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Welcome to the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast, Episode number four zero three. If you can talk brilliantly about a problem, it can create a consoling illusion that it has been mastered. Stanley Kuber broadcasting from a dark, windowless.
Room in Hollywood when we really should be working on that next draft. It's the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast, showing you the craft and business of screenwriting while teaching you how to make your screenplay bulletproof. And here's your host, Alex Ferrari.
Welcome, Welcome to another episode of the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast. I am your humble host, Alex Ferrari. Now, today's show is sponsored by Bulletproof script Coverage.
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Unlike other script coverage services, Bulletproof Script Coverage actually focuses on the kind of project you are in the goals of the project you are, so we actually break it down by three categories micro budget, indie film, market, and studio film. There's no reason to get coverage from a reader that's used to reading temp pole movies when your movie is gonna be done for one hundred thousand dollars
and we wanted to focus on that. At Bulletproof script Coverage, our readers have worked with Marvel Studios, CIA, WME, NBC, HBO, Disney, Scott Free, Warner Brothers, The Blacklist, and many many more. So if you need your screenplay or TV script covered by professional readers, head on over to covermiscreenplay dot com. Today we have a insanely cool episode. I am talking to one of the ogs, the original gangsters of the
filmmaking blogger sphere, Philip Bloom. Now, if you guys don't know who Philip Bloom is, google him because he has been around since the early two thousands. He's one of the first filmmaking bloggers out there. He has a massive online empire, if you will. He's worked with George Lucas shot shot the movie Red Tales with him on a Canon five D when it first came out. He also
travels the world as an award winning cinematographer. And over the years I've learned a ton from his YouTube channel, his blog, and all the cool stuff that he puts out there for the filmmaking community. And I am honored and humbled that he would come on the podcast to share his experience and knowledge with the tribe, and they'll be a little surprised for you at the end of
this episode. Phillip's got this brand new insane course that he's got called Philip Bloom's Cinematic master Class, and I will have a link at the end of this episode where you guys can go and check it out. It is almost ten hours long. It is definitely a masterclass. I have taken a bunch of it already and I've learned a few things along the way as well, So definitely check that out. But without any further ado, please enjoy my conversation with Philip Bloom. I'd like to welcome
to the show Philip Bloom. Thank you, sir so much for taking the time out to share your knowledge with the tribe.
All right, Alex, thanks for having me.
So how did you get into this crazy business?
A path which probably doesn't exist anymore. It goes back to I think most times when you're growing up, you don't know what to do. And I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I'm watching a TV show and it was about a was a guy who tried out different careers, and one episode was where he tried to be a news photographer. And I watched that. This was like in the sort of like mid eighties, and
I thought, that looks really cool. So a friend of my dad's knew a press strographer, and so I had a conversation with him about it, and I took photos. I was a hobbyist, nothing particularly serious, but I took photos. But I thought that looks like a really interesting job, because I didn't really know what I wanted to do. And then he said to me, I would not bother doing this because photography's on the way out because digital is coming in and that's going to change everything. That's
going to cheapen the industry. You should get into TV news. That's where the future is. So I when, yeah, why not? So I then sort of like made inquiries and contacts and tried to get in touch with somebody, and eventually found somebody who knew somebody, and I managed to go out with a news crew. I was must have been about sixteen or seventeen, did that for the day and it was the best thing I'd ever done. It was
so much fun. And this was back in the golden age of TV news in a way, because where you were really looked after. I think they did a I went out with them like three man crew went out to the press conference for a boxer, and then we had a three hour lunch and Chinese restaurant. I really expected Chinese restaurant. All on the company and I was like, Wow, this is amazing, this is the life. And then I think then they said we may do something later, but
probably not. That'd be it for the day. I'm like, this is a job. Wow, and by you know, eventually, I by the time I left Score, I then got managed to get my foot into door into Sky Television and to try and become a news cameraman. So that's kind of how I got in. Never wanted to be a use that were filmmaker. I never wanted to be
a filmmaker and slightest wanted to do something. Wanted to find a job that could pay me to do something that was interesting because I really had no idea what I want to do growing up, and that was basically I just sort of fell into it. Just found that I really enjoyed filming and really enjoyed the excitement of and boredom as well of news and I kind of that's kind of where it was really and I did
that for seventeen years. Oh wow, it was for staff and it was the best training anybody I think you could have when if you want to become a storyteller, because you get I got to I learned how to use it, not particularly technically because it was much simpler. Times it was on camera one lens, like a try that's it. It was like, yeah, there's no settings and camera it's turned it on and no, you had a game switch there you go.
In the way balance so yeah, yeah, white balance.
And of course it was black and white view find it. So you had to get it right. You knew you got it right because you didn't get a phone call later to tell you that you got it wrong. So and of the way things works back then. But it was brilliant. It was great training. I got to learn how to tell stories really quickly. I learned how to shoot efficiently, how to walk into a room and see the positions where I need to be, and you had to learn how to figure out how what shots I
needed to get really quickly. And then they also then gave me a chance to do long form stuff, and I was always traveling around the world and they taught me how to edit. It was just a really brilliant experience, and I guess it's one of those things that when you get to I got really comfortable with it, and I could easily still be doing it now, but I realized that I had to leave to push myself further. And that was eleven years ago, and.
Then you got into more filmmaking, more documentary after that.
Yeah, I mean documentaries is kind of what I was doing for the last few years of my staff job anyway, because I was one of the few caraman. There was like twenty five caraman that worked at the company on the news roster, and I was one of the few who edited, and so I got sent to do the interesting stories, and then they gave me the more creative stuff. And I showed a flair for doing creative stuff, and so they pushed me to more and more and do that.
And then so I was doing the longer form stuff sort of like what I guess what you create is like sixty minutes types that you have, and that was brilliant. So that really gave me the taste for longer stuff of doing that, So that's when I went into freelancing. That's why I really wanted to still push forward with documentaries as my main thing. It is still my main thing, but also try the other things which which interested me,
you know. And I've certainly found that trying all these different things and still doing that different types of work really helps in every aspect. If you're filming narrative fiction, coming from a news documentary background is incredibly useful because you know, you have that speed of thought. But also if you've what you can take from that fiction though, is the aspect of planning and working with others for in a much more controlled way and bring that into
your documentary work can have a really interesting effect. So I love the way that everything that I've done in these past eleven years is really sort of old and work together to make everything hopefully better.
Now you were at what point in your career did you decide, Hey, I'm going to start blogging, I'm going to open up a YouTube show your YouTube channel. I mean, you're one of the first guys in the in the industry, in the film industry at all. That was kind of figuring that out. How did you start this blog and what made you want to start one.
So I think the website started initially this is in two thousand and six, just as a place for my show real because nobody prior to this, people would just and still what at this time we're sending out DVDs sure or vhs or vhs is and nobody the effort it takes for somebody to open it up and put it in a machine and play it. It means they're not going to watch it. And I just thought, if I could just send them a link over this thing called email that mbod seems to start having these days.
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And that's basically it was just in the most obvious way of doing things, and that's basically where it started us. And then about a year later I started up the blog, and the blog was really it was just a simple way of me sharing my experiences using something called thirty five milimeters adaptors, which is what we used before ds lars.
