Recent content by Cygnus

I have earned my living with photography for more than 20 years and in that time have learned about what the rules mean and to whom. If you stopped 100 random people on the street and showed them a photo or video, the people will pick what they like or don't like. If you stopped 100...

I don't agree. The rules are only important to those who know them. Most people who spend the time learning the rules tend to want to follow them afterward. The people who see the finished work for the most part have no clue what the rules are. They are only concerned if they like it or not.

According to the math, it is correct. $$$ in advertising = number of people seeing the ad = the number of people who will then spend the money to do what your ad suggests (see the movie, buy the dvd, buy the merchandise, etc). Of course this math is developed by the ad agents who you will...

*This isn't legal advise, just experience* Things being "right" and "legal" doesn't keep you from being sued. It also doesn't make the fees charged by your lawyer any cheaper. That lesson, I have learned the hard and expensive way. When it comes to items or names or images that are...

Eventually I personally would like to direct. We have two photographers who are focused on the lighting, and one who wants to eventually write scripts. We all will continue to work on the producing (at least in the beginning). Putting together talent and money is what we do on a daily basis...

I know that some people like craigslist, but there is a reason flakes and scammers flock to that site. I am also building a network in an unknown (to me) industry. The way that I am doing it is by contacting advertising and casting agents, production companies, etc. I want to deal with...

When we first began discussing the idea two years ago, we talked about all the options available. While everyone in our studio loves what we do, we are pretty much at the top of our game. There isn't a whole lot of untapped markets for us to move into. We talked about going into fashion, which...

The new adage, it's who knows you. If you can make a name for yourself in one market that is connected to another, people will assume you can make things work in any market. You'll at least get the chance. If you can make money for the people concerned, you'll continue to get chances.

Take a look at the manfrotto 300N or maybe the Nodal Ninja RD16, both are under $200 and support a good bit of weight. It is kind of easy to want to skimp on support gear, but keep in mind that tripods and heads need to be able to support your camera and lens. You get what you pay for.

Over the years we have moved into larger and larger projects. There isn't really a way to learn how to do something other than to do it. You can read all the books that you want, but without the real life experience of doing it, you really won't know if it works. When we wanted to go after...

It's really hard to pick what is the most important to me, because any of the other elements can ruin it. A great story is incredibly important, but bad sound and cinematography can ruin it quick. Bad acting can also kill a good story. On the other hand, great acting along with great...

I totally agree that there is a steep learning curve. I'm not going to pretend that this will be easy. We have shot stills for a few commercials, so I have seen that part of the process, although our part is completely different in the overall process of making a commercial. You're absolutely...

The manfrotto 055XProB is a great medium tripod. If you need more heavy duty, the manfrotto 161MK2B is all you'll ever need. For heads, Acratech makes a nice pano head, manfrotto 303 plus, or the nodal ninja NN4

That makes sense. The funding part is what we do quite frequently with lower and mid level clients, although in photography we work backwards as Knightly suggested. Just as an example, we have a mid level ladies boot company south of the city who honestly doesn't have the budget to afford...

It's been a long time since I have been a newb at something, and I am just beginning my research into film making. In commercial photography there are basic guidelines that easy enough to follow through a project. So my thought is to treat film making exactly as I would any other commercial...