Director of photography Art Adams knew he wanted to look through cameras for a living at the age of 12. After ten years in Hollywood working on feature films, TV series, commercials, music videos, visual effects and docs he returned to his native San Francisco Bay Area, where he currently shoots commercials and high-end corporate marketing and branding projects. When Art isn’t shooting he consults on product design and marketing for a number of motion picture equipment manufacturers. His clients have included Sony, Arri, Canon, Tiffen, Schneider Optics, PRG, Cineo Lighting, Element Labs, Sound Devices and DSC Labs. His writing has appeared in HD Video Pro, American Cinematographer, Australian Cinematographer, Camera Operator Magazine and ProVideo Coalition. He is a current member of the International Cinematographers Guild, and a past active member of the SOC and SMPTE.
Art Adams provides an overview of the Video Devices PIX series of video recorders at NAB2015. https://vimeo.com/161048659 Learn more about the PIX series at videodevices.com.
2014 is the year I acquired an agent, and just in time: I’m awful at negotiating. I hate the process and the games. I’d rather just get on with the work. Now it’s out of my hands, but I have a few tricks I can pass on if you’re interested… I’m still not quite sure how I acquired an agent.…
It shouldn’t be possible, but I tried it and it works. But why? A while back I was chatting with a local DP, who also happens to own a nearby rental house, and the subject of the Sony FS7 came up. I told him I was pretty excited as it came with Sony’s LC709 Type A “Alexa emulation” LUT built…
Since the beginning of film, cinematographers have sought to assign their own speed ratings to film. The same is now true of video cameras. I don’t know how manufacturers do it, but here’s how I do it… Mostly I employ witchcraft. It really does feel like that sometimes. There’s no objective method that I know of that allows me to…
Does a camera’s ISO setting actually represent reality? Maybe. Here’s a way to test it using a gray card and a calibrated light meter… It’s important to see if a camera’s ISO is actually what the manufacturer says it is. I’m not talking about taste in noise, but whether the camera and a calibrated meter will actually agree. This is…
Ever wonder why cameras with the same ISO can look so different? Yeah, me too. There’s no easy answer as to why. When I started out as a young camera assistant I remember working on a low budget feature film that shot on Fuji film stock to save money. (Fuji was popular partially due to its look, which tended to…
I’ve always wanted to test a camera’s dynamic range by beautifully lighting a room using one punchy light placed outside a window. I finally got my chance. When RED released the Epic with HDR I eagerly sat through their “Red Dragon” promotional NAB screening, waiting for an amazing image that would show me how this technology would forever change my…
A famous DP once told me, “Never say no.” I suspect this is the best possible way to have a glorious career, but I don’t think it’s always appropriate. Here’s what I do… Directors are applied psychologists. They have to communicate a vision to a wide assortment of diverse craftspeople and get actors to perform in just the right way…
The FS7 is an amazing camera for the price, but sometimes I wish that I could pay a little more and get the camera I really want. Here’s what I discovered while using it on a recent shoot… One of my regular clients likes shooting with Canon C300s: they’re small, cheap and great for doc-style shooting, which is what we…
I’ve now seen “Interstellar” projected digitally in a multiplex as well as in 70mm OmniMax. They were very different experiences. Here’s what I noticed… It’s a weird thing to sit in a theater and think, “This may be the last time I see film projected like this.” Adam Wilt said this very thing as we sat together in the San…