Blog #3: Gearhead

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I am definitely a new comer in the world of equipment, but these are some of the blogs I found interesting:

1. Zacuto Blog
http://www.zacuto.com/how-to-shoot-rain-like-a-pro

I read a very interesting post on the technicalities of shooting rain. It's ironic that rain can very often ruin an outdoor shoot, but when you're shooting rain, you have to work extremely hard to recreate what is usually a nuisance. I learned that you have to very closely monitor the natural lighting so that the fake rain doesn't look fake. Rain can add so much depth to a shot because of the way water reflects light onto the actors, but it is extremely expensive and difficult to reproduce artificially. A trick that this article mentioned was to make it look like it had just finished raining by slicking down the street and pouring water over trees so that it would be dripping from the leaves during the shot.

2. The Black and Blue Blog
http://www.theblackandblue.com/blog/page/3/

Scrolling through the posts on this blog, I was delighted to find a very relatable post about the lack of women behind the camera and how this gender gap is doing nothing to help the film industry. The article shows clear and simple research on how investors are less likely to support a film that passes the Bechdel test because it is perceived to do worse at the box office than a male-driven film, but this is simply not true. Data shows that films with women both behind and in front of the camera are equally as likely to make money at the box office, but investors are not spending as much money on female-driven films. This is a hot issue right now, and for good reason. As the blog says, "If more women behind the camera means more women on screen which, in turn, means more money made at the box office and pumped into the industry, well, that’s a win-win."


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