Marty Hamrick

Are ther any plans from Kodak to package the new Ektachrome in super 8?Those companies that are slitting 35mm into super 8,aren't there some reversal stocks that could go into s-8 carts like Fuji's Velvia?

When I shoot super 8 or a 16mm project on small budget,I like the ability to cut my original down before sending it in to be telecined.I used to do that with 16mm projects when ECO was available.I could shoot 10,000 feet of film and cull out what I didn't want to workprint.

Marty

It strikes me that this could be what has happened with Shyamalan. I know The Sixth Sense wasn't his first movie....but it was his first hit.

Sorry if this is a bit off the subject, but it struck me as an interesting parallel.

That's an interesting parallel,but I don't think it's the same thing.When I saw Village,I wasn't looking for a carbon copy of The Sixth Sense,I was looking for something as intriguing and suspenseful maybe.Movies by the same director don't have to copy one another,but they can contain the director's signature.Rear Window was nothing like The Birds,but both films were successful and carried the same impact.

The story didn't work for me.I didn't connect with the characters,didn't feel their fear of the monsters in the woods and didn't find the so called twist to the story surprising at all,which is why I didn't think much about giving the ending away.I felt it was given away very early on in the film when they were talking about medicines for the character that suffered ADD.To me the story was weak and fell apart.

On the plus side I thought it was well lit.The night scenes were some of the most motivated and believable I've ever seen,yet some of the handheld shots and lens choices used in the scene where the blind girl was being stalked by the "monster"just served to give away the illusion.Almost laughable.Even thought we knew who this "monster" was,the illusion could've been pulled off better to at least keep an element of doubt in the audience's mind.

Marty

Hey didn't mean to spoil the ending by my earlier post,I just felt that I wasn't giving away much.

I ran I,Robot at the drive in,in fact we're still running it.It's doing very well.O noticed the number of soft scenes,so much so I kept checking focus to see if the lens had been shifted by projector vibration.I had not seen a film so difficult to maintain sharpnedd since X-Men.

Marty

Thanks David,I remember the IP's and IN's from the old days of working in a lab.There are no CRI's anymore from what I understand.How exactly are DI's done?Digutally scanned from neg?I hear alot of pro and con.

Marty

Last time I did something for any kind of film print,it was back when film dailies and the posting was either cut film on Steenbeck,match neg,intermediate to release print.Now I skipped all of those trial answer print,A and B wind neg optical track madness,but you get the idea.I have worked on a few projects that were film to telecine to Avid with film matchback to film again,but I was a shooter only and wasn't really a part of the post production so I'm kinda fuzzy on what they do these days.

What's changed these days?I understand folks shoot without any film dailies these days and they're using DI's.I'm just wondering how the chain now goes from film neg to release print.Update me please.

Marty

You may have seen the new copy protection scheme. Could it have been a trio of dots? These dots would help track which theatre showed the film if they showed up on a bootleg copy.

Where in the movie is this?Do you have an idea which reel?

ll look for it when I break the print down.

Marty

I will add here that no one has really given me a dollars and sense breakdown showing an advantage of digi vs. film.I think someone said lab costs for a 35mm originated movie avaerage about half a mil??OK if you're already spending 30 mil on a movie with the majority of the budget going for salaries,what is the big advantage in the final analysis?

I was shooting news when the industry dumped 16mm Ektachrome in favor of tube cameras and 3/4 inch decks.The station I was interning in at the time dumped cameras,editing gear and processors almost overnight.They lost quite a few stories with the nightmares new technology sometimes brings.Their competitor went to video gradually and as such,didn't crash and burn on air as often,yet when technology moved again,they weren't as pepared.

I see the same thing happening with those very same stations in the switch to a tapeless newscast.One station went to an all Avid based system with no on air tape rolling for news stories and at first suffered some crashes and burns.Yet today,they don't suffer the same growing pains the station that approached "cautiosly" did.

It's been a trade off.

Marty

There are no mechanical parts in digital projectors. You will probably soon need less projectionists and maintenance.

I'm not too sure about that.They're still going to need technician/engineer types to operate the new sattilte dwonload equipment,and from what I understand,since weather and other factors can bring about problems of their own,many of the theaters that have added or converted to digital projection systems,still have a 35mm system with back up prints.

Marty

I can't add much except I too like the motivated practical lighting.Who says you can't light a scene for night and have it look real.

I ran it at the drive in and it looked great,which is a rarity these days for a dark film,but then it wasn't anamorphic so there wasn't alot of light robbed from the screen with those light hungry A lenses.

As a movie,the first time I ran it,I sat in my car,tuned the radio for the sound and was expecting a movie as suspenseful as The Sixth Sense.I was dissappointed.I thought,"OK that was interesting....but".While I liked the surprise where you learn the reality that it isn't the 19th century,I couldn't feel what these people were supposed to be frightened of.By the third showing of the film,I was thinking,"This is lame".

Marty

I used one briefly in the late 70's and early 80's.We were shooting political campaign spots on mag striped Ektachrome (7252 when we had the light,7240 and 7250 when we didn't).I found it to be heavy and awkward in some respects but better than the alternative we had at the time which was an Auricon.

