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Marty Hamrick

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Posts posted by Marty Hamrick

  1. I mean come on, what story line ABSOLUTELY NEEDS a fridge shot?

    Matt Pacini

     

     

     

    I worked on a spot for a support group for people who suffer obsessive compulsive disorders like overeating.The fridge shot was motivated and justified,a woman opens the fridge and we see her look of guilt as she contemplates the food she's about to eat.Since we need to see her face,how else would you recommend that shot to have been done?

  2. Jeez, you guys hate everything!

     

    So what shots do you LOVE? If all these shots, that define the vocabulary of modern cinema, are too painful to watch, then what DO you want to see? What would a good-looking movie look like, that doesn't contain any of these shots?

     

    And I have to heartily disagree that the "shots don't make the story." I mean come on, we're cinematographers; we're telling the story with images. If we can't do that, then lets just pack it all up and go home, and let the director prop up a camera in the corner while the actors just do their thing in front of it.

     

    Huf. <_<

     

     

    The success of tellying a story on the screen is a result of the collaborative efforts of all professionals,directors,actors,cinematographers,editors,etc.,so shots DO make the story IF all the other elements are coming into play as well.The annoying cliche comes from the over use of one particular thing,be it a shot in a movie,a song or a line of dialogue.The good part of that is that we can have fun with it.Movies like Airplane with the lampooning of the bad rear projection shots and the Scary Movie series with satired shots from every horror movie(although I question whether or not the whole target demographic got the lampooning of the dolly shots from the 1973 classic,Legend of Hell House).

    A "good looking movie" to me is one that draws me into the story where I feel for the characters in the story.Whether it has a hackneyed cliched shot in it is only unworkable if it detracts from that experience.Its not something that you can singly dissect and point to,but you know it when you see it.

  3. John, thanks for recognizing my words as being a combination of frustration AND also ideas to possibly either rectify the situation or make the "transition" smoother.

     

    Meanwhile, a Super-8 film shot with Kodachrome 40, "The Man who Met Himself", is a finalist in this years Cannes Film Festival in the short film category.  Approximately half a dozen finalists were selected from over 3000 entries!

     

     

    Was this a remake of a film called "The Man Who Was Hunting Himself?"

  4. I've used both cameras extensively.You can seriously get burned with a bad viewfinder on a 16A.I would steer clear of that one.Especially if it had been a TV news camera as it would've beaten to hell by several different news shooters and reconditioned a few times.The Eclair is a much nicer package.Quick change mags,spinning mirror shutter,orientable finder,yes worth the extra money.The Eclair would've had likely had fewer owners and less abuse as this is more of a documentary,commercial type camera.Also an Eclair NPR can be easily converted to super 16.This is important.If you shoot 16mm these days HD release is almost a certainty.

  5. Gee,what's Paul Simon going to sing about now?So we have Ektachrome 64 now.What is this going to mean for the auto cameras that are cart keyed for ASA 40?My Bolex 160 Macrozoom is auto iris only (it has iris lock,but it's still cart keyed),now 64 isn't that much faster than 40,but there's still a difference.I'm assuming you guys at Kodak new that and so the latitude should be good enough to handle it.OK?

    I remember back in the day,there used to be an Ektachrome 40 in super 8.I don't remember it lasting that long.I'm anxious to try this stuff.

  6. It's been done to death. Avoid like the plague.

     

     

    Especially in the last ten or fifteen years since video cameras have added the feature.It looks cool for certain scenes,Gladiator had some nice high speed shutter shots,I can't imagine another way to do it.It doesn't look "real",but what you're going for is a "push yourself to the envelope's edge feel".When the adreneline rush makes everything seem hyper real.If you're gonna use it be sparing.

  7. This is a fairly dangerous thing that you are going to do. I have filmed a number of big bushfires here in Mozambique and I have also had a number of scary moments. Wind changes and fire can push forward very quickly, burning you and your camera.

     

     

    Yes wind changes at the last minute are scary.I've had it happen on me with fire coming from two directions and almost been trapped in between two fire lines.Will you be jumping in with the smokejumpers or shooting from another vantage point?

  8. I've used the K-3 once and was happy with the results.Still,I don't trust Russian technology unless it's been thoroughly gone through and overhauled.For the money with the same features I would go with a Bolex Rex,but that's just me.I do like the spinning mirror shutter though.

  9. Interesting look to this film.A lot of ruddiness in the flesh tones,almost an Ektachrome look,which would fit with the time period.The home movie sequences,where the character is watching a super 8 film with a projector and stops and reverses the film were particularly well done (digital EFX of some kind?).The print I ran showed up particularly well on the drive in screen which is unusual for a dark horror movie.Anyone have the skinny on this movie?

  10. I've seen this movie several times now having just ran it at the theater I work part time in as projectionist.I'm intrigued by the technology and at the same time a big fan of the old film noir style.It's my understanding this was shot entirely on HD and on green screen.It was an amazing look,yet I did notice a lack of texture and grain which was a trademark of the old film noir style.

