foldablehuman
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Gear Autobiography
🕑 Added 2024-01-20 07:22:05 +0000 UTCSo I've spent an awful lot of time lately thinking about my career, where it's been, where it's going, all that. This is in no small part connected to the time I've spent thinking about James Somerton's equipment combined with a general air of retrospect that seems to be sweeping through YouTubers my age.
On the Somerton thing, I've made public comments about his gear acquisitions and while most people took those in the spirit that they were intended, focusing on the circumstances under which he obtained the money for that equipment rather than the equipment itself, I have seen a slim minority of people either missing that point or yes-and-ing that point to sort of encompass equipment as a whole. The camera that James bought with donations functionally extorted by holding his channel hostage was a Sony FX6.
In a vacuum my opinion is that any YouTuber who felt like the FX6 was the right fit for their needs is absolutely justified in getting one. It's a camera favoured by videographers who do stock, corporate, and wedding videography, three types of video that overlap a lot with YouTubers in terms of the scope of their needs and the size of their business. It was absolutely overkill for what James was doing with it, and he clearly didn't know how to use it properly, but given the cine-dramatic intent of his channel, the scope of his income, the size of his business, it wasn't an awful decision in isolation.
The problem is that all of that can be said about the Ursa Mini G2 that he already owned, a camera that is a direct competitor to the FX6, being a similar age, size, target user, and price. They are, in scope, two different companies' versions of the same camera. He also barely knew how to use that one.
Setting aside the dishonesty, this interplay between James and his gear was clearly motivated by various aspirations, he "needed" an assortment of "real cinema cameras" for the Telos pictures that he was "just about to start." And there's a good possibility that he believed that to be true, to the degree that he believed anything.
But as I tweeted about James' gear from my basement office, surrounded by various bits and bobs of equipment totalling a substantial amount of money it triggered an insecurity in me, not only about my own vulnerability to Gear Acquisition Syndrome (which I absolutely am weak to), but a deeper fear of self-delusion: to what degree are my own purchases fantasy aspirations? What did I get because it fixed a material problem, and what did I get purely because it made me feel more like a "real filmmaker"?
Then, also tied up in Harry's video, I watched James Rolfe's disastrous 2021 behind the scenes video, which is a whole can of worms of its own for some other time, but it cascaded off the Somerton stuff in my brain.
In pondering that I wondered "do I make a gear video?" See, I've never really done one before. I've toured various pieces of equipment during live streams, often because chat has asked a technical question that I felt needed a visual aid, and then once I get talking, well, the rest just kinda happens. But I've never done a gear video before because, they're kinda tacky, right?
Behold! My stuff!
They're the bottom-barrel of the bottom barrel for filler content, literally just sitting in your production space talking about the things that are in your line of sight, and I've watched every single one posted by any and every channel that I subscribe to because I am part of the problem, the sickness is inside me, too.
So after mulling over all these ideas, some kinda heavy and others decidedly frivolous, I opted to create this... thing, a gear video but arranged autobiographically.
And I'll be honest, it was a lot of fun to make. I went into it improvisationally and gave myself permission to let it be a little bit bad and just do whatever extra random thing struck me as a good idea as I made it.
So, yeah, hope y'all enjoy.
Edit: I literally just now noticed the auto-generated thumbnail YouTube chose. I'm leaving it.
Comments
Theresa
I absolutely love videos like these from creators I like, I think the stories behind the gear are always great! I also love hearing the sentiment about each item, it helps me feel less weird about my own sentiment for my things.
Alice Tyrell
throwing in some details in case anyone... wants them, for some reason, my A camera is a pocket 4k as well, purchased in early 2019, with my B camera being the original black magic pocket cinema, purchased in mid 2020, although due to reasons, it got stuck in australia for six months. If my understanding is correct, is basically a slightly more self-contained version of the micro cinema camera, with the same sensor, but a built-in display. That one actually does fit in your pocket, although it's much harder to find in good condition. I just bought one in bad condition. It works, I don't care how it looks. The other similarities I mention are more abstract, things like shooting on manual lenses because good ones are really cheap, also the camcorder format being underrated, etc.
Alice Tyrell
Thanks so much for this Dan, I had actually been considering shooting you an openended tweet or something, asking you to info dump about gear, and then checked your patreon to find you already had, right here. Also, I find myself deeply amused and validated, as someone without a film education, to find that we've independently come to many of the same conclusions with our gear. I sorta went into the video thinking I was going to learn about what I was doing wrong, but instead kept finding the same decisions being made for the same reasons. The biggest thing I needed to hear was just how you talked about your cameras. I feel this sort of pressure that I should be looking at upgrading to something bigger, even though something like an Ursa Mini, or even one of the more modern pocket cinemas, would functionally just be physically larger and harder to work with for no practical benefit. Hearing you talk about how when your 4k died you just bought another one really felt validating as someone who feels like I *should* be upgrading, but doesn't really feel the need to. This video did make me realize how badly I need like 3-4 C stands, so I can stop piling up storage bins and boxes to get mics and lights into a reasonable position...
Colin Daniels
Also, as someone who is deep in the grasp of "Gear Acquisition Syndrome" (seriously, I'm I live sound tech that shows up with a Pelican 1560 with 75 lbs of gear, plus a 3U rack with a Smaart and Super Rack enabled NUC, I/O, Waves server, POE switch, Access point, custom back panel and multipin whip), dude, I feel ya. And also, be grateful, because it could be so much worse!
Colin Daniels
Hey Dan, I've been an audio technician/engineer for over 25 years, and while I don't do film audio, if you ever need to ask for advice or work through an issue, feel free to message me. When you were talking about shotgun mics, I literally paused the video and said out loud "he'll buy an APEX 175, find out it's garbage, and then get a Rode". Glad to hear the Tascam unit worked as well as it did for that long, I was always curious about them!
Stinky Pete
What's the connection between the puppet and Blip?
Mary Dutterer
I like gear videos. Thanks for sharing.
PerfectlyAdequate
I notice you shooting super 8 in Lindsay’s short. Any chance we’ll get to see that?
FoldableHuman
Yeah, i'm writing something up, but in the meantime A+ for the Ruby Vroom album cover PFP.
Beth Gootzeit
A lot of this went over my head but I love seeing people talk about their passions. Thanks for sharing!
Wild Loose Comma
After having my interest piqued by the mention of AVGN's "disastrous behind the scenes video", and not realizing how that could even be a thing, I desperately want a have a real professional dissection of it. Lights hung from the ceiling... while attached to tripods? What?
T. Delligatti
I love people sharing things their passionate about. This was a fun video!
