Chris Burke

I feel the movie is consumerism at it best. The story and acting were all one note, very little nuance or dynamic in either. If the intensity of someone's performance is high, how does that make it good? If anything, I found it all kind of shallow. The performances were servicealbe, but not much more beyond that. Dialogue and it's delivery was always screaming and shouting. Imagine, if someone you knew, spoke to you like that all day long. It wouldn't take long for you to tune out. I know this is a comic book adaptation, but as stated before, comic book text rarely translates well to screen. But that is the least of it's woews. In order for the story to match the truely phenominal visuals, we as the audience need to empathize with at least one of the characters. Zack Snyder tries to do this when the captain lost his son. I did not feel his pain. Isn't death in battle what they lived for, longed for? Granted the son was cut down while not actually in battle, but he was at war, and that is what happens during war, they die. So for the father/captain to react so intensely, then to go on to say that he feels nothing but hate and will continue to kill, just nailed it home for me. The 300 was nothing more than a sexed up car and underware comercial. Had the captain said when he comes back from grieving, to the King, that he has fought so much and can do it no longer, because his son's death has beaten him. That he is bested by the grief he now feels and Leonidas is sympathetic to this, then it would have been a good film, no perhaps a great film. If the filmmaker only had the balls to show us that the Spartans were people too, let us not forget them, then he would have a hit. Instead, he has a hit because of cheap hollywood tricks; sex, slow mo violence and ultra flashy imagery. Too bad the 300 is just the status quo, when the people the story was about were anything but.

Vera Drake Dave Chapelles Block Party Neil Young: Heart of Gold all of the Christopher Guest/Eugene levey movies ie...Waiting for Guffman, A mighty wind, for your consideration Never Dia Alone Primer On Broadway and on and on and on It is a great format. If you are considering it for a shoot, I'd say "do it!" I have used it and if offers me all I need. Chris

The XL1 lens is a lens for standard def, the FX1 is a HDV camera so it has to have a lens that will resolve a higher resolution for the HDV format. In regards to miniDV having better color than HDV, I dunno, but I wouldn't be surprised. I am not a big fan of HD anyway. The panasonic HVX-200 in HD mode shoots 4:2:2 color which is better IMHO than the sony cameras you have mentioned. The bleach bypass method you mentioned refers to a a computer plugin, right? Cause it is not how an actual bleach bypass is done. There are several chemical methods that achieve pretty much the same result, but this subject has been covered a great deal by more informed folks than I. chris :D

I used to own an xl1 and got some really nice looking footage from it. You are on the right path by looking to achieve your desired look on the set rather than in post. You can get much better results this way rather than just "fixing it in post". However you are married to that look if you do the following, so you should if nothing else, test test test. Firstly, when you say washed out and bleach bypass, I am assuming you mean desaturated colors and higher than normal contrast. With that assumtion in mind I suggest the following. color correction starts with production design. Have your designer desaturated the palette. Of course this will vary as to what and how much according to your taste and needs. Take out all the bolder colors from set and costumes. Avoid using white in costumes as well, it tends to blow out, which you might want, but similar off whites or softer grays are better for said bleach bypass. Light your shots with the desired amount of constrast. YOu can crush or expand the shadows in post, but at the risk of loosing detail. You are shooting miniDV or possiblely HDV both of which have a limited range of exposer, the later less so, so nailing the exposer on set is critical to getting your look. This camera likes to be under exposed a third to a half stop and loves to be shooting at a ?5.6 to ?4 range. So light and aim for that ? stop. Lastly, many many plugins are out there designed to give you a bleach bypass. I have never been too keen on any of them. They don't do anything that you can do yourself. They just make adjustment in saturation and constrast for you. When you do your final color grade you are basically looking to pull out some color, pump the mid tones a bit and deepen the blacks. All of these suggestions are generalizations of the basic process. You will have to test to get the one you want. If by chance you are able to shoot on an XL2 or the hdv camera you mentioned, they offer a great deal more in-camera control of the image than the xl1, so perhaps you might really try to use one of those. Best of luck. Chris :D

