Dave T Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 Hey guys, I'm going to add some scenes to a pre-existing short film I directed 2 years ago. I have never shot(dp'd) on film, so I'm alittle hesitant. question 1. should I use the lightmeter within camera, or go rent a spot / incident meter ? It feels so strange relying on the camera which i will have to pick up and hold next to my subjects face to get a reading ... question 2. i am going to project some images (of the existing footage) on the interior walls of a garage at night -- then shoot simultaneously new action. Will the projector work against walls/floor/ceiling without a white screen ? will the images be viewable? question 3. Whats the deal with this 85b filter ? question 4. can you recomend some good daylight balanced film stocks ? I'm shooting in a low light environment -- and 8mm needs so much light -- but I can't find any ASA over 50 ... am I missing something with the stats of 8mm as compared to say 16 or 35 where 500 stocks are readily available ? thanks if anyone can help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Tuohy Posted March 3, 2007 Share Posted March 3, 2007 Hey guys, I'm going to add some scenes to a pre-existing short film I directed 2 years ago. I have never shot(dp'd) on film, so I'm alittle hesitant. question 1. should I use the lightmeter within camera, or go rent a spot / incident meter ? It feels so strange relying on the camera which i will have to pick up and hold next to my subjects face to get a reading ... question 2. i am going to project some images (of the existing footage) on the interior walls of a garage at night -- then shoot simultaneously new action. Will the projector work against walls/floor/ceiling without a white screen ? will the images be viewable? question 3. Whats the deal with this 85b filter ? question 4. can you recomend some good daylight balanced film stocks ? I'm shooting in a low light environment -- and 8mm needs so much light -- but I can't find any ASA over 50 ... am I missing something with the stats of 8mm as compared to say 16 or 35 where 500 stocks are readily available ? thanks if anyone can help Q1: if you haven't shot with the camera before you MUST shoot a test roll and callibrate the camera to the light meter - whether it be the camera's light meter or an external one. Use both. This is assuming you are shooting reversal film. Even if you are shooting neg, I would shoot a test roll with reversal for the purposes of callibrating your meters/camera. If it feels funny to use the camera that way (as a light meter) then don't do it, just make sure whatever you do use you have callibrated. There is nothing inherently wrong with using a super8 camera's meter. Only you must remember that these meters are somewhat old now and may have drifted, stoped working, or whatever. That said, most good camera's meters are still working fine. Only a test roll will tell you what it is doing however. You might decide that you want to add or subtract a little from its metered reading. whatever. It needs to be pointed out that when using a hand held meter with a super 8 camera, you can't just set the meter to the framing speed (24fps or whatever) you are using. Each super 8 camera looses a different amount of light as it splits the light for the viewfinder, then splits it for the meter, etc. They also have different shutter speeds to each other. That's why you must shoot a test. Q2. Probably, though it will be very dim. Use the brightest projector you can get (200W GS1200 by elmo maybe) combined with the fastest stock you can get. You really will find that you will be pushing to get enough light out of the projector to film its image even with a screen if the image is of any size. Q3. All super 8 cameras have an internal 85a filter that can be switched in or out. This filter is designed for shooting tungsten film under daylight. (85a was for type 'A' tungsten film. The current Ektachrome 64t super 8 is a Type 'B' film and needs the 85b - theoretically). If you are shooting on a daylight stock in daylight, you have to have the camera's internal filter switched out. This means putting it in the counter-intuitive 'tungsten' position. With S8 camera's 'tungsten' = 'no filter'. Q 4. Depends if you are talking reversal film or neg. Pro8mm make a whole range of colour neg stocks available in S8 - including some daylight balanced ones. For reversal, there are only 2 choices for colour: Ektachrome 64t and Ektachrome 100d. The 100d is the fastest daylight reversal stock around. It can readily be exposed and processed as 200d (d for daylight). Its a much better stock than the 64t. Pro8 sell the 100d, as do Witner in Germany. Its not put in S8 by Kodak directly. Kodak themselves only supply 64t (rev), 200t and 500t (neg) as colour super 8 stocks. Richard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Mester Posted March 3, 2007 Share Posted March 3, 2007 Hi Dave, the HTTP Links below will help you further. Don't use the Camera's Light Meter / Auto Aperture for Film Speeds higher than 64 ISO. Basically, only Fuji's Velvia 50D and Kodak's Ektachrome 100D are a good low-speed Daylight Film. They're available from Spectra Film & Video and Pro8mm. Filming a projection won't work unless the Shutter on the Projector (for the plate image) is calibrated to the Camera's Shutter. INFO FOR SUPER8 NEWBIES You can find useful info on Super8mm by clicking the Threads linked below. If you would like to record Sound with your filming, log onto the Website www.geocities.com/filmanddigitalinfo which provides info on recording synchronous Sound. Good luck to you. http://www.cinematography.com/forum2004/in...showtopic=20597 http://www.cinematography.com/forum2004/in...showtopic=20645 http://www.cinematography.com/forum2004/in...showtopic=20939 http://www.cinematography.com/forum2004/in...showtopic=20634 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave T Posted March 4, 2007 Author Share Posted March 4, 2007 ya I rented a ELMO 1012S camera and an Elmo projector ... so if my origional 16mm film which im projecting is 24fps and I shoot the projected images at 24fps on 8mm there should not be a problem ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Mester Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 so if my origional 16mm film which im projecting is 24fps and I shoot the projected images at 24fps on 8mm there should not be a problem ? Having both the Projector and Camera run at 24 f/s is not the only consideration. It is necessary that the Shutter in the Projector be synchronized to open at the exact same time that the Shutter opens in the Camera, or otherwise filming a projected image won't work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Alessandro Machi Posted March 5, 2007 Premium Member Share Posted March 5, 2007 Hi Dave, the HTTP Links below will help you further. Don't use the Camera's Light Meter / Auto Aperture for Film Speeds higher than 64 ISO.... Yes, but there are workarounds. It's not that hard to learn how far off the automatic metering system is and then compensate accordingly in the manual mode. This method is rather easy to figure out. The time when this idea will not work well is when the automatic exposure meter is pinned either all the way open or all the way closed, in which case it's more difficult to to know how far off the meter actually is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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