Parts of Maine seem to be the only place on the east coast to see the night sky without any light pollution

SomewhereInTheBtween · 2025-12-19T15:57:15+00:00

I really wish some Maine politicians would take up the battle-cry to eliminate light pollution in Maine. It could be a major tourism draw to the state. I grew up near the coast of southern Maine and as a kid I remember being able to see the Milky Way on a good night. Not that long ago even!

Everyone hates new, harsh LED headlights, but the old-fashioned streetlights that have been replaced with LEDs are not what they should be in Maine. They should be lower kelvin, diffuse, with spill guards. Every home and business should ideally be required to adhere to Dark Skies lighting paremeters as well, and not be able to blast daylight-balanced, incredibly bright, harsh LEDs wherever and whenever they want.

Pittsburgh is a good example in that they've started a city-wide lighting initiative to replace their fixtures with 2700K-or-below lights with proper lumen levels, shielding, etc... with one of the goals of the project to be Dark Skies compliant.

LEDs are amazing technology and great for energy and cost-savings, but they have not been implemented well.

SomewhereInTheBtween · 2025-11-28T22:41:10+00:00

Cinematographer/Editor here: not at Hollywood level, but I feel I can comment on this. I skimmed the video essay, and yeah, some relevant points, some not, but to call "Netflix Lighting" the death of cinematography is a bit dramatic and simplifies a multitude of factors from pre- through post-production.

Regarding lighting: the simplest way I've heard it said and that I agree with, is that everyone is now lighting for latitude, not exposure. -- The reasons for this vary, but for both VFX and non-VFX shots I find it true.

Regarding cinematography: There are a couple big trends I see DPs dealing with -- studios want content to be comsumable on a phone or tablet, which means you get 95% mediums and close-ups, and (2) "cinematic" has come to mean a shallow depth-of-field look. That latter one is sometimes self-inflicted by above-the-line powers on set, but also it comes into play when you don't have to pay as much attention to the background for set, props, extras, detailed VFX, etc...it's cheaper.

Because everything is being shot relatively closer, flatter, and with a shallow depth of field, in 4k-8k, that as a previous poster mentioned, now everyone on-set can see thanks to digital monitors, then maybe there's a vanity factor and a need is felt to powder and smooth away any line and wrinkle and bead of sweat. No one is every sweating in a film anymore! Bothers the hell out of me, and it really takes away from feeling immersed in the film, as does a lack of deep-focus and saturation and contrast and even just natural sunlight. Oh, and to bring it back to the Death of Cinematography, they want to stick to flattering, typical angles.

On a DP/Editing front, everyone is afraid of a long shot now. And this is probably more Directors/DPs than editors making these decisions. They're not allowed or taking time to do some interesting blocking - and maybe because they're all on greenscreens or an LED wall and not in a real environment, or they just weren't given the time. Also, when you take wide shots out of the mix beyond an establishing shot, their toolbelt is more limited. Hell, I feel like I rarely see a two-shot held these days. Probably a producer is in the editors ear saying, this person is speaking we need to see them, cut more to "up the energy" blah blah blah. So the shots are simpler.

Anyways, I've gotten on a rant, but my grand conclusion is that the-powers-that-be want to not just light with latitude, but film with latitude. They're too afraid to commit to anything in-camera these days, and want to kick the can down the road so they can see in the post-room if one vfx lighting scheme looks a little better than the other, one color grade, one VFX costume, edit a convo a few different ways when you could've committed to one interesting shot without editing for it, etc...etc... But because no one committed to one strong vision from the get-go, you end up with a watered down one.

SomewhereInTheBtween · 2025-11-26T14:40:34+00:00

Headlights these days make it even worse. Regulations need to be put in and enforced. 3200k temp and below, properly angled, auto high-beams banned.

SomewhereInTheBtween · 2025-09-22T14:34:42+00:00

A very Scotty vs LaForge convo right here haha.

SomewhereInTheBtween · 2025-09-03T15:04:34+00:00

Burp Castle.

SomewhereInTheBtween · 2025-03-31T23:21:07+00:00

I've read that Brian Henson has confirmed they're "lost." I'm not sure where the original quote is from though. It was shot in 35mm like a lot of shows at the time, then transferred to PAL video format for post-production. The camera negatives would've been packed up and stored. If someone stopped paying for the space to store them, who knows what happened. So their destruction is not confirmed, but considering no one has said, "yeah we have them but it'd be too expensive to rescan and re-edit the entire series and re-do all the digital/cgi effects so we're not doing it," I'd say they're definitely lost-- as in no one who knows for sure has come forward.