  11. In my line of work (TV news), riding the iris on a continually changing lighting situation is normal.Yet I have now seen a few movies and one doc where it was obvious the iris was ridden to keep up with a changing lighting situation and a few others where the scene just periodically went a little dark or hot.I noticed it particularly in a PBS doc I saw about the Ancient Egyptians where during an interview,the clouds were coming and going and there was one spot where the iris change during the shot had to be at least 5 stops.Then I was watching Fever Pitch last night I noticed a steadicam (eh might have been a dolly shot) where the actors walked toward a brightly lit sky after coming from a darker BG,I noticed the BG and DoF change with the iris changes.Now when do you guys determine when to ride the iris and when to just let some things go hot or dark?

  12. Hey guys,

     

    Mind if I drop in a late entry to your seemingly finished exchange?  I have recently score a 50Hz sync pulse unit for my R16.  I don't know what year the camera is, but lateish model and in extremeley good nick!  (Has an Angenieux 12-120 lens, auto focus and TTL meterin). I have two battery packs for it which have both been re-celled, and a 200' mag with spools, which I've never needed to use.  I usually shoot reversal, no sound, to record favourite events.  I love the camera and always think of as one of the sports-cars in the 16mm world; ie you may not have all of the luxuries, but you can run with it!

     

    Anyway, I know this is a basic question, but can I use the sync pulse unit merely to regulate the frame-rate of the camera, as having someone watch the tacho and adjust speed accordingly is a pain?!  I'd like to shoot a few silent pick-ups for a film (which was mostly shot on an Arri BL).  As I've recently decided to go with video finish and will telecine after I have the pick-ups edited in, using a 6-plate Steenback.  So ... does it really matter if the film is not running at true 25f/sec when just shooting cutaways without sound?

     

    As well as that, I've never shot sync sound before on 16mm (I also have an H16 and Arri ST) but wouldn't mind having a go with the Beaulieu.  The unit has a 6-pin female lead running from it.  Where does this connect to?  Presumably a sound recorder??

     

    Help! :)

     

    Stuart

     

     

    First off the synchro pilot attachment that goes on the side of the camera does NOT control the speed.It merely sends a signal to a tape recorder,a 50 or 60 Hz tone that is a speed refference.This is recorded on a channel of the tape not being used by audio.Later when resolving to mag fullcoat,the speed refference is used to speed up and slow down the recorder in the transfer process.It should make no difference whatsoever when shooting cut aways and such that don't require long running perfect sync.The Beaulieu I had ,had a switch that would go from variable (2 to 64 fps) and sync (24-25 fps)If set on 24-25 and you adjust for whichever at the head of a take,it shouldn't fluctuate much as this setting utilizes a governor type motor.

  13. Does anybody have experience with conforming their own negative? Is it realistic for someone to learn how to do this? I have seen places around town which rent out editing suites.

     

     

    I conformed my own negative for about five years.I'm not counting the news film I shot and cut or any other projects where the original was cut and projected.My first job out of high scholl was negative cutter in a 16mm lab.When I started doing freelance projects,I already had experience cutting other people's neg and I access to cutting tables.I was already comfortable with it.When the lab bellied up,my business partner and I built a clean cutting table with a continous airflow and dust guard systems and I continued to cut my own and a select few side client's neg.I stopped around 1984 as most of the projects we were doing by then were video.

  14. You might want to consider double super 8.Basically they are 16mm cameras converted to super 8 specs.The film is 16mm wide but the perfs are S8.You shoot 100 feet of film,flip the roll over and shoot the other half and after processing,the roll is slit and you have 200 feet of super 8 film.The advantages are :Longer film runs,you're not limited to the 50 ft cart,Better quality cameras since these are basically converted 16mm cameras,rock steady images.These cameras have pressure plates that hold the film stationary in the gate,whereas cart super 8 film uses a plastic pressure plate in the film cartridge which can in no way be as steady.I was skeptical about that at first,didn't think that made too much of a difference until I ran a film transfer house.We transferred thousands of feet of the old regular 8mm film and super 8 film.The majority of the stuff was people's amateur home movies,but the older regular 8 films were sharper and steadier by far, than the newer super 8 films.The steadiness of the gate will come in handy for you shooting surfing,since you will probably want to overcrank for slow motion.Many of these DS 8 cameras have higher speeds like 64 frames per second.There is a DS8 e group I'm on that exchanges alot of information about cameras and stock ordering.I think K 40 and Vision 200 can be bulk ordered.There are several good DS 8 cameras that are converted 16mm.The Canon Scoopic,the Bolex DS8,which is a converted Rex ,and the Pathe and a rather odd hybrid camera the Elmo Trifilmatic.

  15. That is a great camera.  Have you shot any optical sound with it? 

    jack in Portland Oregon,  USA

     

     

    Back in 1981,I was hired to shoot a gig that would've been a video shoot just a couple of years later.We had 3 Auricons all running with optical sound.The client wanted a 16mm film of the event we were shooting with an optical track.We used Tri X reversal.

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