All Activity

Set A of the Atlas Orion Anamorphic lenses family. The set is in really good condition, 3 years old with moderate use. Lenses have been serviced 6 months ago. Covers S35 mode, x2 squeeze factor. Open to reasonable offers, can ship all over the world, buyers pays the cost. London based, collection ideal. UK buyers will need to add VAT on top. Pelicase included Ask me more questions if you are interested Best N LINK TO THE PICTURES

Genius Move What follows is a milestone in English storytelling history—3.2 of John Lyly’s The Woman in the Moon (1597)—and the Situation syncs up nicely with David Lynch. In 3.2, Venus the goddess of love appears onstage and infuses Pandora with sexual desire. So Pandora withdraws into the woods with adoring shepherd Stesias, a mythical moment evoking Adam and Eve “hand in hand” walking the “grassie Herbe” of Eden (PL, 9.186 / 12.648). Please recall the fourth line of the play : And wanton in their first simplicity. Pandora is a good girl of 1597, so she first requests a ritualised marriage pact in advance of the consummation. The ceremony of twenty lines that follow display Lyly’s wondrous lexical skills—and purposely so—(“Show off!”)—but the poetry is not the subject of this post. Following the impromptu marriage ceremony, the two lovers depart for earthly delights in the woods. —recalling the mystic nighttime walk of Betty and Rita hand in hand above Mullholland Dr. (2:09:14–2:10:43), because— Something miraculous happens now to the structure of Woman in the Moon—storyteller Lyly becomes a full-blown modern surrealist. * —Though with proto-anticipations such as the invisibility Situations in Odyssey, 7; and Aeneid, 1— What eventuates in 3.2 is historic in our English literature for its visionary brilliance— * Out in the woods, her body tangled up in lawful love, Pandora experiences an out-of-body experience (so to speak). Summoned by love goddess Venus, Pandora returns onstage—but not as herself, but as a spirit of herself. While Pandora’s physical body remains back in the arms of her now-betrothed love and lovingly losing its virginity, an emblem of her spirit, her ghost self, proceeds through the trees and comes to Venus— —recalling the spirit of Diane Keaton watching her mechanical self in bed in Annie Hall (42:08)— —so Pandora is in two places at once— —and guess what, the events of the second place sync up with the Situation of the first place. * At the meeting of Venus and the spirit of Pandora a second ceremony plays itself out, with Pandora’s spirit singing and dancing with the goddess of love and her two seconds, Cupid and Joculus; and what is spoken is (so to speak) of Pandora’s unconscious : [ They dance and sing ] Joculus. Were I a man, I could love thee. Pandora. Were I a man, wilt thou have me? Joculus. But Stesias saith you are not. Pandora. What then? I care not. Cupid. Nor I. Joculus. Nor I. Pandora. Then merrily Farewell my maidenhead, These be all the tears I’ll shed. Turn about and trip it. [ dancing ] * semper maior Joculus. Were I a man, I could love thee. Pandora. Were I a man, wilt thou have me? Joculus. But Stesias saith you are not. Pandora. What then? I care not. And then I . . . I was ******* other men. So many . . . I don't know how many I was with. EWS I knew she was crying not for Deborah, not even quite for herself, but rather for the unmitigatable fact that women who have discovered the power of sex are never far from suicide. And in that sudden burst of mourning, her face took on beauty. An American Dream She was a presence. She was ambiguous. She was the angel of sex, and the angel was in her detachment. For she was separated from what she offered. Mailer, Marilyn : A Biography Pandora. Then merrily Farewell my maidenhead, These be all the tears I’ll shed. Turn about and trip it. [ dancing ]

Set A of the Atlas Orion Anamorphic lenses family. The set is in really good condition, 3 years old with moderate use. Lenses have been serviced 6 months ago. Covers S35 mode, x2 squeeze factor. Open to reasonable offers, can ship all over the world, buyers pays the cost. London based, collection ideal. UK buyers will need to add VAT on top. Pelicase included Ask me more questions if you are interested Best N LINK TO THE PICTURES

Sounds like a good plan Heikki!

Thanks Dom! I just tested the lens on my ACL again and it holds focus perfectly, it's just that the infinity isn't reachable. I'll send this lens to Martin Rodensjö, he should have the know-how and necessary facilities for working on it. :)

That gave me some pretty strong acrophobia! LOL

Thanks Todd. Excellent advice. I'm a stubborn fellow and will keep trying to make a buck from filming on film. Not much of a buck. I also got into digital cinematography, having started out with the idea of specialising in real film cinematography for weddings and so on. Filming is already something I do on the side, so the money I make elsewhere is already funding my art. But, what you say about making money from vintage clip restoration does also interest me because, along the way of getting into film production, I've developed good skills in grading, editing etc. So it would be possible for me to get into vintage film clips as another side income, as you have described.