It was a way of tricking these smaller sense of cameras into having essentially thirty five millimeter field a view and aesthetic and everything, and it was a really clunky c system, I remember, and the only way you could find out information about these really was by going through all of these forums, the DVX users and the dv infos and stuff like that, and it was going through countless threats, and I thought, yeah, I'm just going to just have a place where I can just share my
experience with a bit and see, I can hopefully help people out if they're thinking of going down this path, and they can see me trying out all these gears, all these different adaptors that I'm buying, trying to get the most filmic look, and it was simply it sounds
a bit try, but it is true. I did actually just want to give a little bit back because I was trained by such brilliant cameramen back in my news days, and I just wanted to just have you know, I was taught, I was educated on the job and stuff like that, and I could already see the way things were going that that wasn't happening anymore. People were sort of floundering. So I just wanted to share my experiences and so hopefully people could learn a little bit from
what I was doing. And that's kind of really basically what it started. Out is just simply just me giving a little bit back, and then.
It grew and grew and grew till it's the juggernaut that it is today. And your YouTube and when did you start your YouTube channel?
YouTube? To funny that, I mean it started at a long time ago. I can't even remember how long ago, but I mean it must be about nine.
At least eight something like that.
Oh well yeah before then, yeah, so I didn't really do much with it. It was just a place of putting up some stuff. And really, I have to say, I mean, Vimeo was kind of my main place. It was exposure room, and then Vimeo exposure Room disappeared and Vimeo and I used to use that as a place to put my work up to be seen because nice a clean platform. YouTube always struck me as a very noisy environment. Yep. And and I've actually grown to love YouTube for what is. I've embraced it for what it is.
And it took me quite a few years to understand what needs to be done with that. And I've never really embraced it in the full way that many had because I think to truly do that, it's a full time job, you know that, Hensy with YouTuber for me, so it's just I put up stuff every now and then. But it's and I'm not I'm not a snob at all about these things. And you see this online when you talk about these things people and I say, oh no,
I don't put my stuff on YouTube. The quality of people who watch it, we're near as good as quality of people who watch it on Vimeo. I'm like, right, So you want to pick and choose your audience where you're in the wrong business. You want anything to watch it, Surely there's as many people to watch it as possible. So and and YouTube for me is now grown bigger
for me than Vimeo. I still use Vimeo initially put my stuff up and then when I'm happy with it, I would then put it up onto YouTube because as you know, you can't change the video on YouTube. You have to let it go. And it's not like I do daily vlogs or anything. It's when I put stuff up on YouTube, it's generally quite a crafted piece that I put up there, so it takes me a while to make it.
So when you approach a film, more a series, how do you approach how do you kind of like creatively go after a new jobs.
That's a tricky one because it really depends on the type of worker do is so varied and did generally the way it works. I'm lucky enough to be in a position now where I don't have to actually knock on doors as such to find work. I still make new contacts and do things like that just the normal way, but I don't send my my I don't try and contact people looking for well. I get people contacted me with job offers and ideas, and if it's something that interests me, then I will then I'll go and work
with it. And it really depends on what the job is. It can be. It's such a different process for you know, whether it's whether it's working on a documentary series or doing a corporate or branded content for example. I mean,
all of these things have such different processes. Obviously there's some parts of it which are a similar which is I think the common ground on all of it would be filming, because on everything that I do, I'll always be filming something, But on other stuff it may not be editing, I may not be doing any pre production. It really depends on type of things that I do.
Now, you shoot a lot on location. Do you have any tips on lighting with natural light?
Yeah? Yeah, lighting natural lighting is a wonderful thing. It's an unpredictable, uncontrollable thing frequently, and so whilst working with what there is is a nice quick way of doing things. You can't use it for everything. It's the best thing I can suggest when you are working with available I mean, I would always suggest having your own light as well.
If you're going to try and do talking heads and interviews in a room, trying to do that on just available light or natural light unless you've got continuous gray cloud outside or anything like that, it's just going to be a nightmare. But it is a case of working with what's there, don't fight it, embrace the lights. Work finds a location or room with a background that works
with the windows and what there is. When you walk into a room that has lights on, turn them off and then see what the light's like, and then turn the back on again if you want. So it's a case of just don't don't turn the camera on until you've figured out where the light is and how can harness it. And I think to many people don't look at where the light is before they choose their background first,
and then they go, oh, what about the light. The two should be hand in hand, especially if you're going to be working with natural light, you need to make it work together very well.
It's that it's, in other words, kind of roll with the punches when it comes to natural light as opposed to trying to control it or manipulate it too much. I mean, you can't control and manipulate it to a certain extent, but it's ever changing. So it's kind of like you know, wrestling a wet cat.
Yeah, it just it depends on what it is you're trying to film. If you're just trying to grab some shots here and there, it's you know, you can work with it, and you know lighting is not turning up the ISO on your camera, as you know, is a completely different thing. Horrendous to think that some people actually do think that is what lighting is. No, we still need to lighting also, you know, it creates the movie,
it creates everything. And I love natural light. But when the natural light doesn't work for me, which is can easily be you know, seventy five percent of the time, that's when you start adding lights to yourself, but in the most naturalistic way possible. For me, it's all about finding the position where your lights can be that can looks like it's a motivated light source, like it could be the window, and that's what I could be doing.
I could literally just be putting up a light to add to the window light, to take it over, to add a little bit more to it, to give it a bit more sparkle case changes. So I think that's kind of what you need to do with it. And there's lots of apps and things out there which you can use to see, you know, if you want to scout locations beforehand to see where the sun will be, the
light will be, and how that will affect things. But most of the time, if you're just doing things quickly, you just have to work with it and just be quick is my best advice. If you are going to work with natural light, don't faff around and start being undecided about what you're going to do. You just have to just go with it. Now.
I know because I actually watched your your Skywalker ranch video that you did years ago, which was stunning and for any Star Wars fan that is mecca. So I watched it. I found it online. I was like wow, and then you were shooting it with a DSLR if I'm not mistaken.
Right, Yeah, yeah, So that was that was an interesting time. So that was back in oh, two thousand and nine, and they contacted me and it's it's a fun it's a nice story because I'm a huge Star Wars fan, have been since I saw the first Star Wars back in seventy seven. And they emailed me and I didn't reply. So Lucasfilm emailed me and I didn't reply because I'm terrible with emails. And you know, I have a PA now and it makes things better, but in there she
does my work emails. She doesn't do my personal emails, and I'm still rubbish with my personal emails. But it was still bad then and I missed it, and then they called me and I didn't. I'm rubbish with voicemails, terrible with voicemails. I'll they be like, you know, you have sixty new voicemails it I mean. But I actually they did play it back pla maid one back about a day after it was left.
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And it was Producer Rick McCallum has said, dropped you an email last week and tried to call you, and it's strange that we've not heard back from you. I think, basically, I don't think anybody never nobody ignores and I wasn't ignoring. I'm just rubbish.
No one ever ignores an email.
