Evan Ferrario

Loading the film the way you suggested does seem to run better John, when I do it with the extra roller, it makes a slight squeaking sound. I just don't understand why that roller would be there if it isn't used at all. Also, the picture doesn't show it well but there is a small black wall between the inbound and outbound film, probably to avoid the problem you mentioned.

The French 400 foot magazine I got for my ACL appears to have two different paths for loading the film right before the take up spool. If you look at the two photos, one goes around the upper roller and the other skips it completely. There appear to be markings for both methods and I was wondering if anyone knew the difference. Is one way for daylight spools and the other for cores. Or am I doing something wrong and there is only one right way to load it.

I've used the redrock micro follow focus and thought it was nice for the price.

Check out Moon (2009) which had quite a few scenes with the same actor interacting with himself. They used a motion control rig to get moving shots but the same idea can be applied with a static tripod. In moon there was a scene where the main character played ping pong with himself, it was done by having the actor pretend to play and putting a ball in digitally. One thing to think about is having a way to playback the first performance so the actor can see, or at least hear what they did the first time and be able to interact with it.

Thanks for the info guys, I did a quick test of this idea just to try out some different techniques. I posted it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtEOL97pLws By no means would I call it a good job, I just wanted to see for myself how possible it would be. I am going to try something this weekend with a dolly, I see the great value of a motion control rig now. The shot I envisioned which got me interested in doing this would be to follow someone as they got into a car and started driving.

My camera came with a NiMH battery from here http://www.batteryspace.com/capacity10ah-52ah12vpacks.aspx . They are pricy but nice for the smaller size. They don't have it pictured but you can special order one with the right cable for your camera. The aH of the battery can vary, this only should affect the amount of charge it can hold, as long as it is 12volts DC. I have a back up battery which I got off ebay for $20 which is a Power Wheels 12 volt battery. Although this isn't the best option, it works great and I have shot a few 400 foot rolls with this battery with no problem, it is heavy, but will power the camera for hours straight. I had to solder a cable onto the battery and checked that the voltage was infact 12volts, and stayed at 12 volts as it discharged, before connecting it to the camera.

I know this has probably been discussed before, I could find examples of it but I still don't understand how it is done. I couldn't find any topics explaining the process when I searched. I would like to know how a shot such as in the last battle of children of men when it appears as one long take and was actually 2 shots combined. Or in war of the worlds where the shot begins in the car, passes through the window and up into the sky. How are these seemingly long takes achieved. I found a thread which referred to it as an invisible dissolve. If I would like to attempt to use this technique, how should it be done. I imagine the end of the first take and the beginning of the 2nd take should be as close as possible to the same point. How are the frames in between created to connect the two takes. By this I mean, how is the seam of the two shots covered up so perfectly so that the viewer doesn't detect the break at all. Or is is a case of combining trick photography and cgi effects. In Children of Men, there are a few times when the camera passes in front of a wall or a dark shadowy area. Does the break have to be at some point where the image in front of the camera is blurry or a solid area so that the break can be hidden. So I couldn't combine two shots of a man walking down the street and expect it to be hidden. However if I were to have a tree pass infront of the camera and combine the shots at that point, it could be done. If someone could explain this process, it would be greatly helpful.

Well we shot the scene on friday night from about midnight to 3 am. It was probably around 10-15 degrees fahrenheit but I didn't have a thermometer to check. I kept the camera outside in an open trunk and kept the battery inside the car between takes. Towards the end of the shoot, I had the battery outside for about 45 mins straight and the sync light started to blink lightly. I switched batteries and it worked fine for another half hour before starting to blink again. By then I was just shooting some B roll so it was fine to stop. I guess the cold made the batteries go dead fairly fast but other than that, the camera worked great. The one problem I did have was shooting another part of the short. It was a scene where I followed a character inside a house from the outside. Once inside the warm house, the lens started to fog from the change of temperature. I didn't notice what it was until after the shot, but I'm not sure how quickly the lens started to fog and if I can use the shot. I found it was best to let the camera either warm up or cool down to it's shooting environment. I didn't use the NPR because the ACL worked great. Also the ACL is Ultra 16 so I wanted to get it all in that format. Having the 400 foot magazine, took me a while to track that down, was a big help with the ACL as well. I shot 2400 feet total but usually I shot one roll per scene and didn't have to stop to reload the film. Sent the film off to cinelab and I am hoping for the best results, i probably will have a few reshoots but overall I think the camera worked great. This was the first large project I've shot on my acl.

I noticed that too, I think it was painted afterwards.

I am shooting a short scene next weekend outside in upstate NY. It has been hovering right around freezing and lightly snowing. It will probably be about 4 hours of shooting. I was wondering if there are any precautions I should take to make sure the camera runs good in the cold. Should I leave the camera in a heated car before shooting. Is the battery getting cold a concern? The reason these solutions don't make sense to me is that the extreme change from Hot to Cold seems more dangerous and problematic. I ask this question is because I remember reading a post about trouble in the cold, I couldn't find the post but I thought it was an ACL, although it could of been an Aaton. I have a spare battery and an NPR that I could shoot on if that is a better option. Any tips would be appreciated.

