435 xtreme,cookie lenses,4 perf stock,super 35 mm format

[deepak srinivasan]

Hi friends, i am going to work in a feature film as an assistant cameraman . The cameraman has decided to shoot the movie using "ARRI 435 XTREME CAMERA,COOKIE LENSES,4-PERF FILM STOCK & FORMAT IS SUPER 35MM .

 

I have few doubts to clear before going for shoot ,

 

questions

 

1. What is "GROUND GLASS" ?

2. What is the difference btwn "2 perf , 3 perf & 4 perf stocks" ?

3. What are special about cookie lenses ?

4. My seniors at workplace has asked me to create a "camera equipment list,Grip list , material list & Light list" for me to get knowledge about it. i wanna know how these lists will look like so can some one mail me the lists if u have pls so that i can have an idea about it ??

my mail id : s.sudarsan1989@gmail.com

 

Thanks friends pls help me with this kindly pourin your knowledge here and help me know this :)

thanks in advance

[Adam Hunt]

1. What is "GROUND GLASS" ?

It's a piece of glass that the image is projected onto via the mirrored shutter. It is usually larger than the camera's gate and marked with a box that exactly matches the dimensions of the gate and/or the area to which the final image will be cropped. Basically it's what you see when you look through the camera's viewfinder and use to frame a shot.

 

 

 

2. What is the difference btwn "2 perf , 3 perf & 4 perf stocks" ?

There is no difference in the film stock. The difference is in the camera's movement. Each frame takes up 2, 3, or 4-perfs of film stock. 4-perf is the projection standard. 3 and 2-perf a ways of economizing the amount of film you use when going through a DI or telecine.

 

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_pulldown

 

 

 

3. What are special about cookie lenses ?

I think that's a typo. He means Cooke lenses. It's a brand of motion picture lenses that a lot of cinematographers like.

 

More info: http://www.cookeoptics.com/cooke.nsf/products/products.html

[deepak srinivasan]

Thanks for your reply sir ...

let me clear my doubts about your answer

 

"ground glass is like pentaprism in still cameras" am i right ???

To shoot in super 35 should the ground glass be adjusted to suit the super 35 gate ???

 

Normally high budget movies will prefer what perf stock ???

as u said 2 or 3 perf will save money is using 4 perf stock means the budget is good for the d.o.p ???

 

I want to know why cinematographers like cooke lenses ??? i heared master prime will be more sharp than ultra prime like that whats so special about cooke lenses which makes d.o.ps prefer dat ?

[Adam Hunt]

"ground glass is like pentaprism in still cameras" am i right ???

To shoot in super 35 should the ground glass be adjusted to suit the super 35 gate ???

 

No, still SLRs have ground glass just like motion picture cameras. It's a flat piece of glass that sits under the pentaprism. The pentaprism is used to flip the image left and right and reflect it 90 degrees into your eye. A motion picture viewfinder does the same thing but is much more complex so that it can be rotated and reach a longer distance from the camera body.

 

Here is a picture of a piece of ground glass by itself. This one is for a still camera, but the ground glass in a 435 would look similar, just a different size and with different markings:

http://www.ecbuystore.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&category_id=30&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=63&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=71

 

Yes the ground glass is marked to match whatever sized gate is in the camera (in this case 4-perf Super 35), as well as the intended crop area. The markings will be similar to this:

http://www.fdtimes.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Ground-Glass-Book_web-e1287282996230.jpg

 

 

 

Normally high budget movies will prefer what perf stock ???

as u said 2 or 3 perf will save money is using 4 perf stock means the budget is good for the d.o.p ???

 

There can be many factors in the decision, but typically yes 3-perf and 2-perf are used to save money. These days it is unusual to shoot 4-perf Super35 because the cropped image area is the same as 3-perf Super35, so I can't speak why the DOP (or producer or whoever made the decision) is choosing to shoot 4-perf. It's possible they could only get a camera that shoots 4-perf, but you would have to ask them.

 

 

 

I want to know why cinematographers like cooke lenses ??? i heared master prime will be more sharp than ultra prime like that whats so special about cooke lenses which makes d.o.ps prefer dat ?

 

I'm not a DOP so I can't say for sure, but my understanding is that one of the reasons is that they are very well matched between different focal lengths and produce very consistent images.

[Adam Hunt]

Actually a 435 is not a sync-sound camera so it's kind of unusual for it to be used as the A camera for a feature. Perhaps the 435 is being used for VFX shots on the film. This could explain why they are shooting 4-perf because the extra image area at the top and bottom on 4-perf Super35 can be handy for tracking purposes when doing VFX.

[deepak srinivasan]

Thanks for your reply friends it was very useful :)