Gear Autobiography
So I've spent an awful lot of time lately thinking about my career, where it's been, where it's going, all that. This is in no small part connected to the time I've spent thinking about James Somerton's equipment combined with a general air of retrospect that seems to be sweeping through YouTubers my age.
On the Somerton thing, I've made public comments about his gear acquisitions and while most people took those in the spirit that they were intended, focusing on the circumstances under which he obtained the money for that equipment rather than the equipment itself, I have seen a slim minority of people either missing that point or yes-and-ing that point to sort of encompass equipment as a whole. The camera that James bought with donations functionally extorted by holding his channel hostage was a Sony FX6.
In a vacuum my opinion is that any YouTuber who felt like the FX6 was the right fit for their needs is absolutely justified in getting one. It's a camera favoured by videographers who do stock, corporate, and wedding videography, three types of video that overlap a lot with YouTubers in terms of the scope of their needs and the size of their business. It was absolutely overkill for what James was doing with it, and he clearly didn't know how to use it properly, but given the cine-dramatic intent of his channel, the scope of his income, the size of his business, it wasn't an awful decision in isolation.
The problem is that all of that can be said about the Ursa Mini G2 that he already owned, a camera that is a direct competitor to the FX6, being a similar age, size, target user, and price. They are, in scope, two different companies' versions of the same camera. He also barely knew how to use that one.
Setting aside the dishonesty, this interplay between James and his gear was clearly motivated by various aspirations, he "needed" an assortment of "real cinema cameras" for the Telos pictures that he was "just about to start." And there's a good possibility that he believed that to be true, to the degree that he believed anything.
But as I tweeted about James' gear from my basement office, surrounded by various bits and bobs of equipment totalling a substantial amount of money it triggered an insecurity in me, not only about my own vulnerability to Gear Acquisition Syndrome (which I absolutely am weak to), but a deeper fear of self-delusion: to what degree are my own purchases fantasy aspirations? What did I get because it fixed a material problem, and what did I get purely because it made me feel more like a "real filmmaker"?
Then, also tied up in Harry's video, I watched James Rolfe's disastrous 2021 behind the scenes video, which is a whole can of worms of its own for some other time, but it cascaded off the Somerton stuff in my brain.
In pondering that I wondered "do I make a gear video?" See, I've never really done one before. I've toured various pieces of equipment during live streams, often because chat has asked a technical question that I felt needed a visual aid, and then once I get talking, well, the rest just kinda happens. But I've never done a gear video before because, they're kinda tacky, right?
Behold! My stuff!
They're the bottom-barrel of the bottom barrel for filler content, literally just sitting in your production space talking about the things that are in your line of sight, and I've watched every single one posted by any and every channel that I subscribe to because I am part of the problem, the sickness is inside me, too.
So after mulling over all these ideas, some kinda heavy and others decidedly frivolous, I opted to create this... thing, a gear video but arranged autobiographically.
And I'll be honest, it was a lot of fun to make. I went into it improvisationally and gave myself permission to let it be a little bit bad and just do whatever extra random thing struck me as a good idea as I made it.
So, yeah, hope y'all enjoy.
Edit: I literally just now noticed the auto-generated thumbnail YouTube chose. I'm leaving it.
Comments (36)
Coming to this extremely late, but it's really interesting seeing how closely your gear progression mirrors my own - at least in the broad strokes. I lusted after the XF100, never quite buying one, but I did soon get my Canon DSLR. Then an OG pocket cinema camera -basically the micro with the addition of a screen - which came in handy when I eventually burnt out the HDMI port. And now, a pair of Pocket 4Ks. Similarly, I have two old led panels (one half-broken) sitting in my garage alongside an old Diva and a Tota, and around here somewhere is a DR60-D with a dodgy USB port. We must have been reading the same blogs.
I absolutely love videos like these from creators I like, I think the stories behind the gear are always great! I also love hearing the sentiment about each item, it helps me feel less weird about my own sentiment for my things.
Hey Dan, I've been an audio technician/engineer for over 25 years, and while I don't do film audio, if you ever need to ask for advice or work through an issue, feel free to message me. When you were talking about shotgun mics, I literally paused the video and said out loud "he'll buy an APEX 175, find out it's garbage, and then get a Rode". Glad to hear the Tascam unit worked as well as it did for that long, I was always curious about them!
Also, as someone who is deep in the grasp of "Gear Acquisition Syndrome" (seriously, I'm I live sound tech that shows up with a Pelican 1560 with 75 lbs of gear, plus a 3U rack with a Smaart and Super Rack enabled NUC, I/O, Waves server, POE switch, Access point, custom back panel and multipin whip), dude, I feel ya. And also, be grateful, because it could be so much worse!