George Lucas. I immediately called them back and apologized, and they just said that they want to know what this can five D Mark, Who's about if it's any good? They have Second World War movie but they're currently shooting called Redtails, and they've got some other plans for other stuff that they just want to I just don't know what the quality is. Like they've got one, they've messed around with it, but they're not They don't really know
much about it. So could I come over to Skywalker Rage for maybe a few days and give them some advice? And I was like, yeah, sure we Actually I was actually I was booked on a job. Oh yeah, I was booked on a job a short notice. It was
like can you come out next week? And I was booked for like three weeks, And so I phoned up the production manager of the job I was on and gave the sob story of like, you know how important Star Wars was to my life, And then eventually got to the bit that I said, and they've asked me to come over there next week to work with them, And she said to me, why don't you tell me about the beginning ten minutes ago. Yeah, that's fine, I understand, totally,
not problem. I'll let you, I'll let you off the job. And yeah. So I went out there and I shot with it around the ranch, which I didn't have long to do it at all, and they just wanted to see it. Didn't want me to shoot a need test charts or anything like that. They weren't interested in that. They wanted to see what it looked like projected. So I just got some stuff around the ranch and I went into there, into the main house, into the screening room.
And it was a hell of experience because it was so it was Ritt McCallum there, and George Lucas and his visiting director friend Quentin Tarantino, and legendary sound designer and editor Ben Bert. So they're go into this and Dennis there was he was he wasn't there. And I cut the stuff on my laptop in the room and went looks all right, a bit noisy, a bit of alien sitting there bit maray, oh it's all right, Oh god.
And I didn't know they were going to screen it on the big screen, so when I took it in there and I had it's one of the things I would like to have seen it on the big screen before anybody else saw it, just to check it. So the first time I ever saw Callum five Mark two stuff projected was at that point, and it looked beautiful. It looked so much better than did it on the computer through their magical I don't know what amazing projector they had. It just looked fantastic and they loved it.
So it was a hell of an experience.
And then didn't you get to work a little bit on Red Tails?
Yeah, so I did some shoots. I did some stuff for them up in Sonoma for a couple of weeks, and then in Prague a few months later as well. So I did about three weeks work on the on the movie. And it was that was It was crazy because there was me with my little fady Mark two, and I also had a one D Mark four as well. I'd have a seventy as well, maybe a seven day camp member. I think I did had a seventy modified a peel as well, so I did three cameras to
switch between. And they were shooting on Sony F thirty five, so big beasts and you know, the proper set of my crew and looks like it's just a monster. So you know that I would be there to get an angle they hadn't thought of because I was so nimble and able to just slott in and find things with my eye what I did, and I was able to be sat up and ready within like two minutes, and these guys were like forty five minutes to an hour just to repo each position, of course, So it was,
it was, it was fun. It was. It's a fun drinking game watching a movie. Boy, I can't do it because I would kill myself because there's one hundred and fifty shots of my film. Yeah, that's insane. I know every single one of the shots when it comes on, and of course they've braided it beautiful and you couldn't tell,
but it's not. It's not for what people initially thought of, Oh, you must be using it for like cockpit cameras and stuff like that, like, oh, because they're not really the cockpits, they're obviously it's a stage and they're on they're one involved and there's a techno crane and sure, yeah, so my camera was not forgetting those like small space type stuff. It was really just I was the small camera to find small spaces and get angles that they couldn't or hadn't thought of beforehand.
Now you would you agree that they found you? Basically? Did they find you because of your blog and because you work at the one kind of talking about DSLRs a lot?
Yeah? I think, I mean, without question, it was when the five D came along, I didn't embrace it straight away. Vincent the Fray did reverie, of course in November two thousand and eight, and I had played with it. I bought the nick On D ninety a month before that hated it. I was so excited by the concept of DSLRs having a large sensor to be a shoot video. But the quality of the nick Ond ninety was so bad.
And then I saw the five D mark too, and when that looks cool, but I have no can glass and it only shoots thirty P and I need to shoot twenty five P and twenty four P. So this is that good to me? But I did get to try it for the first time in May and then realized you could, you can get past the lens limitations and also the fact that there was no manual control by using old nick on glass with an adapt and and also found a way of conversing the thirty P
twenty five P to make it look okay. And so yeah, so I was you know, once I did, once I figure that out, I really just loved it. And I think that's kind of you know, a lot of people saw my staff and saw what I was doing and picked up from there.
Now can you? Because I have I have a love hate relationship with DSLRs because I've graded I've graded probably about five features that were shot under DSLRs, and they've never shot properly. If you shoot the DSLR properly like you did on Redtails, I'm sure it looks And now I saw the movie, it looks great. But most people don't know how to shoot DSLRs properly. Gets too grainy. Like one movie I had was like in the movie in the woods at night with no light and they're like, hey,
why is there so much grain? I'm like, eyes, you know, it's you know we have it's not it's it just couldn't work. So what tips do you have with shooting DSLRs?
Now?
The DSLR is also that you shot redtails with are much different than they are now with the a CPS two that can literally look into into the darkness of hell and stick stay clean. But what what kind of tips do you have when shooting DSLRs for filmmakers who want to shoot a feature or short and try to get the most out of that camera.
It's funny and it has been quite a few years now since they first came out and the yeat the image quality has come on enormously. But the key core is principles that we need to stick to. Are they much the same. You need to if you're going to use a handheld, you need to have it on some some sort of rig just to stabilize a little bit, because unless you have one, you know, one of these five acts is stableized senses, then that's going to help
you as well. But that's one of the first things is just to make sure if you are going to shoot handheld, just be aware of the terrible issues. We can have a rolling shutter, which is a huge giveaway for DSLRs is that horrible micro vibrations that we can really see, not just jello, not just like rolling shutter. He said that you know, you know which it really looks like, oh my god, like somebody pretty much caffeine
sure while they hold it in the camera. So be careful that, you know, use an is lens, mistabilized lens if you haven't got that. But it's know what your camera performs best at with its ISOs. And yes, many of the cameras, you know, the A seven S two, you can push your camera much higher, but you still need to expose correctly. So that's one of the things
that people aren't doing right. And I do not recommend shooting log format on any of the dslars with a bit codex, which is pretty much all of them except the GH five, and even then it's it's still a little bit challenging. It's a hell of a codec GH five logs. It's really hard to grade. So I would I would suggest no, you know, know how far you can push your io and then only use it for
extreme purposes. It's not a replacement for lighting. It's a way of hopefully being able to film in environments that you couldn't normally film in. That's basically what DSLRs exciting to me about was, apart from the size and the optics, was just I think it was the ability to push that low light up a little bit like that. And I think when the A seven s two came out or the A seven s came out, initially it wasn't
the fact that I could film in moonlight. It was the fact that I could film in street light but not wide open, which is what too many people are still doing when choosing on DSLRs. That's the other tip is just because you've got a left one point four lens doesn't mean you shoot at left one point four for every single shot. It's incredibly hard to keep focus.
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We do have some cameras coming out now with pretty decent autofocus, but it's still not necessarily the way to go. It's a different thing, and I would use that for certain things like interviews and stuff like that. Other than that, it's being sensible with it being sensible, so I would say the key things are going to be don't be shooting wide open, keep your camera stable if you can as much as possible, don't push ISO too far, and don't fall into temptation of shooting log unless you absolutely
have to. Proper video cameras with ten bit codecs to shoot log fantastic, but eight bit compressed codex, whether it's a drone ORLR, it's a nightmare. And you spend so much time in post just trying to hide all the problems, which if you hadn't done that in the first place, you wouldn't be doing now.
One thing I really do like about your work is that you are It's least it seems from your blogIn from your your YouTube channel that you are not married to any one camera. You're not like, I'm only the canon guy, I'm only a black magic I'm only an icon guy. I'm only an airy guy. You you use
multiple cameras depending on your job. You can you suggest or show people how or advice on how you could pick the right camera for the right job, which I think is so so important because I think sometimes they're just trying to use a hammer to screw in a light bulb. It's like it just because you love that hammer. There are other tools.
Yeah, I mean, that's yeah. Back in the Cannon days, I was approached to be one of our ambassadors and I said no because I wanted to I didn't want to be tied to any format. I had an independent voice. I didn't want to lose that. And also I didn't want to lose out on the fact that, you know, other people are going to make cool cameras and they're fun. I don't want to be like, oh, no, I can't use this because I'm sign signed up with these guys.
And so yeah, I'm and I'm always going to be like this because I I'm very fickle, and I will fall in love with a camera and then something else will come along and turn my head and go, oh, I'm going to use this now, and so yeah, I mean, when it comes to like photography, my main cameras are Pentax and Fuji cameras and so but when it comes to video, my main video cameras are Sony. But I also have Cannon ones as well, and I have lots
of different types of them. And I guess I am lucky that I can be in that position of saying the right tool for the right job. And obviously if you you've only got one camera, then you are going to be a little bit stuck and kind of that's
your your camera for the job. But if it's if it's important, then I would certainly try, you know, and rent it or find somebody who's got something that would be more appropriate for your job, because you're right, it's you see people using totally the wrong cameras when it could be something as simple as you can have a chuckle about it. But Soody trying to use a black magic some mini for wedding videos. I'm like, you're crazy, what are you trying to do? Yeah, well, I'm shooting.
I can shoot raw, I can shoot raw. Like why are you shooting raw in the first place for a wedding video? And the camera that you can't put over eight hundred IO and a wedding video with no control of your lighting and probably no lights. Sure crazy, get yourself at a seven s two, right, you know. And so somebody who's, oh, I want to do you know, some visual effects and it's all going to be green screen and stuff like that, I'm shooting on an A seven s And I'd be like, well, why that's the
wrong camera for you for in this. You should get yourself Black Magic some mini because that shoots, and that shoots ten bit progress, and that's going to be much better for you. And it's still pretty cheap. And you're it's already in it's lip, it's already lit because it has to be because in the studio and green screen, so you have to worry about the fact that you don't you can't push your eye so right, So, I mean, you know, that's that's the best thing about like the
Black Magics is working in lit controlled locations. They do really well with that, as long as you have to push it too far. Because they're the cheapest cameras I know of that have a terrific in built codec progress and have raw if you need it. You know, having to deal with all of these nasty compressed B frame codecs all the time eight bit ones. When you get camera that just shoots straight progress, it's like, oh no transcoding, Oh mate, this system works with it and I can
grade it. It doesn't fall apart. Wow, fantastic. So that's kind of what you need to look at, is what But if you know, if you say, if you don't have the camera, then it's a bit harder. I mean, I interestingly, I read on reading Facebook today and the guy I know, and he was asking about time lapse. It's got a red epic w and he's complaining about the fact that the time lapse ability of the camera is basically lacking in that you can't do more than
one frame a second, and so you can't do long exposures. Right, it's all for the right job. This is a seventy thousand, whatever it is dollar camera, right, Just get a two thousand dollar DSLR and that's going to shoot raw, shoot long exposures, shoot for everything you wanted to. Totally the right job and doesn't tie up your seventy one thousand dollar camera doing the time lapse.
So yeah, I think that's yeah. I think a lot of times filmmakers dps, they spend seventy grand on a camera and they wanted to do everything and be perfect for everything, and a lot of times you're right, you have that ability in your work has shown it that you could just like you know what, yes, I have a seventy thousand dollars camera, but you know it's like I have a porch, but I'm not going to drive to the supermarket with the porch where I could easily
either just walk or or drive my prius. You know, it's just the right tool for the right job kind of thing.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, I suppose if you have spent seventy thousand, you're kind of insistent on the fact that, my god, I'm going to get every single last penny's worth out of this camera, right. But you know, I said this in many times, and I've also got this policy now of not wanting to I'm never going to buy camera over ten thousand dollars again, and I've done that like three times now before that appen. And now it's just there's loads of great cameras sub ten thousand.
Gods would do so much and if you need anything more than just rent it because it's just not worth it because they they get superseded so quickly these days, and it's just not really worth spending all that money, especially in a system that you could end up changing. You know, reds require so many bits and pieces and
maybe then you'll switch to Aria, who knows. But I just think there's so many great cameras out there for the sub that and just stick with that, really, unless you're you're super rich because I bought the fifty five and that was the last time I bought a really expensive camera and I loved it. It was amazing. And then the FS seven came out and it did everything I needed it to do for documentaries without me worrying about my hugely expensive camera being potentially damaged and stuff
like that. So I found that it was sitting on the shelf right for like six months, hadn't really been touched, and the F seven was being used all the time, and so I sold it. And that was what I decided, this is silly, I should you know, I'm not going to buy the expensive camera again. So because the F seven did everything I needed to do, it didn't shoot raw easily, but it didn't matter because I didn't need to shoot raw. Right.
Yeah, and I'm a huge fan of the black Magic. I shut my feature on the two point five K Cinema and the Pocket is arguably some of the most beautiful images come out of that little camera. You know, again, right tool for the right job. You know, if I'm going to go shoot an imax, this is not the
tool for you. But if you're creating this kind of almost super sixteen style film look out of the box, that that little pocket camera is amazing, and the Earths of Many is one of the most underrated I think cameras out there because it's not as sexy as the Red or the Alexa, but man, it has a bite. Would you agree?
Yeah? I haven't shot anything properly myself with the four point sixth, so Mini I really liked what I got with it, though I had definitely had issues with as from a documentary background, with the fact that I in available lights. I knew it was going to come a cropper, and there were some quirks here and there which slowed me down. But I thought for the money, the image was fantastic, and I've always found it disappointing that they well they went with originally with the Earth, which was
the craziest camera. The first one was Yeah, that was funny. I mean I went to trade shows, yes, and I remember the first time I picked it up, I just, you know, in front of them. They let me pick it up and I went the holy crap, and it went, yeah, we don't really consider this a handheld camera.
I'm like, what what kind of world do you live in?
What is that? It was every camera should be anything you shouldn't we considered this a tripod camera. I'm like, blind me, sure, studio camera is a tripod camera, but this is crazy. But I just wish that developed the pocket camera further. I wish version of that because that really is I think it's my favorite camera that they I bought from them. Yes, in size and form, but I had lots of issues as well. But what it gave you was astonishing in the package.
I wish they would do four K. Like, if they could do four K in that little camera with raw and proras and handle the they have battery issue, We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor and now back to the show. Just do something better with the battery. You have to plug in the juice box or something like that. Now with the juice box it will run six seven hours. But still it's like a little bit more bulky. But God, that little camera is good.
The micropour thirds opens you up to so much glass, especially vintage glass that I'm a big vintage glass guy, and it's gorgeous. It really is gorgeous. It is a wonderful camera.
Yeah, this is a shame that they didn't really I know, they just seem to just forgot it's forgotten about it. And they have their micro camera whatever they call it. It's just not the same. It's not the same thing. So I don't know if they'll ever go back to that mini Pro looks. I have never played with it. It looks like it sold as many of the operational issues they had with the previous one.
So they have solved that. I shot. I shot a series with it, and I shot with the new one and the old one, uh both and they both worked like champs. But the brand new one that they just released with time code on the on the side and everything, it's solved. It's a tank now. It really is a tank.