You can do better for the price,unless you're getting a real deal.Even then I would look moreso to an Eclair ACL or NPR.Although I never experienced a problem with the Bolex Pro,I heard from some of my news friends who shot with it in the 60's and 70's that it was notorious for jamming.

Marty

Your film projector will use either a two blade or a three blade shutter. Unless the projector has a syncronous motor, it may not run at a perfectly constant speed, so syncing and phasing it to your camera's shutter will require a projector that runs exactly at 24fps.

Doesn't the projector need to have a camera style shutter like a process projector?

Marty

I saw a documentary where a pretty decent quality color,flickerless video tap was used.You could tell when you were seeing the video tap obviously as it was a video image when the rest of the doc was film,and you saw the camera's cross hair and frame edging.They used video from the tap to capture the subjects when they thought the camera wasn't rolling.

Marty

Haskell Wexler stated that he preferred the type of video assist that was not flicker free.He said the flicker reminded him that the camera was running.Don't feel bad I've never used one either.The few film shoots I've done recently didn't warrant them being budgeted for and when I was shooting film back in the 80's,they weren't as common as they are now.

Marty

Is that drive in still around?In my town of Jax.,Fl we have one left.It's also a flea market during the day.The flea market keeps it going during off season.

Marty

I live and work in Rochester, New York. I've been an engineer at Kodak since 1970, and worked my way through college as a 35mm projectionist in the Buffalo NY area.

Awesome.Another projectionist on the forum.What did you cut your teeth on John?Simplex?Century?I do a part time gig at a drive in from time to time.We're running 2 Century's and one Super Simplex.All platter system,though I have worked with the old carbon arc changeovers.

Marty

With 7240 going away will there be anything to replace it for super 8?I know there is a new Ektachrome for 16mm,but will there be any color reversal film that has a higher speed than Kodachrome?

Marty

Don't know how possible this really is. The big difference is the pull down claw must be much smaller and in a different location. You can always file it down but how would you alter the position?

The Bolex Rex (H8 and H16 models) convert to DS8 as does the Canon Scoopic and Pathe Duolight.Not sure how they do it,but I'm sure the have to gear everything down.Also the optics change as well.

Marty

I really don't have a problem with the rating system,as David said,it's self censorship which is better than government mandated censorship.As for American culture being OK with violence and squeamish about sex,I never will understand that so I quit trying.Despite the 60's,free love and alternative lifestyles,nothing much in that arena really changed.We're just as screwed up as we ever were.

It's my opinion that entertainment should be censored,but that should come from the artist and the distributor,not from a government agency.I don't always agree with the trating system,but what else are we to do?I have a real problem with films being altered as in the case of Eyes Wide Shut.

Censoring the news for the sake of political correctness bothers me more though than anything else.In an election we had here,the former sherriff,an African American was running for mayor.Some vandals wrote racial slurs on the outside of his campaign headquarters.We were not allowed to show the dreaded "N" word in it's entirety in our video for fear it would offend someone.Now censoring a fictional film for fear of offending some folks is one thing.To censor a news event because the event might offend someone is tantamount to just pretending it didn't happen.

Marty

What about the DI transfer? Were there any visible signs of DI in the print?

I've been projectionist on Spiderman since it came out.I haven't seen any artifacts or anything else that would stand out indicating it was from a DI.

Marty

I just did a story with our local hitorical society and one of the folks mentioned that they had quite a bit of our town's history on nitrate film.They said they wanted it preserved on a digital format,but they said they had heard that shipping nitrate film across state lines was illegal.Anyone versed on this?And if there is a way to ship it,who can handle nitrate film on a telecine?

Marty

Are those only for Beaulieu cameras?

I've seen them fitted on the Nizo and some Elmo models as well.Don't know if those cameras require modification or not,but the were originally designed to take the old 200 foot cart.

I would like to see a rear loading coaxial magazine fitted for some of the rear loading cameras,however the viewfinder would have to modified.Perhaps a cheap video assist and a small LCD monitor could be employed.

Marty

I need to shoot rain against a black BG for a shot later to be matted.Don't know what the BG plate will be.Trying to think of the best way to pull this off lightingwise,esp.since I don't know what the BG will be and how it will be lit.This is 35mm although I may get away with 16.

Marty

Yes I see where the polypropelene pumps wouldn't handle it and the tanks would need to be 318 stainless steel or titanium.Interesting John,thanks.That could be a hefty conversion cost for a lab with older tanks and pumps.

Marty

The new B&W reversal bleach is definitely less harmful to the environment, but does corrode some types of machine component materials. So machines might need to have new parts of the proper materials.

So are labs made aware of this in time to make necessary modifications to their processors?They were saying it was eating away at their stainless steel tanks and polypropelene pumps.If you can't use stainless steel,I'm just curious to what you can use.They were also complaining that the new film stocks cannot be push or pull processed,is this true?

While I'm just as concerned about the environment as anyone,seeing a lab go belly up is very painful.Brings up bad memories of being on unemployment.

Marty

Thanks for the links,John.So what's the story with Franklin Film Labs?Their complaint seemed to be with the new B&W reversal films,which they say used a rather nasty bleaching process,yet your link says it eliminates the need for that type of bleach.Just curois here,I worked for a film lab years ago that went belly up,partly due to environmental regs.Mostly licensing fees they couldn't afford at the time.

Marty