Rob van Gelder

It´s so depending on the location.......... Thailand, Steadicam operating including gear (for serious film work)....... max $975 a day (12 hours minimum) But the food is delicious here, and the girls......... :D B)

The use of these techniques is determined by the "look" that you want to have. They all have their own characteristics and sometimes a Steadicam doing a dollymove is preferred, sometimes the use of one is determined by availability or money. I just did a shoot on Steadicam, all with long lenses (75mm, 100mm) on 35mm film. As the movements are not as straight as on a camera head and dolly, it gives the movie a different feeling, which is what the director liked. I was basically used as an "unstable tripod". :D

But you can get in-line magazines too for the 535: Steadicam magazines. similar to the 435 mags, different throat of course. Rob van Gelder

I would suggest not a straight track-in but one the goes past the desk if you want to see the guy in the face as he turns 90 degrees on his chair. Or first go past him, so he´s profile and than he can turn to the camera, depending on the lines he has to say. I agree with others: keep it simple, if it is a graphical shot, don´t mess too much with extra lights. keep it contrasty and let the outside light be the key. Rob van Gelder

A friend of mine just bought one on Ebay, looks in perfect shape, though old. We found the battery from the meter dead and the contact a bit rusted. Question: do you know the original voltage of that battery? I´m sure I can make a replacement for it. Rob van Gelder

I´m not familiar with the "snot-tape" though I can imagine what it looks like ;) When I was a focus puller I used the rubber cement, for pictures in an album. If you are handy you don´t even need a elastic band, just slide the netting over the lens and hold it your hand in place while applying the rubber cement. It dries quickly, you can press it from the tube through the net on to the black metal and it removes without a trace. Don´t ever use nail varnish, that´s old style and the rental company will really curse you and maybe let you pay for repair. Rob van Gelder

F-stop? most of them are f8 or higher I think. The "dougnut" shaped out of focus highlights are to many people very unnatural too. No practical iris (though I´m not sure if this is the same for all lenses). As we cannot adjust the speed (fps) to the amount of light, a variable ND or better a Pola-ND could help here, lowering the light output even more. So in general they are pretty unusable for motion picture, I think. But great for stills from wildlife and stars! Rob van Gelder

Exactly Phil, that´s why I question the statements from Mark Douglas. He writes this as it is common practice, but I still have to see that in my working experience. I did a concert not long ago (Christina Aquiera) in Holland, there were no video camera´s. We were shooting with 9 35mm camera´s, so the "old style" with timecode slates. Sound was seperate, 24+ channels. Rob van Gelder

So was that the Elite lens? If so I think you can also rent it at Holland Equipment in Amsterdam, they are dealer if I am not mistaken. Rob van Gelder

I´m sure you mention this out of experience. I never had any encounter with a soundcrew that works like this. What I mostly see nowadays is still a separate system: sound is recording on their own equipment, Dat, HD, Digital Nagra or whatever. The soundguy does the initial mixing on the set with as many channals as he like or can handle, not sure if this is saved on 2-track (stereo) or more. On live concerts I can imagine this, but again, I´m pretty sure that they will use a separate system to record everything for the mixing later. ( if they are wise) The sound tracks on the video format are than not much more than guide-tracks so why do you need more than 2-4? Rob van Gelder

It could be you..... B) Why do you think so many companies are trying to make use of the "old style" lenses? The Digiprimes and relatives are very good, no question about that. But they are not in large supply, they are expensive and they don´t have certain qualities that many cinematographers have learned to like. Besides that, it´s in my opinion that the next generation of HD-like camera´s will have a bigger chip anyway, as important companies are developing in that direction. That makes the Digiprimes unusable for those formats but gives the "old Style" lenses a second life (at least, some of them). There is so much good quality optics out there, it´s a big market to re-use them with new technology. You should know better...... Rob van Gelder :) :)

I think Elite (Russian) has one in that range, not so fast for light but lightweight for sure. It is specially made for hand held and steadicam. Rob van Gelder

I´m just wondering: from Phil´s post I learn that there are 12 audio channels. Who needs that in a video-camera? I can understand that the end-product could need that for all the languages etc, but for recording the master material? Is that bandwith that´s taken by the audio tracks usable for the picture itself? Or is that hardly any saving/advantage? Rob van Gelder

There are a few people in that region working with HD so if you want more info, mail me. Rob van Gelder, Bangkok, Thailand

Hi Phil, How are you? I know you are not an idiot but you can expect an answer like that from Arri as well: "Sie sind verrückt!" when you would try the same with an Arricam and extension Eyepiece. Certain things are for certain set-ups, not everything is universal, but I´m sure you know! :P Rob van Gelder