If by online edit in HD you mean uncompressed HD, then you will also need to have a very fast and large RAID to put all the footage on. Also monitoring the HD material is another equipment expense. In order to do a proper color correction of the material you need to be looking at a monitor other than your computer screen, it will not give the accurate color and contrast that you will need and since you are finishing to video you need to be looking at a video monitor. So factor in that cost as well. Since you have stated that this is a feature and that you have limited funds as most of us do, then may I suggest the following: Have your best light put onto DVCam, edit, generate an edl and then have the selects rescanned at DVCPro HD. Your Mac Pro can handle the DVCPRo, right out of the box. You won't need tons of storage space. You can have all your dailies transfered to DVCPro HD, but of course you will need a deck for that. The only thing that I can see as a problem is that not many festivals and such accept DVCPRo HD as a screening format, most ask for HDCam. I know that you can have DVCPro HD converted to HDCam and I have heard that great results can be had. So perhaps this format is for you. All this being said, I highly suggest that you get a post production supervisor on board. someone who can suggest the best workflow for you project. I am finishing a short shot on Super 16. I did the offlline on DVCAM and then rescanned selects to hard drive as uncompressed HD 10bit. I am doing a film out from this file as well. It was economically feasible for me becaus it was a short. For a feature, that is another matter and I would recommend a tape based format. Good luck and keep in touch. chris PS I am not sure where you will be doing the best light, but really try to get the best you can out of it. Some places only really give you a one light if they know you will be doing a rescan later on. So if your best light is all you can afford, get the very best best light you can get. Try to have it scanned of a newer maching as well; Spirit, Shadow, etc....

Any 16mm camera can use single perf film. My K-3 has been converted to S16 and uses single perf all the time. chris

Cinelab offers skip bleach and cross process for Super 8. Better get your oder in before Rob raises his prices. Chris

A) Get the Xtera! 800' loads. More running time means fewer loads, means a more productive day with such a small crew. Much easier to use. If you can afford to rent one, then get the Xtera'. B) The simplest way to record audio the way you plan to shoot your film would be to have a flashed based audio recorder. there are many out there, one Cantar made by Aaton none the less. You probably won't go that route, but if you are doing it run and gun or really really bare bones, then some sort of flashed based recorder. C) The output is exactly the same, both are super 16, both can take the exact same lenses. No difference, other than the fact that the A-Minima isn't really a sound camera, unless it is blimped. D) To get the Sideways look..... I suppose you can do a little research on the internet to find an article or two about the cinematic process. Look at old issues of AC.

try www.cinelab.com they have great packages of super 8 straight to hard drive. Better prices than Pro8mm.

For best results, shoot a grey card for each lighting set up and a framing chart at the very beginning of your roll. The reason for this is it will give the colorist the information she needs to give you the best results. The grey card will give a standard by which they can balance color temps and exposure. The framing chart may be a bit of overkill for super 8, but it never hurts, it will tell her how you framed your shot and how it should be transfered, ie.....if you want the transfer matted for widescreen or not. In terms of exposure; if you have an external meter and your camera has a manually adjustable ? stop, then by all means go manual. I am rather surprised that none of the previous posts recommended this. You will get the correct exposure and not have to worry about if the camera can handle it or not. Meter for both highlights and shadows and take an average of that. It is always a good idea to overexpose the shots by 1/3 to 2/3 (depending upon preference). This will help manage the grain that will be evident in the low light shots. If you do nothing else, do a test. This will let you know how and why the film looks the way it does. Super 8 is one of my favorite formats. I wish you the best of luck. chris

Cool thing is the 3200 comes in 120 size roll film. If you like slower, finer grained films, check out the Fuji Neopan Acros. It is a 100 speed bw and IMHO gorgeous. Agfa made some great stock as well, buy it up if you can find it.

Finish uses a Ursa Diamond. I would take it back to them if you are not pleased. If they can not make it happen consider going over to National. They have a Shadow which is much better. chris

I like the first season for exactly the same reasons. I know that they were going for a larger audience, thus the more action centric plots of the 2nd season. Too bad it failed. I feel the first season was a bit more thoughtful, introspective, which I like. I dug the some of the location stuff of the 2nd season, I just feel the first season's look was more intune with the Alphan's situation. Thanks for all the info

Yes it is worth getting. It is cheesey at times, but I really dig the overall asthetic, especially the first season. The special effects are really quite good. Occasionally some shots don't look that real, but all in all, very impressive. the transfer or whatever they did for the DVD release is fantastic, very sharp, great color. I know that Messege From Moonbase Alpha touched on it, but wouldn't it be great to revisit the series? Perhaps just as a mini series or feature. Now that I think of it, UFO would really fly today as well.

