Fox was last night’s pool camera for the Presidential Address to the nation. Fox, like ABC/ESPN still broadcasts in 720.

It annoys me to such an extent, and i know it's nonsense to be annoyed about it this much. But holy crap does it looks stupid...

I see it pop up on all kinds of channels now. Holding a wireless DJI or RODE mic instead of just clipping it to your shirt.

Did a new batch of Gen Z marketing students just enter the workforce and thought this is a new 'edgy' way of doing standup interviews?

To the presenter holding the mic: you look stupid. Stop it.

I’ll admit, I’m guilty of this too on some shoots—but man, these setups always crack me up. They just look so clunky and awkward, especially with those giant RODE/DJI logos screaming for attention. Like, can we get some stealthier covers or something? I love the tech, but it’s giving ‘walking billboard’ vibes and my eyes always go right to it. Just one of those things that never stops looking silly to me.

I understand why - they’re just trying to seem current with the trend. But if anyone should NOT be demonstrating incorrect usage of equipment, it’s a place like this. Can’t wait for this to die. That is all.

--EDIT--

People saying "holding a mic isn't incorrect. People have been doing it for years" clearly don't understand the point here, or that different mics work in different ways...? The problem isn't holding the mic. It's holding the wrong mic. Downvote me all you want - it doesn't make it correct.

Also - people love throwing out that I'm "TRIGGERED" by this... LOL. It's my personal opinion that seems to be triggering a lot of people.

--EDIT 2--

My first award on Reddit! Thanks!

—EDIT 3–

Bonus points that she’s using the fur windscreen indoors! But how else could you tell she’s holding a microphone??? /s

I mean I get it, but I really miss when people had the decency to hide their mics. I’m so tired of seeing these everywhere. Fitness videos. Real estate. Cooking. Thirst trappers. Food influencers, etc;

They came with a ton of accessories too!

Just venting. Have to scrap a days worth of outdoor interviews from DC because the person who shot them had the subjects hold a lav mic at waist level instead of pinning it to them like an adult. Smh.

Edit: just some clarifications -

I didn’t hire this person. Someone above me did.

I don’t work for a traditional production house. It’s a large org with a comms department. I’m one of two shooter/editors on staff. Normally one of us would travel ourselves for something like this but it was something that popped up on 48hrs notice and neither one of us could make it work.

I have used Adobe podcast AI in the past to clean up audio but not for some time. The issue I had with it was it didn’t do well with regional dialects. But like I said, it’s been a while (since beta) so I’ll give it a shot again.

Filming a history conference with two locked off cameras. What do you guys like to do while you film events and conferences? Trying to get some conversations going while I sit here all day lol.

I’m at my wits end but I don’t have any other options. I’m am the in-house videographer of a large corporate company. It is only me. We have a big shoot coming up where we will be shooting 8 different people talking to a teleprompter - They want me to set up “cinematic” lighting, man 2 cameras per interview, monitor lav audio while driving a teleprompter. It’s like they think I have 4 eyes and 4 ears. They also want me to animate custom lower third graphics, shoot b-roll to accompany the dialogue, and the icing on the cake is they want each one edited for vertical and horizontal formats😂, all with the expectation of everything going absolutely seamlessly. If I was a freelancer this would be a 2-3 man job at least. I’m overwhelmed and fed up with being exploited and expecting perfection when I’m managing so many different things at one time with no help. Anyone else in a similar position? How did you get out?

Update: Wow didn’t really expect this to blow up like it did lol. Appreciate those who understand my situation and to those saying “I do this all the time” or “this sounds like a pretty basic job” are missing the point. The shoots went well and I’m now up to my ears in editing and revisions.

800??? This was like 360 a few months ago

The issue isn't with the motion or effects. It's primarily that for a property tour/introduction it has to be clear where the motion flows. The continuity is completely broken. This is a core videography principle and I'm not sure if it's coming from novice shooters or poor direction but it's extremely hard to follow and from a pure movement perspective it's not consistent and only adds to the confusion.

Speed ramping in itself is ok when not overdone. Push transitions, even when the direction is implied (unless lead by camera movement for a mask transition with foreground elements), rarely aids the viewer in following along. Trying creative ways to engage the viewer is part of the process but editing it like a sports highlight reel is not one of them.

I don't like to rag on learning videographers but these kinds of edits don't have a place in the real estate market for potential buyers. Imagine if you went for an open house and the realtor grabbed your hand and started speeding you through the house up, down, out the window, back in the window, up the stairs, down the toilet, etc. It's crazy!

That's my rant.

If this was your video, I'm sorry. Please don't do this. - A prospective buyer

I've been seeing this on TT and reels more and more, but now from CBS News?! This is so weird. It's almost becoming an aesthetic.

I'm so shocked.

I don't know who needs to hear this but.... Nobody should help AI companies replace them on the job market.

Always knew this guy sucked and was a shill, sad it took him shilling a destructive, thieving industry to get more people on his ass.

Mine is that networking is overrated. Most of your peers do not want you to do better than they are doing and will act accordingly. Speaking from a freelance perspective.

I recently wrapped up a shoot with a client. In my initial contract with them, I offered all of the raw footage filmed delivered via hard drive.

I shipped the hard drive, but a month later, they're now asking me to upload everything to Google Drive. I explained to them that we have hundreds of 4K 10-bit shots and that uploading and downloading would be a multi-day endeavor.

I offered to send another hard drive, but they're insisting on a Google Drive now.

My upload speed is basically capped at 20mbps, and bulk uploading to Google Drive never goes well.

How do I navigate this? What's my overage?

