Sam Wells

Ermano Olmi "The Tree Of Wooden Clogs" Alexander Sokurov "Mother And Son" -Sam

Hear Hear ! I've refered more than one person to Ansel Adams' "The Camera" not knowing what else to do, but this thread really could be the best introduction to the issues..... (not that Adams isn't well worth the read) -Sam

Hi John, I've been a pre-screener for a couple festivals (and had some hand in programming) in the past and what you and David say is really the truth. I'd also say "if it feels long (regardless of literal running time) it probably is in that regard. That said, I had a 20 min short once that did quite well in festivals (Telluride, Sundance, etc) playing as a short before features. NB It was a film I thought would do better on the Experimental circuit but in fact was rejected there while narrative oriented fests went for it. "go figure" dept. (It was a kind of cryptic narrative). So I guess as fr as genre goes, you cast your line & see which fish bite...... Also DON'T run endless end credits; I shot a very nice 18 min short as DP, it had wide audience appeal but I'm convinced it was rejected by Sundance (which it was perfect for) due not to length but to credits that ran forever i.e, don't thank your third grade teacher, your personal trainer....... -Sam p.s. Bill I don't think the grain structure of 7231 has changed since day one (the newer anti-static coating may reduce back scattering somehow I suppose (I miss John Pytlak who knew all things.........)

Hi Antonio, I'd love to sell you my Arri S but really, I'd go with a Bolex: Focal plane shutter, single frame capability built in. (The Arri's mirror shutter only design is fine for continuous action, but has the potential for adjacent frame fogging issues in single frame --- plus single rotation of the motor shaft does not give an even # of frames -----) Don't know about aftermarket motors for the EL so I don't know if any issues with these: http://www.norrisfilmproducts.com/bolex/index.html http://www.tobincinemasystems.com/page13.html Does the EL NOT have a single frame shaft ??? (I can't remember) Actually a Rex 5 with one of the above motors should work well for you. Or Rex 4 (do you really need the 400' mag ?) -Sam (now shooting single frame etc with Nikon digital)

As timing harks back to timing in development I'd say "grading" is more acurate really. Plus I've seen 'grading' used by at least one US lab. It could be argued it's all science but the best timers (graders ;-) seem to go at it with artistry. I think I said before here "the art of print timing consists of knowing just how misleading the Hazeltine IS.........." I once saw Harry Kasper of Filmtronics Labs grade (see I'm trying to be sort of consistent <_< color neg by eye on a light table. Makes me think of Sid's agent (from "The Larry Sanders Show") "He wasn't Old School, he was the school they tore down to BUILD the Old School" -Sam

Perfect ! Got a Nikon D3 which can shoot 9 fps (or 11 fps in DX crop) in burst mode. Now where do I find some snails in NJ in January ? -Sam "Escargot-Motion" Wells

I think the controlled setting test is a good one for learning. But to be honest the most meaningful tests I've done have been to: shoot the particular emulsion under conditions and with subject similar to what I want to use the stock (or stock/processing combination) for. Don't deprive yourself of doing that, it's good to get a feel for these things, not jusyt the numbers. Sorry if I've editorialized instead of answered ! -Sam ps a good lab timer is your best friend.

Well Geoff Boyle has done this so we'll see but have we heard of it as a problem ? -Sam

Venti - I gave in and went to Starbucks -Sam p.s. Ansel Adams' "The Camera" is still I think the best introduction to basic geometry of lenses forming images. But David and Chris have you on the right course. -Sam

Yeah, I think that's a better approach. I've always found Double-X a bit flat at its default gamma of 0.65 (altho some labs will 'normally' process at 0.70) --- the trouble with 0.70 or higher is, it's a bit of a push -- so now you are _really_ shooting a bright subject with a high EI/ASA, so unless you are shooting a high frame rate I think PlusX will be much easier to work with a significantly finer grained as well. That said I personally would not hesitate to give the Plus-X a 1/2 stop push - 0.70 - if the scene looked flat to my eye on that day. -Sam

If I'd known I was getting into this racket I'd have taken Metal Shop class back in High School, but how could I have guessed I'd be in a craft where one needs to attach strange things to other things even if they weren't quite intended to be attached in the first place...... :blink: -Sam