And it's like, you're right if you push it a little too, it's not I always I did a test between the Airy Alexa and the and they are so mini and I shot them down the middle, and when you shoot them down the middle, man, yeah, it's pretty damn close. It's definitely not. You can tell it's not worth spending eighty grand or whatever the Alexa costs now
comparatively down the middle. You just start seeing where the Alexa is worth it when you start pushing her, when you start pushing on the darks and the highlights get clipped a little bit. So if you go a little bit up or down is where you start getting. But if you should have down the middle, oh.
For your buck. Let me ask you though, if you were given somebody said I'm gonna swap out your ursas for Arietlexes HM for free, you'd go, Yeah, right, of course you would, real would, because they're amazing. But I get you're right, it's unless the only people I know who who own Alexas who are smart bought Alexas are dps who rent them to the productions. Sure, so that's those the people who should be buying Alexas. The rest of us should be renting them in and when we need them.
Absolutely. Now, do you have any advice on how you test a new camera? Which I know a lot of filmmakers get their cameras and they really don't know how to push it or test it or you know, put it through the through the ring or a little bit to see if it's even worth it.
Yeah. So for me, it's totally it's totally real world. It's it's taking out of don't I don't. I don't work in the studios as such. I do work indoors and things like that, but I don't work in the studios, So I want to see how it works with unpredictable lighting. I want to see how it operates as a camera is how slow is to figure out? I think the last camera I tested was the Canon C two hundred
and I kind of I actually really like it. It's a bit of a strange quirky camera in that it has a terrific in ability to record twelve bit raw internally, and yet the if you can't do raw, then you have to do an eight bit right for coda, which is so bizarre to have no middle ground. But I mean, we all know it's a Canon protecting its other cameras issue, right, But other than that, it's actually really nice image and
a really nice camera. And for me, I just wanted to see the things which that it was a selling point really, which was the raw, the auto focus, and just what the eight bit codec was like. So those are the kind of the headline features I was looking at to see what they're like, and it's like when I'm getting their hands on the EVA one from Panasonic, what I want to see is what this dual ico is going to like what sort of noise levels am
I getting get? Because the setting point is that you can shoot in low light conditions by switching to different the higher native setting to want to see what that's like.
So it's kind of I look at the headline features of the camera and go okay, I need to see what this actually is like, and then as well do the every day sort of bread and better type stuff to see how it actually works for real use, because obviously you need to if that it may well have a really cool feature, but if it doesn't operate as a camera well just generally, then it's a bit pointless.
And it takes me back to when I saw the when the SNFs came out and it was going all about all about how amazing the low light was, and they release a video and it was I watched it and I was like, Okay, that looks nice. It's nicely shot and it was like fishermen in Scotland or something, and it was all shot high ico and it showed you come exactly what it was.
Something like that.
It didn't look like nighttime. It looked like daytime or something, which was fine, but because it was like that all the way through I had no sense of any of what it was doing. And so I got the camera on loan from them just before it was released and went, all right, I'm going to take this down down to Bryson in in south of England and then just really just see what this is like. And so I did
a video and I shot it where I did. I this is what it looks like to the eye, which is like eight hundred IESO, and then I shot it at twenty five thousand, six hundred IESO, which did turn it into like daylight. Having this to having this ability to do this transition show this is what I see and this is what this shows. And that's I mean, that's kind of a way to sell the cameras be Ablus, because you saw straight away that was like ah, and
now I get it. I get it how amazing this is because I didn't get it before because everything just everything just looked okay, look fine. So it's that's kind of what I when I'm looking at cameras, that's kind of I just want to see what makes it special?
Now, what are three of your go to lenses if you're on a desert island? I know, it's like picking your children.
It's no, it's that question. You know, at least you didn't say one actually, one's easier, one's easier, and always you didn't tell me which size, censor, which sense we're talking here.
Let's say let's say full frame, okay.
All right, then that's easier. So I would say a fifty millimeter is my first lens with that question, because it's the relative field of view of what we see with our eyes. So I do love that standard field of view, and I can shoot pretty much everything on that. And then it gets really tricky because my favorite walkaround lens is a thirty five.
Meal Which would brand of that? Which brand?
And you know, I don't really have any you talk my focal lens or brands.
Brands, brand brand, like like the canon nikore.
This is getting really hard then, So if you you know, if you want really beautiful sharp images, then the Sigma Art lenses are fantastic. If you want they are incredibly But if you want some you know a little bit more character than sure, some of the older Nichols are always good for that sort of thing. Nice and cheap.
Do you use a lot of do you use a lot of vintage class or do you ever play with it occasionally?
Not as much as I used to. I used to. These days I tend to use a lot more more detailed sharper lenses, but I still I still do you know, when I'm doing any lens waking free lensing, are using my old glass and a lot more for stills. I do for stills as well, but for video probably less so. But I don't really know. It's a horrible question to ask because I just love really I love long telephotos as well.
Sure, yeah, it's the right tool for the right job. I know, it's like it's a tough it's a tough question. Someone asked me. I have a couple of ones is that I go to all the time, But and there's a couple of fun ones that I play with, like I have Actually.
Huh, Canon got a great one that I recently bought seventy to three hundred. Yes, it's not a contentt aperture. It's not their white one. It's their their non l series one. But it's new ish like last year, and it's not that expensive. It's got crazy fast, all the focus for doing stills and build quality is great. It's light and the optics are great. It gives you a huge range.
So what's the how fast is it?
It's three five to five six.
I think, okay, so it's outdoors.
Yeah, it's an outdoor lens. But you know, if you want a lens which is you know, you're gonna limit me to three and cheap with a long, big, long zoom that's going to cover a big range. They still have a fast fifty mil for my primes and then wide angles. I love my big white angles as well, but you know, I think my biggest wide angle I've got that is not for shy is ten meal, which is ridiculous. And that's a void lander. So you have one avoid I don't know it's it's it's boy lend
and make amazing glassy. But that ten mel is like I bring it with and I put it on and I take a couple of shots with it. I think I've shot video with it twice, maybe briefly because it's too wide. Well, it's just ridiculous. It's it's it's it's an effect lens. So my favorite actual white, my favorite focal lengths for doing white is actually around twenty four twenty twenty four mil.
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Yeah, I do like wide with that, but it's you know, it's it can just find myself a little bit too It can be a little bit too wide. So twenty four is a is a good sort of middle ground. Let's Sigma make a great twenty four mil point four. They make a twenty mil as well.
Their eighteen or thirty five is amazing their art lens.
Yeah, if you've got for crop sensors, that actually eighteen thirty five is fantastic. Yeah, so I and I give you a twenty that gives you a twenty four to twenty four to seventy four favorite equivalent. So it's a great lens.
Now, if you want to talk about why, my favorite wide I have is the Knoptic five point seven micro four thirds. But it doesn't fish. It doesn't fish eye.
That's impressive.
It's the it's the Kubri glens. It's what he shows. The big brother of that is the nine point eight, which is for thirty five. That one is for sixteen. So I use it with the pocket and with the pocket. It's just it's amazing, but it doesn't fish eye. So if you remember the sines from the shining in the yeah, that's all shot with the Kinnoptic, as well as the right before the rape scene and clockwork orange that was
shot with the Kinnoptic. It's one of his it was one of his go to lenses in his in the series. But it's gorgeous. It's such a gorgeous lens. Sorry, we're geeking out.