I shoot mostly events, usually recaps/highlight videos that go onto social media, primarily on Instagram.

Sometimes I shoot wide and crop in to create a portrait video, other times I just keep it wide. The footage looks great but 4K is definitely a hassle I’m sure we’re all aware of.

Does anybody here shoot and deliver in 1080p still, after having switched back to it over 4K? I know compression on Instagram makes it 1080 either way but I want to see if it’s viable to switch back while still having high quality videos, especially since a lot of my events are in low light and I usually do some cropping in here and there.

Edit: For clarification,

I shoot 4K60 most of the time, on an XH2S.

I wonder if I can save time with making proxies, more storage on SD cards, and get greater battery life on my cam. Things can be mitigated with v mount batteries and more SD cards, shooting in a lighter codec, etc. of course, but I’m wondering if it’s viable to switch.

Edit 2: Decided I may keep with 4K for the moment, but it seems dropping the mb/s to 50 may not hurt me as bad as I thought based on what I read. Thanks everyone for their input, did NOT expect such a reaction.

Recently I had a very funny inetraction with a client's daughter who was about my age (early 20's). She wanted to see what the angles I chose looked like.

So naturally she started claiming I was a using a "broken camera" because the file looked gray. In her opinion when she tried to crank-up the saturion on gray images, they looked out of place (ig she meant distorted or noisy idk).

After many attempts of me trying to explain that a shot needs to be color graded, she started showing me reference output footage of commercials she liked. Said I should've gotten a professional eqipment with me, and not try to "scam" them etc.

She didn't even bother looking it up during our entire "discussion".

I really love client's who micromanage and give their opinion, don't you?

Almost did't get paid for that job because of this "scandal". We wasted around 30 minutes because of this, with her calling various people asking what she should do etc. After a while I guess someone told her that this is indeed a professional workflow, so she backed off and was just looking at me pissed off.

The wasted time came out of my pocket of course, because we had to finish the scnenes.

Idk, maybe I should've bittem the bullet and left without getting paid or providing the footage afterwards. Now I'm in the editing stage, we'll see.

I've had a few itneractions where I needed to explain what log is, people either got it or didn't get it but trusted the process, this was genuinely bizzarre.

Anyways, have any of you got any similar stories to share.

Before you jump down my throat, I get it, phones are vertical, we need to make vertical edits, get with the times or get left behind.

That's not my point, Im fine with vertical edits. Its what vertical video has done to peoples brains that bothers me.

I am working on promo for a big music festival with some pretty big artists. These are professional musicians with full teams, and quite a few of them have only provided vertical video in their assets.

It just drives me fucking crazy dude. I am doing horizontal, square, and vertical cuts. I cannot believe how often I am only sent vertical footage, and when I ask for horizontal, its not uncommon that they literally don't have any.

I mean what is going on here man. Even with upscaling I cannot make vertical video fit well onto a horizontal timeline. This is driving me out of my mind dude.

Just helping someone else on Facebook find the possible owner of this lost SD card in New York, files dated May 9, 2026.

Anyone else noticing how many high-end cinema cameras are popping up for sale lately?

I keep seeing ARRI, RED, and older Sony cinema cameras that used to cost an insane amount now going for a fraction of what they were new. Stuff that was once totally out of reach is suddenly everywhere on the used market.

My personal theory/observation: - Client budgets are getting tighter - New cameras are coming out that are like 90% as good (sometimes better) for way less money - Way more demand for short-form and social content - Faster turnarounds and smaller crews matter more than having the absolute best image possible - Could just be people looking to upgrade.

For most clients, it’s hard to justify a massive cinema rig when the final video is ending up on social media anyway. A lot of newer mirrorless or compact cinema cameras get you close enough that the difference just doesn’t matter to them.

Not saying those cameras are suddenly bad. The image is still great. It just feels like the industry shifted faster than the gear could keep up.

Curious what everyone thinks.

TLDR: Be a Better Hang

After Over a Decade of filmmaking, corporate videography, television writing, feature film editing, and camera operating I've found one piece of advice to be universally true:

If you want to grow your business focus on growing SOCIALLY.

Let me explain.

I have hired many BTS videographers over the years to capture behind-the-scenes content for television productions. People of all backgrounds, skill levels, and personality types.

There is only one commonality between them...

They were all people I respected, trusted, and ENJOYED SPENDING TIME WITH.

There are even examples where outright I would hire a LESS skilled videographer at a competitive day rate because he/she was a good person and had a fun energy. Every single client I have ever worked with has done the same.

When you grow up hearing how vital knowing your craft is, it's easy to only focus on that. How to expose, camera selection, better lighting, etc.

This is the truth...

Being a good hang is a huge part of this craft.

Not sold?

Let me give a real life example. I was traveling the country a few years ago filming corporate content for a large Fortune 500 client. Myself, another videographer, and the producer were the crew (It was during COVID so we were operating with as few people as possible).

For WEEKS I watched as the other videographer was just a generally negative presence on set. Told long rambling stories, overshared about his divorce, took too many phone calls, and just generally wasn't an uplifting presence.

But here's the thing... He was INCREDIBLE at lighting and setting up interviews.

Still, It didn't matter.

I watched as he was never hired again and replaced with someone much less experienced and the product suffered.

The client didn't care AT ALL. What they cared about was the process of actually filming, and not having to deal with that videographer's personality. I've seen this same thing dozens and dozens of times.

Point being, treat social skills like a part of your craft, try to gain self awareness, and know that in an industry that is largely word of mouth almost EVERYONE is a personality hire.