Landlord Studio pricing and features

Since QuickBooks does not have features specifically supporting rentals, and it requires a very specific setup to do effectively, there are alternatives to manage rental expense reporting and management specifically, like Landlord Studio.

The base (start) plan (billed annually) is only $6/month or $7/month if paid month to month. This is for one unit only. The price increases slightly for two units. Here is the their pricing page.

The most noticeable differences in upgrading to the $15/month plan are "Smart Receipt Scan", Bank integration, and Xero integration. There's also an additional user, in case other people like assistants or property managers are helping you with expense reporting or general management and you want them to have access to Landlord Studio.

I'd like to find out what tennant screening includes, because Zillow only offers the first listing for free, so if Landlord Studio provides a background/criminal record check and credit score reporting for that price, it's a screaming deal!

Wedding Cinematography for intentional filmmakers

What distinguishes cookie cutter Wedding Cinematography from intentional and more meaningful storytelling?

Deep Storytelling
Creating compelling storytelling through interviews and/or letter reading. Most wedding videographers will just string together a bunch of pretty clips on a timeline set to some dramatic music.  What story is that telling? Yes, wedding vows are a nice addition to begin to tell a story, but where else can the couple's story be found?

By simply adding an interview or two, a videographer's work will have more meaningful, elevated storytelling than 90 percent of the videographers running around who are making a music video and not a documentary.

Who can tell the couple's story?

Parents, siblings, maid of honor and best man, grandparents, or a best friend are great options to capture short interviews during the wedding day.

Intentional Technique

Some videographers get lazy and do things like crank up the shutter speed multiple stops faster than than the 180 degree rule.  The footage will not only look choppy (like an action film), but it can look more similar to phone or camcorder footage because there is less intentional control over the cinematic image. High shutter speeds are intended for very specific things, and they should be avoided most of the time. Using a proper ND filter will avoid the choppy look of high shutter speeds.

Cinematic Look

Filming at 24 frames per second for 90 percent of the wedding day will yield a more cinematic look. Intentional storytelling does not rely too heavily on slow motion to elevate the story. Slow motion has become kitschy and overused in wedding videography. It's trendy and will probably look outdated and ridiculous in 20 or 30 years. It won't be timeless and will be obvious that the wedding was filmed during a certain time period

Building suspense

Telling things out of sequence and utilizing the power of voice over can help build suspense for the couple's unique story. 

Why Film Your Projects with a DSLR

To achieve a film look, DSLR's are the closest thing you can get, unless you have $50,000 in your back pocket to buy an Alexa digital cinema camera that is used by some of today's best directors, because it mimics the natural look of film better than most of it's contemporaries.

The cinematic look, partially created by shooting at 24 frames per second looks much smoother and more organic.  Many newer camcorders do offer 24 FPS shooting, but they consumer camcorders don't yet offer the sensor and lens capabilities in a larger camera.

Shallow depth of field is seen everywhere in professional cinematography, from blockbuster Hollywood films, to indie films, to current TV commercials.  DSLR's paired with f/4 or faster lenses can provide shallow depth of field that looks like something shot for the big screen.

Low light filming that was not possible prior to 2008, continues to get better each year with DSLRs.  Full frame sensors are the best option, and can be had for about $2,000 and up if buying a new camera.  Sony and Canon have been offering great full frame camera options.  However, several other companies compete with them, so in a few years, Nikon or Panasonic may offer something even more appealing.

Color profiles will allow you to shoot your footage flat (less color saturation and lower contrast), allowing you to fine tune the look of your project during editing.

Manual settings set DSLRs apart from prosumer camcorders.  Aperture, ISO, Shutter Speed, and Mic recording level can all be controlled in full manual mode.

DSLR cameras with full frame sensors can shoot footage that still looks great at 3200 ISO, something that wasn't possible before 35mm size sensors became affordable and Canon democratized them with the Canon 5D Mark II in late 2008.

See the benefits visually of DSLR Filmmaking in this tutorial.

Kylin Stabilizers - affordable camera gimbal

An IndieGoGo Campaign this spring offered a Gimbal for lightweight DSLR and mirrorless cameras for only about $200 + shipping. Now that the campaign has ended, the cost of the gimbal has jumped to $350 for the base system that can support cameras up to 1300g or 2.87 lbs.  According to their IndieGoGo Campaign page selling the gimbal, it is "compatible with almost all mirrorless digital cameras on the market, as well as mobile phones, action cameras and even some models of DSLR cameras."

Here's a feature comparison of both the regular Kylin M and the Kylin Pro gimbal systems:

Kylin M Cost (April 2018): $349 for base system (shipping is $48 to the U.S.).

