Andrew Means

Doh! Letterbox/pillarbox. I should have known.

[newbie] what's this 'pillarboxing'?[/newbie]

Enjoy it man, my friends and I made a silly little S8 video the other day and it was a blast! I'll try to post it on youtube sometime soon so we can all have a laugh-

Wow, that's a huge difference between Todd AO and Widescreen telecine. Let me get this straight real quick - In the duplicate shots from 'texting', are the differences solely from the Telecine process, or is any of that how they developed the film?

Hoyle poop! That was you!? Man, I remember that series of posts... HUGELY formative in my early years. Ledgendary doesn't begin to describe it, my friends and I still replay the exchange between you and Sparky! We were actually going to do a documentary on it but then we realized that our cheapo Super8 cameras were shitty and wouldn't put out professional results, so we bagged the idea...

Yeah, wide angle adapter- that's kinda what I meant, i wasn't clear.

Yeah, I'm curious about retrofitting a wide angle lens on my R10- is that even a possibility?

ergh, I don't know man. Message yes, but it honestly makes you sound illiterate. And not in the oh-how-quaint way like ol dubya pulls off...

So I just got an R-10 (basically mint, $100) and I want to get to know it. I've got two rolls of K64 and what I'd like to do is basically put the camera through it's paces- go through each feature and make sure it all works, then review the film to see how it performed. Anybody have any suggestions of how I should go about it? I'm thinking we'll basically set up outside on a sunny day, with a dry erase board, and then write out the apeture/shutterspeed and stuff and basically go from totally closed off to wide open, with a zoom or focus change for each one. Then test the different framerates, etc. Then do the whole thing again inside with lights. Or without, I dunno. One question- it talks of a tungsten filter- I don't think I have one, or if I do, I don't know where it is. Somebody give me a clue here. Anything else? (just kidding about the "making professional movies" part, hah! professional... *snicker*)

Hey everybody, thanks for your input- Santo your #6 is definitely something I take to heart. I'm a musician and I record my own band, and after 3 years I'm just now getting to the point where I *might* feel comfortable recording someone for money. Before we do anything with film that we really care about getting good results from we'll make sure we're really familiar with the camera and film stocks. What might be some good exercises to aquaint ourselves with the camera? I think the first roll will definitely be reversal, but does anyone have a specific recommendation? Maybe we should just set up a test in our backyard or something, test lighting, film speeds, exp. etc. The camera looks really really good- it's in mint condition, at least upon cursory examination. I'd be surprised if it had more than a couple rolls through it. There's no manual- does anyone have a link to an online manual for the R10? We could order a hardocpy, but bleh. Thanks everyone- keep them coming!

Super 8 uses a different hole pattern, so yeah, your standard 8 projector will at best not thread and at worst will seriously muck up your film.

I guess I did ask what things you wished you knew when you started- unfortunately most of your post doesn't apply to me at this stage. I'll read it again when I'm ready to go balls-out pro pro pro! For now I'm really stoked about learning and experimenting on the Nikon R10 (though I'll definitely take your note about f4), and eventually I might come to you when I'm ready to make the jump to a bichin' camera with kick-yr-dick-in lenses. Anybody else have anything practical to offer? Like where I might get my first few batches of film transferred to miniDV* (shhhhh!!!) IMEAN HD DIRECT TO HARDRIVE! -Andrew * Seriously though I ask about miniDV because I've heard it's relatively cheap to transfer S8 to, and it is a format that I can dump via firewire into my current editing setup. I've only been pricing stuff for a while, but HD to harddrive seems pricey- especially because don't you have to send them a harddrive? I'm perfectly ready to not have the absolute best-ever results for the sake of actually getting a handle on how it all works...

Hey everybody- first time poster here. I'm going to be purchasing an excellent condition Nikon R10 (for 100 bucks- deal?) and my friend Phil and I are going to start shooting Super8. Phil is an incredibly skilled photographer, but hasn't done anything with film before, and I'm a musician/producer/recording engineer/web/graphic/designer who's done some rudimentary 'DP' and 'editing' work on a shitty shitty school film, but nothing much. I think aside from the coolness of making little films I might like to shoot a few music videos with it - huge fan of Michelle Gondry's videos - plus there's a huge market for music videos here in seattle, along with whatever else we decide to do with it. But before we get started I wanted to ask: What's one (or two?) thing(s) you wish you knew when you were starting out? A mistake that cost you? A shortcut that could have saved time and money? A principle that's helped you out? The main principle that's helped me when teaching myself web design and sound recording is "learn by DOING" - e.g. you can talk on messageboards forever, but you become a good XYZ-er by actually going out there and XYX-ing and messing up and learning. That said, it helps to start with some tips and tricks. Who's got some?