Paul Bruening

We had similar issues with gun smoke from blanks on our last feature. Back light and side light is definetly the best way to get the most out of any smoke. Don't choke up your cast and crew trying to smoke up a front-sided lit set. Paul Bruening

Could you just make a directorial change? Did you notice how many car scenes in Se7en were shot from the back seat? Here, the shot is automatically back lit and one 1200 watt can provide a key, being held by a PA, and yeild common two point light. I've even put a Honda genie in the trunk, shot from the back seat and ADR'd in post. My genie can push 3K. The cops never even noticed. We could have driven around all day like that. LOL

More... The addy for cable is www.generalcable.com. Also, I'm going to PARS on my next shoot. they're darn cheap and have the highest footcandle to watt ratio of all tungsten lights. Sure, HMI's can buy you an extra stop watt for watt but the price on those babies... I mean, DANG!

Hey guys, We usually get permission on the location contracts to tap the breaker box. If the location is locked down, you can get about 80 amps out of the common house drop at the top of the breaker box and still have amps to spare for the house's fridges and AC. You'll need a line feed cable. We use Carol Cable's 2/3 for 100 amps (95 practicle) at 600 ft max. You can get that length for about $1,600.00 bucks plus connector costs. That gives us a lot of reach into the streets for exterior lighting. Plus, Carol cable is mining cable (SO non-UL) and survives being run over by cars. Then just make up a break-out box for your light and what-not cables and you're ready to go. It also helps to relocate scenes so that they can be shot within your feed line's length. Long talking scenes out in the boonies require a 10,000 watt or bigger genie and a heck of a lot more feed line. Does any of that help? Paul Bruening

Hello gents, Am I correct to assume that when light is bounced, the reflective surface now becomes the source in terms of light geometry? If a sharp head is used but projects a functional area of light on the bounce board of three feet then doesn't that reflector represent a source width of three feet and therefore converts the can's source geometry into the reflector's source geometry? Besides, 1" insulation board is a heck of a lot cheaper than softboxes. I get it locally for $5.95 a sheet @ 8' x 4'. I love the foil on one side and white foam on the other. I bust up a few with each feature but, hey, it's cheap. Paul Bruening

Hello David and others, I hear so much about the benifits of S35 and anamorphic. How bad is it to just shoot academy flat and digitally alter to show on scope projection? Does it look all that bad (given that the story is compelling in some way)?

Intersting. Please tell me more about the round ones and the IIB. Thanks, Paul Bruening

Christian- Thank you for the very informative answer. You've saved me alot of guessing and errors.

I wish I had a pic for the 2B. I'm modifying an arri blimp for that one. The one I built was for a 16s and that was many years ago. I don't even know where that thing ended up since I built it for the University of Mississippi. It was probably thrown in the dumpster along with all the 16mm cameras.

I have a IIB. It is not too dificult to build a barney out of ABS plastic sheet material with angle aluminum for the joins. It will require more room for foam padding since the Arri blimps incorporate both lead and foam for silencing (which makes the blimp heavy as hell!). You join the aluminum and ABS with pop rivets reinforced by washers, caulking as you go. Hatches are hinged using pop rivets or bolts/nuts and fastened with overcenter catches. Clear ABS can be glue in with ABS cement on both sides of the opaque ABS (two layers deflect sound better than one) to provide windows. Two layers of optical glass finishes off the TTL noise problem. All of the fittings can be obtained at you local hardware store. The plastic is easily purchased in sheets in any city in the US. This is a handy approach since the Arri blimps can't fit a Tobin motor. The setback to this is the lack of a follow focus rig which the Arri blimps have built right in. However, if you're building your own blimp then you may be able to build it around the Chroziel or Arri FF and extend the pulling shafts out of the blimp. Just a thought, Paul Bruening pbruenin@yahoo.com

I have an Arri IIB with Schnieder flats, standard mount. Are there any Russian anamorphics that plug right in or can be conversion ringed in? I've heard that the Lomos are an adequate quality lens. Is that true? Also, I intend to go digital internegative. Can I unsqueeze anamorphic digitally? Thanks for any help, Paul Bruening pbruenin@yahoo.com

Hello John- Good company-man answer. Hello Nate- It's a shot in the dark. I'm thinking about taking my Arri IIb and using it in the off season for the transport mechanism. I can get a stop motion rig off of ebay for about $1,500. I'm hoping I can mount the light behind the gate and the scanner lens in front of the gate. If I can sync the motor to the scan rate, it might just fly. I'm going to shop on ebay for a cheap scanner just to tear apart. Then I'll look for a IIB hold down plate to cut out. The rest is a matter of a macro to store the data via Photoshop on drives large enough. My early calculations indicate that 6 200GB HDs should hold 2K scans. Since I shoot only about one feature per year there's plenty of time to wait on the scans. What do I care if it takes months to complete the scan if it saves me major bucks? Anyway, It's worth a thought. Thanks, Paul Bruening pbruenin@yahoo.com

Do any of the Lomo squares fit Arri IIB standard mount?

Hey Guys, I color timed my previous DV feature. I had to do-over the job about five times. Every time I let the job cool off and come back, I was shocked at how bad my decisions were. If you have the time to do the color job yourself, it can be done. The more you do it, the better you get. I shot the last one in B&W DV. I expect the color timing will be a bit easier. LOL. Sincerely, Paul Bruening

Hello Again John, I found a Kodak RFS 3600 for about $1,200. How much trouble would it be to change the driver to advance the neg at cine perfs instead of still frame perfs? Thanks, Paul Bruening pbruenin@yahoo.com

Hello John, Consider this crazy idea: Modifying a Canoscan4000 for MP scanning. It would require a bit of reengineering but doesn't seem out of the question. I calculate that a scan of conformed negs would take about 45 days of round-the-clock scanning. However, for an indie film-maker working in 35mm, I have no particular deadline. I can let one of my idiot computers do all the work and just check on it from time to time. How crazy is this idea? Thanks, Paul Bruening pbruenin@yahoo.com