If you give customers what they want, they will return the favor with money, which will help you buy your time back to shoot whatever footage you want. It’s often a mistake to rely upon your art as a financial resource. I found that my natural desire to collect vintage automotive marketing could be turned into something that someone else would pay for (over and over). So I put my art down for awhile and put on my business hat. I’m not rich, but I’ve created a passive income stream that can eventually replace my day job. #Lifegoals!

You obviously don't work on lenses. As I just wrote, a zoom has back-focus, front focus and infinity stop adjustments, all of which can affect if it reaches infinity. A lot of people watch a youtube video and think they can fix a lens themselves, then sell it on after they've screwed it up. It could be a dodgy adapter, but then the more obvious issue would be that the zoom doesn't hold focus. Plus Heikki mentioned that he tried it on his ACL without the EF adapter and had the same problem. As an experienced tech I would never say "it's gotta be" something, because it can almost always be several things.

Thanks so much for your detailed and very helpful response! Yes, the life of the 'artist'/content creator: the eternal tension between what the creative person wants to make and what his or her audience wants to buy. My mother was a painter and won many awards but almost never sold a painting. I'd be glad to film vintage auto events. Or vintage anything events. Then sell the footage but looks like authentic vintage footage only is the one customers currently want. I'd like to do the filming myself of course 🙂

Tyler, you were initially correct. I said that I shot at the Detroit Auto Show for 20 years. That’s footage I created. It sells for packaging peanuts most of the time. As I’ve said, it’s the vintage PD films that make real money for me. I suspect that my auto show footage will age like fine wine. When it gets to be old enough, it will start to make more money as future producers use it in their news stories, documentaries, etc. The cars that I recorded are like snapshots in time and really help to illustrate the time period that they were created. It’s like vintage footage of the Ford Mustang. You know it came out in 1965, and it’s a cultural icon. Someday, my auto show footage will be vintage, and maybe I’ll live long enough to see it make some real money! BTW, your Water film restoration is outstanding. I can’t begin to guess how many hours that took. I have one partner. He and I work on my films, and they take forever to restore. Even with automatic filters in Diamant, there’s still a ton of manual labor that we put into making these films look good. Yours look great. If I uploaded that film to Getty, I would cut it up into several shots. That long tilt down shot of the waterfall would be one clip. That POV shot inside the car on the city streets would be another. And there were others as well. See how you could turn one film into many sellable clips? That’s what I’m talking about.

Jon, the monthly revenue statements tell half of the story. But it’s a pretty interesting 50%. The customers are all names that you know: CNN, Viacom, Bloomberg, Disney, BBC, you name it. I don’t know what their specific projects are, but I do know how they’re using the material. The revenue statements will reveal whether it’s for a documentary, a web-based video, educational video, commercial film, etc. Getty charges for its clips based on the size of the audience. They also charge different rates for editorial usage vs. creative usage. For instance, Jeep might make a national commercial featuring some of my vintage Jeep footage from the 1970s. I make $500 or more for each clip included in that commercial. Yet that same commercial might only sell for a few dollars when used in a CNN news story. It depends on how the footage is used. A national commercial or Hollywood film will always make me a ton of money when compared to a news story. The production companies don’t know me personally. I’m just one of many contributors to Getty Images. But I also occasionally license footage privately to documentarians who know me. For instance, I’m currently working hard to provide a ton of b-roll to the guy who is producing a PBS documentary about the history of American Motors. He and I will work out a private licensing deal that has nothing to do with Getty. It will be much more profitable than anything I do with Getty. One more tangent: yes, I specialize in automotive footage, but the films I acquire often include lots of shots that have nothing to do with cars. For instance, in a 1938 Hudson (defunct auto brand) film, there’s a montage of people tuning radios. I uploaded this random clip to Getty, and omigod, it’s been a steady seller since the beginning. Has nothing to do with cars, but producers license it over and over and over. Sometimes it makes $3 a month and sometimes $50. But it sells month after month. These are the kinds of clips you cherish. Vintage public domain films are where the stock footage money is. Go with what customers want. Not with what you want them to want.

