Zamir Merali

I recently posted a topic on the 16mm forum inquiring about why my raw footage from 7218 film was so grainy. Here is the movie that I shot with that film. It was really meant to test out my new arriflex 16s camera and I only used 80 feet on it. The footage was really underexposed because I didn't have a lightmeter (i have one now). It was telecined at technicolor toronto to sd under their student rate. Can anybody tell me how deluxe lab is compared to technicolor? Thanks.

I did a quick google search and found this. Its called the Action Dome ENG and it is a camera mounted softbox. http://www.samys.com/product_detail.php?item=778

Having an on camera light blasting at the bride and groom will be very unflatering for the bride and groom. It will make the camera and the audience see a much flatter uglier picture than is actually there. I would recomend buying some soft lights and aiming them at the bride and groom from an angle. Make it light the entire area so it is less noticed. This will actually make the bride and groom look better for everybody.

Hi I have a few rolls of colour negative 16mm film that I would like to test before using. I have black and white developing chemicals at home. Can I use those to dip test the film? If not could I give a small clip from each roll to a still picture lab in my town with some specifications and expect them to test the film? Thanks for answering my questions.

I guess you are right because you can just be aware of the error the reflected meter will make and compensate. However, there no denying that if you use an incident meter by the white dress the shot will be exposed correctly. Also, each answer in the quiz has a certain number of points aloted. If you picked incident you got 2 points but if you picked reflected you got 1. The points are added up in the end and your final rating is selected. So both answers are correct but one could argue that the incident meter answer is more correct.

# 4 - A spot meter IS a reflective meter. Either answer could be correct. -Sam But the correct answer was an incident meter. A reflective meter would make the black grayish and the white darkish.

Sorry about that question 2, I meant a C.T blue. The xenon answer was bladerunner.

I had some free time and I made this quiz up. It has 10 questions, increasing in difficulty, about cinematography. In the end you get one of 5 ratings of how knowledgeable of a cinematographer you are. Don't try to cheat because each question has a 30 second time limit. Fixed Quiz Post your results and enjoy. Zamir Merali

No single technique has a certain reaction that it will produce in all situations. Low angle shots can make a person seem tall and imposing, but they can also make somebody seem small and insignificant. The classic example of this is in Citizen Kane. Low angle shots are used throughout, at the beginning Kane seems very tall and imposing in the news room with a low ceiling. However by the end, when Kane has lost everything and he is in the grand halls of his mansion, the low angle shots make him seem small and insignificant. Other tricks like pushing in, ECU's of eyes etc. are also only effective when used properly.

How can you get rid of the noise during telecine? Thanks.

When I look at my negative it looks pretty thin. I think a combo of the mini-dv transfer, and my mistakenly underexposing the scenes was responsible for creating most of the grain. I'm getting a light meter pretty soon, I had to use a slr to meter those scenes and my slr's lowest reading isf f 4 so I had to guess for anything below that.Thanks David.

Hi I just got my first 100 feet of 16mm film back from technicolor canada. I got it processed and telecined to Mini-dv with their student rate. I have some questions about the results. The footage I got back was actually pretty grainy even though there was ample light and the 7218 film is supposed to have very minimal grain. Why is this? I am guessing it is because of the telecine although technicolor should have had a pretty high quality telecine. Is there any chance it is because of the lenses? There were also some blue flashes that happened randomly throughout the movie. What could be these be from? I was using an arriflex 16s and I think there may be some small light leaks, what could I do to cover these up? Thanks for answering my questions, shooting film for the first time was a great experience. I am goign to be doing it alot more in the future. Zamir Merali This is an example of a particularily bad grainy from from the movie. Most of it wasn't this grainy.

Hi, I just finished shooting my first reel of 16mm film and I am looking for a place to get it developed. I am hoping to find a place that can both process and telecine the film. Is there any place like that in canada? Otherwise I will send the film to niagra custom labs and then I'l have to try and telecine it myself. This is just a test roll but i wouldn't mind paying a bit extra if I could get it telecined without needing to send the film to two different locations. Thanks I forgot to mention that the film is colour negative film.