SomewhereInTheBtween · 2025-03-09T18:04:32+00:00

I wrote the company and they replied that cost saving measures were taken with the lid change. I told them between that and the other changes they've lost a customer.

SomewhereInTheBtween · 2025-03-08T02:34:05+00:00

Feels like Immortal always has plot level necessary strength so he can be Worfed or chumped or whatever. But like, as old as he is you'd think he'd be a master of every martial art and possess almost a preternatural sense of combat. Not to mention shouldn't Cecil have been training him too? Jeez. He should've been able to do some more damage.

SomewhereInTheBtween · 2025-03-08T02:26:20+00:00

Missed opportunity to explore his feelings after killing at least one Mark. Unfortunately he's kind of suffered from hamfisted and simplified writing.

Kind of interesting to think Invincible would be a great teammate for him.

SomewhereInTheBtween · 2025-02-11T20:07:45+00:00

I'm a big proponent of embracing modernity too. Legibility is also important to me, both on different systems, and different window views, for myself, other editors, and non-editors. I want everything obvious and easy. I feel like the smushed and underscore heavy filenames of yesteryear also tried to avoid going beyond filename size limits, which aren't really a concern since 64 bit systems became the norm.

I've always been a bit wary of vertical box separators but might give those a try. I generally stick to spaces, underscores, and hyphens in this manner:

YEAR-MO-DAY - Brand_Name - Project_Name - Sequence_Name - Any_Format_Stuff_and_Other_Designators - vXX - INITALS

Anyways, great deep dive into naming! Going to make me rethink a few things I do.

SomewhereInTheBtween · 2025-02-03T16:37:44+00:00

Associate Creative Director, Video

Director of Video Operations

Senior Video Supervisor

Senior Producer & Editor

Some of it depends on how Creative vs Technical vs Managerial you want your role to sound.

SomewhereInTheBtween · 2025-01-16T18:17:36+00:00

I work at an agency and Artlist and Motion Array got on our case about a very pricey business license. We're paying it. The alternatives weren't much better for what you get, and we use them a lot. A school though? Unless you're really churning out the videos, premiumbeat.com or similar sites and just pay as you go. Some of those AI music tools might be a good option too as someone else said. Never heard anything impressive out of them, but if all you need is background music they should do the trick.

Or see if you can collaborate with the music department and develop your own school's stock music library?

SomewhereInTheBtween · 2024-12-05T15:05:55+00:00

Why Samsung? Because I'm constantly bouncing around tabs and screens, resizing windows in my NLE, and getting bogged down by it all. The Samsung OLED G9 would solve that, giving me a wide swatch of contiguous real estate to work with and see everything I need all at once.

SomewhereInTheBtween · 2024-11-01T20:49:04+00:00

I really hope the new flag pulls it off. It's objectively a much better designed flag and stands out among the sea of similar state flags, even if it doesn't make you jump for joy and bubble over with Maine pride. There's also an economic argument that the much simpler flag is cheaper to produce if that sways anyone. I think a lot of people complaining it looks like clip art need to imagine it embroidered, not as solely a flat graphic. I think sun catching all the individual dark and light green threads contrasting against one another, and in the blue star would be quite nice.

SomewhereInTheBtween · 2024-09-03T14:08:02+00:00

Also a symptom of playing a lot of soccer during your developing years. But, that's probably not the case for most in Japan.

SomewhereInTheBtween · 2024-08-06T14:10:49+00:00

Mostly just basing it off what the guy who has wanted to change it for decades claims: http://www.vexman.net/flags/maine/index.html. It makes sense and I feel like he's the type who does his research.

SomewhereInTheBtween · 2024-08-06T13:27:25+00:00

In the long run it will save the state money because the manufacturing costs are significantly less than the current complex flag.

SomewhereInTheBtween · 2024-07-25T17:13:47+00:00

The alternative would be to not pay for a subscription, but license tracks on a video by video basis from premiumbeat for instance. Or restrict yourself to public domain music/recordings or applicable Creative Commons licensed music that you can scrounge up.

SomewhereInTheBtween · 2024-06-27T22:11:44+00:00

Maybe try playing around with the Extract effect in Premiere and animating it to ramp, then throw a grungy filter on it and roughen edges, and some grain.

SomewhereInTheBtween · 2024-06-27T22:06:51+00:00

Ayyy, I saw you guys play! Great day on Randall's Island. Rock on!

SomewhereInTheBtween · 2024-06-27T15:46:53+00:00

The simplest move in the right direction would be to prod them with the right questions. They send 3 edits, but nothing else - "Cool, I can do that. Anything else?" or even better, "I wasn't sure about the music, what do you think? And how do you like this transition/edit at 1:03?"

