Blue Buffalo Productions: Best Production Tips for 2024
This is a great time to be in production. No more big $$$$ for big ticket items or crew to get those unbelievable 4k, 6k, 8k, 10k.. (you get the drift) shots. (5) years ago our equipment investment was in upwards of $50k for a Sony this and that to shoot S Log and all of the new gadgets (including the 35mm Sensor – big time here we come).
Times have changed: I’d say 60% of our production work can now be done with your phone. Youtube was evil when it took away the big dollars one could make distributing DVD(s) with proprietary content, but in a paradoxical way, good for giving us an audience who is absolutely comfortable viewing content from amateurs with phones. In a day when anyone can be a star, the audience has become more comfortable with less production value.
Things will only get easier and less expensive with some really stunning results. Case in point, a friend of mine shot this video with the Sony A7S in Hyper Lapse mode on his skateboard with an inexpensive gimbal. Five years ago I had to have a camera that could undercrank this or overcrank that; a Steadicam OP, and maybe a focus puller. Today, just 10 minutes of your time and you’ve got a great shot (dare I say, commercial). Sure, there’s still production that requires a camera and crew that you can depend on. ‘The phone’, you say, works just as well. Well… maybe not. My brand, spanking new iPhone freezes and records black 60% of the time I’m trying to get a professional shot (and always the critical shot). Sure, old timers will tell me; “It’s a DAMN phone, what do you expect?” From Apple? A lot. I should not be paying over $1k for a phone that I can’t use to make videos. Thanks Apple. Rest assured, you can keep the rest of your new updates and new phones in the warehouse. I’m all good. Back to our story: Less expense, more production value = happier clients and a happier production company with more money to spend on developing and making better content.
Sure the parasites from ChatGPT/Sora will take everything away from us but until they launch the ‘game changer’; and not before they can ransack all of our work on the web for their AI ‘training’, we can still make a few bucks off low budget cameras and phones.
The camera doesn’t make it a great and memorable shot… the shooter does.
For more information about B2 Productions click here: www.b2productions.com