The Artist and hi/Her Tool

[Bill DiPietra]

The money is a combination of my personal savings from past work, my occasional freelance gigs, and contributions from other members of our team, particularly my co-producer. Yes, I live at home with my parents during this interim and I'm not ashamed of that - I'm 27 :)

And you shouldn't be. You can't beat the free meals and free rent, right? ;)

[GeorgeSelinsky]

But I'm not in the John Boorman camp of "improving the performance" by dubbing (I don't think he even does that as much now). I believe that an actor's voice is part of the moment of performance, just like their expression.

There is definitely something to be said about the difficulty of recalling a performance. My more professional actors have complained about that, and I understand them. But with the right amount of work we're able to get it all back. You just have to get into it again, which takes some time and repetition. I also think one of the mistakes that I started with was having them dub dailies versus a cut scene. Cut scenes have more flow to them, they play better so the actor can play better (although looser cuts are important so they can see the beginning of a word). When just dubbing dailies its all too easy to forget what the scene is about and where it's going.

 

I know that some sound recordists are excellent and real miracle makers, but there's usually a compromise somewhere when you need to deal with noise. I don't think even the best recordist could have gotten useable sound in many of our cases.

 

I think one of the nicest things about shooting MOS is the ability to use any camera you want. You could film with a DeVry Lunchbox if you were crazy enough to (the thought has crossed my mind, as a half serious joke...)

 

Richard Lester did use a Mitchell too for AHDN, but an MOS one - from the pictures I saw. I think it was a Mark II. He did shoot a lot of sync too, and that was done with the blimped Arri I believe. The MOS scenes in the train were all done with the Arri II, using a flat base motor. He had to have the big mag dubbers (which he used for reference) in the next car of the train!

 

- G.

[Christian Appelt]

George,

 

when a Konvas sounds like you decribed it, there's a good chance that is was not lubed properly. Even some camera techs think a Konvas does not need to be lubed regularely, but that's a myth.

The trick with the noise reduction is not to use a standard filter, but to have a few seconds of camera noise from the actual take. I did a small library of CoolEdit filters with the camera running in different surroundings, like inside a car, in an empty room - only with the right ambience the filtering can work properly. Certainly, it's a limited technique, but it works most of the time.

 

And the mags, well, that's the price you pay for the quick changes. Take off mag, shove in the next, it's a matter of seconds. Loading the mags has not always to be done on location, so I wouldn't mind if it takes a little longer.

Being used to the simpler Arri mags, I can understand that one has to get used to it, but one evening practising film loading while watching TV (don't look down, I said!) will cure that forever. :)

 

How to load the dreaded Konvas magazines

 

There are many pitfalls with every kind of vintage equipment, Arri, Konvas, Eyemo or wahtever. If you want it perfectly maintained, ready-to-shoot, rent a camera. If however you like getting to know your tool down to the last spring (in the Konvas pressure plate!), it is, like the Arri, a fine machine.

 

The only weak point is the motors, that's why I advise to buy more than one. :rolleyes: