Jornenzal

Thanks so much everybody. This feedback has been invaluable. -Kieran

Hi everybody. First, a story... Some time ago when I was in college I took a very basic filmmaking course. During that semester I made two silent Super 8 films - both in black and white (Kodak Tri-X if I remember correctly). When it came time for me to make my first film, I wrote my screenplay, found my actors, bought my film, and "rented" a camera from the school's audio/visual department. The actual filming was a breeze. Weather was unbelieveably perfect that morning. My actors seemed to know what I wanted almost telepathically - they needed surprisingly little instruction despite being total non-professionals. I thought we'd need about five hours to get all the footage - but things went so well that we only needed three. A truly singular experience. Delightful. But - When I got my footage back from the lab, all I could see on the roll was frame after frame of PURE BLACK... As it turned out, the camera I borrowed from the AV department was faulty. A light leak had ruined all my precious film. The really irritating part about the whole thing was that the AV people had known the camera was a problem (this wasn't the first time it had malfunctioned) but they'd never done anything about it. Needless to say, my film teacher got them to dispose of that camera. Anyway, I started over with a different camera and completed my film on time. Everything worked out, etc. etc... So here I am ten years later and I'm in the very early stages of planning a low-budget feature. And, of course, I'm contemplating the big choice - film or video? My reason for telling the faulty camera story is that I think it crystalizes a big fear I have with film. The fear of the unknown. That is - you won't actually know what you're putting on the film until you get it developed... In that sense, video does offer a slight advantage. All you have to do it rewind the tape and see how things turned out. Film is much more mysterious and I suppose that's why I find it so intimidating. I'm wondering if anyone else here can identify with these feelings. I was also wondering if some of the professionals on this board knew of any "big-budget" horror stories that would compare to mine. I mean, at any given moment, there are tons of films in production. I can't imagine that something like this doesn't happen every once in a while. I suppose if you're working on a studio film and a glitch like that takes place you just grit your teeth and start over again - but it's kind of a scary thought for me in the low-budget world. To think of all that money going down the drain... Anyway, I'm done rambling for the moment. I'd love to hear what anyone has to say about this. Sincerely, Kieran

Chris - Hi. I watched TSATW last night and felt exactly the same way. Really crisp, colorful images... According the imdb, the movie was shot in 16mm, although I think they probably mean Super 16: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367089/technical -Kieran

Thanks everybody for your responses. They've helped me a great deal. If I could - I'd just like to throw in a couple of additional questions. I'm sure these will make me sound incredibly ignorant, so don't laugh too hard! 1) The Gretag Macbeth Color (or Colour, depending on where you're from) Chart... I'm imagining that the idea with one of these is to shoot a few seconds of it at the beginning of each new roll - or in each new location - so that eventually, when color correction is done, the colorist will have a kind of fixed reference. Have I got that right? 2) As far as synchronizing the on-set sound with the footage I film - that's all done by the post house, correct? 3) For Michael Collier - Yes, I'd be very interested in hearing about the equipment you're assembling for your production. We can take that discussion off the boards if need be. You can always reach me at kieranjw@aol.com. Thanks again.

Dominic - Thanks very much for your feedback. In a sense, I suppose my post was just kind of thinking out loud - but I'm glad to hear that I've basically got the right idea. Anyone else have thoughts on this?

Hello. I'm in the very VERY early stages of planning a feature. Roughly 80 minutes. Super 16. After shooting / developing, the goal is to get the film scanned into a format that I can use to edit on my Mac with Final Cut. Just from the reading I've been doing on this site and the internet - I know that the best telecine transfers seem to come from the Spirit Datacine (vis a vis the BonoLabs vs. SpyPost test). Now, the costs of having a professional Spirit transfer - "best light" with color correction, etc. must be astronomical. Let's say I shoot in super 16. Just for the sake of argument, imagine I end up with a shooting ratio of 10:1. That means roughly 800 total minutes of film - approximately 29,000 feet. To have ALL that footage professionally scanned would break the bank, no? So what if: I used the services of BonoLabs to telecine all the raw footage - I think their cost for going tapeless is about $2.40 per minute - so total would only be about $1,920 - maybe $4000 after prep and clean... Then I edited the raw footage using Final Cut... And then, having settled on a finished edit, I sent the edit list to a conformer - they cut the negative - and THEN I go to a professional for the Spirit transfer - thus saving a lot of money? Is that a feasible plan, or have I missed something here? Thanks for any thoughts you might have on this. I appreciate your input. By the way - how much does a best light transfer with color correction cost?

46db!!??? In the words of Louisa May Alcott, "Holy crap!" Jeez. I understand why they really aren't sync cameras now. Thanks very much for your help, Tim. I think you've saved me a potentially fatal migraine!

Hello everyone, I've been doing some research on Bolex cameras - specifically the EBM and EL models. Depending on who you ask, it seems like some people feel that these cameras are only suitable for MOS work because they make such a racket. Others seem to feel think that although they're noisy, just throwing a blanket over them dilutes the sound enough for sync work. I've been googling this, but I can't seem to find an answer: Does anyone know the precise decibel ratings for these cameras? That would give me a better idea of how much noise they actually make... Thanks! -Kieran