Film / TV / Media Crew - Technical, employment opportunities and ranting

I need a photo assistant/camera operator to run a locked off Canon R5-C for a 1 day shoot on either 14th/15th/18th (TBC soon) need to capture a still and then turn over asap as what we are shooting starts to go off very quickly, that and run playback from camera to external monitor
Not a Canon user and the owner/operator I worked with on the rest of this job is not available.
Needs to be somebody who uses one fairly regularly so it’s second nature.

^^ Bleurgh, managed to replace some of that lost time with a 4 day edit booked for next week.
Just cancelled.

Rapha looking for a senior brand producer
https://careers.rapha.cc/jobs/3467558-senior-brand-producer

Santa bought you an FX3 / FX30 or other cam for christmas? Let me rig it out for you!

Moved on my camera so the following rigging and accesories are available, preferably selling as one unit. All batteries and kit purchased and used for a long job in 2023 only so in great condition. Just buy an Atomos and a shotgun mic and you are ready to shoot all day long. I can also include a Freewell 82mm 2-5VND for an extra 60 quid if interested.

Everything as a bundle for ‎£290. My loss is your gain!

Smallrig FX3/30 full cage and HDMI clamp, brushed metal look (RRP 95)

Smallrig FX3/30 top handle extender (essential!) (RRP 40)

Smallrig NPFZ-100 batteries x 6 with Smallrig NPFZ-100 dual chargers, USB x 3 (RRP 62 for each two batts and charger so about 180 total)

Smallrig universal baseplate (RRP 20)

Smallrig chest pad (RRP 50)

SmallRig Swivel and Tilt Adjustable Monitor Mount with NATO Clamp Mount (RRP 37)

Smallrig 15cm rails (RRP 15)

Smallrig 30 cm rails (RRP 15)

SmallRig Super 15mm RailBlock (RRP 15)

Genaray NP-F750 4400mAh batteries (for Atomos Shinobi and potentially others, I just used with Shinobi and got about half a day constant shooting from each battery) with US wall chargers (bought from B&H) x 2

Twozoh brand 20cm XLR - XLR cable (perfect length for shotgun mics up to the length of a MKE-600)

Rigs out like this >>

1 Attachment

Bleugh.

Just had a big shoot for this month cancelled. Going hand in hand with literally all work in December cancelled and that was all I had for January.

So many ups and downs this past 18 months. Rested on laurels a bit after a really good late summer -early winter.

I've dipped my toe into the water of starting a publication about our industry. I want it to be future looking - it's changing so fast but I think there's lots to be learnt from both new creators / videographers and the old school industry. Feel free to have a read, no need to subscribe if you don't want. And any ideas for articles or coverage much appreciated - or if you want to write something yourself I'd love that. I'm finding writing about work is actually quite good for the brain and thinking about the future!

One article up so far, working on the next one: Old school genres reborn on YouTube.

http://www.thebigwide.co.uk

Hope everyones doing alright!

How are we all looking?

Had a few small edits come in over February which has helped and am starting to get closer to confirming bookings on some decent shoots for April and beyond, but it's been a hairy 3 months (and the next 3 weeks might still be a struggling financially - have basically relied on savings and selling gold etc since end of November).

Had a largely brilliant 2023 with a good forecast for Dec/Jan but then lost about £30k worth of work in those two months (which took the shine off of spending that much on kit in the months leading up to it). I took the time to re-do website, instagram etc and get my cold-email fingers working along with tons of research on outreach. I feel if I passed the data to someone useful they'd get some work from it but sales has never been my forte. It's resulted in a few meetings but in the end it's existing clients that are back and hopefully about to become bookings (thankfully not the ones that flaked over Dec/Jan).

I was on a shoot last week with some folks who are all in and they are worrying now, its fuckin deathly quiet but even my other work is quiet so it seems to be everyone that's facing it a little.

It’s quiet in TV/film land due to the strikes only ending before Christmas, friend is working on Slow Horses and they are now in production but it’s easy to get hold of people as they are either doing BBC/itv for bobbins or sat doing nothing. there will be some cross-over of talent into the ad/commercial side of things so one sector dropping means more people chasing work in other sectors. TV/film will start to pick up though as people need stuff to watch.

Still pretty bleak from the more corporate side of TV; companies/labels are merging back-office type roles, smaller companies are being defunded - from talking to friends in similar roles, it sounds like there's probably going to be a few hundred less TV jobs in the UK by the end of the year. Everyone I know that works in production on non-salaried roles (ie most people in production) are considering leaving the industry for more stability.

