Billy The Magician - Shot on Sony FX3

His hoodie was cinched tight the first time I met Billy. Peter, the owner of Flatsix Classics, told me Billy was a magician and could bring old Porsches back to life with his handmade bodywork. This was during a separate video we had done back in early 2021. Fast forward a few months and we decided to tell Billy’s story. His shop is tucked away, no sign, no advertising so you can imagine Billy wasn’t entirely keen on getting filmed and interviewed. Peter somehow convinced him and over the course of a few days we put this piece together with very minimal gear.

The reason for running a slim setup was threefold. Number one, when you’re filming someone who’s not entirely comfortable in front of the camera, the last thing you want to do is pull out massive lights and modifiers with a crew. Number two, I wanted to see if I could do it. I wanted to see if I could film something that felt rich and premium without a production team that was rich and premium. And finally, the fact that this was an unsponsored video for a tiny channel on Youtube means any cost was coming out of my pocket, so necessity was a motivating limitation.

Luck was also on my side because we also had Trevor agree to participate. Trevor is the owner of a recently finished restoration that Billy played a massive role in.

Behind the Scenes and Breakdown:

I’ve learned everything I know via a pretty consistent loop. First I’m intrigued by something so I try it. Once I try it I inevitably get stuck or fail and then seek guidance from other online creators via YouTube or blogs. This will expose me to something novel and challenging which I’m intrigued by and the cycle repeats.

For what it’s worth to whoever is watching, I thought it only fair to share my own discoveries in the online pot of knowledge. What I’ve discovered is that breaking down what I did and how I did it, often serves me as I often notice steps I’ve missed along the way. This is similar to when you realize how little you know about a topic when you attempt to explain a new concept to someone else.

Sony FX3 - The Tiny Creation Machine

The Billy video was part creative project, and part experiment to see if this new camera, the Sony FX3, could speed up my workflow and simplify productions with little to no sacrifice in quality.

I share all my thoughts about the camera in the video above, but in summary - this little camera packs a mega punch and it’s been a liberating tool for video capture unlike any camera I’ve used before.

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