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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Update...

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Jannard said:
Stimulus package or not... we are in for a long haul. Get used to it. Adapt to it. Good things happen in bad times. But not if your head is stuck deep in the sand.

Realization is the 1st step to the road to recovery...

Jim
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Agreed. But if they decide to just take more tax payers money and put it in the wrong places, it could get much worse. I'm personally making plans to adapt and look for opportunities that might surface during this rough stretch. But things can certainly go from bad to worse if Washington fails to think this through and gets wrapped up in politics. Certainly, the government is not the only answer. But they have had their head stuck deep in the sand for a long time, and we need to start to move towards fiscal responsibility.
 
Yes the tide is turning...

The world works in mysterious ways...

Bring it on.
 
Thanks for the update and insight Jim. Much appreciated...

I know with the erratic economy it must seem like a heck of a time to roll out a lot of new camera models - but I'm sure we'll all work our way through this, tighten a few belts, and come out well in the end. Fortunately many sub-industries in the motion media industry actually do quite well in hard economic times - because the public tends to watch more media, and in the corporate world many business actually use more footage to compete for the dollars that are out there.

In times like these in the motion media production industry, workers with broad skill sets who can swallow their egos and do a wide variety of projects, and have real versatile equipment tend to survive best.
 
Jim, I have a serious question for you:

I am a freshman in college, and a film student. I have never owned a camera. I have been very fortunate so far in these hard times, but I dont have much "extra" money. I plan on working very hard this summer to save as much money as possible. And I would like to own a camera.

But, given the current economy, you recommend only purchasing a camera if it will make you money. I certainly wont be making any money with this camera for a very long time, if ever. My priority is to enter film festivals and to not go broke.

Bolex, 2/3 Scarlet, or nothing?

I totally understand if you dont want to answer this.
 
buy out your subs! Come'on vertical integration :)

My Red One stopped making me money months ago & there's still a ton of debt against it, but I gotta hold onto it, I have to be EpicX #27 and continue the process of learning, growth and creation. I'm probably one of those 'irresponsible' buyers, but life is for the bold. No regrets.
 
ReddBaronn said:
Jim, I have a serious question for you:

I am a freshman in college, and a film student. I have never owned a camera. I have been very fortunate so far in these hard times, but I dont have much "extra" money. I plan on working very hard this summer to save as much money as possible. And I would like to own a camera.

But, given the current economy, you recommend only purchasing a camera if it will make you money. I certainly wont be making any money with this camera for a very long time, if ever. My priority is to enter film festivals and to not go broke.

Bolex, 2/3 Scarlet, or nothing?

I totally understand if you dont want to answer this.
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Independent filmmaking is a passion. It doesn't require a Red to do it. It requires a camera, a vision, and an ability to work creatively with others. This is something you can do for less than $1,000. As Jim said, if you can afford the camera, then that's one thing. But, to go broke over it is something that might not make sense, especially given the economic climate. Use as much of your school's equipment as you can and learn to work with what you've got. It's a very valuable lesson that will benefit you greatly down the line.
 
Seeing that all currency is debt, and if there were no debt there is no currency. How can we make it in the long run?

I heard something clever a while back, which put things into a new perspective for me but fits the occasion...

"Politicians have no true power to change things, true power comes from the power to invent new technologies that change peoples lives."
 
Isn't lending and spending the only way out of this mess?

I read today that Wells Fargo canceled a major corporate meeting at the Wynn Las Vegas. The meeting was for the home-lending division and was presumably intended to spark a new wave of mortgage lending which of course we need. Several hours later, Wynn Las Vegas announced they are going to have to cut employee salaries and hours.

Doesn't anyone see the irony in all this? We have to start trusting each other again by lending and by buying from each other, not by saving what little we have. That's a downward spiral if I ever saw one. If it does take three years for our economy to come back, it will be because people stopped eating at restaurants, stopped buying computers, stopped taking trips and stopped lending and investing to avoid risk.

Just think of how many people in the financial food chain were negatively affected when all those corporate jet orders were canceled. If you stop buying cars, whose going to be able to afford to hire you to shoot a car commercial. If you stop buying DVD's, whose going to be able to hire you to shoot a feature film.

Sure. Lending and spending were out of control but the pendulum has swung too far the other way. We need to correct it quickly and bring it back into balance or the whole thing will fall apart like a two-dollar watch.

