Mental Breaks and Existential Dread

I should be writing and re-writing a communications paper at the moment as well as starting to tackle the assigned reading for my classes this week. Instead, I'm taking a quick mental break to share some of the photos I finally developed plus a couple of videos that kept my attention this past week.

If there's been anything helping me balance out the mental load of school and the actual work I do to pay the bills it's been healthy doses of solitaire using physical playing cards and occasionally sneaking out with my RB67 to rip through a roll of film or two. Back in December, I started leaning heavily into Tri-X, one of Kodak's black and white film stocks that's been around since the 1940s. It's typically rated at 400 ISO, but I normally push it two stops and expose it at 1600. This past week was wildly taxing and to deal with the nonsense, I mixed up a new batch of D76 developer and processed a few rolls I'd shot over the last few weeks. There are still plenty of photos from that batch of negatives that need to be scanned in, but at least I got a few from those rolls I was immediately pleased with.

 

AI-Generated Video

This past week also had some WILD advancements in the world of AI-generated video. OpenAI's Sora is "an AI model that can create realistic and imaginative scenes from text instructions." A good deal of my filmmaking peers are going through an existential crisis and claiming the "end is near." I'm not quite in that camp, but I'm certainly paying attention. There's very good reason to be concerned about the potential of tools like this being used for online disinformation. There are also legitimate warning signs going up for those of us making a living with stock footage sales. Marques Brownlee released a solid video this week on what some of this could look like moving forward.

 

Conducting Better Interviews

Another video I caught this week that's worth your time is from my communications class. It's a May 2015 TED Talk from Celeste Headlee: "10 Ways to Have a Better Conversation."

My three biggest takeaways from her talk:

  • "You need to enter every conversation assuming that you have something to learn."
  • "Don't equate your experience with theirs... All experiences are individual. And, more importantly, it is not about you… Conversations are not a promotional opportunity.”
  • "Be interested in other people."
 

St. Anne the Wife and I made our way through Mr. and Mrs. Smith, the new Amazon series from Francesca Sloane and Donald Glover. It's a remake of the 1996 TV series and 2005 film and freakin' outstanding. I'm here for about anything Donald Glover does (Atlanta, Childish Gambino, Community, etc.), so this series was must-watch. Watch the trailer below and then head over to the New York Time's article with co-creator Francesca Sloane.

Surely I'll need another mental break from my classwork this coming week – along with what I actually do for a living – and I'll have more nonsense to share.

I swear I'm still a Cinematographer

Already starting week three of this first MBA summer module. That's shorthand for "good lord I'm antsy to get back to focusing on being a professional creative again."

I've been flirting with the monthly issues of American Cinematographer magazine that just keep coming with my subscription. I've also started back to reading the American Cinematographer Manual I'd bought back in early 2022. The physical book itself does remind me of my younger days and the well worn and highlighted Bible I'd spent so much time with.

This ASC manual is basically the cinematographer's bible. I'd been wanting to buy a copy and dig into it for years. It's not a textbook per se, but it's easily an authoritative work.

"Producers hire a cinematographer to create art, to be the guardian of the image, and to press for quality and beauty at every turn, but remember, they hire a cinematographer to do that on a budget... Never convince yourself that money is no object – money is the main object. Remember, it's call the movie business. Cinematographers must be concerned about saving money, or at least concerned about spending it wisely." - David Stump, ASC. “Criteria for Evaluating Digital-Cinematography Cameras.” American Cinematographer Manual, 2021

...bit of a hat tip to me still being eyeballs deep in the world of business school...

Another solid find this past week was David Kruta's guest appearance on the Cinematography Salon podcast. He's a good dude and one that I'd consider as a friend. I've been part of the Cinematography Salon for a few years now and met Dave at one of the group's NYC holiday parties. I've also been in a private Instagram DP/Foodie group with him and a handful of others that's helped us all get through these last few years of Covid.

In this episode they cover a handful of topics, but they dug into how artificial intelligence (AI) is making its way into our creative industry like everything else. I know I'm already behind the ball in terms of Midjourney (sad day for the end of free accounts) and other AI image generators, but I've been using ChatGPT more and more since early April. After listing to this podcast, I started thinking about how I could use AI in terms of the interview transcripts I have from my rubber stamp documentary project (yes, it's still in the works but somewhat gathering dust). I fed ChatGPT one of those transcripts and asked it to provide some of the themes we'd covered in the interview. Hot dang, seconds later it spit out what would've taken me days to do on my own. I'll for sure be using it more down the road.

I've been hoarding money lately due to this wild economic season we're all in right now instead of following my typical "I should buy more gear" impulses. Some of that fiscal responsibility can be blamed on a group I've followed for awhile, A Photo Editor. Lately they've been on a tear with their Instagram account in posting some real-life examples of photographers and what their business revenue looks like. One post in particular hit hard with the dude saying "stop buying gear; just stop."

No question as professionals we need to stay on top of our nonsense, but – in another hat tip to business school – buying more gear just because you can is a terribly short-sided business move. There's some legit purchases I could be making right now with some potential projects coming up. I've done the math and worked out the details using my newly minted business school super powers, but I'm not convinced it's time to melt my credit card just yet.

That said, I'm pretty sure it's way past time I sprung for some new C41 developing chemicals. I'm way past tempting fate with the crusty chemistry and the 20-30+ year expired film I've been using in my RB67 lately.