Hal Smith

I'm buying a Super-16 camera and going to learn to use it. I shot and edited 20,000' of ethnographic film with a Beaulieu R16 with an ex-wife in India years ago and recently have reacquired the film-making itch. But my sound experience stops with a Nagra and Pilot-tone. I know a lot about DAT tape equipment but nothing about shooting double system DAT and film. I own a Sony TRV-30 and have been shooting widescreen archival tape of my theatrical lighting designs for an Actor's Equity Small Professonal Theatre I work with here in OKC over the past few years. The tape doesn't look too bad on my 55" Mitsubishi Platinum but there isn't enough quality in the images to allow much further alteration to them and the camera doesn't allow any real creative control. Having access to a talented pool of actors and owning a lot of lighting gear has my creative juices simmering. I've thought about going to HDV but the professional world seems to believe good old analog filmstock still delivers the visual goods best and I've not seen anything that strongly argues with that point of view. So I'm getting ready to work in Super-16, keeping possible final aspect ratios other than 1.66 in mind as I film. I'll use negative film, get it processed at a top lab, and get video dailies sent to me for editing in my Avid NLE system (which I just upgraded to Xpress Pro HD V5.2). I'll have a visual original in a can that can be transferred eventually to ANY format with good results, including apparently even pretty darn good 35mm if I shoot on low-grain stock. I've looked around on DuArt's webpage to get a feel for what's possible in state-of-the-art film/film and film/video transfers. AND - no surprise here - my finished work will have that film look! Sound will be a bitch at first, I'm an absolute novice on how to marry DAT to film. I understand and have used pilot-tone in the past but film sync DAT's brand new to me. Has anyone got any hints where to find a good tutorial on sync techniques and issues using DAT with film and Avid? I own a Tascam professional DAT (DA-30MKII) and my day job is owning a radio broadcast engineering consulting company. One client is ten minutes from the shop (large enough to use as a studio in a pinch) and has a small production studio with an Orban Audicy workstation that I could put the SMPTE option on, multiple DAT machines, CD's, a small, high quality console, good voiceover mikes, etc. I've got unlimited access to the studio outside of the 9-5 work week and can even get into it for an hour or so in the daytime during the week if necessary. The studio even has ISDN audio equipment - I've engineered live feeds to and from the BBC, NPR, and the A(ustralian)BC from it. Dear Mr. Clooney, Could you help out a fledgling film-maker and lay down a few voice tracks for me? You won't even have to leave Italy to do them - just find a broadcaster with ISDN studio equipment somewhere close to you, RAI should have the right gear. I'll pay for the phone call. :) Anyhow, back to reality, I'd appreciate any help, links, etc. on the DAT/film/sync issue.

[seriously, Goo-B-Gone (or whatever you call it - I have used various "goo removers") is okay, but WD-40 is BY FAR the best substance I have ever used to remove sticker residue. Great for removing "permanent markers" like Sharpies, too (assuming the markings are on some type of plastic or glass]. I've been using mineral spirits for years to take tape and sticker residue off of equipment. It works slower than Goo-B-Gone (and 3m's equivalent product) but is safe on most materials and slow can very much be a virtue working with valuable gear. If the residue is real old and hard, I soak a couple layers of cotton cloth with mineral spirits and let it sit on the residue for a while, even putting a piece of aluminum foil over that to keep it from drying out. I've used this technique extensively on high-dollar test equipment that makes film and video gear look cheap!