That's oh no, I mean I do love my white angles and say no I bought the ten and stuff like that. But yeah, it's sort of like a sixteen thirty five zoom is always a good as a good yes, you know, it's one of these things if people ask for advice and they say, what three lenses should I buy? My advice tends to be. Of course, first question is how much money you got. There's no point given them any advice because it's such a you know, it's an impossible question to answer. Let's talk about it.
There's and lenses and what kind of what camera you're going to be using it on or what a you're going to do it shooting film or video, I mean, or photo or motion. It's yeah, it's it's a very big question has many multiple answers. Now, do you have any tips?
Wet good, Yeah, I just I mean just with the five D, it just it's it hasn't really changed. It's in five D. It's simply you have the three three zooms. You're sixteen thirty five or twenty four to seventy seventy two hundred. That covers everything, and then you have a fast prime for everything else. You're fifty one point four and that's kind of what you need to go. But that's thousands, you know, it's you if you're shooting documentaries,
you kind of want that flexibility. If you're shooting features and narrative type stuff, then you can shoot on primes and not because the joy of a zoom is the speed which you need when you're shooting documentary, you don't have to worry about that. Then you can you can go with cheaper, more vintage primes. So it's a massive question.
Yes, that's a whole podcast in itself. Now, let's talk a little bit about your masterclass. You knew the new course that you put together for m Z.
Yeah.
Can you talk about what the course is about and what students can expect in the class.
Yeah, it's I would say, it's pretty much my twenty seven years of experience and knowledge as much as possible, just distilled into effective what it's like nine episodes, one, three, one, and eight main episodes, it like runs to like nine and a half hours or so, and it's I just want to Initially m Z asked me to do something about drones, and I went, yeah, cool, but I don't think that's going to be There's no way I can possibly feel much more than you know, a couple of
hours just on that, And I said, then I made the mistake suggesting what if I did it about everything, everything that I do, every type of filming style that I do, And it went yeah cool. And so then I realized just what I was letting myself in for because I started breaking it down before. I should have
done that before I suggested it to them. Initially it was going to be a six hour course, and by the time I started editing, I was like, guys, it's going to be a lot longer than six hours, because I knew that when I was filming it that it was going to get bigger and bigger and bigger, because once you start talking about a subject, you realize you need to go down a path. So when I was breaking it down in pre production, is what we needed to do and figure out which episodes, what topics we
should cover. That was kind of you know where I realized, you know, it was a very good thing to actually make discipline wise, because it did require a lot of pre production. Otherwise it just was not going to be a practical thing to shoot because it's big enough as it was. And so I went through the topic that
I really wanted to cover. The first one is that the first episode is quite dull in respect because it's just me and my kitchen, but it's me explaining all of the stuff you actually do need to understand before you go out and shoot, which is all the technical stuff, a little bit of history, is why we're using these cameras, and some of the flaw the problems we can have with them. So it's going through everything you needed to know.
It squeezed into an hour and twenty minutes, and then I went out and then I realized that the next episode was okay, and I've got all that stuff out of the way, I can just focus on being creative.
And then it was I've never really competition is one of these things that's been very natural to me, and I've always been asked how can I improve my composition, And I'm always like, well, you can always read books and to understand how what you're looking for a competition, But then you need to then you need to experiment, and then you need to watch movies and TVs shows and see how they do things and see what you like.
And so that's kind of why the first episode. So the second episode was all about showing what different lenses do, and showing how cool a long tele photo can be on a subject and bringing a background closer to a person and the effect it can have compared to say a standard lens and a wide angle lens, and then showing people how to move the camera, when not to move the camera, showing all these toys that can distract
you when to use them. I mean, it was just so much in this course, and I think it's one of these things that if you look at the list of the topics that only really explains half of what you're learning, or not even that from just what it is. So like people will say, oh, there's no episode on lighting. I'm like, well no, because lighting is in every single
every episode, same with sound sounded in every episode. I didn't want to do one because it's all filmed on location to tackle things real world, much like I've always I always want to do my reviews, and it was like an extension of that I wanted to show. Okay, so I'm going to did this episode is about interviews, So this is how you deal with going to location and you know you don't have the right room. You've
got to work with the light. What are the issues with the lights, what's the problems with the sound we have here? What could our background be? And it was really trying to take things as realistically as possible and and literally having real problems that I had to solve during the actual shoots and showing them how I would deal with it. So that was kind of what I was trying to get with it.
Well, I'm excited to watch it myself, and I'll definitely put all the information in the show notes for this episode for everyone to.
Take a look at.
Now, I have a few more questions. If you have some time, sure, yeah, sure, you've traveled pretty much all over the planet at this point in your career. Do you have any travel hacks for filmmakers in what respect, in the words of traveling, packing, getting things through, I mean, like, you know, getting cheaper deals, or even just even be able to pack all your gear, what gear to bring with,
don't overpack everything like there's a bunch of stuff. Any tips at all, because I know in today's world travel traveling with a bunch of gear and keeping it safe, and you're walking around with twenty thousand bucks on your backpack, you know, it's like.
It's pretty It's the worst thing about my job by far is the traveling. It's not that it's not it's the traveling bit itself. It's not being in other places that's the coolest bit. Sure, it's the getting there is the worst bit. And it's the most stressful thing is packing and figuring out what you need your weight allouantism. Whenever I'm booked on jobs, you know, I need to look at flights routes and see who flies there, because I know which airlines have the better baggage policies. Your
new lucky. You live in the States and you think you have bad baggage policies there, you do not. Yours are great. Even your worst baggage allowance. Positive policy with an airline is amazingly compared to what we have to do with here. There's like two airlines that fly out that out of the UK airlines, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, who charge you per bag. Everybody else charges you per kilo ah, so that is where things start getting crazy expensive.
So I think the most I've ever spent on excess baggage probably about three and a half thousand pounds each way.
Three and a half thousand pounds.
Yeah, and that was it was a job in Japan and the client had insisted on flying via Amsterdam with KLM kalem charge per kilo and I told them this is expensive, and they didn't listen to me, and then they had to pay it. And so you choose the airlines for a reason. It's it's worth if you're flying internally in the US. So if so, if I fly to the US, you get like two bags as a minium allowance.
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But if you fly anywhere else from from London, you'd get one bag. So I guess you guys are just managed negotiate a better thing.
And we think it's horrible. It's absolutely true.
Yeah, yeah, it's worth if you can get some media creditation because there's a number of airlines which give you better deals. Southwestern, Delta, United, a couple of others. There's a few of them out there, which you know, if you've got proper media creditation, can save you a lot. I mean Delta will also, you know, are quite good in that they will let you. I think it's like fifty bucks. It will probably change like fifty bucks per
bag up to one hundred pounds, which is crazy. But just remember that the important stuff always has to be carried with you and were supposed to carry out o lithium ion batteries carry on luggage. So know your rights with the airlines, because I guarantee you they don't know your rights, so you will. They will tell you something and like actually know if you look at the policy on your website, this shows you what you're allowed and they go, let me check on my then they go
and then they'll confer with somebody else. So this happens all the time. So you need to understand what you are allowed and what you can't do. If you know, it comes to batteries. You've got to be careful about the what hours you have on some of the drone batteries, some of the larger camera batteries you can you can take like two per person, so make sure you fly with somebody else who can help you out with that.
