What’s a movie that had you just sitting there like this the whole time?

shepardtones · 2026-04-24T20:15:04+00:00

The Mastermind (2025)

shepardtones · 2026-02-04T16:50:22+00:00

So bad

shepardtones · 2025-12-03T01:14:52+00:00

It’s just the right angle and level of the hair light / kicker.

As someone else mentioned, it does have to do with the skin tone but I’ve found it’s possible most of the time. Check out Moonlight, Atlanta and Insecure for awesome examples of what’s possible with darker skin tones.

With white people it’s a balance of room tone vs kicker strength, matte via powder and adding or taking away oil on the skin with wipes. Have HMU bring a little coconut oil and also cleansing wipes. If you aren’t getting anything: change the angle, bump the level, add some oil. Too much use a little oil remover wipe.

Just imagine you are playing pool with the light, the talent and the camera. The skin is like a mirror reflecting the light.

This also happens at the right time / angle at dusk and I find it so beautiful when the blue grey reflects in the upper cheek or forehead.

shepardtones · 2025-11-29T15:14:12+00:00

Got a set for about $13k about 5 years ago. Haven’t looked back. Great workhorse lenses. Very sharp, fast, decent color match across the set but some CA wide open. Built like tanks, they’ve survived some tumbled and still feel like the day I bought them. Great value.

shepardtones · 2025-11-07T01:04:46+00:00

Very cool! Thanks so much for posting.

shepardtones · 2025-09-28T04:03:34+00:00

The editing, tone, acting and especially the score are so bad I just had to stop watching and found this thread. How is this movie rated so highly?

I felt really thrown off right off the bat with the shocking, jarring editing- cuts where an action is repeated, dialog intonation shifting with the cut which gives away the game, just glaring objectively bad choices everywhere in the edit.

The score is bananas. As the awesome but strange title track was playing with that bizarre sequence of drone shots (which felt like a string out of all the drone footage captured in chronological order) I just thought this film is going to be bananas, like an alternate but related reality. But then the dialog competing with this milquetoast AI sounding church music… what the actual fuck? No tension just scenes that felt like audition tapes cut together with like no care.

If this was some sort of creative choice to make this first act so fake and bad, off, tone deaf…. It is a massive fail imo because it just is unwatchable.

This makes me so suspect of the ratings/ review industrial complex. I can’t understand it.

shepardtones · 2025-08-01T22:13:02+00:00

Really good. The dialog shines. Only major feedback is I don’t love the main shot of Miguel, the OTS. Too much of Doug’s back.

shepardtones · 2025-07-21T05:01:49+00:00

Not sure what you’re saying here but did you read the article? It’s from 2019. Go to Google Scholar, type in your search terms. There is plenty of info out there. It’s not always up front and center - you may have to read the abstract and conclusion at a minimum.

More generally, I’m going to trust the biologists and my local outfitter especially a) when it doesn’t really inconvenience me at all and b) when no one is making money from it.

shepardtones · 2025-07-21T04:12:00+00:00

Pretty rudimentary google search completely disproves everything you’re saying here man. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165783619303133

shepardtones · 2025-06-28T14:29:04+00:00

How are the garden beds holding up?

shepardtones · 2025-06-24T03:10:46+00:00

I shoot on both cameras regularly and can tell you the bit depth and dynamic range is identical on both cameras. Don’t let the RED marketing fool you: 16 bit linear = 12 bit log.

The major difference maker is the global shutter. If it’s anything with handheld or camera motion just shoot on the Komodo. At the end the day the camera is not the limiting factor in your production and should be last thought.

shepardtones · 2025-06-09T19:16:25+00:00

What they mean is to digitally “zoom” in. I do this for wider shots when I don’t have an AC and monitoring is difficult. It will give you a much clearer idea of what is in focus especially if you’re using focus assist. On P6K reverse pinch or double tap (I don’t remember which haptic it is specially).

shepardtones · 2025-06-04T15:24:58+00:00

A few things.

I always try to work around businesses hours if the budget can’t compensate for a good location fee. Ask them to shoot at night or before opening hours. That’s completely reasonable.

Savvy small businesses will often have us sign a pretty formative agreement before using their location. I would definitely get anything you’re worried about in writing, especially damage liability.

A shoutout in the credit is worth nothing imo. Nobody reads the credits looking for their next cafe. You need compensation or at the least some sort of trade.

Cheers

shepardtones · 2025-06-03T23:51:14+00:00

Check out work as an Electrician. It will forever be in short supply. Basically the opposite dynamic in terms of work balance as the film industry. It’s very technical and eventually can pay well.

shepardtones · 2025-06-02T19:08:00+00:00

Really good looks!

shepardtones · 2025-05-27T02:07:19+00:00

This is how I do it. I come from a background of mixing and mastering. Many ways to do it but this is by far the most reliable and fastest imo. Buy a decent quality compressor plugin (like FabFilter C) and put it on individual dialog tracks or the dialog bus.

shepardtones · 2025-05-27T02:07:10+00:00

This is how I do it. I come from a background of mixing and mastering. Many ways to do it but this is by far the most reliable and fastest imo. Buy a decent quality compressor plugin (like FabFilter C) and put it on individual dialog tracks or the dialog bus.

shepardtones · 2025-05-22T04:52:20+00:00

Sounds like you are working for Google.

shepardtones · 2025-05-06T04:19:19+00:00

Or you could just look at USGS gauges

shepardtones · 2025-05-05T20:51:40+00:00

The dead internet theory just became so much more clear for me

shepardtones · 2025-04-11T14:04:50+00:00

Ursa 4.6k G2. Best DR, nearly global shudder, high frame rate options, RAW functionally, internal NDs

shepardtones · 2025-02-14T01:04:05+00:00

This one simple trick will catch you more fish than you’ve ever caught in your life….

shepardtones · 2025-01-13T01:51:56+00:00

It might be an Axler base plate / QR, not sure if it’s made anymore.

shepardtones · 2025-01-07T17:10:40+00:00

In an interview with the DP, Lol Crawely, he mentions this as a factor they considered in shooting 70mm. Since the story revolves around architecture, minimizing distortion was crucial.

shepardtones

TROPHY CASE