Kylin Pro cost (April 2018): $599

Weight of Canon 6D setup

My Canon 6D lens setups and their weight:

These setups include the weight of the memory card and battery.  Yes, it's small, but it matters when balancing a camera on a gimbal or stabilizer.

Canon 6D body only (with memory card and battery)
26.8 oz. (760g)

Canon 6D with 50mm f/1.4 lens

Canon 6D with 24-105 f/4 lens:

Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens ($330 version)
10.23 oz (290 g)

?? - * with UV filter

Canon 24-105mm f/4 (version made before 2016)
1.47 lb (670 g)  [B&H Photo]
27.820 oz. (788.6g) [Ken Rockwell]


The total weight determines which gimbal systems can be used to effectively support the camera.


Other items to consider when weighing your camera rig:

Lens filters
Shotgun mic

How to Sepia Tone in Premiere

Premiere CC offers several ways to give an old style, or old film look to your footage and color grade it to have a sepia effect.

Tint Effect

From the Effects Panel:

Video Effects > Color Correction > Tint
Choose a color to Map Your Blacks
Choose a color to Map Your Whites

Lumetri Looks

Effects Panel

Lumetri Looks > Style > Back in the Day

Drag this onto a clip (or an Adjustment Layer above your clips, if you want to apply the effect to several clips on your timeline).

A+ and Other IT Certifications

A+ is the go-to certification you can get if you're looking to go into IT.  It's the whole backbone of IT; the best and broadest certification you can get.

There's tons of material to study because it covers so much.

What is the exam like:
The entire exam is a multiple choice test.

Topics on the test:
* How different IPs work
* Sound options



Exam prices from the leading A+ certification group

Learn Essential Exposure Control and Movie Shooting Concepts

Aperture (also called F/stop)

Shutter Speed




ISO



An introduction to why DSLRs are special for shooting video:

Topics:

* 24 frames per second (cinematic look)
* Shallow depth of field
 

Nikon D7000 and D600 Aperture Adjustment in Video Movie Mode Workaround

The Nikon D7000 and D71000 cameras have an annoying flaw that prevents users shooting video from changing the aperture for video/movie shooting in Live View Mode. There are two possible workarounds for this:

1.  Go out of Live View, adjust the Aperture, then go back in Live View.

2. Switch from Live View in Movie Mode to Live View in Photo Mode, make your Aperture Adjustments, and then go back to Movie Mode.

The reason the camera cannot change the aperture is because it lacks an extra motor (that their expensive flagship camera do have) that allows the feature to work.

This same design flaw also affects the Nikon D300s and Nikon D600 cameras.

High Energy TV commericals

Patagonia 30 second TV commercial


REI
"We Are"



REI Ski and Snowboard


REI Get Out and Play

How to get Smooth Handheld Video Footage

To get smooth video footage from DSLR's there are a few techniques that don't require any additional money.

• Use in-camera stabilization. Many cameras (not Canon and Nikon), including Sony and Panasonic mirror-less DSLR's have in-body stabilization that can really improve hand-held footage without any additional editing or software
• Walking like a ninja. Step on your toes and heels lightly to avoid getting excessive up and down shake in your footage.
• Process footage with Warp Stabilizer. Use the Warp Stabilizer effect in Premiere Pro set to 5-20% to make your regular footage smoother.

Negative Fill | Cinematography lighting technique

Negative fill uses non-reflective material like black cloth or Duvetyne to reduce the amount of light hitting one part of the subject. See another video example of how negative fill works to add more contrast to a subject.

Professional LED Light Panels for under $300

Neewer LED 500 Ultra High Power Dimmable Video Light with Built-in LCD Panel with Remote Control
$130-140
Mounts to a tripod
Color temperature is adjustable from
Remote control operation
Adjustable brightness (light output) from 10-100%.

Neewer Dimmable Bi-color LED with U Bracket Professional Video Light

$95-110
Mounts to a light stand with the included U Bracket.
Tilt adjustments
Color temperature adjusts from 3200-5600k
Includes a travel bag
CRI 96+ (provides truer color than cheap LED light panels)






Softboxes for LED lights
Use these reduce harshness and provide a high-end look for video interviews on a low budget.

Kamerar D-Fuse Large LED Light Panel Softbox: 12"x12" Opening, Foldable, Portable Diffuser
$30
This is "Amazon's Choice" for LED softboxes as of October 2017.
This LED softbox was a related item when looking at the above LED panels.
As of 10/24/17 it has 4.1 star rating and 28 reviews on Amazon.
A customer review from 8/27/17 confirms that this fits the Neewer light with the barndoors.




