Your wrap ups are always some of my favorites. Appreciate the insights!

Yooo, super nice video. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, very insightful! Looking forward to the next one!

always insightful to watch your videos

It's such a great exercise to reflect on last years goals and readjust for the next one. Congrats on the good year, looking forward to the numbers in the next one - should be interesting! I have very similar thoughts re: local support services. I'm in a very similar budget niche, and would find a lot of value / utility in that. I've encouraged some of my production buddies to do the same, but it's kinda nuanced and complicated when it gets into rate expectations, being a middleman on the booking side, and there being reciprocal bookings. Too much to write out in a simple YT comment, but I'm watching with interest :)

Love watching this man, I am on the same boat haha with van, G&E, Cameras.

man i love it do what you love

Hey David, really appreciate your candidness with the numbers. I came in at 103 billable days. Under what I wanted but enough to keep above board. You may want to look at the Canon R5C right now. Around $3800 on B&H. I have one in my kit and it's also a great stills camera. I bought Meike variable ND for it and it works wonderfully. Also, it uses the same cinema menu as the C300 M3. Good luck in 2024. As always, enjoying the content. Cheers!

I’d absolutely be interested in those tungsten fixtures!

Great video again Dave. It’s a pity that you miss out on work because of the wrong camera. I have cameras that sit around collecting dust. I tend to focus on gear that will always be useful no matter what the format like lighting or other grip equipment. I’m in a different market but it seems your service as a lighting supplier sounds like a good gig for your situation. My Eng PXW-X400 did no work for a while now i do 6 hours of live broadcast tv every week on it so it’s the perfect camera for that job and I’m still focussing on lighting. Replaced my kinoflo with all apature lighting now and works great on the phone app

Good stuff. I'd wait on the Canon purchase. See what drops in the next few months.

My biggest revenue maker in rentals was Alexa Mini, but it was still considered one of the lowest ROI because the purchase price was so high but the rental rates are averaged out to be just about 8% of the purchase cost. One category of equipment that dominated my revenue though were monitors and accessories like 5"~21" monitors and wireless kits such as Teradek's and Director's handheld monitors. Needed them on every shoot and the ROI was higher than any other cameras. I think 2024, Sony is going to dominate the new camera market as we've seen in 2023! Burano fills a large gap between FX9 and Venice, Alexa 35 is most likely a staple item on every high end commercial shoots but the volume on it can't catch up with cheaper Sony's. Canon has got to release something substantial this year otherwise they'll fall back and lose their dominance in the lens market - a lot of Owner Ops I know switched out of EF lenses.

Super helpful as a current film production student who will need to figure out how to fill time and make money between the narrative projects im aiming for. Always tricky to know what gear to invest in, what projects to say yes to, and what markets to get into. Thanks!

Loved this one! Enjoy all your content but the biz ones are my favs. I know they prob get less views then bts but to me are more vital. Thank you!

That godox knowled 4x4 is the best budget mat imo, also the pavoslim are a greag kino replacement

This type of info helps so much. Thanks for sharing the reasoning behind decisions. That c300 route sounds daunting. Was renting an option for that gig? Also if you ended up purchasing, would buy ef glass for it? It’s tough for me to think any ef mount cam is a smart choice in general. Canon is pushing rf and I would assume their next c300 level cam would include it. That would allow the versatility of your existing pl glass.

I pre-ordered the Burano from B&H a few months ago. I'm getting a bit concerned with the investment now. Looking back, so much of my corp. business is being shot on FX3, FX6, & FX9. My Reds are not getting enough rental income or projects. I don't want to get stuck with another overpriced camera like the Raptor. Nobody asks me for a Raptor package when shooting a plumbing commercial.... I hope the Burano doesn't end up next to my Reds.

Great insights! I'm in Dallas and my gear package is mostly Canon. It's funny how clients decide that a project can only be shot with a particular camera like a C300 III or FX9. I'm happy to charge for but know a C70 or an FX3 would provide the same results. It's all about perception.

