[Todd Terry]

[Richard Herd] “…seems very dubious that permission would be granted.”

Nope, permission would never be granted. BUT (and not that I’m advocating this), nothing would ever be done about it either.

That’s falling squarely into that “it’s political so anything goes” category. And while I’ve never ever heard of any backlash over that, it still “don’t make it right.” But it happens. Lots of things “just ain’t right” in politics.

Although some of it is unseemly, I do love love love doing political work, though. They never care what anything costs (“Just get it done! Now!”), and thanks to our election laws they have to pay fast so invoices are never aging. My favorites are nice pretty image spots done for good candidates that we honestly believe in… but we’ve done plenty of attack ads, as well. Actually, some of those were pretty fun, too 🙂

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Keep in mind you are talking about two different things… the image/likeness of this person, and the photograph of this person.

In this instance, the candidate is a public figure. You may indeed use their image/likeness in a campaign attack ad. Of course, you can’t use their image/likeness in a ad with them promoting a product, selling ketchup or Hondas, of course… but in a campaign attack ad, yes you can.

That’s one thing. The actual photo is another. You technically can’t use that photo without securing the rights to that photo… which will reside with the photographer or whomever else actually owns the rights to that photo.

The political handlers who do this right will typically provide their own unflattering photos of opposition candidates for attack ads. They’ll often take them themselves, going to rallies or community events and shoot the photos in these public places. We’ve never been asked to go take these pictures, but we’ve certainly been provided with plenty of them.

Now, all that being said, while lifting the photo from another website is technically stealing (theft of the rights, not of the likeness), nonetheless it HAPPENS ALL THE TIME. Capital letters. HAPPENS ALL THE TIME. From a local dog catcher race in rural Nowheresville all the way up to the biggest national races, it still happens all the time. Even though there is no legal basis for it, or any kind of actual loophole, people seem to take free reign in doing this… for political spots. Political spots seem to have their own set of “anything goes” unwritten rules. As long as that correct disclaimer is only there for the appropriate five seconds, few other things will be questioned. I’ve NEVER heard of any repercussions from anyone lifting opposition photos.

I’ve certainly had it happen to me plenty. We’ve often had footage from our own political commercials appear in an opponent’s attack add. It’s really par for the course. The only time it really bugged me was when it was footage that contained quite a few paid actors (all represented, and some union). But nothing was done about it.

We try to never do this ourselves… but I can’t say it has never happened.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

[walter biscardi] “Yeah, those small ones are pretty useless quite honestly.”

Now, now… don’t go hatin’ on my little quadcopter. Actually, the one that I have (Phantom 2 Vision+) is pretty stunning. That’s the top end one in DJI’s Phantom line (the Phantoms being their more consumer-priced line). I was only complaining about their customer service, not the quadcopter itself. It has a stabilized three-axis gimbal with an integrated 16 megapixel camera that can shoot stills or 1080 HD video in a variety of framerates.

When it works (and I’m cranky about that), it’s pretty darn great, and the camera gimbal is as steady as I’ve ever seen. When hovering at altitude there have been times when I literally thought the screen was frozen… but it wasn’t… it was just a rock-steady shot. I do wish the gimbal had pan (yaw) control, which it doesn’t. Gimbal yaw is stabilized, but not controllable. if you want to pan you rotate the entire helicopter around the yaw axis. It can be done, and done smoothly, but it’s not wildly intuitive (at least not for me, yet). I’ll get better at that with more practice. The gimbal does have 90° of remote tilt control, though.

If I needed real complicated camera moves (or a better camera), there are some other guys here in town that fly a bigger DJI copter with an EPIC on board. It’s nice… I think it’s a 10-rotor job, retractable landing gear, very sweet gimbal… all that jazz. Then again, I think theirs is like a $15,000 helicopter, about ten times what I paid for mine. But the little one can still churn out some amazing stuff.

As soon as they fix the darn thing.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

I guess that’s good news for those seven companies… on their closed sets.

I’ve been a “drone” (hate that word) owner for about three months, but have yet to use it on an actual job, for two reasons. Firstly, because the legality of it still seems to be firmly in a gray area, depending on whom you talk to at which particular moment. But secondly almost the entire time I’ve owned mine it has been in helicopter hospital at DJI in California. I had it about a week before it had a complete GPS failure. After that it spent 10 weeks at DJI for repairs. When it finally returned, right out of the box the camera gimbal was completely non-functioning on one axis (a brand new and different problem). So it’s back at DJI now for the second round.