What's the connection between the puppet and Blip?
I like gear videos. Thanks for sharing.
I notice you shooting super 8 in Lindsay’s short. Any chance we’ll get to see that?
Hello! Do you accept leads? Perhaps a strange financial movements that is quite concerning upon closer inspection
A lot of this went over my head but I love seeing people talk about their passions. Thanks for sharing!
After having my interest piqued by the mention of AVGN's "disastrous behind the scenes video", and not realizing how that could even be a thing, I desperately want a have a real professional dissection of it. Lights hung from the ceiling... while attached to tripods? What?
Yeah, i'm writing something up, but in the meantime A+ for the Ruby Vroom album cover PFP.
I love people sharing things their passionate about. This was a fun video!
Bunch of baby Dans!
i really was hoping for someone to elaborate on the gear thing im fascinated by that stuff
cameras are scary
I have to go kiss my skis before I watch this, the 3 pairs I am currently using and ...
As a total outsider when it comes to video production, this was fun to watch and I feel like I learned a lot! I hope you feel comfortable making and publishing more improvised content like this in the future.
Even as someone who really doesn't know anything about any sort of camera besides "point them at things and pictures happen", given my chronic GAS dating back to early childhood when I wanted my dad's aviation radio because it had different colored lights on it, I admit to being down with the sickness.
Hey Dan, did you ever post the Vegas BTS? I’d love to see how you chose the locations for those!
As a fellow GAS sufferer, with a slightly different bent (I sort of collect cheap cool M42 manual focus lenses for my old T3i), thank you for doing this. It’s always seemed clear to me that the only sort of video essayists I like seem to uniformly agree gear talk is cringe, but I’ve always wanted to hear it anyway.
"I like seem to uniformly agree gear talk is cringe" The biggest cringe around gear talk is dudebros insulting things they don't use and assigning values/talent to people who use brands/models they seem to almost morally disagree with. Music gear forums suffer the same flaws and casual misogyny (domestic partners seem get the brunt of their creative frustrations.) I just wanna know how to use what I have, I want to hear people talking about their successes, I don't want to see staged "battlestation photos" nor hear what people just bought and were disappointed with because it didn't give them the endorphin rush they were promised.
Watching this while the £1150 matched pair of instrument mics I was going to record a folk album with glare at me from the corner of the room within their wooden box.
"They're the bottom-barrel of the bottom barrel for filler content" -- well, yes in the way that they're "easy", talking about the tools you have and how to use them is simple, but it's also an interesting look into your process. How *you* film a thing and put part of a story into a video file for you to spin into the final product. It's not just "BEHOLD! My stuff."
Filler content to me is usually *heavy* on the parasocial but informative aspects push anything above it.
Dammit, you totally got me at the end there XD
The most important piece of gear are the shutter shades, obviously
As someone who will Start Making Music Soon I Swear™© that bit about Gear Acquisition Syndrome is super relatable. Great video too; and also boo @ losing the interview audio.
fellow GAS sufferer. I adore your videos and have been pleasantly surprised since In Search of a Flat Earth by you getting away from the studio and shooting great looking on-location footage. Your gear seems appropriate for your uses: it solves common issues and annoyances, makes editing easier, is compact, low-hassle, etc. I think you're allowed to engage in some frivolities for your passion from time to time but I think you actually put even the frivolous gear to great use.
Hey Dan, I hope you're feeling a little better now about owning ~stuff~. I can understand where you're coming from with these feelings, being a fibre crafter myself. Do I ever put ruffles on clothes? No. Do I own an expensive specialist ruffle foot for my machine even though you can totally do ruffles without one? Yes. Of course I do. I get feeling gauche, but I think videos where people talk passionately about stuff they love are great, and it's great to see why people made the purchases they did (even if I will never use a camera fancier than my phone's and I'm probably not even using that properly)
I swear I'm gonna use all this fabric.
So I went and watched that AVGN behind the scenes video, and now I really want you to open that can of worms.
Hard same. I never heard of it before, and I got sucked in right after watching this. Anyway, for this video: loved the framing as a the mixture of retrospective and gear nerdery. The intercutting of “archival footage” and other things helped a lot, too. Really fun and I learned things (32-bit floats!). Thanks!
Show me a photographer or videographer who doesn't have terminal Gear Acquisition Syndrome, I'll wait.
It's really why I love watching (extremely) amateur films, people who just do the thing and don't fret about all/ANY technical aspects inspire me to use what i have to the best of my ability. Shout out to American Genre Film Archive.
I think I’d watch anything you put out. Hope you’re having a good January! Looking forward to this to help pass a long car journey
One minute ten seconds in and the accuracy of your edits between cameras is outstanding.