It looks good. The only bit that I didn't like as much was the minidv shots in the middle where the guy is leaning against the pole. The shots seem to be very blue tinted. I'm sure it worked great for the scene but it looks like a bit of a blemish among the other very nicely composed and lit shots. Was the black and white film you used reversal or negative? Thankyou, great reel.

It was good. I liked the ektachrome one better but the performances were excellent in both of them. Was it you doing the operating? The performance of the guy in the vision one really reminded me of the hitchhicker from the original texas chainsaw masacare.

If I understand what you are saying correctly, it sounds alot like some of the sequences in Pi. The actor was walking through NY china town. A smooth MCU shot of the actor walking was intercut with an undercranked handheld POV. It worked really well to show the actors disorientation. This trailer for Pi has this effect for a short bit at 1:13 .

Not always. Pixar uses their own software but dreamworks and most other companies use maya. Most companies don't have enough money to make their own full 3d pacakge. Normally each production company will have their own version of maya. Also, all the visual effects companies use maya.

If you want to start playing around right now you could download one of the 3d apps. Blender is a freeware 3d application that is pretty basic. http://www.blender.org/ If you want to use what they will be using in the real industry download maya personal learning edition. Or 3d studio max trial version. I prefer 3d studio max but both of these are free versions on the real program. Pretty much every major production will use one of these programs. http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?...&id=7695485

Hi If you have a digital slr you could try just taking some test pictures with that until you get the right f-stop settings.

Normally if the movie is using large visual effects enviroments the dp from the live action shoot will guide the renderers in how he/she wants the scenes to be lit. However if it is just a vfx character in the shot usually the dp is not present for the entire thing. The renderers are assigned the task of lighting the characters. In animated movies like pixar animation a team of render artists led by a render supervisor light the scenes. The rendering supervisor is esentially a dp. You could try downloading a 3d package and playing with lighting. Check out this link to the pixars webpage. http://www.pixar.com/howwedoit/index.html#...oit/index.html# They describe the process from concept to finished shot. One of the steps talks about lighting although it does not give too many details. I've done some 3d lighting and it really is similar to real life lighting except that you have to simulate light reflections and there are very few restrictions.

I am a student and as a result have very little money. If you have extra 16mm colour film of any length and are willing to sell it to me I would like to buy it. I can pay you through paypal. If you live in Canada it would be even better. Thankyou Zamir Merali On a side note, if anybody lives in San Fransico, this look like an incredible deal. http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/pho/303114751.html Maybe you could pick some up for me :D

I'm planning on shooting my first super independant feature this summer. I wanted to do it on 16mm but due to my limited funds I was hoping to get some advice. what would be the absolute cheapes I could get 16 mm film. I live in Canada and the one company that sells recans and shortends costs about .20 cents a foot. Could i get it any cheaper from anywhere else? Thank you. Second, If I used reversal film and negative film in different scenes, would the difference be hugely obvious or would it be subtle? To save some money I was considering filming at 18 fps instead of 24. Then I could slow the speed down after telicine. The only sideeffect would be a larger amount of motion blur. Do you think this would work or would the motion blur be very distracting? Thanks for answering these questions. I am getting a small amount of film soon so I should be able to do some tests. Zamir Merali

I'm looking for a very cheap simple light meter for shooting 16mm. I am getting ready to shoot my first 16mm film and I am going to use the light meter for a few projects after. I only have less than 30 dollars for the meter because film and processing are going to eat up so much of my money. Does anybody have a light meter or would know where to get one for this sort of price. Thank You.

I'm going to be watching it tonight but I heard that although the visuals are amazing the story and dialog fails to deliver. The dialog that worked for the comic supposedly doesnt work very good on the big screen. The battle scenes ramp from real time to super slow motion at various points, supposedly it is meant to "bring you into the characters head".

That would defiantly be good. The dvx is sd and had low colour data. I've editted dvx footage on my 1.3 ghz 512 ram and cheap video card no problem.