Adam Wallensten

Hi. Just wanted to give my opinion, which is a bit different than most of the earlier posts. I had looked forward to seeing "The Fountain" for a long time, and followed it through production and a couple of months ago they showed it at the Copenhagen Film Festival here in Denmark. Since I had read a lot about the film, I thought I knew what it would be like and that I would love it, but..... After 5 minutes of film I was just disappointed, and unfortunately it didn't change with time. The film just felt too pretentious and the story too silly. Another way of saying it is that I didn't buy it (I will not say that I didn't get it), and I couldn't feel what many of the crying people in the theatre obviously was feeling. Both lead characters overplayed and the supporting characters felt as if they came out of some bad TV-series (except Burstyn). As to the cinematography, I think M. Libatique is a technical wizard, but I thought it was, as many of the other aspects of the film, over the top. The extreme use of close-ups in scenes where the acting in itself is very emotional, was too much for me, and especially when I didn't buy the emotions. The whole "star-theme" felt overused too. Almost in every scene there was golden-starshaped-lights in the background. A more modest use of it would have been great, but here it felt like Aronofsky didn't trust his audience enough to find the references between the different stories so they S-P-E-L-L-E-D it out for you, which felt tiering. I feel like I could go on... but I'm probably just disappointed because my expectations were so high. I like Aronofsky's other films very much, but "the fountain" just felt like a bad-tasted new-age film, trying to be deep. Now I have my faith in Terrence Malick instead, who is also working on a story about the tree of life. I hope he will have a more naturalistic approach to the subject which probably will suit me more. Adam

My K-3 has a steady image when running 24 fps. At 48 fps the picture jumps quite a bit.

Thanks. Yes, I meant to make the colorist desaturate the image for me. I'm going to edit and make the final product in Final Cut so I thought that maybe the colorist had better tools to desaturate the image with more controls over the grays. And he will probably be able to match the images faster and more precice than I would be able to. I did not shoot a grayscale card (I suppose that was what you meant) so I guess he has to do it using his (and my) eyes. My thought on doing it myself would be that I will keep more information in the image (?). Another question: If my final product will be on miniDV (or DVD), will there be a difference in image quality if I get it telecined and transfered to a higher quality media like digiBeta or uncompressed QT and then to miniDV instead of tranfer to miniDV directly? Hope you understand what I mean. I know miniDV isn't the best format for the final product, but the short is primarily meant to be seen on television. Thanks adam

Hi! I have just shot a couple of rolls of 16mm colorfilm for a short film, which I want to turn in to b/w. My question is: What is the best way to do it? To let the lab scan the film in b/w or to transfer it to video in color and then remove the colors in the computer in post. Will there be a quality difference in the two methods? Thank you Adam Wallensten

Hello! I'm on vacation in a small tuscany village where I'm planning on shooting a short (on 16mm). I have two stocks with me (fuje 64D and kodak 250D). I want to turn the film into black and white in post and I want it to have a contrasty look. Therefore I was thinking about using a redfilter, but my question is: Will the red filter have the same effect as it would have if I shot on b/w film, even though I'm shooting on color and subtracting the colors later? Or is it a bad idea and better to create the contrast in post? Any other useful advice on this way of shooting b/w will be appreciated. Thank you Adam Wallensten

I had my first job as 2nd AC today, and what a day it was! I have previously worked in the art department for the last 2 years, but have always wanted to move over to the camera department. I finally got the chance through a 1.AC that I've contacted. I new much of the stuff in theory but haven't had much practical experience except loading and filming with my own K-3. I got a quick loading course yesterday at the rental place and got thrown into it today. I was told that it would probably be a quite relaxing day since it was MOS and the clapping wasn't very important so I was quite confident. The shoot was a commercial for some french jewelry with the danish supermodel Helena Christensen (DoP: Tetsuo Nagata, Director: Vincent Peters). We shot with an Arri 435 on a technocrane and I should mainly concentrate on the loading. Everything started out fine, I loaded the mags, and except a few too short and too long loops, the loading went good. After a couple of scenes in 25 fps, the rest of the day would be in slowmotion. Unfortunately we only had 2 mags 400' mags and 2 1000' mags. This was not enough! We only had 4 1000' rolls and the 3 of them was used quickly. When I was to load the 4th one the lid on the mag just wouldn't close. I was afraid that I hadn't held it firmly enough when I took it out of the can so I became a bit nervous. I tried to even out the roll but couldn't. I told the my department and the production and they sent out a runner for another 1000' roll, since the 1.AC couldn't fix it either (he hit the roll against the floor and tried to push the core and film back in, but it just wouldn't move). It was probably wound up too tight and crooked. So for the next couple of hours we only had the 400' rolls and 2 mags, and we were shooting 100 fps. The film were used so fast that my loading couldn't keep up with it, even though I worked as fast as I could without making mistakes. So everytime we had shot a mag the whole production had to wait the minutes it took me to reload the next one, and the model had a deadline. I was sweating like a pig loading and unloading non-stop. It seemed though that everyone understood the situation and I didn't get too much sweat about it. When the new 1000' roll finally came it turned out that it wouldn't fit in the mag either. It seems strange, but I really can't see how I could have caused the film and core sliding since they were super tight. But it didn't feel good telling the production manager that the new roll didn't work either. After, what felt like an eternity, we finally wrapped and I could start to unwind. We ended up shooting 18 rolls of film. I'm just glad we didn't shoot sound as well, cause there was absolutely no time for clapping or anything but loading. Even though it was a really tough day, and my heartbeat was way too high for the last couple of hours of the shoot, I'm happy now that I made it through and didn't make too many f... ups. I now that I'm competely new in this role, but I can't imagine that even an experienced loader would find it a piece of cake. At least Helena Christensen looked great in a swimsuit with a VERY large cleavage. Well, just wanted to share my day with you guys. The 1. AC told me I did good and promised to hire me again, hopefully the next job won't be as hectic. Is it a common problem the film is wound up too tightly and crooked? Adam Wallensten Denmark

