Michael Waite

I watched that this week & the B&W looked beautiful. I found the story overly sentimental & cliched in parts but in other bits it was very funny & he had good comedy skills. I kept wanting to stop watching it but then it would get better & I managed to hang on until the end.

That island looks amazing. Do you know what it was used for & why it was abandoned?

It's definitely a composite image, like most advertising photography these days. Probably at least 7 or 8 different shots combined together. I would say the guy was shot in a studio using flash. The key light is coming from the upper right, the direction in which he is looking. Looks to be a hard light based on the shadow under his chin. However the contrast & quality of this light doesn't match that of the sky or the urban landscape around him. The light on the street feels softer than the light on him. The light on him would be coming from a direct sun light however this doesn't match with the sky. This sort of mismatch of lighting is what gives that unreal quality to the image. If you look at pdn magazine (Photo District News) you will see an article each month where they break down the elements of shots like this.

I don't think many people would have tried this as you are taliking about taking a colour reversal stock & processing it to a B&W negative. The first question I would ask would be "Why would you want to do this? What sort of result are you hoping for?" It might be that there is an easier way to achieve that look. I have heard of still photographers doing it but i'm not sure what the results were like. I do know that you have to wipe of the remjet (anti halation backing). If you look at apug.org & search kodachrome + B&W you will find some discussion.

John was a very good guy. I'm so sad to hear the news of his death. At least his suffering is now over. My condolences to his family. I'm sure they know how widely loved & respected he was. He will be missed. I will expose some film today & I will think of John as I do so. Thank you John Pytlak for all the help and guidance you have given.

Yes to whoever mentioned Fruit Chan, he made the excellent film "Durian Durian' about a young woman who goes from China to HK to earn a lot of money as a prostitute. Then she returns to her town in China & gets back to normal life. The HK footage looks quite Wong Kar Wai/Chris Doyle influenced. A great Wong Kar Wai film is 'Fallen Angels'.

Two of the other great Japanese directors are Ozu & Mizoguchi. I would recommend Ugetsu - Mizoguchi (1953) Sansho the Bailiff - Mizoguchi (1954) Tokyo Story - Ozu (1953) Early Summer - Ozu (1951) From 1976 I like 'In the Realm of the Senses' directed by Oshima From 2000 'Tokyo Trash Baby', more serious than its title suggests, about a young woman who becomes obsessed with a guy who lives in her apartment building & starts going through his garbage, trying to understand his life through it. I've seen some excellent films from Korea in recent years although often it's on TV & I don't remember the name which can be annoying. I really like the work of Joon-Ho Bong. I've seen 'Barking Dogs Never Bite' & 'The Host' which are two completely different movies. He also made 'Memories of Murder' which is said to be excellent but I haven't seen it yet.

I think you did well Doug. I was going to complain about the shakey Super 8 shots but then I watched it again & realised that was meant to be the guy remembering home movie footage, so it made sense then. Some of the framing I thought was very nice esp near the end with the guy in the porkpie hat. I also liked that there wasn't too much camera movement & also that there isn't a lot of fast cutting. Perhaps that was a result of not having enough stock, but I'd like to think it was deliberate.

Hi Bryden, I've seen those ads & after reading them a couple of times I had my doubts. He seems to be selling himself too hard. I've just sent a roll of Kodachrome 40 to Video 8 in Artarmon. First time I've used them but I've heard good things about them. I don't have anything to show yet & I don't even know what's on the film, not having a projector.

I went for Day of the Locust. I first saw it a few years after it came out, just after I'd read the original story. It has a great feel of the seedy side of LA, reminds me a bit of Chinatown.

A guy that I know decided to process a roll of Super 8 he'd shot. He said it was difficult to open the cartridge to get at the film. The only description I've read of someone else doing this they smashed it with a hammer. But he said even this didn't work well. I don't know all the details, this is via email. Does anyone know the correct way to get the film out of a Super 8 cartridge? How does Dwayne's do it?

Hi David, thanks for the interesting post about the pre production work. I like the idea of the look you have devised with the director & it sounds like it will be a satisfying project for you.

A quick update for those watching this topic. I bought the Single 8 Fujica Z800 from George. Easy guy to deal with, the camera was well packed & took about 1 week from Greece to Sydney. The item matched his description. No problems & I'm happy with the deal. Just mailed my first 2 rolls of Fujichrome R25N to Japan for processing. That film stock is one of the main reasons I wanted to get into Single 8 - where else in the world of imaging can you still expose on 25 ISO transparency?

Days Of Heaven is a beautiful film. I love seeing stuff that is shot in natural light. My experience with magic hour light is mostly with shooting stills on film. You should expect a cool colour temp, ie slightly blue cast as you are pretty much shooting in open shade. Some people might use a gentle warm up filter to reduce this - it depends on the type of look you favour. Apart from that the light will be soft, flat, low contrast.

I'm sure they can, as long as it's not one of the old, obscure stocks like II that required different chemistry. I know someone who wants to do a project with Super 8 sound, so please let me know the age of this stock, how many & price, thanks.

Hi George, tried to message you but your box is full. I'm interested in the Fujica Z800. Please contact me so we can discuss.

Thanks Douglas.

The main place in Australia would be AFTRS - Australian Film Television & Radio School. Dion Beebe & Andrew Lesnie are graduates of the cinematography course.

I've seen the Niepce photo reproduced in a few books & it always looks a bit rough. However I read that the original is quite smooth with nice tonal range & the rough look came from difficulty in reproducing it. I think to see these things properly you have to hold them & turn them until the image looks right. Although I expect that wouldn't be allowed with the Niepce image. However if anyone is interested in the early photographic processes, daguerreotypes are available at reasonable prices on ebay. Some sell for a lot depending on subject matter or whatever the colectors value, but a lot of them go quite cheap, mostly studio portraiture. Henry Fox Talbot, who invented the negative/positive process was another fascinating guy. I recently had a copy of his book 'The Pencil Of Nature' out from the library. (the 1966 facsimile) He recounts the story of how he came to develop his version of photography (as a frustrated amateur artist & with no knowledge of anyone working with similar ideas). This book came out around 1844 with tipped in prints that showed different uses for photography. He suggested it as a good method for documenting property & also speculated on the potential for a photograph to be used as evidence in legal cases. In one section he refers to ultra violet light as being outside the range that the human eye can see but perhaps able to be exposed onto some negative material. He imagines a scenario where people could be in a dark room & not visible to each other however the room would be filled with some wavelength that was beyond visible light & the camera could be used to photograph them.

Getting back on topic - does anyone know how much light is lost by a Canon 814 due to the viewfinder? I just bought one & am waiting for some suitable batteries for the meter. In the meantime I'd like to do some tests using a Sekonic incident as a benchmark. I'm guessing 1 stop of light is lost to the finder, but I can't find any confirmation.

If you are looking for existing docs & info on this subject then I highly recommnd the documntary 'War Photographer: James Nachtwey'. He is a stills photographer but I think you will learn a lot from it. He is one of the best & you will see him shooting in Bosnia, Palestine, Indonesia & more. The doc is very well made. One clever idea was to attach a mini video camera to Nachtwey's camera so we see the scene from his point of view as he shoots. He's been doing this for over 20 years & has been injured several times.