-shooter
 
shooter said:
Doesn't anyone see the irony in all this? We have to start trusting each other again by lending and by buying from each other, not by saving what little we have. That's a downward spiral if I ever saw one. If it does take three years for our economy to come back, it will be because people stopped eating at restaurants, stopped buying computers, stopped taking trips and stopped lending and investing to avoid risk.

-shooter
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Trust has been broken. Just like in relationships, consumer spending and investing relies heavily on trust. Right now consumers don't have a lot of that. The actions of Wall Street, the banking industry, etc have left a bad taste in everyone's mouth. The question is, how to get that trust back, how to stimulate growth again, and get money moving in a positive direction. It's a big task to say the least.
 
Seeing that all currency is debt, and if there were no debt there is no currency. How can we make it in the long run?

I heard something clever a while back, which put things into a new perspective for me but fits the occasion...

"Politicians have no true power to change things, true power comes from the power to invent new technologies that change peoples lives."
__________________

Andreas

Just watched the doc this quote is from - Zeitgeist: The Addendum. Interesting presentation style of a propaganda film preaching about a "resource" driven society verses a "monetary" based society as we have now. See: The Venus Project or the link to the movie:

http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/

Mike
 
stevesherrick said:
Independent filmmaking is a passion. It doesn't require a Red to do it. It requires a camera, a vision, and an ability to work creatively with others. This is something you can do for less than $1,000. As Jim said, if you can afford the camera, then that's one thing. But, to go broke over it is something that might not make sense, especially given the economic climate. Use as much of your school's equipment as you can and learn to work with what you've got. It's a very valuable lesson that will benefit you greatly down the line.
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I unfortunately do not have access to my school's equipment this semester or over the summer. In the fall I get access to bolexs (and then I "get" to pay for film).

I'm trying to work as many shoots this semester as possible (including DIT for a Red shoot, should be interesting)

It's funny though; If all you need is a camera, a vision, and the ability to work creatively with others (and less than $1000), why do so many film festivals expect 16mm, beta, or 35mm submissions?
 
Because otherwise their reviewing committees would be overwhelmed with more than the 3000 features submitted to sundance this year.

Somewhere after seeing Napolean dynamite with different words for the seventh hundred time, you start to wonder if some people should be allowed to pick up a mini dv camera let alone a red.
 
ReddBaronn said:
I unfortunately do not have access to my school's equipment this semester or over the summer. In the fall I get access to bolexs (and then I "get" to pay for film).

I'm trying to work as many shoots this semester as possible (including DIT for a Red shoot, should be interesting)

It's funny though; If all you need is a camera, a vision, and the ability to work creatively with others (and less than $1000), why do so many film festivals expect 16mm, beta, or 35mm submissions?
Click to expand...

Not to get too far off topic here, but it depends on which festivals you are referring to. In many cases, those specs you mention are the deliverables, the display formats. But in any case, what I mean is that it's easy to get caught up in gear lust. When I see what people have done with an HV20 (a $699 camera) it inspires me to do more with what I have. Because they got a lot out of the camera and put emphasis on storytelling, acting, and set design/art direction. That's all I meant by that comment. I don't want to steer you away from getting a Red. It's an amazing camera and would certainly provide a wonderful palette to tell your stories, but at what expense?
 
Ryan Valle said:
ive been thinking about it...
and i think jim is trying to use reverse psychology...hehe
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And maybe the bankers and the governments of the world will then try it... he he he...

He's the real deal. The US should be proud that they still have men like that.
 
ReddBaronn said:
It's funny though; If all you need is a camera, a vision, and the ability to work creatively with others (and less than $1000), why do so many film festivals expect 16mm, beta, or 35mm submissions?
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Because they are only markets for Films that can go to the Hollywood-System. They don't want to give prices to People who are good and creative, they search for new faces to facelift the poor degraded System Hollywood has become. They need fresh blood to stay looking young and hip. Even Hollywood is affected by the weak economy. What do you think why there was a flood of remakes the last years. They have not enough good, Independent Ideas.

Hope this doesn't sound to harsch, but most Festivals are only that Markets.
 
Thanks for update.

Glad to know that RED is strong and pushing things in the industry.
 
Thank you for the insight, Jim. Fully agree with your observations. And look forward to the Epic when it becomes available.
 
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