Hello. My name is Justin Paul Ritter. I'm a Producer/Director with a variety of professional movie and tv credits, including the upcoming release 'The Amazing Adventures of The Living Corpse' from Anchor Bay Films.

I started out with a camera in my hand nearly 30 years ago, and - ironically - got further and further away from it as I moved on and up in my career. Making 'CORPSE' was an odd awakening for me, because on one hand it took me completely away from the tactile world of lights and cameras, but on the other hand it put the virtual lights and cameras squarely in my hands again for the first time in a long time.

With the movie just recently wrapped up, I decided to get back into actual photography and videography again. After tons of research here and on various other sites, I decided to invest in a set-up which includes a GH2, GH3, various lenses, matte box, filters, tripods, dollies, lights, microphones, etc. It's funny how once you start gathering the tools, you realize just how much you want and need - though I could live with just the GH3 and my three favorite lenses if push came to shove.

I'm currently working for one of the biggest and best BMX websites in the world taking product shots and hitting up the nearby tracks on major event days to capture as much action as I can. I've always loved BMX and Skateboarding, and really want to continue exploring this genre. There's definitely something fun about shooting for the sake of shooting without worrying about market shares, mpaa ratings, etc, etc, etc, etc.

Don't get me wrong - I'm dying to make another movie, and most likely I'll be doing my own DP work the next time around right from the start. But I'm also not rushing toward it. Somehow, owning a good camera and lenses again after a very long hiatus has changed my priorities to a large degree.

I'm not sure how much I'll contribute here, as I mostly enjoy reading on the forums as opposed to posting - but if anyone wants or needs anything that they think I can offer, feel free to get in touch.

Hi I'm Chris and I run a media production company called malibumedia and can be found at malibumedia.com.au. I have three cameras and a Vanilla hacked GH2 which works really well except for complex scenes like running water. I shoot and cut promos, corporates, TVC's and webmedia here in Australia, just outside Sydney. I've been shooting and editing for longer than I'd like to admit, but have only had malibumedia going for 8 years. I'm looking to buy a PAL GH3 but they must be making them one at a time over here and they are nearly impossible to get. Looking forward to getting up to date with all the latest tips and tricks on your site. Cheers

@ppcroft

Yep, I'll think about it.

Hey everyone! I'm from NYC, currently in college and working as dp on short films and music videos, as well as ac on longer narrative pieces. Excited to join this forum!

I've been hanging out here for about a year and a half. I am 51. Located in Perth, Australia.
I graduated in 1990 from Curtin University. It was the last year which the Uni had separate film and television streams. I was trained on 16mm.

My student drama made it into the Australian National Film Archive (I really need to get a telecine done). After Uni, Australia had this wonderful tax incentive called 10BA (150% tax deduction for film investment) so I was able to work for 4 years in a variety of crew roles, features, mini-series and TVC. I settled in lighting, as a best boy.

When 10BA was canned, I bought a VHS edit suite and switched to post (offline) ... mostly corporates.

I also taught 16mm film editing at the Uni, and then NLE at the film and television institute.
In 1996 I scored a job and free training from AVID when they set up shop in Australia and worked for 2 years as an AVID Certified Service Representative (That was the cushiest job I ever had - A monopoly in Western Australia - retainer and under contract not to charge less than $250 and hour).

AVID then left Australia and fired us all, handing the distribution back to Amber Technology. I got a pay out in the form of an edit suite (MCExpress).

In 1999 I became a single parent (son was 13 months old), so I packed it in and took up web development ... Yes, I was doing php/apache/mysql in 1999. Did quite well, expanded it into a boutique hosting business. Don't really want to say to much .. totally had enough of it.

I decided to start up again about two years ago. My son is 13 now.

My bread and butter at the moment is recording Power Point Lectures for mining organisations, and I've managed to knock out about a dozen music videos, and a couple of live concerts with an almost finished multi-camera setup (cameras are hired)

My studio 68 sq/m should be finished in 1 week, and I have first booking to shoot four hip-hop clips in the last week of this month.

Only thing left would be to babble about my equipment.

Kevin

Hi All,

I was drawn to this site after looking into a dslr camera that I could use for video. I’ve never really participated in any online community of any kind until I found this site. I like the overall vibe of this community and it’s member’s willingness to share knowledge and sometimes wisdom.

