The Inner Circle - Worth it?

[Nicholas Warren]

Hi All
I just wanted to get people's thoughts on Shane Hurlbut's Inner Circle, from those of you who have signed up. I've quite enjoyed the content he has on his blog, and found some of what he has shared to be very useful, whilst other entries have been merely interesting. How have you found it? Is there significantly more content for an Inner Circle member, and does it move in logical progression - for instance in the lighting section, does he give a progression on from c-stands, to bounce light, to diffusion etc?
Trying to work out if I should take the jump and sign up, but it's quite hard to find a review from anyone that is more then just a superficial piece basically regurgitating the info on Shane's site about it.

 

[Anton Shavlik]

So, it's $17 a month but you only have access to the content that was released after you signed up. Past content is $5.00 each or so, but there's packages.

He's got a series on lighting where you can see several different approaches to diffusion / bounce and he'll mention the price etc. Also one video on C stands, one on flags, etc.

He's got podcasts where he answers questions which range from relating a personal story, to suggestions about finding work, to how he would shoot a certain shot.

He's got pretty in depth looks at his lighting and camera set ups for scenes from his most recent movie, 'Fathers and Daughters'.

And he has a few camera / lens tests, including the dragon.

He mentioned he's planning to publish a test between Leica Summilux, Summicron, Cooke S4 and S4 mini, and ultra primes that sounds interesting.

Each of those categories currently has about 10-12 entries. I personally didn't learn much from his dragon test because there's such a wealth of information here on Reduser. I bought the 'on set' package and I've found it interesting.

edit: As for my review, I found it a little lackluster. I had some time to kill and I thought it'd be fun to peak at, but I think I've been spoiled by how good and readily available information like this is on Reduser. That said, the content itself is solid.

 

[Alex Doctor]

There are plusses and minuses to membership, I joined a year ago so it's only $8 a month, but the Facebook community is probably worth more than the subscription. (you can only join with a subscription though). I see heaps of Q&As there in a much easier format to interact with than anywhere else. The Tuts are pretty good, not eureka moments, but pretty good. I've been on a few Mzed one day courses and got more out of them.

 

[dio Zafi]

AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER MAGAZINE...and sure shane's web site

 

[Robert L. Mickles]

I joined a few months ago when there was a free month trial, and I forgot to cancel. It's got some nice tips on there and pretty cool on set stuff that he shares. In my opinion, I'm kind of 50/50 about it. I still have it, it's nice to have, but at the same time the exclusive content is somewhat light. There's a lot of written content and I wish there were more videos. I tend to be a visual learner. All in all if you can afford $17/month, it might be worth having.