In curating work, and in developing art it's often that we think of the far future. Be it a result, some specific desired outcome that hasn't yet come to pass, or a sequence of events sparked by today's action. A key though is to never forget that we've only ever got the present moment in our grasp. If you can understand that you can of course plan ahead but properly indulge into the current moment and in turn very likely achieve the outcome that you seek. 

Put simply, stay present. 

Tech Specs : 
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6k
ISCO Red 2x Anamorphic
Nikkor 50mm f1.8 Taking Lens
Rapido Tech FMJ and FVD 16A.
Shot at full sensor 6k.

I had an interesting conversation with a group yesterday about the journey of healing vs maintaining and cultivating new relationships. In short it really comes down to caring. Caring enough to understand yourself and be 100% real in that. Even if that means you need to take a solo training arc.

(Shot from a music video visualizer) 
Kit used : - > ​https://www.manikkrealm.com/kit.html 

One of the more challenging things to attain is a peaceful , unfiltered self belief. It's not a matter of capability going into the future, but the ability to just accept that you're already "it". We're conditioned to seek a reflection to quantify our validity, but I don't entirely believe that it's necessary if one's motivation comes from another place.

I think it was in some table talk with a couple of business owners and rappers, but the idea was about setting different benchmarks. Personally the act of creation is completion. I learned this when painting and drawing back in art school. Essentially the piece should be finished at each stage. If you can attain this both in craft and in mind, then you'll be pretty much okay. 

Along with this post I'm sharing a bit of art that a friend and I made. It started off as a vague idea for a visual paired with a song, and then turned into something a little more. I listened to the track and storyboarded something. Aside form visuals I spend a lot of time dancing. Finding that it's a more comfortable way of expression, I choreographed a sequence of movements to represent the words of the song but also the flow of emotion. 

There are two versions. One initial and one secondary that links in spoken word as a character piece. 
The artist Desiire shared his mind state at the time. 

A year ago things were a little simpler, but this year is much clearer. 
Shot on 35mm / Kodak Gold 200 / Nikon F3 / Nikkor 50mm f1.8 

Kit:
ISCO Red 2x
Rapido FVD-16A and FMJ
Nikkor 50mm f1.8
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6k
​

Red ISCO Anamorphic 2x
Taking lens: Nikkor 50mm 1.8
Camera - Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6k ​

​Testing lenses and looks with my nephew.
Red ISCO Anamorphic 2x
Taking lens: Nikkor 50mm 1.8
Camera - Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6k (3.7k anamorphic mode) 

Walking around the city for the first time in a while. 
​Fuji X-T3 , Tokina 11-16. 

Testing a new anamorphic lens with my nephew.
ISCO Red 2x
Nikkor 50mm f1.8 Taking Lens
Rapido FMJ and FVD
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6k
#horror #cinematography #blackfilm ​

Today I assembled a blended anamorphic kit. 
ISCO Red 2x
Rapido FMJ, and FVD
​Nikkor 50mm F1.8 as a taking lens.

More to come.
Also for a full gear list , click here  ​www.manikkrealm.com/kit.html

I've recently learned what I can and can't be casual about.

When I was a teenager I heard someone much older say, there comes a point when you have to start narrowing things down. At first I thought that I could do everything, but in time i learned that it's not entirely about your wants, it's just a matter of needs.

In time I started to see that there were things that I couldn't live without, and others that gave me no energy. Among the things that I did enjoy,  a few things turned into more of an obsession. I'd find myself nerding out over image making a little more than normal. Drawing, painting, taking photos, and cinematography really stuck and I'd find myself thinking about those things on my free time. At that point it all made sense. 

There comes a point where you'll no longer be casual about a few things. A casual participant doesn't dig deep into technique, or persist to break through fringe obstacles. A casual participant doesn't study for fun.

Lately I've been thinking about the grid. The grid being the ideas that keep us on the tracks that we're moving along. 
I've been trying to figure out better ways to break patterns and make new ones. Is it rewards, is it schedules and charts, is it accountability partners? 

So far it seems to be hinged on a need. Any wants that happen to be around just don't have the same gravity. They lack the same pull. The question then becomes, how does one develop a need. Is there a rational process that one can take to shift ideas from one category into the other? 

It's like walking into a mansion and turning on lights to guide myself along the way. In part I'm already where I need to be going, in part I'm catching up to myself. 

​-MANIKK-

I decided to pick up a new camera. Something that is super solid for travel work, light and easy to port around, but also delivers some solid quality. The blackmagic pocket cinema camera 6k checked all of the boxes for my list. I've personally rigged it up a bit but it's still very portable.

It's unreal how far technology has come. As I stepped out to shoot this clip with my little bro and my nephew it made me think about how this would blow my dad away if he could see it. Grateful for him putting a cam in my hands when I was a kid. 

Side note , DaVinci Resolve has been immensely helpful. Recently I've picked up a few things to add into something of a workflow and it's proven very effective. 