I’m 49 now and have [nearly] made a living in film/video since I was 20. Now my financial equilibrium is off, so I’m looking for a second career to support my new hobby – filmmaking. Having a gh2 to play with has been a lot of fun, and I’ve learned more in the last year or so than I did in a decade prior.

I started out shooting kodachrome 8mm film, mostly jacking around with my pals, dreaming of making a great surf, ski film. I showed some of my [goofy] work to a big chap named Barney Miller and he offered me a few jobs, using his arri 16mm camera, which I promptly destroyed. He forgave me and let me work for a few more years, where I traveled around shooting things for his films. His films were four-walled –promoted and exhibited just like big concerts are. It was a lot of fun.

From that, I learned how to specialize in filming baby bottoms and blue dye water for diaper commercials. That allowed me to merge right into the Madison Ave. big time, shooting tampon ads, onto car spots and running footage. I was allowed to film all kinds of passenger cars and SUVs [looking great] while the vehicles self destructed. I’d shoot from the air, ground and at bumper level from little metal boxes with Bell & Howell Eyemo cameras in them. That’s all fun and the cigars and whiskey are great.

Commercials kept me eating for quite a while whilst I was sub-flavor of the month. Advertising a great way to experiment with cinematographic tools and techniques. Where else would you be able to try and place a camera between the two layers of premium bath tissue?! “Right! We’ll use two big down comforters and a snorkel lens!!”

I’ve directed second unit Items for movies too, mostly Aerials and stunt work. I got fired though for revealing the zipper on the monster’s costume. I remain on the unions, because the family counseling benefits are excellent!

Having a career and a family is so hard! I don’t seem to have the chutzpa to go out and network and schmooze, and even less energy for social networking; so I spend most of my time just managing my metabolism, being available for my family and goofing off with my Gh2.

Thanks.

hi, this is mirko writing. i am from germany and currently studying product design as well as graphic design. besides that i am an artist concentrating on media installations and performance art. i'm glad i found this community and the hacks, so i can shoot video and use it in different ways on a tight budget. i really appreciate the amount of knowledge i found on this forum!

Hi everone! My name is Jon and I live in Sweden with my wife and two kids.

Ah geez, where to begin? After an unfinished science major in biochemistry and four years of art school in France (geule d'atmosphère!) I had a smallish carrier as a portait painter in the late 90-ies.

At heart I'm actually a musician with a soft spot for electronica. I used to work in a recording studio with some other musicians in the early 00-ies mostly producing pop/dance stuff. We never had that hit track but at least we had loads of fun and I learned much about sound design, arrangement and mixing and I still produce my own tracks for fun in Reason and Ableton Live.

Oscillian has been my nick since 2000 and comes from being a analogue synth geek :)

Skip ahead to the 10-ies and to make things even more bi-polar I now work as a Microsoft Excel trainer/instructor for industrial companies such as Siemens, SSAB, and Toyota! Didn't see that one coming in art school, for sure ;) This is my main source of income right now.

Oh yeah! I nearly forgot: Ever since the 80-ies I'm a huge film buff with a penchant for sci-fi and my childhood was very much forged by Spielberg and Lucas and later on Scott and Cameron. As a teenager I always borrowed my fathers VHS camcorder and got my friends together to shoot some action/sci-fi stuff in the woods (where else when you grow up in the midst of pine trees).

This interest contiuned somewhat in art school with mini-DV and "artsy" stuff (very high brow and pretencious crap) but my interest in filmmaking reignited when I got my first pocket camera with HD-recording: the Panasonic TZ-7. At the same time a friend of mine with a 550D introduced me to Vimeo and the DSLR video revolution: I was blown away!

I got very impressed with some wedding highlight reels from the US (mostly 5Dkm2 stuff) and how one could tell a story in 3-4 minutes about two people getting married in very creative ways.

I contiuned to shoot some shorts about bushes and leaves (very original!) and learned the art mostly from the internet and especially DVXUSER forums where I stumbled upon... the Panny hacks and Vitaliys meme from Firefly (I actually thought he looked like that!). The TZ7 turned into a GF1 and then into a GH1 and finally into a GH2 and I was hooked!

