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The Matte Box IQ is Irix’s take on a lightweight matte box that uses their magnetic filters

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Irix has expanded its product base from just lenses once again. After having already branched out into filters, they’ve now announced the new Irix Matte Box IQ. It’s a small, lightweight matte box designed for filmmakers and video shooters to help control light spill on their lenses. It does have one slight drawback for many filmmakers, though, which might be a deal breaker. It’s only designed to work with Irix’s magnetic filters.

If you’re already an Irix shooter and already own a bunch of Irix’s magnetic filters, then this won’t be a problem. But if you’ve been using industry-standard 4×5.65″ glass filters for video work with other matte boxes, then this one probably won’t be for you. At least, not all the time. It still has some great applications as a secondary matte box for a smaller, portable, lightweight camera rig.

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Five simple but effective camera moves you can make with a power drill

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A power drill isn’t usually on the list when it comes to packing our camera bags to head out on a shoot, but as this video from Luke Edwin shows, a power drill can be an extremely versatile filmmaking tool! Ok, so, maybe “filmmaking tool” is a bit of an exaggeration, especially if you’re using a heavy camera like a tricked-out mirrorless rig in a cage. But they can let you get some pretty unique shots.

Luke shows off five different shots that were created with the assistance of a power tool and some DIY rigs. Some are designed for smaller cameras like action cameras, 360 cameras or specifically the teeny tiny Insta360 GO 2 (review here), but a couple of these tricks can be used with larger camera systems, too!

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SmallRig releases yet another matte box system – 5th time lucky?

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Regular as clockwork lately, SmallRig has announced yet another new Matte Box. What makes this one different from the SmallRig 3575 Mini Matte Box Lite, the 2660 Lightweight Matte Box, the 3196 Mini Matte Box or the 3680 Mini Matte Box Pro exactly? Well, this one’s modular. It’s the SmallRig 3556 Modular Matte Box, and it comes in a bunch of different kits depending on your needs.

Thread adapters are available to mount it to 67mm, 72mm, 77mm or 82mm lenses as well as the option to mount it to standard 15mm rods. This matte box also offers the ability to drop in the new SmallRig Variable ND Filter Kit that lets you adjust the strength without having to touch the filter itself – you can even motorise it!

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Recreate this iconic movie scene from 300 using just an iPhone and a 3D printer

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Every so often a movie is released that really captures the action in an unusual and innovative way. Often the director and cinematographers have to come up with new technology in order to capture that. But, as with all things tech-related, what was once cutting edge and took up an entire room, eventually becomes possible with the device in your pocket.

In this video, Corridor Crew recreates Zack Snyder’s three-camera rig that was used to film the action scenes in 300, all on three iPhone 13 Pros mounted together.

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These are the seven rules (guidelines) to cinematic framing and composition

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Composition is always such a hotly debated topic. There are so many “rules” (and sometimes a few that conflict with each other), but unless you want to start getting yourself obsessively wrapped up in those debates, you have to think of them more as guidelines. But they’re guidelines that we often see followed to great effect in many movies, TV shows, and photographs. Do you know why? Well, it’s because they often work.

In this video, Kellan Reck walks us through seven of what he considers to be the most important rules, tips and tricks to get a good cinematic looking shot. And while the video is geared towards filmmaking, much of what is said can be applied to photography, too.

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Why filmmakers love lamps – should you use one in your next video?

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This is a rather interesting observation that I’ve never picked up on before but I’ll sure be on the lookout for in the future. Have you ever noticed how many lamps appear in movies? Sometimes even in particularly awkward or unusual places? Filmmaker and YouTuber Patrick Tomasso certainly noticed after recently rewatching Eyes Wide Shut. He then studied other movies and noticed they were everywhere.

They’ve been around in cinema for years and it doesn’t look like they’re going away any time soon. But why? Sure, lamps exist in the real world, but not usually to the extent that they appear in certain films and certainly not in all of the places that they pop up in movies, either, as Patrick illustrates.

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This is the most difficult shot in movie history and here’s why it matters

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Movie and shot breakdowns are always a lot of fun to watch. Even breakdowns for bad movies are often quite interesting. That’s the case here, as film boffin Patrick Willems describes in this particular video. It describes a particularly bad movie (The Bonfire of the Vanities) by a particularly good director (Brian De Palma).

It was widely regarded as a pretty bad movie when it was released and it still is today. But there are elements of it that are quite exceptional. Such as one particular shot that De Palma said he’d never include in a movie. And that’s one of a plane landing – to signify that one of the characters has just travelled somewhere.

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13 Gimbal tricks to up your gimbal game

Gimbals have become increasingly popular and it’s obvious why. Moves that required master camera operators can now be done with significantly less training. Add the fact that gimbals are becoming more powerful, more affordable, and more features rich, and you have a winning tool. That being said, gimbals still require a learning curve. This series of tips is here to help you get the most out of our gimbal on your next shoot. We got our resident gimbal expert Oleg Balzanov and a super talented dancer, Danielle Stephen to help us teach you these tips.

For this tutorial, we used three pieces of kit. A Manfrotto MVG460 gimbal, a dedicated remote, and a monopod style accessory called a Gimboom. The 460 is a great gimbal with tons of nifty features and a really good payload capacity. AS for the Gimboom, if you have seen their FAST tripod legs, it’s basically a single leg of that tripod. It’s nice to see that Manfrotto saw how monopods are used in tandem with gimbals and created a dedicated product for it.

So without further ado, here are our top 13 gimbal tricks:

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This frame rate comparison shows why you shouldn’t just shoot everything at 120fps

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With the influx of new cameras these days capable of shooting 120fps and even faster, it’s natural that many of us acquiring such a camera will want to have a play with it and see just how it performs and how our footage looks. A lot of people complain about certain cameras that can shoot 120fps overheating, but is it really that big a deal? Are you going to be shooting 4K 120fps all day?

Well, no. It’s unlikely. And you probably shouldn’t, either. In this video, Mark Bone takes a look at frame rates and when and why to use them and why shooting 120fps for anything other than slow motion is just a waste. And, well, even shooting 60fps is over the top for a lot of content you might shoot – particularly anything cinematic.

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Pre-production: How cinematographers should prepare for a shoot

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Shooting a video production, whether it’s for a Hollywood blockbuster, a YouTube video or anywhere in between isn’t as easy as you might think. Especially if it’s not something you’ve done before. Or maybe you have, but things didn’t go as you expected and you’re not sure how to fix it.

Well, have a watch of this video from the folks at In Depth Cine. The channel is dedicated to going in-depth into filmmaking and cinematography and the various processes that are part of that world and workflow. In this video, they talk about how a cinematographer prepares for a shoot.

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