There's also a larger LED softbox made by Neewer that fits their 600 and 650 LED light panels.

Neewer LED Collapsible Softbox for LED 650 600 Light Panels, Foldable, Portable Diffuser
$27
Outer dimensions: 20 x 20 inches
Inner dimensions: 11 x 11 inches

Better Workflow with Timecode Stamps on B-Roll

To allow clients and team members to give you precise edits on where to change cuts and music, place timecode on your footage.

The easiest way to do this without having to nest footage or calculate an offset, is to create a Transparent Video clip with the timecode effect on the clip and place it on the highest layer above all your clips.

Go to File > New > Transparent Video.

Place the Transparent Video clip on your timeline in a new layer above all of your other footage and extend it for as long as you would like the timecode to appear.

Select the clip, and from the Effects pane, drag on the Timecode effect.

Change the Source dropdown to 'Clip' and your timecode should match up with the whole sequence.

High End Realtor Introduction Video - Chip James

Chip James Features

• - stabilized camera movement (1:05 Chip walking into his office)
• - only shows Chip for brief moments
• - just under 2 minutes
• - slider shots
• - title branding
• - shows his family and kids laughing
• - ECU shots of his face
• - over the shoulder shot
• - two shot (mom wraps her little boy in a towel and then it cuts in closer, completing the action)
• - branding at the end is layered on above an out of focus shot of Chip working at a coffee shop.

Technical:
- starts talking at 2 seconds
- branding at the end shows for 6 seconds

Slow storytelling and human B-Roll

360 Church Story with Darci Banter

360 Stories: Darci Banister from 360 Church on Vimeo.

Features: Low Drone shots showing Darci running (multiple angles to allow several cuts) Slow motion drone shots Cross fades (1:00, 4:26) Tilt camera from high to low. Two cameras during the interview Left to right camera movement (2:27) Beautiful wide environment shot (3:54) Circular camera movement (4:40) Slow tempo music matches the length of the shots (some are 4 and 5 seconds long) Technical: - Branding is 5 seconds long (has audio branding) - First voice audio does not come in until 11 seconds. - no branding at the end - Almost all transitions are cross-fades (except one or two) - Cross fade style seems to match the music

Original Questions to Ask During Author Interviews

50 Brilliant, Original Questions to ask an Author - Bookfox

Start with Why....then:

Who is your audience and why will they care about the story and the characters? How has the book evolved during the creation process? How has writing this book changed your life? --- 11. Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly? 14. If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be? 26. What does literary success look like to you? 29. Do you view writing as a kind of spiritual practice? 46. What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?

Learn How Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO Work Together in Photography

A Pocket Guide to Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO in action.



Using Manual Mode: Exposure Lesson #4
- why manual mode is important for landscape photography and long-exposure photography

Getting off Auto - Manual, Aperture and Shutter Priority modes explained

• what each of the A (Av), S (Tv) and M modes are, a definition of each
• what types of situations I would choose each of them and why
• some advantages of A (Av) and S (Tv) over manual
• some advantages of Manual and when it’s the only choice

John Freeman's Guide to Slow Shutter Speeds

Metering Modes Explained

5 Tips for shooting better Beauty Videos - Boom Video

Today's Best Cinematographers

Emmanuel Lubezki

The Revenant

Birdman

The Tree of Life

Children of Men

Rodrigo Prieto

Silence

Argo

State of Play

Babel

Brokeback Mountain

Amores Perros

Greig Fraser

Lion

Rogue One

Foxcatcher

Zero Dark Thirty

Killing Them Softly

Bradford Young

Arrival

Selma

A Most Violent Year

Pawn Sacrifice

Ain't Them Bodies Saints

Linus Sandgren

La Lan Land

Joy

American Hustle

Upcoming films with these cinematographers

Song to Song
Directed by Terrance Malick and cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki
Ryan Gosling, Natalie Portman, Rooney Mara, and Michael Fassbender

Mary Magdalene

Directed by Garth Davis (Lion) and cinematography by Greig Fraser (Lion).
Rooney Mara, Ariane Labed, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Joaquin Phoenix

Best DIY Video Gear and How to Build It

$15 DIY steadicam in 15 minutes!

by Indy Mogul

5 minute video

For a $15 build the footage is very good and would allow you to get running shots and other moving shots that are otherwise impossible without a stabilizer.

How to Make a Professional Camera Slider

by DIY Perks
15 min. video
(more professional and flexible than the $10 Film Riot DIY Camera Slider.)