 22:00 Working on the Reliant Robin episode 24:25 What happens to the photographs you take for Top Gear? 25:00 Talking through the Mercedes shoot where stills were used to make the film. 30:00 Talking about failing, but learning fast. 32:00 Importance of testing to improve your craft. 34:00 Working to a tight set of parameters and being imaginative. 36:35 Justin’s thoughts on the move to DSLR video. 40:30 Advice for aspiring photographers, cinematographers and the move to going pro. 47:00 What’s next for Justin? For further information check out Justin's website and blog About Justin Leighton (From an article in What Digital Camera) A regular freelance photographer for Top Gear magazine, Justin Leighton is based in Oxfordshire. Working in the industry for 25 years, Justin has travelled all over the world documenting history. After setting up a magazine with a few friends at the age of 18, Justin developed a passion for photography. The magazine didn't last, but Justin's eye for editorial images did. He went on to establish a career in photojournalism, documenting such historical events as the Balkan conflict, The Good Friday Agreement, the fall of Communism in eastern Europe and three general elections. Justin was also part of the British-based collective, Network Photographers, a group of 25 of the most reputable reportage photographers. His work has been published across hundreds of national newspapers and magazines. In 2006, Justin decided to put his news photography on hold and pursued the opportunity of documenting a long-held personal interest: automobiles. As well as undertaking a range of commercial work, Justin now works on a freelance basis for BBC's Top Gear, shooting both stills and most recently video for the TV show, magazine and website.

CINEO Lighting make a very high output and color accurate soft light using a form of LED technology Until now they have been focussing on a studio fixture but just release a smaller LS head that is about the size of an iPad (surface area) They are very high output and produce a very nice soft light that can be dimmed. The TruColor HS delivers the equivalent of over 4K of output compared to a tungsten light... In this podcast , Den asks Trisha Maas to explain the range and functionality Podcast Highlights:   1:15 Trisha Maas intro and explaining what they do at Cineo. 2:35 What you are trying to do as a company, regarding technology. 3:40 Power supply balance and the ability to service/repair units yourself. 5:00 How Cineo concentrates on getting true colour from a LED. 5:50 Talking through the product range 8:10 Where is your market going in terms of development? 10:00 Future of battery powered lights through Cineo? For further information check out the Cineo Lighting website www.CineoLighting.com

Flanders Scientific may not be a name that you are familiar with... However Rodney Charters ASC has been using their 21" monitors on set of Dallas for some time and so I wanted to check them out at Cinegear this year. Bruce and Mick were both also very impressed with the functionality and feature set. But most importantly they are very high resolution and look great. In this podcast , Den asks Bram Desmet to explain the range and functionality. Podcast Highlights:   2:10 Intro to Bram, what he does and how Flanders Scientific are doing things differently 3:05 Range of panels on offer 3:55 Explaining 3D LUT’s 6:00 Why are waveforms, vectorscopes and other measurements so important? 7:50 Philosophy of your company and how you produce monitors at an affordable price. 9:45 How affordable doesn’t always mean you have to cut corners. For further information check out the Flanders Scientific website http://www.flandersscientific.com/

