F Bulgarelli

Hello everyone, Up until this point I've shot all my film projects with Arri or Moviecam cameras, an opportunity has arrived to shoot a 35mm short film on Panavision equipment. My question is: Being the first time doing this, what camera do you recommend? We need a quite 35mm camera, light enough to do some handheld, although 80% of the film is on dolly or sticks. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks Francisco

All really good points, thanks Do you think 5229 is more suitable for the look I'm trying to achieve, meaning less contrast but still able to bring it up in post and a bit softer. I will try to do a test but not sure if we can afford it. Has anyone used the new vision3 500t stock? thanks again.

Hello everyone, I'm reading the book New Cinematographers by A. Ballinger and in it, Khondji mentions that he used a 25mm cooke lens for the majority of the film, I'm wondering which Cooke, do you think it might be the cooke panchros? I'm shooting a 35mm short and the director really likes the look of Delicatessen, we are going Panavision with a 2k DI, which Panavision optic do you guys think will be a better match? Since we are going DI (this will be my first one), should I opt for a sharper image and soften it during the DI? Any comments are appreciated, Francisco

David, Why is there an increase in contrast during duplication. Thanks

Hello everyone, Just shot a music video on Super 16, please take a look at it and tell me what you think. go to carissa rae http://www.cinester.com/musicvideos.php Thanks Francisco

That's exactly the situation I was dealing with Bill. It will be nice to have the time to evaluate your exposure with an on board monitor but it's not always possible.

I have been running into a little trouble with exposure, specially on day exteriors, I feel as if I'm overexposing the image a bit, even when using the zebras. At times the LCD is misleading and makes you want to open up the iris. And of course you are dealing with a limited latitude, I'm thinking of perhaps using a gray card and set the zebras at 70% and go by the chart. Has anyone done anything like that? I had a situation the other day where the talent was backlit and it was an overcast day, plus the actress had really deep eyes, when I was exposing for her face, the sky went completely white, I suppose I could have underexpose a bit but felt a bit unsure. What's you method for experiors on the HVX? Thanks for all your comments.

I would be interested in seeing it in digital and film projection, to compare and see the differences. It's a small film so that might be hard to find even in L.A.

I'm wondering why this film made no money. I know that sometimes there is no logic to box office receipts but it sure had all the elements to at least break even. Any theories?

Thank you guys. We are doing a tape based DI at plaster city, basically the footage is transfered "flat" to HDCam SR 4:4:4 and color corrected on a 4K/2K Pablo and then back to tape. I will eventually talk to them but I'm guessing that this system allows for more freedom and options than your traditional color timing with a Davinci. If anyone has any experience with this particular workflow I would be interested in getting your feedback. Here is a link to Plaster city's workflow info: http://www.plastercitypost.com/rgb.php Francisco

Hello there, If you are shooting a film on 35mm and you want to obtain a desaturated, contrasty look, sort of like the film "Delicatessen" but doing it on a DI, should you process the negative normal and create the look during the DI. I'm aware that I will have to do tests to determine the exposure and lighting ratios but generally speaking, I'm thinking that having a normal negative is probably a good start. Is that correct? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated, Francisco

Gordon Parks His work is truly an inspiration; from fashion and art photography to photojournalism. Check out "Half Past Autumm"

Well, I sure have a lot of films to watch, have you guys seen "The Exorcism of Emily Rose"? Really well done and pretty scary, check it out. The lightning effects are some of the best I have seen in a while

how much the primes go for Adam? Francisco

I just saw it on dvd, what a fun film to watch, superb cinematography and of course, the beatles! I think this film was overlooked by hollywood if you don't mind me saying. I'm surprised not that many comments here. Francisco

They probably are, the flame looks fairly large.

Thanks Rob, I'm glad you liked my work. I'm also lookng for a wider zoom lens for my camera, let me know if you find any leads. Francisco

I'm getting ready to shoot a low budget feature with this camera and I'm really trying to do my homework and get ready. I've shooting with it for quite a while and I always felt that tweaking the settings too much will only bring artificial enhancements that in one way or another degrade the image. For the most part, I've stuck to cine D or V. We all know that the camera doesn't perform that great in low light situations and that's definetely a big issue when you have night exteriors and such. My question is: From your experience, what's the best way to get the most out of this camera, meaning the best image quality possible, knowing that when you get to post, you'll be able to do a nice online and tweak contrast, chroma and everything else that's need it. In low light situations I'm planning to rate the camera at 160 but I'm a bit worry about not having the lights I need for big masters. Any comments are greatly appreciated, Francisco

Well, I think there is going to be a lot of catch up to do so it's going to be crazy! get ready!

I bought an 17.5-70mm for my LTR, it's a nice little lens, I took it to Claimont to get it projected and it has nice contrast and resolution, we were surprised as to how little flare it had as well, most of those lenses were never used eventhough they are like 20 years old, they were built for 16mm eyemos, someone bought a load of them and then modify them with a PL mount. It has some breathing as you focus but it does the job. Francisco

you can probably built a homemade chimera using the same principles used for the "covered wagon" Take a square piece of plywood, attached some porcelain sockets for your bulbs, built a dome out of chicken wire and throw muslim over it. there you have it. I'll send you a picture of my covered wagon so you can see what I'm talking about. Also, don't forget that a china ball is like a chimera, specially if you cover half of it with black. Francisco

Thank you all, this is really useful.

did someone mention Schindler's List? also, Wild Strawberries has that opening dream sequence that is fantastic.

Now you got me going with the frames ;-) One of the things I like about this film is the fact that eventhough it is a period piece in every possible way, it has a modern quality to it, one of the reason perhaps is because the lighting choices are very bold as well as the camera movement. I think it keeps the viewer interested, it's not like one of those period pieces where you feel as if you are looking at a picture book and everything is more formal and pictorical in a way. I like in the last shot how she's partially iluminated by the light coming from the outside. Francisco

Wow, that's really interesting Xavier, I got to get my hands on that issue. I wonder what kind of net he used. There are some other amazing shots on that film. I think everything was more subtle on this film as suppose to the first Elizabeth, for instance, less use of big shafts of light through windows The one thing that remain consistent was the high angle shots, it almost seem like they had a camera dedicated for those. Here is a couple more pictures, now I regret not seeing the movie in the big screen. I like the silk courtain and how it creates a nice shadow as she exits. One of my favorite shots. Francisco