There are several rentalplaces. "Lysudlejningen" (http://www.lysudlejningen.dk), EBH (http://www.ebh.cc) are two of them and pretty good.

The K-3 is not quiet either, so don't let the noise-factor affect your choice. I have a K-3 and I'm happy with it, but since I don't have any experience with the Bolex I can't advice you more.

Well, thanks for all the responses. This forum is a great place for new knowledge. Seems like my snowshoot has been cancelled since the guy I was supposed to film broke his foot yesterday. Bummer. Well, I hope I'll get another chance to use your advice. Adam

Hi charles. what du you mean exactly? do you mean I should avoid the snow cheating the lightmeter? If thats the case, wouldn't some spot readings of the person be enough (and ofcourse close the lens a stop or so to make up for the brighter skintone). If this is not what you mean, I would appreciate a more thorough explanation. Thanks, Adam

Hello! In about 10 days time I'm off to Norway to do a snowboardshoot on 16mm. My stock (Fuji 8622 64D and Kodak 7246 250D) is one to two years old. From what I've learnt on this forum I should overexpose old stock by 1/3 of a stop. Since I'm shooting on a K-3 which has a shutterangle of 150 degrees I have to open up additionally 1/3 of a stop. So totally I shall open the lens up 2/3 of a stop. Does this sound correct? I just want to make sure I'm exposing as correctly as possible. What rating is 2/3 of a stop equivalent to on the 64 and 250 stock? Maybe it's easier not to rate the film differently and just try to remember to open up the lens for each shot. Any other advice on shooting in snow will be appreciated. Thanks Adam

Also remember to check with the guys from the sounddepartment. We were about to use a coleman gaslantern in a scene, but it made too much noise and interferred with the dialog so we went back to a flashlight. Just a side thought. good luck

Hi. I bought a K3 from him as well. I am quite happy with my purchase. the camera body and lens seems to be unused. Some of the filters had not scratches but greasy fingerprints on them, a plus though was that I got more filters than it said I would. The camerabag is very old and used, it also had a very distinct smell :) I removed the loopfeeders and the camera works perfect, not a scratch on the film. Have not tried the integrated lightmeter. Since the camera works well I'm very satisfied. Adam Wallensten

thanks for the advice. Why should I overexpose the stock? My lens goes down to F 1,9 but from what I've heard don't work at their best on their minimum and maximum f-stops. Would it be a good idea to stick to 2,8 or higher. I guess the depth of field will be very narrow, too narrow? adam wallensten

Hello! I'm working on a musicvideo where I want to shoot a road (at night), lit up by the headligths from a driving car. (think Lost Highway intro). It's a no budget thing (or atleast very small) and I only have the film stock that I collected on different other filmprojects. The stock with the highest ISO number is 200 (7217) and 250. I have connections to a rental place where I can borrow lamps. Will the headlights even expose on such a slow stock, or how much additional light will I have to rig on the car to make the road light up? I don't need the whole screen lit up, only the places where the lightcones from the headlights touches the road, so the texture can be seen. The side of the road and the sky can be black. I will appreciate any lighting, rigging, exposing advice on this topic. Thank you Adam Wallensten Denmark

"The Garden State" has a exterior swimmingpoolscen with an amazingly beautiful craneshot!

thank you for your replies! I have now talked to a local lab and they agreed to help me with rewinding the film for free. I guess it's the best solution.

Hello! I'm going to travel for a couple of weeks with my 16mm film camera (K-3). My problem is that I don't have a lightmeter of my own, so my plan is to use my digital 35mm SLR camera as a lightmeter (it's a Canon 20D). Has anyone any experience with this? Can I rely on the exposure on the LCD screen or not? And last, the SLR cam's ISO numbers are fixed to 100, 200, 400, etc. if I'm shooting using a filmstock of ISO 64 will it differ much from the cameras ISO 100 setting etc? Hope you understand this last question, maybe it came out a bit confusing. Any advice will be appreciated. Thanks Adam Wallensten Denmark

Hi! I've got a krasnagorsk-3 16mm cam with the 100 ft metal spools. Since I've worked on several film productions I've managed to collect lots of film stock for free. Now my only problem is to somehow get the film from the plastic cores in the filmcans to the metal spools. Does anyone have some good advice on how to do this easily and safe (so the film doesn't get covered with dust). I guess I could go to the nearest lab and get them to help me but it would be nice to be able to do this at home. So far I've done it (guerilla-style) on my bed, totally covered with blankets to keep the light out. A very hot and not very practical way to do it. I would appreciate any advice on this topic. Thanks Awallensten