John Brawley is a Director of Photography working in both Australia and LA. His work has taken him all over the world. Black Magic Camera - John Brawley reveals all. For the last 12 months John has been advising Black Magic on their highly anticipated new Cinema Camera. We first reported on the Black Magic Cinema Camera at NAB earlier this year. John has been helping them fine tune the picture and while he had nothing to do with the physical design he has been drawing on his 12 years as a busy working Cinematographer to help Black Magic Design fine tune the raw image quality of the new Cinema Camera. In this exclusive interview I asked John about his career, how he got to where he is now shooting prime time Australian TV drama and feature films around the world and he also reveals how the Black Magic Design Cinema Camera originated as a passing comment. John  has also been working closely with the design team at Black Magic and how responsive they have been to his suggestions to make sure the image from the Black Magic Camera is just right before release later this month. Podcast Highlights:   1:05 John Brawley intro 2:05 How the relationship between John and Black Magic came about. 9:20 Resolve and Black Magic relationship and the benefits from working with them. 11:30 ‘Pool Shark’ talking through the shoot. 15:20 Grading choices and the amount of latitude in shots 18:15 Clearing up the aliasing points of BMCC 21:45 Talking about the ergonomics of the BMCC and the benefits on set 25:40 Sensor size, the reality of using it and any issues that may occur 29:40 What do you think about when choosing tools for a project? 34:00 How long did it take to shoot ‘Pool Shark’? 41:50 Importance of planning, blocking shots and blocking a scene to benefit from light You can learn more about John on his blog .  This is a great resource for all aspiring and working DP's as John shares his philosophy on light and shooting drawing more on what inspires him rather than just the gear talk. He has a number of exclusive posts on his development with BMD Cinema Camera. Johns Blog About John Brawley Since completing his MA in Cinematography at the Australian Film, Television & Radio School (AFTRS) in 2007, John has racked up an impressive and diverse range of credits working extensively in the United States, Europe and Asia. His first 35mm short film Bird In The Wire was nominated for a Palme d’Or at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival and garnered an AFI nomination for Best Cinematography. In the same year, he won the Best Cinematography award at Tropfest for Like It Is. John has a strong background in VFX and post, and in 2005 was VFX Supervisor on the Palme d’Or nominated short film Clara, which earned a rarely awarded special mention for technical achievement. John’s first feature was the supernatural cult thriller Lake Mungo, directed by Joel Anderson. Lauded for its sophisticated and layered visual style, the film went on to a 2010 U.S. theatrical and DVD release through Lionsgate. Another 2010 highlight was the world premiere of the gothic suspense thriller The Perfect Host at the Sundance Film Festival. Shot in Los Angeles, directed by Nick Tomnay and starring David Hyde Pierce, the film is scheduled for a forthcoming U.S. theatrical release. Recent short credits include Celestial Avenue, winner of the Grand Prize for best film at the Academy Award-accredited Rhode Island Film Festival, as well as Best Australian Short at the 2010 Flickerfest Awards; and A Parachute Falling In Siberia which was selected for official competition at the 2010 Sydney Film Festival Dendy Awards.

In this second Podcast we're back in LA this time in May to shoot a day on a pilot for a feature film working Title 24hrs in HellA.  Mick is the DP and Bruce and I have gone along top help out on the shoot as there was zero budget.  Mick was shooting on the Red Scarlett with my Zeiss ZF.2 lenses.   While the shoot was going on I spoke to Bruce about working on projects withe zero budget and what you still need to have to be able to produce the work. We also discuss: Shooting a no budget film The importance of the location scout Using and controlling sunlight How important a large reflector is - 6x6 Frame with unbleached Muslin 4 x Apple boxes to raise the actors off the floor so we can shoot over a wall What are essential tools when filming outdoors What would be in a minimal grip package Checking for How much light control you need for ND in camera The importance of demarkation on set and understanding your role on the crew A lesson about prep from Alfred Hitchcock The importance of pre visualising what is going to happen ahead of time. Podcast highlights:   2:00 Explaining lighting and lack of it. Using muslin frame. 3:14 How important is a recce on location? 4:50 It’s a popular misconception that you just need a standard reflector on set. 7:14 What other essential tools are needed for an outdoor low budget shoot? 12:00 Minimal grip package on location 13:35 Prep for what ND filters needed on location 15:00 The importance of demarcation on set 17:50 The movie business is all logistics – A lesson from Hitchcock 19:20 Pre-visualizing what is going to happen ahead of time 20:35 Mick sums up prep on the shoot 23:00 Bruce – The importance of creating a relaxed atmosphere on set.

In this episode we ask are there any short cuts to success as a film maker? All the technology is now good enough so what is stopping aspiring film makers from producing amazing content? In this first podcast we also explore: The culture of "wanting and waiting" How important is the camera? Is Film Making the new rock and roll? Does Social Media build your business? The power of people and collaboration. Story boards or shortlists - what are the pro's and cons of each? The importance of making mistakes. Insights from the Set of Star Wars and George Lucas planning sequences The important of meticulous planning before going on set. The secret to having the 'creative edge' and avoiding 'Safe' Professionalism and what does it mean. Podcast Highlights:   2:40 Setting up the guests past work 5:25 Are there any short cuts in this business? 9:19 Technology is amazing, so why are we not seeing more great films? 11:50 How important is the camera, relative to sound, light, story etc? 14:12 Is filmmaking the new rock n roll? 15:38 Do people crave popularity as a filmmaker? 17:08 Does social media bring in business? 18:40 Q to Bruce – Do you feel you should dabble in social media as an ASC member? 19:50 The power of people and collaboration, and where that fits as a director 24:10 Blocking shots and laying down rough timelines 26:00 Covering camera shot plans 26:20 How important is it to make mistakes? 30:00 Q to Bruce – Was there a feeling of something special being done, regarding Star Wars? 31:00 Don’t over analyze, just go out and shoot 35:00 Explaining light as a cinematographer 36:00 The importance of doing as much as you can ‘in camera’ 39:05 Summary and advice 41.25 What you see ‘Professionalism’ being