Once Vitaliy left the DVX scene I migrated to Personal-view and I have since then enjoyed the very creative atmosphere here!

One thing lead to another and suddenly I found myself shooting weddings on the weekends during the warm season and teaching Excel the rest of the year.

Right now I'm busy teaching and preparing the upcoming wedding season.

Cheers! /Jon

Hey all! My name is Maury Jacks, and I live in Austin, Texas. After graduation from the University of Texas with a bachelors degree in Architectural Engineering in 1987, I spent just one year as an engineer. Hated it. Went back to UT and spent a year taking more undergraduate classes in preperation for entering the graduate film program. Well, the summer before entering graduate school, I got an unpaid internship in the sound department on a film called "The Hot Spot". Goodbye school. One thing led to another, and I moved to Los Angeles and joined the sound/video/projectionist union, IASTE Local 695. After spending seven years as a cableman/cableperson, I got a job as a video assist operator and have never looked back since. Been doing it for seventeen years and still enjoy it. The last, released film that I worked on was "Flight".

The formats have changed over the years. Tape based: U-Matic, VHS, S-VHS, 8mm, Digital8, MiniDV. Hard disc based capture: DV25, MJPEG, DNXHD, ProRes. Hard disc based editing: D-Vision, Discreet Logic Edit, Avid Xpress DV, Avid Xpress HD, Avid Xpress Pro HD, Avid Media Composer. Cameras: Bell & Howell Eyemo, Panavision, Arriflex, Moviecam, Paramount VistaVision, Thompson Viper...

After living in LA for ten years, I realized that most of the people I cared about lived back in Austin. So I moved back and bought a house. Best decision of my life. I now make short, fun films with my friends between travelling to distant locations for my day job. I dabble in DIY, 3D filmmaking which lead me to learn open source methods for Digital Cinema Package creation so I could project them on theater screens. This lead to DCP consulting for the Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas based here in Austin.

I am in the process of putting together a full set of Minolta lenses for my GH2s. It is quite fun learning how to disassemble, clean and lightly re-grease them for easy use with follow focus. If you want to know how to involuntarily de-click a lens, just start taking it apart and watch the ball bearing roll away!

Thanks to all on this site. I have learned so much from y'all! Special thanks go to Vitaliy!

Hi Everyone!

I was born in Spain ( Granada ), I was freelance photographer for about ten years. Now I am editor and documentarist in Think Image Association based in the Université Paris-Est de Créteil ( Île de France ). I've done some documentary and reportage photographic in India, Morocco, Syria, France and Spain.

http://vimeo.com/thinkimage

Cheers Francis

( Awesome blog and people here!, thanks Mr. Kiselev )

I'm Miko, i'm freelance documentarist and colorist, living now in South America. I've done some documentary: the one I prefere is about bolivian wrestling, shooted with a Sony PDX1 and a RedRock Micro, you can watch here

__//vimeo.com/40460784, please no videos here, VK

I like this site and the incredible hacks for the Panasonic cameras!

Hi all,
my name is Michael and together with my brother and a friend I produce image films as well as wedding films and photography (http://www.hollywedd.de). We are seated near Stuttgart / Germany and also produce sports livestreams (mainly in pool billiards, check our channel http://www.youtube.com/poolstage) which we started 4 years ago. But since the creative part is not that much in sports we launched our image and wedding film business a couple of months ago. We film with Canon DSLR (5D Mark III and 60D with Magic Lantern) and Sony EX1R (mainly for live productions). We got in contact with this forum when we tested the GH2 hack. We like it very much because the people here are so creative and post contructive ideas.
Kind regards to all of you,
Michael

Hello to all at Personal-View, My name is Richard, I am 30 years old, fascinated by film/movies. Since 1998 when I got my first panasonic DV camcorder, I have been trying to emulate my heroes of Cinema with Video. I love video because it has always been there for me. Film is not easily accesible and for a hobbyist like me, the affordability of video is perfect. I got married and had kids and so a long time passed without having practiced the videomaking craft, It wasn't until I heard about this new camera called the "Gh1" and how it was being hacked that I realized how much I liked the "look" of video and what a good tool it was for telling a story now. So this is what I want to do now with my life, I want to be a videomaker.