Inspire Design Create with David Lee

Post Cinegear episode, although I wasn't able to attend Cinegear due to unforeseen circumstances I did make it to a pre-event that week which will be the precursor to this episode. It's really never been better for us as filmmakers, whether you're just starting out or are a seasoned professional. The quality and quantity of gear from lighting fixtures to lenses to gimbals, all at various price ran...

Little life update for you all who have been wondering where the podcast episodes have been! Well, life has been extremely busy juggling things between my film, the kickstarter for said film, a feature film i'll be on in July and client work. So here's a short update on all of that before we head into Cinegear LA weekend! If you enjoyed this episode please rate it and let me know how i'm doing! Fo...

And we're back! Another breakdown video for a sports water commercial that was part product part lifestyle. We had exteriors to shoot as we ll as interiors that required us to create the light ourselves since we had no option to motivate light coming through any type of window/doorway. The gym itself was active with a lot of customers throughout the day so we had to work around that along with a o...

Apologies for the late episode upload but I had to wait until the full product was delivered before I could release this episode. So here we are! First virtual production and my experience working with the volume wall. We had a curved wall we were working on about 20ft tall by 40ft wide. There was a mixture of video playback occurring on the wall as well as live tracking for one of the scenes. Ove...

What's good friends! Today we have a long one but it's an interview episode I was on with the good folks Aaron and Chaz from Story Over Everything: Link to their Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/fr/podcast/story-over-everything/id1437280815?l=en Link to their Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5f6PL89RJ7jL8Eey6G3yIN Aaron ask's a lot of great questions when it comes to pitching, produ...

When the client/agency says, "Do we need all these people here today?" you look without hesitation and say a big, "YES". I'm sure you've been in that position at least once in your career, it's an awkward place to be because you feel inclined to defend your reasoning for why you have the amount of crew you have. We all know it's not about flexing, especially since we're dealing with money, it's ab...

I was having a conversation with someone recently and the topic of, "how do I find more work?" kept reoccurring. I felt it would be a great topic especially with a brand new year underway so here we are! For the most part, networking is still the best way to continually get work. The hard part is building your network first, and that takes time. What I wanted to do in this episode is provide some...

It's that time of year again, although i'm late by a few days, with the end of the year review for 2022! I'm going to cover my income numbers, days on set, most used equipment, least used equipment and some lessons learned from 2022. If you enjoyed this episode please rate it and let me know how i'm doing! Follow the podcast if you're loving the content and share it with your friends! www.atdavidl...

Not directly related to Cinematography but an important toolset to have when working with talent. Whether it's a narrative project or a commercial these are 3 of the best tips i've learned when working with actors that can support you through getting the lighting you were hoping for as well as ensuring both the director and talent can work in your favor to achieve the pre-production plans you made...

Bit of a random question but what jobs do you like taking as an owner/operator? Do you enjoy camera operating a lot and take a good amount of those jobs throughout the year? Perhaps its Gaffing or being a 1st AC? I remember when I first started out I was taking anything job I could get my hands on. As my career progressed and working more as a Cinematographer there were still jobs coming my way. E...

One of the most important questions a owner/operator can ask of him/herself is, "How do I increase my rates?". When I first started out making $200/$300 to shoot AND edit a project was huge! However, we all know we can't realistically stay in that space forever especially those of us who are looking to make cinematography our specialty and thus a career for ourselves. How do you start increasing/u...

Celebrations are in order as my latest commercial "Mentor for Change" took home Best Commercial at the Oniros Film Awards of New York AND at the Cannes World Film Festival! On top of that I'm grateful that we also won Best Cinematography at the Oniros Film Awards, that definitely so great to have industry recognition for a commercial piece of all things. That being said I'm breaking down the comme...

Not it's not click bait but a practical way to use a longer focal length as your wide shot. There's times when you're stuck with a not so ideal location or perhaps having to shoot at the worst time of day and you need a wide shot for a particular scene. One trick I picked up on last year which I used was to use a longer lens, bring the camera back and have more options for shaping light. Think it'...

There's pros and cons to using light domes for lighting as well as using 4x4, 6x6, 8x8 frames etc. To think that one is better than the other shows a lack of experience in the game and to be quite honest shows a great weakness in your lighting capability if you only stick to one. In this episode I offer my pros and cons and when each tool can benefit you depending on the type of project you have....

One of, if not the, most challenging things you could hear on the day is, "hey can we make it brighter?". Sure we can! The trick is, not actually making what's being captured brighter but just the monitor output itself! The easiest and safest way to do it is by using a slightly modified version of your standard REC709 LUT. In this podcast episode I explain why you want to have two versions of your...

Have you ever been on set when the client/agency wants to change the schedule? You've spent a good month on pre production, or less, working with the director and agency on lighting setups, what time of day to shoot certain parts of the boards only to have it all blow up in your face? Well maybe not all the time BUT I know you've been there before! Today i'm sharing with you how I approach these d...

I recently rented the A-Set Anamorphics from Atlas and wanted to provide my review of them for those who are looking at renting them for future projects or possibly purchasing them for your own rental business. Overall the optics are clean, the flares i'm not a huge fan, shooting wide open at a T2 is rough and the lenses don't have a lot of character to them. However, these could all be reasons wh...

One of the most prominent qualities i've seen from high level cinematographers in the commercial space has been that clients value their work, A LOT. What does that mean? Simply put, clients have a higher value perception of their work. The level of cinematography, communication and professionalism they bring on set as well as to the visual language of the project have propelled such cinematograph...

Do you charge hourly for post production? What about fixed rates, is that easier and more efficient for you/your agency? These are the two most common ways to charge a client for post production services and in today's episode I want to go over both. One may be better for your type of company and I always find it best to compare and contrast two methods rather than believe in one ideology off the...

One thing I feel gets neglected is happiness, not just ours but everyone involved in a production. As the Cinematographer/DP part of your responsibilities is to set the tone for the day, along with the Director. If you make sure everyone else is happy they'll do the exact same thing for you and that my friends is a great way to usher in a healthy and successful production. On top of that the more...

False color isn't anything new but the way you look at false color can change over time, I know it has for me. When I first started using false color it was to get a sense of where my key was in the IRE spectrum and if my high lights were clipping. I didn't look at anything else because I wasn't at the level where I could do anything about the rest of the image. Fast forward to 2022 the way I use...

Another year, another Cinegear! Though I honestly haven't seen anything worthwhile since Cinegear 2018/2019, this year the turn out was definitely more than last year but the majority of booths are Cinegear already had their time to shine at NAB so nothing "new". The one thing that stood out was the amount of budget friendly equipment from stabilizers, support rigs, lenses etc which is opening up...

Two episodes ago we spoke about how to ask for more Post Production budget, today we're flipping it around and talking about Production Budget (crew, logistics, equipment etc) and two scenarios where you might find yourself needing to ask for more cash. The biggest piece of advice I can give is be 100% firm that you need the extra cash for production. If you are (and likewise confident that you ac...

It's hour number 7 of a 10 hour day, the director asks you to go get some b-roll or inserts knowing that he/she doesn't have enough variety of shots and it's up to you to deliver. What if it were the other way around? What if the time taken for pre production was actually utilized to mitigate the random shots that end up never looking good from a photography stand point? That's what we're talking...

A question I received from Instagram recently that I felt could be an awesome episode as I know many of you have been in this situation before. The short version of the question asks, "How can I ask for $1000 to edit a 15min video when I only charged $500 for the last video?". Amazing question! Let's see how I would tackle it and in your mind ask yourself what you would do differently. If you enjo...