Shut up and shoot that RED (NSFW)

[Gunleik Groven]

It's shot through the window of a bus, which gives the halo and the reflections, btw...

My pleasure!

 

[Gunleik Groven]

 

[Gunleik Groven]

Red Nails...

 

[Gunleik Groven]

 

[Gunleik Groven]

Dunno if this is the time to conclude the thread, - actually I guess I won't, I still may have a bit more on the plate.

But to me, the Epic seems to be just fine still, even after a pricedecrease...

 

[Gunleik Groven]

 

[Paul Ellington]

Dunno if this is the time to conclude the thread, - actually I guess I won't, I still may have a bit more on the plate.

But to me, the Epic seems to be just fine still, even after a pricedecrease...

I am going to do some experimenting, you've inspired me, well you and Phil Holland. Now I just need to find girls.

 

[Gunleik Groven]

I am going to do some experimenting, you've inspired me, well you and Phil Holland. Now I just need to find girls.

Thanks Paul!

Girls are everywhere, and my good friend and co-director and workingpartner Tuva, has tried to learn me that:

"Well G, just ask, then. Usually that's the easiest way! we girls don't usually bite, you know!"

So I guess that is the best advice I can give, and to be open and professional.
Like allways... No different really than any other gig.

Be good and be nice and treat people you meet with respect and interest,

One more before the fat lady sings...

 

[Paul Ellington]

Will do Sir. Hope all is well on your end of the Globe. It's finally getting cold here in New York -- reminds me of Denmark when winter hits.

 

[Gunleik Groven]

One of those mornings...

 

[Gunleik Groven]

Berlin...

 

[Karim D. Ghantous]

Yes, time to close the thread. (Love the pose in #134). I know, you've shown us some great stuff. (Love the colour in #144). But it's time to close the thread, because all good things must come to an end. (My favourite shot so far is #145).

Because the mature thing to do is to stop now. (Do you have any more?). It's time now to return to threads where there are more serious issues to be discussed. (I'd like you to develop this theme). Someone should find one of those 'THREAD CLOSED' graphics and post it below. (I'd certainly like to see your work evolve into different environments, such as semi-outdoors or in nature, if it suits the mood of what you are trying to create).

 

[Martin Weiss]

Ain't gonna be me to close this thread...

 

[Gunleik Groven]

@ karim

I have tons more... Of very different stuff
Not all related to girls/people/relations/sex
Just moods of different kinds.

And it has over the last year or so developed into a more concious "project" which I thus see a kinda closure to. In a year or so. If I manage to do what I want with it.

But the purpose if the thread changed as I posted.

At first I was angry at all the whining.

Then I started using it as a testing-ground to gauge reaction to images.
And I need people to work with on different levels of this to be able to finnish.

I have gone full circle from being scared of scandalizing myself, to see it as an integral part and connect it with other stuff I do. Be it TV for children, mainstream drama/feature or weird and arty shorts. I have somehow managed to leverage and take away the apparent conflict (in my own eyes) between the different expressions.

This posting here, became a part of that leveraging....

But... I am no longer embarrassed by my own choices of subjects...
Hahahaha
Rather proud really.
So no need to pursue that string of thoughts...

I have closed down a couple of quite popular threads on here which I have fed,, because I think theky have run their course... And reopened them when I have felt that was the right thing, rather than running over all the ground once more...

As to thisone.
I haven't totally made up my mind..
I work a lot on my own these days.
You guys on here, is at the moment the closest I have to collegaues to discuss what I do with.
Which I have a need to.

And aa I said. i need to find collaborators. Of different kinds.

I think that I, in my shallow ways, may have contributed to show off some of the Epic palette in this thread.
And I know I have material that shows it off as a tool in many more ways.
But THATpoint, is sort of made, and there are many others who do other stuff than me to show off its other possibilities.

I have made the decission to not spend so much time on purely technical issues anymore, as I have been researching them NOT as an engineer, but to broaden my palette and feel more in controll of what outcome I will get under certain conditions. And my interest right now, is much more about expressions and how to get there USING my technical knowledge to something productive, than to dive even more into technical knowledge.

Many photographers with far inferior technical knwledge than the one I have, do work that far exceeds mine.
I am kinda "good enough" on signalchains, and have to dare taking the dive back to expressions.


But then.
If that is the purpose onwards, it becomes kinda wrong to continue with a technical argument (which was the original reason for this thread...) and a bit misleading. As what I am using you guys for by now, is not really a show-off but as a kind of mirror to what I try to do...

@ Martin

Thanks!

Appreachiate it!

For real!

I might continue here, or I may start over with something with a more outspoken purpose that fits the "real" one more than what thisone have developed into...

I'll give it some thought...


Thanks to all who have had a peek.
There's like 1000 a day, so I guess there's something I am moving, and it cannot all be the sight of boobs...

Cheers

G

 

[Gunleik Groven]

@ karim 2

Thanks for the comments. The last ones are pretty old, but come from a model which is one of two i have worked the longest with.

Up untill last year, I have ONLY worked with professional actors.
Which gives a certain securityto the situation.
I am used to relate to actors.

But also they are not neccesarily the best ones to work on stills with... Or so I have been thinking.

Over the last year, I have developed a lot of respect for good models.
"Any" person call themselves a model. And initially I set up the task to be able to do "something" with "anyone".
Which I still kinda have, but...

I have really come to appreachiate and respect the more thought through models, and those are the ones I actually manage to close in on things I want to achieve with.

The others become a bit "pretty girl 1", "pretty girl 2", etc
Which I - as an expression, find kinda boring and uninteresting to work with.

I love tensions.
Maybe tensions between beauty and pain as two different images from the same series OR whithin the same image.

I really spend a lot of time thinking on this stuff and try to study expressions I like to find my way in it.