I do check a lot of expensive stuff. You have to because of you know, you carry on limits what you can take sure. And I don't don't use Pelly cases of Pelican cases. The simple reason being is yes, they offer great protection, but they look expensive yep and stealable yep. And so my luggage looks really unfilmed gear like it's still really protected inside, it just doesn't look
like it looks like average luggage. And if you know, if you can get the pinkest, most colorful, garage looking luggage with Hello Kitty stickers on, do it, do it because it doesn't look valuable and nobody's going to steal it.
That's great advice. Actually, that's awesome advice.
I really think Pelly should Pelicans should make a series of Yeah, you know, when I have had to fly with with the hard cases, whether it be like for Moby or a drone in an Inspire, then I of them with stickers like superheroes and stuff like that. Really do those hard cases got Superman stickers on everything? It just doesn't look like professional film go anymore. Trying to
disguise it as much as possible, got it. It's there's it's a big old topic and it's a difficult one and it's and then you get because certain countries will need you if you're taking professional film gear in to be to have a proper document a karne, which costs a lot of money, and you need to have everything itemized and listed. But some countries won't accept that, and you have to negotiate with them beforehand or find out
what you needed to have there. And this is why sometimes it's it's really nice just to go with a small d S last style camera and just try and not be obvious. If if it's difficult, it's going to be all too expensive to have that, then it's try and go in. But you are always going to have a risk if you are doing a paid job and you're trying to trying to cut corners and not get a karne and go as a tourist and not get the correct visa and you your gear gets stopped and
doesn't get brought in that's your fault. And it's just one of these things. If you're doing it for a client, you have to pass on these costs to them, explain to them, Okay, well we're going here and we need this, and it's just one of the things. Flying is just absolutely horrendous, and you know, there's I'm really got every day. You know, there's always a new story about how the FAA or where it is are going to change what we can check, you know, the saying anything with any
lifting mind battery cannot be checked. Uh and then you and then no camera can be checked, and it's kind of like no professional electronic gear can be checked. And like at some point soon if this goes down this road, I don't think we'll ever be able to fly abroad without gear anymore. We'll just have the era of the rental company is going to be there because everybody, they're gonna have to have a major rental outlet every single city, in every single place because we can't fly with anything,
which terrible if that ever happens. But yeah, it's I hate it. I hate it so much. I always bring too much, always brings too much, So make it. The best advice I'd say is just make a list beforehand and just bring what you need, maybe you know, a couple of backup things as much as possible, like a issue. I always have a second camera just in case. But the kind of the obvious stuff really.
Okay, batteries always bring bad extra batteries. Oh god, chah, batteries, betteries batteries. Now what advice would you give a filmmaker wanting to break into the business today?
Uh, I guess the first question is why do you want to as long as you doing it for the right reasons, and that's great. It's not you know, you know very well, it's not a business to get rich into it.
I was gonna says, it's not rich and famous. That's not the reason why to get in.
No go and become a banker or something. I don't know. You if you just want to do something creative and you because you get into it because you want to be creative. So that's my best advice to start with. And it's a tricky thing. It's one of these things that and I think this is kind of partly why it's so good to have this course that I've done with m z is. It's whilst it's not a film score replacement, it condenses all of my knowledge into this
one thing. So people watch it then they can get You're not going to become a filmmaker from watching this, but you're going to get a lot of knowledge from it, and hopefully use that knowledge to find your own style and voice and know how to do things a bit better, because that's what you're going to need to do. You're going to need to be patient, which a lot of people aren't these days. There's too much like wanting stuff
to happen overnight. I think my best example of this was a guy did so I do this, I do some private tuition with people. I remember this guy emailed me saying he wanted to get to make a short film to be entered into next year's can Film Festival, and he wants some training for that. I'm like interesting, so I asked him to tell me. It's a really strange way of actually wording things anyone else. I want to make sure.
I'm a similar to the askers. It's similar to the askers.
Yeah, I like to win an Oscar, so I'd like to do some training with you, like I have not won an oscar. So I'm the wrong person, so don't come to me. But I said to him, so what do you want to do? What do you want to learn from? So? I want to get a grounding of, like, you know, things which can help me make be able to make this film. So what experience do you have? None, I've never used a camera, I've never made a film.
Oh good, but I've seen lots of films. So I then said to him, well, I don't know how long you're expecting training wise from me, but.
You got ten years past.
What sort of how long do you expect? What do you want from me exactly? And he said maybe how much would it cost for two hours of training?
Oh my god, you gotta be kidding, I replied.
To him, And when you know that's not going to be enough? And then he replied saying all about four. And that's where the conversation. I felt it felt like a practical joke, but it wasn't. It was been deadly serious.
And it's one of the things you've got to be so patient with And you've got to work your ass off for years, two for years, for years, yeah, absolutely years before you're you know, I when I left Sky, I was senior cameraman, and you know, I couldn't go any further at the company without going to management and leaving the camera behind. And then when I left, I didn't want to do news anymore. So I had to
start completely again from the bottom. And it took me four years to start getting the work that I really wanted to.
Do, even after being seventeen years and another aspect of the business exactly.
So it's and now there's a huge amount of more competition than there was even eleven years ago. So you've got to be really patient and you've you've got to be obviously, you've got to have talent. You've got to have the ability to sell yourself as well. And it's not something to be embarrassed about and talk about, not talk about. You know, it's a business, after all, Any job, any job where you are selling yourself and your skills, it's a business, and you have to be able to
sell yourself. I remember I work with this guy who was such a talented director and filmmaker, but wasn't doing anywhere near the work he should be because he just was a terrible salesman. So you've got to have that skill as well, find good people to work with. Try and network as much as you can with people.
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I'm not sure you know a Facebook group is not the same as proper networking. Whilst it can be useful, it's just there's so much noise on there. Everything it has become so diluted. It's much much much harder to find clear voices. Yep, listen to. But at the end of the day, if you can make it in this as a business then as a career, then fantastic, because
it is for me. It's the greatest thing in the world to be able to be able to do what I would do if you weren't paying me, and pay me for stuff as well, that's great, but you've got to understand that most of the time that you get paid, you won't like what you're doing. You won't like the work that you're producing. Yes and that, and let it go and then do stuff for yourself to have that
creative fulfillment. Because when you're doing a corporate for some guy, you're gonna you know, you're gonna look at it, oh God, and they're going to tell and you're working for them. You're not. You're not. They're not hiring you to make a Philip Bloom film. They're hiring you to make a film. They're they're the client. You make it for them, and yeah, you've got to make it as good as you possibly can. They probably come to you because they've seen something that
you've done right. But at the end of the day, you are going to find that you are not going to love what's been done with your what you may necessarily or what's been done with your work again, and you just have to accept that and move on now. And you always still give everything to it, just because it is not just so crappy thing. Still give everything to it, because you can still be you can still be created, you can still get so much out of
it yourself. And when you get home, you don't feel like, oh my god, what a terrible day. I had to film this worst call center ever. It was awful lighting and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. That's fine. But if you've made an effort and made it look good, then you can come home and go and you put yourself in a drink and go, I deserve this because I made that look good and you're happy. You want to come home and feel bitter?