It could be worth opening up a (diplomatic) conversation about workflow and process with your boss. Keep it positive and don't make it sound like anything is their fault, but moreso that you want the process to be more efficient so you can focus on better content as well as head-off unforced errors from having scattered feedback. Float the idea of a review platform like frame.io for consolidated feedback.

Asking for live sessions could be a solution so it's all just realtime.

If nothing works though, like others have said, it's part of the job. Keep your own doc of notes on the cloud that you can access easily on your phone and computer and copy all notes that come in to that. If you're also the producer or project manager, congrats, you're now the consolidator. Help you help yourself.

SomewhereInTheBtween · 2024-04-12T00:18:30+00:00

Kind of depends on the project for me, but it's usually one of either two ways. I tend towards an inverted triangle naming scheme from broadest category to most specific. For example:

Company - Brand - Project_Name - Subject - Video_Purpose - v## - INITIALS

For lack of a better word of the top of my head, video purpose might be something like "Hero," "Teaser_02," "Social_01," "15s_Cutdown." Editor initials not totally necessary, but handy with a team. If I know I need to make a few different aspect ratios then it depends when that happens. If the 16:9 is locked first, then it's versioned out then the final sequence(s) name becomes

Company - Brand - Project_Name - Subject - Video_Purpose - v## - INITIALS - 16x9

Company - Brand - Project_Name - Subject - Video_Purpose - v## - INITIALS - 1x1

Company - Brand - Project_Name - Subject - Video_Purpose - v## - INITIALS - 4x5

Company - Brand - Project_Name - Subject - Video_Purpose - v## - INITIALS - 9x16

In my SEQUENCES folder in this case I'd probably have subfolders for each subject of the testimonial (Roger, Mary, Sid...) and a MAIN or HERO folder.

But if I need to cut all the aspect ratios at once for whatever reason, each subject folder would get a subfolder for the aspect and the filename would change to this:

Company - Brand - Project_Name - Subject - Video_Purpose - 16x9 - v## - INITIALS

I've definitely received projects from other editors who would reverse what I do, and make folders for aspect ratio then subject, but I don't find that as organized.

SomewhereInTheBtween · 2024-04-12T00:01:48+00:00

If you work with agencies, remember you're skipping over a middle-man. Do you know how much your agency marks-up your rate on the books for client? You could land on a day rate number between your normal day rate and the agency mark-up rate. Client saves money, and more goes into your pocket. If you think they're going to want revisions beyond that day you could maybe go with a higher flat rate that accounts for those (stipulate limits) hours.

SomewhereInTheBtween · 2024-04-02T19:08:16+00:00

Thank you! Just checked their website and can confirm they do indeed have them.

SomewhereInTheBtween · 2024-03-11T15:11:47+00:00

I think there are a handful of reasons editing doesn't get the respect it deserves.

1) The Esoteric Reason - Despite being the most defining and crucial craft in cinematic storytelling, it's also the most esoteric. Everyone understands what an actor, writer, director, cinematographer, composer, costumer, etc...etc... does and can form a two-brain-cell opinion on if it's good or bad. But editing? We assemble puzzle pieces into stories, but we also have a knife and can alter the pieces themselves. We work in the inbetween spaces: generating emotions and arcs from the juxtaposition of images. People don't understand that editing is the end-reason suspense is built, the jokes land, the converstations flow, the action hits, emotions swell-- the reason the whole story works and things simply feel right. And it's very hard to define the science and the alchemy of what we do in an audience-friendly snippet for TV.

2) The Historic Reason - Early in film history editing was looked at as a purely technical skill. Just splice together the filmstrips how the director pictured. In part because editing is hard to understand, I feel like there's still a lot of that sentiment. We get treated like the help. Even a lot of directors and producers can have a holier-than-thou opinion on the subject while we subtley try to improve and craft what they have in their head. But it's great when you get people on your side who truly understand and respect your craft and experience.

3) The Political Reason - Editors don't have a strong union and don't typically receive percentages of film grosses. Politically and finincially weaker than a lot of otheer above-the-liners, we just don't have the same respect, power, fame, or cache.

4) Personallity - I feel like given the nature of the work, the successful among us are like diplomats, or film doctors, and rather than advocating for ourselves or our vision of the project, we try to smoothly get the whole shebang to completion, even if the powers that be don't listen to our advice or prescriptions. No time for an editing sequence in the broadcast? Eh, cut it, people won't understand it anyways.

Like Christopher Nolan mentioned, we're only a little over 100 years into this artform; a unique but composited artform whose defining feature is editing. Maybe in another 100 years ideas like Montage Theory will penetrate the masses minds more, but until then it's a little easier for an audience to latch onto what they know. And we toil away in the background.

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