And of course... Not all I do is successfull...
That's the beauty of doing stuff you cannot!

But it has become something to pursue. And maybe finnish and move on.
Who knows?

Cheers and thanks for your feedback!

 

[Gunleik Groven]

Thing is simply:

The purpose of me shooting - these images and other images - is of course not to show off mine or the cameras technical capacity, but to create images with some kind of purpose and emotions which hopefully will reflect in some others...

But being open about that, is kinda a quantum leap.
Especially with the "geekish" reputation I have conciously built over the last 6 years...

Kinda "out of the closet", but also really back to my roots and where it all started.
Back to work on the themes that really interest me, which is basically waves and interference....

Which by far was what I was working with back in my time as a composer.

Kinda allmost reluctantly, but quite conciously going full circle and going home...


Hahahahaha

Big words. I know.
But I am in the midst of big things...

 

[Gunleik Groven]

Must say though, that it is really cool to work out ideas in stills, after some years with mainly longform work.

The instant gratification in stills, compared to e.g. a TV series, is really refreshing.

Before long form, I worked on commercials, and really hated that.
I am a fiction kinda guy (have had the oportunity to work on some big docus as well, and though I am gratefull for the oportunity, it was a very sobering experience as to what interests me...).

But as to imagery, it started on a canon slr back in the late 70's and 10 years on. And with the Epic I really have found back to the fun of working with the old stills cameras.

That is not as part of an analogue/digital or "which is best" discussion.
Just that the Epic and I have kinda become friendly with eachother.

So the tool doesn't have the same focus it used to have for me.
Now it is more about what we can do together.

And i don't care if there will be a better cam "tomorrow" because this is what I have "now".

I guess THAT was the original purpose of this thread...

That I think dissatisfaction can be a very negative, distractive and devaluating emotion in itself. Rightfull or not. It just eats time, life, happyness and creativity. The drive for better gear, is just that, not a reason to be unsatisfied with what you have.

I think anyone with a tool that can deliver something like an Epic or Scarlet should be gratefull. I remeber dreaming of PD 150, PD570, HVX200, Varicam and eventually RED, but the only thing that actually made me better at anything, was using those tools I have and try to master them, not the dream of what I have not...

 

[Gunleik Groven]

Hm... Turning this into a philosophical thing here, but I guess the Alexa/MX test was a turning point for me.
I had 30.000 unique readers with downloads and all in a month.
I learned that I had an audience, and as scary as that might be and with all the anger from both Arri and RED that created, it made me start to think about what I want and if I was on the right track.

I don't regret that test and what intentions it had, nor the consequences. That is not the point. It was an honest attempt of doing "the kind of test I allways wanted to see", but the pure level of tension it created was not really what I had foreseen.

And I started to rethink why I was into this. Again...

And I came back to the answer I allmost had forgotten, and had become a bit practically afraid of:
It is to create. Reflections. Waves. And interference. But storytellingwise and emotionally. Not amongst camera manufacturers... And myself... )
I mean... I kinda lost Jim/RED on that test. Hahahahaha.
At least for a while.

It is ok for me with a bit of noise around something like "Sanctuary" (shot on r1m with three parcans and a crew of 2) because it actually really means something to me. And it is a story I think is of some importance to tell.

But when what I write is taken as proof of "my tool is better than yours" (which really was not my purpose or conclusion), it felt like a huge waste. And along the way alienating many people whom I really appreachiate in the technical camp of stuff all over the globe.

Kinda "silly rock star behaviour", but in a field that really doesn't mean anything to me, appart from mastering it...

If I am to fight for something, it should be something I think is of some importance. And frankly, I don't care what people shoot on, as long as they manage to reach their goals...

Deanan warned me in advance, but I was too stupid to see it comming.
Hahahahaha!

Well... Two years on, the transformation has more than happened.
I don't really need any more technical credits...

I am happy to teach where I do. Really love that, and working with students on tech analysis of tools, signalchains and workflows and understanding how digital cameras work, because I see that helps them becomming better cinematographers.

And I am very much aware that my "school" has been people like Graeme, Gary Advock, Noah Kadner and also Michael Bravin who have bothered to try to answer my silly questions in a gentle and comprhensible way. But there you go again. Gee. I mention Bravin!
Well... To me he has been gentle and informative. And I have grown so old and seen so much noise, that I don't want to dissawov people who have done nothing wrong to me, before they do.
And that again, makes me NOt wanting to be part of a technical "fight".

And going into why exactly I think the Para comparison between R1mx and Epic is flawed...
Just feels like a lot of wasted energy. Hahahahaha.
And why should I alinate more very competent people, than what I have already done over something which is best answered in imagery?


For my own part, I try to limit that technical geekery to confined periods. Because it doesn't really interest me anymore.
It interests me to see others learn, but my personal drive isn't there anymore...

MAKING the images/stories do. Infinitely.
And technical competence is part of that.
And technical acclaim helps when you do "odd" stuff, like I do.

But that's it, really.

It is only tools...
The reason I am passionatable about RED, is because it is a good tool that allows me to do what I want, AND I more than kinda like what Graeme and Jim is trying to achieve.
They are nice to me.
That creates loyality.
It is on a personal not really strictly objective level (as I don't test all gear that comes along anymore). And I know that and I am fine with that.

It is not anymore about "the best tool" but "the best tool and environment for me".

Hm...

Guess I'll end this rant now...


Hahahahaha

Haven't decided on the thread, though...

Cheers and thanks for looking!

G

 

[Gunleik Groven]

So maybe I should finnish this section with a selfportrait shot in Prague....

Crushed blacks and all

I like it...


That is Epic for me...

 

[Jochen Schmidt-Hambrock]

Not many threads make me want to go out and shoot.
This is one of them.

(Did not even read the text....)

Jochen