Ever, oh god, yes, And there are a lot of bitter filmmakers out there with our question because they've fallen into that trap. And when I spoke to I worked with Robert Forrester, and he gave a great piece of advice, which is like, no matter how small the job, give yourself, give it one hundred and ten percent because you never know who's watching. You never know who's on set or who will see that work and maybe hire you for another job somewhere else.
Even then, even that client, they may give you this really terrible job. Yep, and then they see, oh my god, this was really bad, and I can't believe how good you made this. You're perfect for this job that we have for six months in the schells right, oh right? Great in that you never know, you never know, Yeah, you never know what you're gonna get.
Now, what's the lesson that took you the longest to learn, whether in the film business or in life.
Oh, don't kill yourself with work. Take set yourself time. Where you stop now my edit suite is I have a home edit Suite, which is financially convenient and obviously nice and handy. There's no commute for me when I'm editing. But that divide between work and life is really it's difficult. And so when I am editing, apart from I mean when I was cutting the MZ series, mind you, I had to break this most times because I was working stupid long hours editing. But for most jobs I kind
of set myself. You know, if it's a six stay at seven pm, I'm like, okay, then we'll work after seven and be disciplined about it. Discipline that your start time, disiplinned about your finished time, and make sure you give yourself time to see your your girlfriend, your wife, boyfriend, your husband, your friends, your children, make sure you have a life. I very rarely work weekends now unless the shoot demands it or you know, I have to go somewhere,
so I will down tools that weekend. Yeah, you still find me with a camera, You're still find me flying a drone or taking photos somewhere. But that's me. That's my own time. And if you can find yourself a girlfriend who likes doing it with you, that is good. And Sarah Loves Loves shooting and she loves all that stuff as well, So that really does help. But I think it's really important to get your work life balance right. And it took me probably a twenty years or so
to start realizing how off it was. Yes, and now I work way less than I used to, Right, I probably work I probably worked half as much as I used to two years ago. So yeah, I earn a lot less, but I'm a lot happier, and that's really that's it is priceless. It also makes my work better because I'm happier.
Yes, very illescent.
Yeah, I think that's probably the best thing I've learned. It took me a long time to learn it. I'm very stubborn, but eventually figured it out.
I feel you one hundred percent. I try to I do exactly all those things. I don't work weekends, and I have a specific time I come in and a specific time I come out every day. Because everyone always asks, how do you create so much content?
How do you? You know?
Run this this, you know this big blog and do all the stuff you do and have twins and have a family and all this, Like you got to you got to do exactly what you said, got to be very strict with yourself, and I repressed.
I mean you've got kids. I mean I haven't got kids yet, and I don't even know how I'll cope with having kids as well, apart from my probably just filmed them a lot.
Yes, they were probably the most documented children in history.
With our question, I think they probably will. Yeah.
And last question, what are three of your favorite films of all time?
Oh? I think that's an impossible question just today today?
What do you feel like today?
Oh? I still want to go with Empare Strikes Back is always in my top three.
Absolutely it was.
That was one of the first films I ever saw as a kid where I still remember the emotional reaction I had coming out of that, and it's still watch it today and I still feel, Wow, this is incredible. I'm also a huge Alfred Hitchcock fan, yes, and find it difficult to pick a favorite, but again, I think for the emotional impact and maybe I'm it's another film with a downer ending that's Vertigo, but it's just such an incredible film in every way. I think I'm just
thinking of all my favorites, all such downer endings. I don't know why I actually like happy endings of films. I like things that I want to I don't want to feel like like I felt at the end of seven Every time I see a film just like, I mean, that's finisher for Gone Girl, I'm like, totally crap. You know, the worst date film of all time.
Yes, it's actually the worst film.
It really is.
Attraction and your break up Attractions.
Break up Now, Yeah, that's not a good one as well. And I guess, oh, I don't know. I think maybe something more recent. I don't know. But of the films I've seen recently, another one that had a really good emotional impact on me was Then You Be on Those Arrival last year.
Yeah, that was actually really interesting. That's such an interesting film to watch.
It's not my favorite film, but was my favorite film of the year. And you know, I saw Blade one of twenty forty nine last week, and that's again incredible. He's an amazing filmmaker. But I always tend to go back to the same films I ended up watching again and again and again, whether it's the original Planet of the Apes, Sure, I love my sci fi very much, and then Raiders Raiders Lost Dark of course, can't get more perfect film than Raiders.
Raiders is It's perfect.
It is a perfect film.
And since you're a Hitchcock fan, have you seen the new documentary seventy eight to fifty two?
No, I have not.
Have you heard of it?
No, I have not. I just found out.
I just found out about it the other day. It's on iTunes. I watched it yesterday, and it is an entire documentary about the shower scene in Psycho.
Wow.
And they go through every shot and they talk to everything and the impact of Psycho. But they literally break down everything about that shower scene, which is arguably the you know, ninety seconds, the most important ninety seconds in film history, honestly some of them. Yeah, I mean what he was able to do in that shower sequence. But someone put together arguably a really good documentary shot in black and white. By the way, it's gorgeous. It's on iTunes.
You definitely should watch if any film gig definitely Hitchcock fan.
We'll love it. Yeah, anybody who has not seen Psycho, what the hell are you doing?
Why are you listening to us? Wat psychoer?
You have to watch this film. That is, if you if you take the sections which obviously date the film, which is the beginning the anything that take anything outside of just at the motel. Hm, it is it stands up completely today. It could have been made. It's just so incredible and I just some of the it's the most innovative filmmaking you'll ever see. And you know we're talking.
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor. And now back to the show nineteen sixty it's we could we could do a whole episode just on Psycho with that question.
Yeah, I think I'll watch it tonight.
Now can Where can people find you and your work?
So my website is Philip Bloom dot net. So it's p h I l I p b l M and my blog is there and that is the same Philip Bloom is what I have for all of my social media, whether it's Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, it's.
Just my space, my space GeoCities.
Sorry, you know it probably is still there.
Yeah, minds is too roughly.
I didn't. I think I haven't really used it as such the things I do have, but yeah, so it's it's pretty simple to find me, and I'm quite active. I'm pretty active on them. And it is a real
mixture of photography filmmaking and personal stuff. I put some I do put personal stuff on social media, and that's kind of another it's a whole podcast is about, you know, your whole dividing line between this sort I think, and I think it's important to be to be to be you on social media, and that's why I always say in my bio silly grumpy. So depending on how I'm feeling, I will be like that and I put some personal stuff up there, and I put some everything I try
to make as nice as possible. I have a nice mix, and I just try and make it feel as as as me as it is, you know, like the MZ course, it's me. What you see is a very very different to anything else you'll ever see training wise, because it's it's very personal. And I kind of think that's this just kind of sums me up ready and how i'd like to share things.
Philip Man, thank you so much for taking the time out. It's been an absolute joy speaking to you man.
Thank you so much, Thank you very much for having me. Thank you.
I can't tell you what an absolute thrill and pleasure was to talk to Philip and you know, after reading his blog for so long and listening to him on YouTube, and I mean, if you need to know about camera gear and reviews about camera gear and things like that, man, I definitely check his website out. I'm going to leave all his links in the show notes at Bulletproof Screenwriting dot tv, Forward slash four zero three. Thank you so much for listening, guys, as always, keep on writing no
matter what. I'll talk to you soon.
Thanks for listening to the Bulletproof Screenwriting podcast at Bulletproof Screenwriting dot tv.