Ohhh you said car show, I assumed you meant new stuff. Interesting. We do a lot of public domain stuff as well, we have our own scanners, wet gate system and do a lot of public domain stuff. I've little to no luck uploading to anywhere for money. Here is a sample of the kind of work we do. Mostly with a mix of wetgate, Phoenix and Resolve.

Yea it's gotta be the adaptor, doubtful the lens back focus is randomly wrong.

There is an infinity stop in the front focus mechanics that probably needs adjusting, as well as the focus scale itself if it reads infinity but doesn't focus there. If the zoom isn't holding focus as you zoom out from the long end, either the lens or the adapter need back-focus adjustment too. First step is setting back-focus, then front focus, then set the infinity stop. I'd recommend having a lens tech who knows these zooms look at it if you want it properly set up. Shouldn't be too expensive just to adjust these settings.

Mystical Sexy Theatrics In 1.1 of The Woman in the Moon, the personification of Nature, flanked by her maidens Concord and Discord, brushes aside a curtain to reveal the so-called “Nature’s shop”, from where her two handmaidens bring forth “a clothed image”—a marble statue, an inert sculpted form in human shape. Handmaiden Concord is instructed : Nature. [This] wanteth nothing now but life and soul; But life and soul I shall inspire from heaven. So, hold it fast . . . [ Concord embraceth the image ] Concord. Now do I feel how life and inward sense Imparteth motion unto every limb. And Pandora comes alive! * Rodney. Hey, everybody, we’re all gonna get laid! The Woman in the Moon has an enchanting vibe; and has incorporated into it another side of Ovid as well—the racy. The Woman in the Moon, as with Galatea, is, among its virtues, equivalent to a theatrical aphrodisiac—recalling, say, the phenomenon of couples leaving DeMille’s Cleopatra to enjoy a warm connubial evening in the winter of 1934. The four lines opening Woman in the Moon commence the titillation : Nature. Nature descends from far above the spheres To frolic here in fair Utopia, Where my chief works do flourish in my prime, And wanton in their first simplicity. wanton—as verb. One sense of wanton here is “play”; a second sense is a cue to the audience that recalls the Dangerfield bulletin ending Caddyshack. What does Scrooby mean? Please consider : Bussy D’Ambois features a King who actively promotes racy behaviour circulating around him at court. At (4.1.66), he describes the virtues of the “True Courtiers” competing to charm the court ladies : Bold but not impudent; pleasure love, not vice. Earlier, Bussy propositions a Duchess and she schools him : Bussy. I desire to be [ a courtier ] and would gladly take entrance, Madam, under your princely colours. Duchess. Soft, sir, you must rise by degrees, first being the servant of some common lady or knight’s wife, then a little higher to a lord’s wife, next a little higher to a countess, yet a little higher to a duchess, and then turn the ladder. (1.2.89–95) The Duchess’ chastisement of “Soft, sir” recalls —There’s a speed limit in this state, Mr. Neff. Forty-five miles an hour. —How fast was I going, officer? —I’d say around ninety. Please note the car metaphor—because something terrible happens in a car fifty minutes later. Something terrible? By the end of Act 1 of Woman in the Moon, the planet Saturn has intentionally degraded the mind of beautiful Pandora (through a kind-of supercelestial voodoo, the planet has injected depression into her; cf. the word saturnine); and the other planets intend to increase her debilitation. Saturn. Saturn hath laid the foundation to the rest, Whereon to build the ruin of this dame, And spot her innocence with vicious thoughts. My turn is past, and Jupiter is next. Newly-born Pandora has fled for now. How will she be saved from the planets of influence?

Looks like the rebuild turned out quite nicely

I recently bought a Zeiss 10-100mm T* f2.8 (T3.1 Arri-B mount) for use with my Eclair ACL and BMD Ursa Mini 4.6k. The lens seems to be in quite nice condition, but for some reason I'm unable to reach infinity focus. At first I was worried if this was an issue with the Arri-B to EF mount adapter I use with the Ursa, but then I mounted the lens on my ACL and the same issue is present there too. Using Optar Illumina Arri-B lenses I have no such problem. This is one of those "for use with Arriflex SR only" lenses, but there's nothing protruding from the rear. Any ideas? Just so that I don't send it to an expensive check-up just to hear that there is something non-standard to begin with with a lens like this and the issue actually is not using an Arriflex SR 😉

Thanks Todd for this excellent information. Could I ask, who would mainly be buying these vintage footage clips that you've restored? Would the clips be used in music videos for instance, or documentaries, videos on YouTube about cars? I'm genuinely curious.