Difficult times but you've got to hope companies adapt to the new realities of cashflows, become more efficient then can keep going! People still need something to watch so it's not like TV's are just going to be blank screens but it's just where & how the content is made that's in question for me.

Got a project I'm verging on signing which every bone in my body is telling me to swerve. Client is a small agency, end client is big business (400 million), project is relatively small - 12k or so. I've shown references, written treatments, explained tech, worked in this field, end client still apparently unsure 4 video calls in. Agency guy wants another call today - from behind the departure gate at an airport. Just go on holiday FFS! Feel if anything the agency wobbling is causing end client uncertainty.

When I freelanced I’d usually walk away from this sort of job. If they went ahead there was always a general feeling of a lack of trust and additional pressure that I had to prove myself. Not a good starting point for a creative relationship.

You've got just say no, these folk are thick and you have to stick to your guns on what they have paid for, a DOP I know sticks to what the client has agreed on as these agencies will have you on calls to pad out there time!

always a general feeling of a lack of trust and additional pressure that I had to prove myself. Not a good starting point for a creative relationship.

This is my main concern. But also bills gonna bill.

the bigger the client then they are paying you for security of delivery even if the job is not complex, that’s why they are asking you to do the job and adding lots of questions so all stakeholders are on board.
If it goes o.k. it potentially means they come back to you as you deliver as promised, not guaranteed but it means the convincing part is skipped on the next job which is easier for them.

that job i mentioned in PM had teams calls about the teams calls with clients and there were up to 15 people on them, goes with the territory of global clients.

I get it, but I've worked with bigger and they've been far less finicky.

Anyone own a SmallHD Ultra 5?

I want to get the new Ultra 7 for on camera monitoring but it's not available until after a shoot I want to get it for. Thinking of renting the Ultra 5 or even buying it as well but wanted some feedback on use and function before committing. Specifically the Ultra 5, not the cine/indie range which I've used before.

Edit: bought one the other day. It's thick but feels very rigid and light. Would have preferred to wait for the 7 with its weatherproofing but this seems plenty robust for now.

Set wear - any brands for trousers?

I just ordered a pair of Roig trousers which are lovely but they come up much smaller than I'd anticipated. I'm going to be on the floor a lot for a shoot next weekend and have the killer trouser combo of being both long in the leg and 40" around which rules out a lot of brands.

Does anyone want / need these radio batteries?

1 Attachment

Any locations people here? Got a training client wanting to film in a shopping mall type thing. Prob overnight. They actually want a few different locations but thinking a shopping centre would tick lots of boxes (officey bits, retail bits, mally bits, parking bits). Anyone with any insight/tips?

Also, anyone know of any owner-ops with a P+S Technik skater dolly? I know of like 2 in the UK that are held by rental houses. I really want one but they never come up for sale.

Bump - now looking for:

text-based animator/designer for a confirmed job next week

p+s technik skater dolly for sale any time

location manager to chat to for costing a project and if it lands (likely will) to work with in June

Found an animator but still looking for a location manager if anyone knows any in their circles?

Letting our Vimeo sub lapse after about 13 years. It feels trashier and clunkier as they add more and more unrequested features. Final straw is not being able to upload a video without having to click things since latest update - i.e. can't just drag a file onto a browser and be done.

So am trialling Frame.io which is in beta for v4 and it's very slick.

A lot more well developed than when I last checked a couple of years ago. It's cheaper than Vimeo, faster, has more features (but not bullshit ones like browser based editing). You can also transfer up to 5TB which also means I can sack off WeTransfer in total saving about 150 quid a year between Vimeo/WT vs just Frame.io on its own...

It's got lots of cool new tagging/fields/organisational stuff as well meaning I might even be able to manage things like equipment hire/inventory. Would be cool if I could have some sort of link between it and webflow (though I'd consider another website platform if not possible on Webflow) so I could link a public facing equipment hire site with a back end organised in Frame...

I don't think I can host on Frame/embed elsewhere like I could on Vimeo but our main website has changed back end since then so I no longer need to anyway. All our streaming is done via hardware these days as well so no need to use Vimeo for their live tools.

#feelsgood

I’m considering swapping from Vimeo to something else for hosting videos on. Have used frame.io for a couple of projects, usually from client end, so uploading video to it so they can then feedback on.
My portfolio is a fabrik one, so it has easy integration with Vimeo, one of the reasons I haven’t moved away from it. But not sure how long my loyalty/inertia will last..