If you'd like to try out this camera for yourself I'm dropping an affiliate link below. 
https://amzn.to/3fsqwwI

Also if you'd like to talk about workflow stuff feel free to drop a comment, or hit me up directly through my contact page.

Cheers,

​-MANIKK-

Overload. It's becoming more common. In the sea of information, and while using the most powerful tool that the masses have ever been given, it can at times be too much. It's not the raw potential that is too much, but the fact that information is almost becoming an echo chamber. Region to region we have to face down the issues of the era, but in knowing people who are on the same or even on opposing waves, the messages start to become repetitive. Along with this, it starts to become apparent that people are essentially yelling at clouds.
There is a clear difference between calls to action and venting.
Many times I find myself watching the equivalent of reality television unfold in the post or post-repost link through to comment sections. It's just discourse. People being mad or sad or shocked and sharing it. It has become almost automatic. This part right here is the major issue.
It's not that people aren't thinking as a whole, it's that people are only thinking about a part of the process that they're going through each day. They think about the issues, they reach their logical conclusion, and then they side with the post torrent that aligns with that view. After this they get swept up into the automatic process of spamming or parroting the ideology.
What's the danger in this? What's the harm?
The danger and harm come through in several points.
First, TIME.
We burn time in doing this. Hours and hours spent over years pushing buttons to share ideas and get an emotional spike. The clashes, the likes, the energy. It burns TIME which we will NEVER be able to get back.
Second, ENERGY.
I speak of energy in terms of polarity. When we interact with things we train our minds. We train them to habitually flow through certain routes more easily. This can be done for productive means, and destructive means. We have a limited amount of energy each day, but this can very easily be squandered. This squandering or productive use begins to add up. Energy, like time is a limited resource. If you curate the flow of this energy and you reinforce the right polarity in its use, you will see exponential gains. Your life will naturally trend to the productive and positive side. This in turn leads to a deeper sense of fulfillment.
Third, HABIT.
The repetitive hard wiring of actions can be both beneficial or detrimental. When actions slip into this automatic stage after heavy repetition, we essentially surrender all control of the active mind. Knowing which actions to put into the active and which to repeat until they become automatic will have a massive effect on your life. Professional basketball players repeat their motions so that in the heat of the game they don't have to think about how to hit a jump shot. The body simply does what it is supposed to do. If these repetitions are trained on things that are non productive or detrimental to the individual, when it counts, the person will fall automatically into doing the wrong thing. This adds up and can steer one into oblivion. (Dramatic but true)
To conclude :
If one's actions become automatic, and they drain the finite resources of time and energy , over and over again, every day , for years, the individual is essentially being robbed of their life by an automatic process. There is a solid way to avoid this. Actively limiting and at times completely removing the activities that have the potential to build up that automatic process.
A digital detoxification.
Yelling at clouds is the same as spinning wheels. It's action but it isn't a call to action.
Be conscious of where your time and energy go. Be conscious of your habits. It is great to join with allies and bring about positive change, but we must remain cautious of which actions we're actually participating in. Although something may feel productive, it's often necessary for us to step back and truly analyze what traction is actually being made.
 
- MANIKK -

It's truly a marathon. 

Not everyone has the exact same experience during this new and unusual era, though I figure I could shed some light (although I do need more sun myself) on methods I've found to keep on track during this suburban Toronto area lockdown. 

Overall it's come down to 5 major things. 

1) Setting goals - on physical paper 
When it comes to getting things done, physical and visible charts have been the most helpful to me. 
As much as I could trust my superhuman (lie) memory to perfectly catalogue every single thing that I have to do in perfect order, it's still much much easier to simply write things down, order them by number based on importance, 1 being the most essential, and then setting a due date. Due dates are extremely important 

(Short side note : When I was going through art school and trying to pick a solid study path, I always wondered why the animation students in general came out with a higher level of draftsmanship. I realized that they simply had to get more projects over the line. Deadlines coupled with a set quality standard and criteria make for a solid level up recipe. )

2) Targeting health and nutrition - without this , there's nothing to build on. 

If your body doesn't work, you lose the game. (You've already lost the game because you're aware of the game - Am I telegraphing my age?) 
Making sure to keep plenty of good clean , nutritionally balanced foods in your house, and to actually eat them and not the junk food that's conveniently placed to the left of them is essential. Also supplements are very useful ( vitamin D if you're not getting as much of that sun as you should) 

3) Scheduling rest. 
If you don't make time to just chill then you may never ever chill. It's common to want to just feel productive and think you need to be killin it 25/8 but it's not realistic. Work in cycles, rest in cycles, schedule it all. You'll thank yourself for following through on it. 

4) Taking time to learn new skills
Keep your mind fresh. There's always more to learn, but once in a while picking up skills outside of your normal range will grant you some extra peace and a bit of mental flexibility. Innovation usually comes from combining things that haven't gone together before. If you'd like to know more check out Mastery by Robert Greene. (Click through for a direct link to the book) He gives an excellent and comprehensive look into what gets people from wherever into success.

