Whatever happened to Cinescopophilia? Why did the camera gear news website slow after 6,500 posts? Short answer, work and family life commitments. Long answer, Cinescopophilia never went away, it’s just been on pause. And it is time that clown G who runs Cinescopophilia to hit unpause.
Rewind to 2015. It was the year 4K had finally broken through and put the buzz of 3D in the rearview mirror. Sony had become the go to for cameras, as the company said goodbye to their near-bankruptcy era of 2012–2014. RED had debuted their DSMC2 family, ARRI announced the Alexa Mini and Alexa SXT, and a restless Cinescopophilia writer by the name of Vision Wrangler set off on a reality TV journey that would span the next seven years. Now I am one of those people that never says no to work, and when the opportunity presented itself to cover a four day driving shoot on an established tv show I said yes and hello to a new style of camera life. As it turned out, that quick four days on the road ballooned out into a 26 day saga and drama filled mongrel of a shoot. I was tested but I answered back and was rewarded with a spot on the shooting roster of the show and several other TV programmes for that company.
So it was like that, juggling travelling on the road filming a squillion reality TV shows in some of the harshest remote areas of Australia, with some trips overseas. Some shoots would be a few weeks, others a month at a time, and some longer. A quick trip home and then back on the road chasing contributors and fleshing out stories, always looking for the tent pole moments and filling in the story beats.
In my career I have always had two go-bags ready at all times. One bag for short trips and one for longer days away. When I covered news my speciality was filming and uplinking during major disasters such as cyclones, floods, fires. so I would be away filming for a couple of weeks to a month or more. I had one rule/promise that I made with my kids that I would always bring back something from the trips away, and we kept in touch mostly via messages during the day and video calls at night. It was a good balance, I found it really easy to film all day and then spend another four plus hours researching and smashing out a few gear related stories. In reality it was no different to filming from my home base. But when I started filming reality television the hours got longer and the areas I filmed in did not always have the best reception, or any at all. So getting fresh stories out became harder and harder on Cinescopophilia. I started to stress while away shooting for TV shows about all the camera and gear news I might be missing and if I was letting readers and sponsors down.
One upside, if we shot in trying conditions the crew was put up in a fancy hotel on the last few nights of the gig when we came back into civilisation. It was a reward for swagging it and sleeping on the side of the road and in flea bit motels. So in the 5 star hotel’s that is where I’d catch up on the latest camera news and gear releases and post a few stories and plan a few more blogs that could be time delayed to post while I was out of reception range again. Then there would be a quick trip home to see the wife and kids, and then it would be rinse and repeat. Really the only thing that changed for the seven years filming reality TV was which go-bag I would reach for. And the first three years up until June 2018 it was a matter of combining paid work with my passion for discovering new camera gear, writing about it and sharing it with you all. For the foundation years of Cinescopophilia I managed that balance pretty well. But it was becoming increasingly tough to be timely and I felt that I was letting the readers down by not being on top of that news cycle.
It was June 2018 and I was in the Kimberleys in Western Australia filming for a show with Outback in the title. It was a packed and eventful 18 days off the grid, no reception at all and I had just done a quick turnaround between shoots with only a couple of stories set to self publish while I was away. I had written and published just under 6,500 posts for Cinescopophilia, and for the first time since starting the website I had no way of finding new gear stories, let alone a way to publish them and get them to readers. That shoot didn’t break me, but the isolation from technology did have a huge impact on me going forward. For the first time I had no control over my commitments with Cinescopophilia and I had never been out of contact for that long with my wife and kids. I felt like I had flatlined with my commitments all around and I struggled to make sense of it.
Something had to change and it did, I began picking and choosing what shows I wanted to do, which also gave me more time with my family. What was initially going to be a few weeks away from Cinescopophilia turned into way longer than I could have ever imagines. To the loyal readers of Cinescopophilia I am truely sorry for that break.
Fast forward past the announcements of the Canon EOS R5/R6, Sony A7S III, and Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K cameras, and that dork that looked after the Cinescopophilia website started buying and selling opal for a while before taking up a position as a cinematographer for a company that specialised in timelapse. I was senior to two other cameramen and in charge of an editing team that covered the Australian market as well as a few overseas projects. It was three and a half years mainly flying drones for government, construction, mining and corporate clients. Hot tip, filming and flying drones for TV shows is nothing compared to flying for a high profile client. It is a completely different set of conditions and constraints as well as rewards. I did travel, but not as much, which gave me the time to be with and watch my kids become the free-range young adult idiots they were always destined to be and I could not be prouder.
So what now for Cinescopophilia? I started the site and ran it for the unbelievable price of $54 a year. Initially the website was a place to park my gear finds in a longer format than what Twitter allowed, and I enjoyed the feedback from people who connected with the news, the gear, and my views. Cinescopophilia costs me a lot more than $54 these days, and I still love gear news and camera manufacturers dropping new buzz word cameras. It feels right to hit the unpause button. So buckle up buckaroo, Cinescopophilia is revving up and taking off again. Starting with camera ready, crew ready, set ready t-shirts, hoodies, and hats. While I was away from the site I had an itch I could not scratch. Years of looking for a decent cameraman t-shirt that actually said something about the craft. In the end I stopped looking and started making. The result is the first Cinescopophilia Collection, built around the Best Damn Cameraman and Best Damn Camerama’am f/.07 edition. Head to the shop and have a look if that is your cup of tea.
Play hard and look good doing it.