What stock was used for the first season of Space 1999. I grew up on this show and now have some of the DVDs. Excellent transfer for the DVD, I wonder if they went back to the original elelment or not. Anyway, I love the look of the first season and was wondering what stock and other techniques were used to achieve this. I realize that loads of this show was composite work for FX, I am refering to the interiors of Moonbase Alpha or any other interior. Chris

Matt, What are your impressions with the Flashscan? What kind of output did you use for this project? I like uncompressed SD, 10 bit if available, for Super 8. The stills look great! Bravo! Chris

Do they shoot all the play off games or just a few. I was wondering this as I watched (from a couch) my beloved Patriots march all over the Jets Sunday Chris

I have a similar issue where we shot on Fuji Eterna 250T. My bestlight for offline was very fine grained, I couldn't really see the grain. Then when we went into the post house for a rescan of selects(uncompressed HD 10bit to hard drive) it looked amazing on their monitor. I am guessing that their monitor is going to be more accurate as to how the negative really looks. Then when I get home and take a look at some clips on my monitor at home, tons of grain. Way more than I expected or really want. It wasn't there in the offline or at the post house. What gives? Could it be the stock? I scanned to hard drive via a Shadow. I am going back in this afternoon to have a chat an look with the colorist. I will report back here with my findings. Chris

shop around for film and processing. The figures given above are really high, more in the 35mm range. I got a great deal from Cinelab, $180 for 400' of brand new Fuji stock, processing and a best light transfer. I am sure many other lab will work a deal for you. Yes film can be expensive, especially if you just up and pay the book rate for it. Shop around, bargain are out there. Chris

Does the s800 have manual control over the ?-stop? If so, then use an external meter and all your worries will end. I prefer to use a Minolta Auto IV F. If you can not use a meter due to some uncontrollable factor, don't worry. The latitude of that stock is such that you will get a useable image if using the built in meter. But you really should go for the external meter. chris

I ran into a slight set back today while at a post house. They were scanning selects for me to a hard drive as uncompressed 10bit HD for a later film out. They told me I would need about 200 gigs for a 22 minute film. I gave them a 250 to be safe. I also asked to have them scan the cuts with handles. The colorist/tk operator, put five second handles on the head and tails of all 393 edits. The resulting files added up to 540 gigs. I said, "what the ....!" Those little handles added up to on 65 and a half extra minutes of material, which in turn made the file size huge. So, I thought I would share my experience with all of yees, just in case you might be doing the same. Even for a short film, you should walk in the door with a 500 gig firewire "800" drive. Eight hundred, because you will be there all day, if you try it with a Firewire 400. Chris

Robert Wahlberg, brother to Mark and Donnie. I cast him in a short that we are going to do. He may be the best of the bunch. Relatively unkknown, but a great actor. Hit his marks everytime, extremely consistant with action; very easy to edit. I know there is much more to a good performance than all that, but he has the chops. chris

I looked every where for a sample from some shots I did for a test, but can not find it. I bought a Super 16 K3, shot two rolls of 7274 that I had in the fridge and the results were stellar. I highly recommend the camera. Keep in mind what it is, a MOS, hand wound camera. If you get one, have it overhauled and converted to S16 by Duall. Good luck. chris

Well said, although the RAID that Bono is offering is a SATA II which will handle uncompressed HD. When working with hard drive stuff, it is always a good idea to have a back up. RAID 5 scenario is probably best for both speed and parity. However, you will need a larger RAID for this, probably one with 8 drives.

Is there an app out there that will convert non drop frame to drop frame or vice versa? I have a rather urgent issue. I am about to go into an online session and I am finding out only now the day before, that the timeline I was editing in is drop frame. The old VX1000 that I used to bring the footage in, could not read non drop, which is what my window burn is, so it brought it in as drop frame. I am trying to generate an accurate EDL for the post house, only now I notice that the timecodes do not match. Any advice would help. Thanks a million. Chris