I can't find any advice, on whether or not it's safe to stand the on spreaders of your basic combo stand. Anybody know if it's safe?

Thank you! It might be the chamfer. It's so close to fitting. I'll probably take it to machinist when I get back to LA.

It is a technical topic. A crystal controlled motor runs very steadily, an LED array on grid follows the mains frequency which varies all day long. Or it is electronically controlled but you don’t know to what frequency. Finally, the phases should be in coincidence so that you have the most light on film. It’s perhaps 50,006 Hz and 49,979 Hz one against the other, something like that. As I’m typing this, the grid frequency is 50,026 Hz here. https://www.swissgrid.ch/de/home/operation/grid-data/current-data.html

Lyly, The Woman in the Moon Dorothy. I’m not crazy. I know the difference between good and bad. Blue Velvet, 1:10:18 Pandora. Hail, Heavenly Queen [ Nature ], the author of all good, Whose will hath wrought in me the fruits of life, And filled me with an understanding soul, To know the difference twixt good and bad! 1.1.87–91 The M’Naughten Rule, the ancient British importation which contends that if the accused knew the nature of their act, and knew it was wrong, then they are mentally competent and responsible for their actions. Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, ch4 * Prometheus and Pandora 1. The gods conceal from us a life of perfection. Otherwise in one day easily we could change our minds for the better, rather than toiling for another year in the worst. Olympus punishes us with the drudgery of plowing fields with ox and patient mule, and the power to overcome our depravation wastes away untapped in us; for God has hidden our possible powers of mind for he would not have us be as strong as gods. Noble Prometheus deceived him and stole fire, hiding the flame in a hollow of a fennel stem, and his artfulness of thought escaped the notice of god who moves the clouds. Afterwards, however, Zeus Supreme who moves all things spoke out in anger : “Prometheus! Smarter than all the rest in thought, think yourself happy for tricking me? What you’ve done is bring misery to yourself and all those to come. Not only you but the whole world shall pay the price. So let them all be happy while they embrace death. 2. So the god of all things demanded Hephaestus to get to work, and mix together earth and water, and skillfully endue the form with human voice and strength; then mould the shape into a lovely girl of exceeding sweetness, with face of a goddess. Athena, then, will teach her the intricacies of needlework, and the weaving of webs; and golden Aphrodite shall pour down grace onto her head— but also cares and sorrows and regrets, and troubles that eat up the soul. And Zeus ordered tricky Hermes to put into the girl shamelessness and deceit. Thus was the dispensation from the son of Time, and Hermes obeyed his word; and all things happened in order. First, Hephaestus, the famous limping God, fashioned the clay into a respectful virgin. Next, bright-eyed Athena dressed her in finery. Then the joysome Graces laid necklaces of gold on her skin, which warmed the gems there; and the Horai, the beautiful-haired goddesses of the seasons, crowned her head in wreaths of flowers of spring. Then Athena returned with garments to show off the virgin’s body and breasts. Finally, Hermes came. He fashioned into her deceitful wheedling words and a wily ἦθος [ ethos—nature, character ] decreed by Zeus, master of cloud and thunder; and he put a voice into her, and the power of speech. And her name was Pandora. And all of the gods who dwell on high Olympus gave her as a misery to toil the world, just because. 3. When this deep deceit was built to perfection, Zeus sent Hermes to Epimetheus, brother to Prometheus, bringing with him Pandora and a beautiful jar fretted with gorgeous work as gifts. Now Prometheus had instructed his brother to refuse any gift of the gods, in case what looked lovely was contrived as bad death— but Epimetheus didn’t think of this at all. He received the gifts, and accepted them, and then, when it was too late, he understood what evil thing was his. Before all this happened, human beings all over the earth lived together in peace and quiet, and were free from all sickness and grievous labour and the troubles the Three Fates bring to humankind. Now bad times came to the human race, which weakened. The woman screwed the lid off the jar with her hands, and all the enemies of peace and quiet scattered on the air; and what she did brought many sorrows and miseries to us all. Back inside the jar the spirit of Hope made to fly out, but was caught under the rim of the dark jar, and did not escape through the opening, and Zeus had decided that. But the infinite miseries released on us stalk us all the time, filling up earth and air. Disease randomly strikes first one, then another, bringing to humans pain without warning, for Zeus allows dangers to wander about us silently. And there is no way to escape the will of Zeus. Hesiod, Works and Days, 42–105.

I shot film footage before in a similar situation and it flickered.