first time shooting 16mm, need some advice

[HObbES]

hey there

this is my first post. basically, i've been a digital filmmaker for a few years now, and apart from a 2 minute piece i shot on 16mm, i haven't had any experience with working on film. anyways, i'm shooting my final film at filmschool on 16mm, and I've been practicing loading mags and stuff like that, brushing up on my light meter practice, so what im asking for is some advice on texts, or things i can go out and do in the next couple of months before the 7 day shoot. it's for a 10 minute short film. i need lighting advice mostly. since im used to digital, my lighting is generally minimal, and i open up the iris all the way, but the film camera (aaton) i'll be using goes to 3.5 f stop

what i find is that i light the scene the way i want, but the readings on the lightmeter are too low, so i need a way to take the brightness of everything up. not quite sure how to do that. but yeah, any advice would be greatly appreciated, i'm nervous about it, and i'd really like to be prepared. thanks a lot.

[John Pytlak RIP]

You don't give many details of the scenes you are trying to shoot.

 

But taking Kodak VISION2 500T Color Negative Film 7218 as an example, you would need about 30 footcandles for a normal exposure at f/3.5 with tungsten illumination:

 

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/products...4&lc=en#exptung

 

Some underexposure can certainly be tolerated, if you are willing to accept some loss of shadow detail, or less dense blacks in a print. Push-processing may compensate somewhat.

 

Lots of good information is on the Kodak website:

 

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/products...0.1.4.4.4&lc=en

 

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/support/h2/

 

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/support/h1/exposure.shtml

 

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/support/h1/structure.shtml

 

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/students...0.1.4.9.6&lc=en

[Mitch Gross]

Not entirely sure what you're asking. If it is not bright enough then you need more light. Are you sure the minimum stop on the lens on the camera you're to use is a T3.5? That's very, very slow. It must be ancient. Even the original Zeiss 10-100 zoom went to T3. Perhaps your answer partially is in a better lens.