On the upside, they didn’t charge me for the repair… although that unfortunately falls into the “you get what you pay for” category.

I’m all for the FAA getting on the stick and clarifying their regulations… or lack thereof. I’m a pilot and would be livid (and scared) if I saw one of these buzzing in my airspace. At least the DJI birds’ GPS systems will not allow flight in certain airspace (and I’m guessing that’s true for other brands, too), but that’s only of limited use… the vast vast majority of general aviation airports in the US are uncontrolled fields (including the one I primarily fly from), and the GPS restrictors would have no effect there. I’m also a responsible RC operator when on the ground… but I know there are plenty of yahoos out there who are not. Sadly, government gears grind sooooo slowly.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Well, not to be Mr. Glass is Half Empty, but…

[James Duncan] “..the plan is to gradually make more money as his business expands.”

You know that virtually never happens with those kinds of deals, right?

[James Duncan] “I was thinking somewhere between $25 and $50 dollars an hour…”

Does that even remotely cover your expenses?

At first blush, this sounds like one of those projects where, if you just want to do it for the fun of it, because it’s a subject that interests you, and you’d enjoy it… then go for it.

On the other hand, if you are looking at this as a make-a-living and pay-the-bills gig and hope hope that someday it turns into a cash cow, I’d say the odds of that are extremely slim. In that case you would be better served walking away and concentrating that time on other gigs that do make money, or even just working on your own marketing in that time. That part won’t make you any money, but at least you wouldn’t be in the hole.

It sounds to me like you’re going to lose money… and definitely not make any.

Just my thoughts, but I’m cynical (although I think cynical for a reason).

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

I’ll just make one observation about all this…

You seem really keen on getting a camera that has all the bells and whistles… the highest quality available… all the features anyone would ever want… with your discussion of color space, 4K, RAW recording, high frame rates, and a myriad of other things… and you’ve discussed some very high-end cameras, features/ability-wise (although not really price-wise).

And there’s nothing wrong with that.

But on the flip side, you say this will be used to teach 16yo+ high school students, who are apparently starting from zero (“I’ll have to teach everyone else about aperture, iso, shutter, zebras, focus peaking, ND, basically everything…”).

There’s also nothing wrong with starting from scratch, either… we’ve all been there.

I’m not sure those two things are the best marriage, though. You don’t teach someone to drive in a Formula 1 car.

For someone fresh just learning, the ability to shoot RAW, or 4K, or worrying about 4.0.0 vs 4.2.2 vs 4.4.4 are, at least to me, wildly inconsequential. Oh they are important things in the long haul, but they don’t even crack the top 100 of things I think a newbie needs to start learning right off the bat, or even be concerned with for quite a long while.

For a ground-up teaching environment, to me a better choice might be to consider cameras that are as easy and user-friendly as possible… something to teach the basics on. I couldn’t make any recommendations, as I haven’t worked with that level of gear in a long time, but I know there are scads of cameras that would fit the bill and would be a lot easier from a technical standpoint to learn on than the complex ones. To me, I wouldn’t want teaching the aesthetics of cinematography to be hampered by a beginning student’s frustration over the technical side.

Just my two cents.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Not really, not without seeing it in person and holding it in my hands… then might be able to come up with a way. Otherwise, flying a bit blind.

Best bet is to just ask Letus. They built it, they might have a ready-made solution for rods attachment.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

[Willem Jansen] “Can I attache the adapter to the rail system without any accessoires?”

I haven’t seen any in a long time, but unless they have drastically changed their design… no.

I’ve never known any versions of the Letus that were natively made to fit on rods at all… they just connect straight to the lens mount with no other support.

If you did want to support it with your rods (which, yes, would be a fine idea), you’d need a 15mm (or 19mm, depending on your rods) bracket that would somehow fit/support the Letus.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Oh Matt, Matt, Matt….

So which are you, a customer? Or a dealer?

Your post originally said….

“I am in the market for a new Follow Focus.
I am on a tight budget, but would still rather buy
new, than used. The best for my price range is
the folks at cinegears. Has anyone used their
products? do they work?”

…and now you have edited it and seem to be repping the same products you were asking about.

So, which is it?

We don’t mind product developers showing what they have (as long as it doesn’t get too “advertisy”), but please be upfront about it.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Assuming the US equivalent is “Great Stuff”? I know there are both expanding and non-expanding varieties, not sure which would be best.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com