Adobe has purchased rights to this so I would almost expect to see it in Photoshop 'CS4' and probably After Effects 9. I see the potential for abuse but would not sign a statement I wouldn't use it ! Welcome to the world of computational photography ...... what can I say, that's where we are.... -Sam

Saw it in Real D. As a movie, it actually felt very old school, sort of Ray Harryhausen meets Broadway, I dunno, "Cats" or something... ("Excaliber lite" is not a bad description David !) The "Angelina-inspired babe" is _rather_ well engineered, I think you won't be dissapointed, Tom. Cuts from medium-wides to very wide have that strange Tom Thumb effect of making the characters suddenly appear half size :blink: And over the shoulders are quite bizarre (I'm no big fan of OTS in 2D, maybe I should not complain....) Certainly some interesting potential, but I'm not sure how far you can go with conventional cutting / grammar ----- -Sam

Hi David, I absolutely agree with the idea of the YCM seps; in fact I suggested on CML (got a kind of "huh ?" response at that time, well digital wasn't such a "threat" yet) :blink: we should continue to make film prints, I used the term "ProoF Prints" as long as possible even for an otherwise Digital exhibition / viewig environment . -Sam

But in the age of DI and digital finish, I don't quite see what film origination has to do with archiving or repurposing / scaling to different delivery formats. Unless you're going to remake a DI from the OCN ! I don't think so. - I mean you have all the grading efx sky replacement who-knows-what that was done in post..... well THAT's the movie not the OCN. -Sam

I should say I've never tried the noise removal feature. -Sam

I had a similar problem (with Audacity), it grabbed Core Audio and froze it; had to quit the finder to get it back. However I emailed them about this and they replied promptly and let me DL a prerelease of the next version (I forget which, before 1.3) which worked fine. Pretty good suppoert for Shareware I wish some Pro apps vendors could do as well ! -Sam

I won't argue with that. But -- it does show you a lot of specularity on skin which I think is a point they're making, plus you'll note they have a "combative" theme here --- -Sam

Hi Chris, I accept your points. I have no doubt Red performs quite nicely in totally controlled lighting situations (the "Las Vegas" spots linked here alone demonstrate that). And yes you can "expose to the left" even and still trash your top end, it can still bite you... depending... (Total control of lighting and you cn get nice highlights with an F900 etc, even cheaper cameras) Well that's what I'm curious about. Do you think the 2 .movs on this thread did not take advantage of this in Red Alert ? (was that not enabled yet ?) -Sam

No I don't quite know what was extracted from the RAW file -- but I'm seeing an otherwise acceptable range of exposure, albeit on the contrasty side as Mazx noted, _and_ I'm seeing it hard clip.... You're the one who's speculating that the highlight detail "existed somewhere" I don't have access to a densitometer and the original negative when I watch a film either. Anyway, I have no bias here -- it's just that I'm hearing left and right anecdotal reports of this camera's footage "surpasing 5218 in highlight detail" and so on, but I ain't seen that yet. -Sam

No way to tell everything, but clipping is clipping. If the highlight info was there, why didn't he recover it ? I've seen (and shot) plenty of film where highlights fit in an 8 bit sample ! -Sam

You can't separate "contrast" from "sharpness" neccessarily, for instance a modlution transfer function defines the ability of a lens (optical system) to create contrast.... -Sam

Later Switar presets are most definitely competitive with Mk1 SuperSpeeds. -Sam

I don't know, from Red footage I've seen (Only online) some looks like from a shorter shutter speed than what it was shot at; still frames looking more like stills than film frames. Perhaps rolling shutter phenom, I don't know. Re better highlight handling: here we really need to know what it (the film by comparison) was transferred on too - I don't think a Spirit "1" is a stellar performer in that regard. -Sam

I have the HEC version; T 1.8 untill 12..... Agree with Mike bes performance stopped down a bit. Focuses to 2' at all focal lengths, a plus over Zeiss 10-100. (thinking of selling mine btw, but would prefer to package with my Arri S). -Sam