The Burano convo… people seem to love the idea, or totally hate it. I know some people complain about certain codec specs, viewfinder, etc. The truth is, if the Burano does match well to the Venice 2 look… that’s a steal for the price. People from the FX6/FX9 market wondering why they’d pay that much. It’s an interesting hybrid camera that will have low and higher end projects turning their heads one way or the other.

Speaking of your desire for a higher zoom ratio. Have you looked at using a Canon HJ on your FX9 in centre scan mode with an optical corrector? I use a HJ21x7.6 and a corrector I converted to E mount on my FS7 and the image quality is great at all iris values (although limited to HD). I am making a batch of converted to E mount optical correctors to be available mid to late FEB if it takes your interest at all. If you want some image quality examples let me know ✌️

I also have a couple of roll up LED lights. I gave up assembling them on each shoot, so most of the time I keep them assembled. I've thought about fixing a spigot mount scrrewed to the interior of my van.

I echo the sentiments about rates not changing with inflation. I’ve been in the business since ‘07. We were able to get higher/equal to now rates easier back then. Maybe because tech goes down in price over time? Our simple HVX and tungsten/kino lighting package in ‘07 was high end, expensive stuff. Now lighting and camera packages can be bought for so cheap. Clients pay attention to this I’m sure. Plus a huge influx of young talented kids willing to work for nothing for the experience. Harder each year IMO.

Back in the day you used your shoulder cam and that was it, today these clients think they can tell the difference between an amria and an f5 and a cannon c300 mark 2 and 3 and burano, bull. They couldnt tell the footage apart. yet they insist. So you buy 30 cameras, or you give up picky clients. so exhausting, sometimes i think we could just rent gear and not own anything lol.

Have a look at the Intellytech mega 6 , LED panel light . Folds down to 1x1 size , pretty easy build once you have done it a few times , and the optional Pop up diff , makes it even easier . It's a 4x3 and really I think the Goldilocks size for Interview key . The Godox 4x4 has a frame you have to construct which is a lot slower / bigger, than the mega6 foldout frame, and a whole load of bongo ties to attack the light ,not great and what the older Intellytechs used to use ,( Mega 6 has these marine clips ) . and needs way more power , the smaller 2x4 would be easier , but smaller than the intellytech . Surprised to hear there are still companies insisting on Canon , I haven't had that for years , it's usually fx9 /6 in the first place or either C300 / fx9/6 cameras as being ok , shooting Slog. I only turned down two shoots this year due to gear , one was they were insisting on a certain type of , not very high end , soft light , I have my own that are bigger and cost alot more even , but " their DP " insisted I rent, what I guess were the same as his cheap lights , I turned down the shoot as it was just stupid for me to go out and rent these inferior lights, and that the guy was being a dick , the other was "their DP" insisting on using some obscure vintage lens , for an interview against a grey back drop ! , again just stupid and must have been lenses he owned ,had given some BS to the production about . They sent me screen grabs ,which was when I found out it was against a grey back drop ,! and they looked just like any other lens.

I have a C70 and R5C. I love the R5C but you may want to consider the C70 due to its internal ND

Would a Canon c200 still work for those Canon gigs? They're sometimes super affordable (seen them as low as $1500).

do you buy extended warranties?

Canon. Opens a can of worms. because basically you need a 'trinity of lense 16-35 24-70 70-200 - or a bit different for every system. Now if EF will work well on sony E then you are in a good place, or if not well thats a bummer because you need two lenses. To my eye the R5c might not be worth it.. even the R7 or 8 might do. (small camera, no ND no SDI all of them) the C300iii is now so old that it comes up used ? Or probably a few months and we have an RF cinema canon.. and rf lenses are better than EF.. but I dont think they move to sony!

You'd be far more appealing as a hire if you had a well-rounded lighting package vs. a c300 or r5c. Let the business go.