5) Aim beyond the comfort zone. - Making a note of it to punch above my weight 
I've learned that pushing the upper and outer limits of your skills is where you grow. Being comfortable is cool if you're running a money button situation ( A money button is a task that you can simply complete that generates solid revenue, as if it were a button. Low input with a reliable return) . 
If you'd like to grow and achieve something a bit more remarkable then you'll need to go beyond the normal. 
Stretch and you'll grow. 

That's it. Those are the top 5 that have helped me keep on track. 
Hopefully they'll help you out as well. 

Let me know what you're targeting over the unforeseeable future and what processes you're using to stick to it. 

Cheers, 

-MANIKK- 

I recently watched a clip by Geoff Boyle, talking about cinematography on Cooke Optics TV. I figured that it could be useful to share. 
This topic hit home for me because my upbringing was in art. Painting and drawing were my home for most of my life. 
Coming into cinematography I see the same thing.  You can forget the numbers at a point and just focus on painting the image. Make it look right. Forget the numbers and paint.  Does it look right? Are the colours right? Does it feel right? Can you understand what's happening in the context of the story? Are your eyes guided in the right place? Good. You're done. 

This is the exact method that I've used to study everything that I know for the past few years. 
The major issue with pursuit of anything is keeping the objective and efforts organized. 

I developed the idea of using a game format skill tree to chart this. 
When it hit me I was in college. I generally knew what I wanted to make but it had tons and tons of moving parts. 
Fortunately the solution was simple. I took each section in larger chunks. 

At that point it was Art , Film and Tech. 

I went to college for animation and was heavy into the art stage, but it also doubled as a little bit of a film education. 
Everything was done manually but we learned everything from pre-production to post. I knew that this would take years and years to complete but this was the method. 

THE 1ST WAVE IS FOUNDATION.

You'll need to understand what it means to do the thing. 
In art it's drafting, tone, rendering, colour, perspective ETC. Just the essentials to effectively make anything work visually. After that application of the first wave lead into specifics. Everything in the world. Organic and inorganic. Costume, clothing, was next. Last, Flair or design sense came in. After a base is established you can flip it any way you'd like. This process was then repeated for tech. I got to a certain point and understood enough to get what I needed in relation to the projected final result.  

Currently I'm on the film part of the chart. 
This is a deep avenue of study but it's getting there. 

BONUS: THE SKELETON PORTFOLIO

Along the way my ideas had been cooking and I started to make a skeleton portfolio. 

The idea of drafting the final before your skills are there to meet it is quite useful. This often includes, writing stories, premises, treatments, scripts etc. Also due to my prior experience in the art skill tree, I've been able to develop accurate concept art and storyboards for the ideas that I create. 

When you have a shell version say 5 key pieces, you have pencil sketch versions of them.
You can keep them on a closed page of your site or as a mock up somewhere. 
Over time you'll slot one of the roughs out with an updated version. 
You keep doing this until they're all done. 

After the tree is completed, you batch that tree under 1 "node" and you can either scale that idea up as an expert, 
or you can repeat the steps with other branches to develop a more complicated final skill. 

Think like an rpg, or Naruto lol. You can stack elements on top of each other to form new techniques. 


ACTIONS ! 

Go out now and make your own skill tree. 
Think of your final longer term goal. 
Break down the areas of study. 
Tackle them piece by piece starting with the raw foundation. 
Have fun! 

-MANIKK- 

Something about street photography always calls me back. 
The idea that fashion can be blended with architecture and a bit of spontaneity always carries with it a certain energy. 
For this shoot I spent some time with my friend and model Yusra Bijou. 
She styled her own look and I picked locations that would compliment it. 

The core of what I wanted to express was the air of a dancer. Although she's not one herself, the museum like elegance of the hard architectural lines matched with her pastel clothing and posture seemed fitting. 

Here are several select pieces from our outing. 

Recently I picked up a Steadicam Scout system. 
It's SDI so I've had to figure out another way to patch through an hdmi signal. 
Also this is a 2nd hand kit, and the internal sdi cable has to be replaced. 
I tested the blackmagic hdmi to sdi adapter which works well but lead me to finding out about the sled's inner workings weren't working lol. 

In the meantime I found a simple solution of running an hdmi cable around the sled itself into my atomos ninja v. 


Currently I'm running monitor power at the bottom of the stage from a v lock battery, and at the top using an anker pd26800 patched into the camera and the follow focus motor. I've added on a second smallrig clamp to slot in another anker battery just in case i'd like to power the other parts or swap quickly. 

As an additional little thing, I've mounted the wheel of my tilta nucleus n to the handle so that I can get something of a thumb wheel going. 

I've got quite a bit more to test but I'll see how it goes and post again here in the devlog.