Yes, de small room is basically the problem. When your object is that close to the wall, the green spill light can "envelop" your subject and make it partly green too. Another thing is that often the background is lit with too much light. Try to have the background when green at minus 1 stop compared to the object. When shooting bluescreen make this minus 1/2 stop. You will be surprised how much you can key out with the background slightly under exposed. That will also keep the spill on the model in control. Can you open a door, photograph through the door an put the model further from the green? Rob van Gelder

Or find a starter module that doesn´t work well, that will give irregular but full blast flashes. Rob van Gelder

Do you guys fold the first cm/ 1/2" of the film? this way you double the thickness and that fits nice and tight in the slit. I´ve always done that, never lost a core. Tape is not recommended, I think the lab could have issues with that during developmend, if they fail to remove all the tape. Adam Frisch wrote: Don't you guys use the coreless ones where you snap the film on the spindle? I think those are great - no hassle and less wastage. I don´t think the 435 magazines are equipped woth collapseble cores, at least I have never seen one. Rob van Gelder

Shade, cooling, very important. Be carefull with the sand. When using an Arri III, cover/tape the dial from the magazine with clear plastic as this opening will give grains of sand access to the magazine and all of the camera, giving very interesting scratches! Seen that and done that! Sand is your main enemy, you have no idea how far it can come, in every hole and opening, by wind, sweat, from your hair, etc. Be super careful or you will get hurt (scratches and mechanical failure) Take also care of yourself, the heat and dry air will extract the moisture from your body and brain as well, you only feel that when it´s too late! Rob van Gelder, Bangkok Thailand

That will probably the slowest robbery ever, 5 times slower, enough for the cops to finish their coffee before the go to the store...... :P 1) Shooting on 125 fps gives you about 50 second of shooting time per roll. You have probably planned the length of the action within this 0 seconds? 2) with a 435 and RCU and the Arri WirelessFollow Focus there is no problem at all to ramp and compensate for the exposure. 3) Ramping only when needed will give you more screentime. 4) The decreased dept of field on 125 fps might be interesting to focus more on the action. 5) Be sure to use only Tungsten based lighting or flicker free, no normal fluorescent unless you like the effect of flicker in the ramp up, might be interesting. 6) You have to light for 125 fps anyway, the extra equipment needed for a ramp up is little. I shot like this on my Steadicam with a 535b (ramp from 25 to 60 fps) heavy but possible. Have fun, try it, in my opinion it is often better to make decisions on set than " solve it in post" ! Rob van Gelder, Bangkok, Thailand

Just want to give my opinion on Collateral. After watching all the discussions about it, on this forum and on the CML forum as well I went there, was sceptical, but you know what? It didn´t disturb me at all. Yes, there were differences in quality, but nothing really unacceptable. A Style, a look, but nothing that took me out of the story. And I am sure that al the others in the cinema had the same feeling. Technically speaking you can have comments, but the movie held up nicely and that´s all that matters to me. I saw this movie in one of Bangkok´s big cinema´s. This city has so many of them and they all show very-very good projections. I was hoping they had it on D-cinema too, but alas... Rob van Gelder

Sure they exist! But to compare their output with S35 material is something else. Remember, it´s most of the time not the camera head or chip block that is big. It´s the recording medium and the lenses that are bulky IF YOU WANT FILM-LIKE QUALITY!!! Little camera´s like this have been used already in some movies. I think there was something in the AC about the shooting of ALI, with Will Smith. You are talking about high action and speed scenes, than the biggest problem will be the undisturbed recording, due to shocks, vibration, rock and roll. Best option could be hard disk recording, but that´s another interesting subject. Rob van Gelder, Bangkok, Thailand

There is no comparible Arri at this moment, the 235 is in development but not a sound/blimped camera and basically for 200Ft mags. The Moviecam SL is comparible and probably also a bit more reliable, but certainly not smaller and lighter. Rob van Gelder

Reflex camera´s are based on the same principle that is used in the 35mm still camera´s with mirror and pentaprism on top. It means that you can see the picture but at the same time the film can not and the other way around. This introduces the flicker. With stills cameras it is a short black-out when the mirror is raised to free the light path to the shutter and film-plane. With film camera´s you will have this 24/25/30 times per econd normally. Thats why this kind of camera´s always have flicker. There is another possibility: when the light for the viewfinder is taken from the lens, via a semi transparent mirror reflected outside the normal path and than via a mirror and lens system towards the viewfinder. In this case you have no flicker, but you will have a light loss , a lower sensitivity of your lens as not all the light is directed to the film Rob van Gelder

As Jason said it will probably stream out at 24/30 fps, so you CAPTURE at 60 fps but you play back at 24/30 fps. That will give you 2.5/2 time slowmotion. Like you would do with film and projection. Rob van Gelder