I find it helpful to have someone holding my belt if I am walking backwards. Practice a lot, if you are confident in what you are doing, it is going to show. Footsteps are the biggest annoyance to me for handheld so I like to walk with my knees bend so my body moves up and down as little as possible. This is a walk you can practice all the time and although people might laugh, it will make you better. I'm not suggesting that you can make handheld look like a steadicam shot, but it is possible to illuminate the obvious bump bump of footsteps. Like others have mentioned, a weak focus and handheld do not work well together. The focus needs to be right on and this is very complicated. Also without the right equipment (follow focus, handgrip for operator) it can be almost impossible not to bump the camera. I remember watching a special about Spielberg where he was talking about his short film Amblin. To shoot some of the handheld shots, they tied a rope between the camera operator and actor so they would always be the perfect distance apart. Although this technique might not work for your shot, it is a great way to practice the shot. For me, a dynamic moving camera is always more interesting that a static camera. If you aren't using handheld work to allow the camera to move, then it should be on a tripod. Although I will agree that handheld has become a kind of overused gimic in a lot of movies, I think Emmanuel Lubezki's work in Children of Men and Y tu mamá también is a great example of handheld used for almost the whole film and it fits perfectly. Handheld is a "look" that creates a strong feeling, however I don't think it's just for action or running. I think it's more about unsettling the viewers sense of stability, normal camera shots never change the paralel between the horizon and the camera, and breaking this relationship has a strong effect on the viewer.

Whoops I thought it was an NPR we were talking about. I have an acl as well but unfortunatly, I only have the angineux for that camera. I have been searching for a kinoptik's viewfinder for the acl as well. I try to track the ACL parts on ebay because some things show up only once in a while. I just saw a camera package on ebay sell with one but I have not seen a viewfinder by itself for sale on ebay since I started checking last year. I'm sure there are a few out there that aren't with cameras. It will just take some searching.

I have a Kinoptik viewfinder for a NPR that I would be willing to trade for your viewfinder. I do need a viewfinder for my NPR however so I cannot sell it.

Thanks a bunch, very helpful.

I have been using Cinelab for my 16mm negative since I started shooting about 3 years ago. I haven't dealt with any other lab so I can't compare but that is only because Cinelab has delivered everything I need. I usually get the film back around a week or so of sending it out. I've only gotten my film processed there but the results are always excellent and the film handling is great. I am located in New England and it will be the lab I use unless I have a special need that I need to send elsewhere.

Thanks for the heads up, I normally check out the eclair and aaton deals on ebay and was very surprised by the price of this camera. I send the seller a question telling him I lived in the area and wanted to come over and look at the camera. I really hate ebay scammers.

I have never seen an NPR with a magazine like this. Does anyone know any more information about it? http://cgi.ebay.com/Camera-Eclair-Coutan-N...id=p3286.c0.m14

I would like to begin this thread by stating an obvious fact: No home telecine will come close to the quality and resolution of a professional transfer. This is not an argument that a DIY transfer could replace a professional transfer, but instead I'd like to hear tricks and tips that anyone has come across so we could all learn from each other. A telecine will cost a minimum of $100 if not more. This is not always a good option for say: students, home filmmakers and experimenting. Short ends can be found cheaply, processing is about $20 for a 100 foot roll so filmmaking can be had on the cheap. However getting the film into a digital form is costly. I have been projecting my 16mm footage and video taping it for about 3 years and have improved my techniques greatly over this time. I would like to hear from anyone else who has done their own transfers and the details of their setup. I have seen some great results on vimeo and youtube and lots of terrible footage as well. I would argue that a nice home telecine can make excellent results for broadcast on youtube or vimeo. I believe this should be the ultimate destination of footage transfered this way. If you even have a remote chance of theater or television release, a professional transfer should fit into the budget. My setup is an elmo 5 blade projector to elliminate the flicker. I project it onto a piece of oaktag making the image about 2 feet wide. I have a sony HDR-FX7 HDV camcorder which I bypass the HDV with a blackmagic intensity card which captures into prores on my mac pro. All the film I have shot and transfered has been negative. To get a better idea of the footage, I invert the screen on my mac while I am watching it (cntl, option, apple, 8) Then I compensate for exposure problems using the exposure control on the HDV cam. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jk5d8Mq3gU...re=channel_page This is an example of what I can do with my setup. The upgrade I made to the intensity card did add a bit of quality as far as the motion was concerned but I don't feel like that is the bottleneck. Would a nicer lens for the projector add to the transfer? Also I still have a line going up the screen in my transfer from the projector being slightly out of sync. I have used the projector with a variAC and it corrected the problem. Unfortunately I do not own one yet. I have shot a roll of reversal and the results were much nicer with this setup than with the negative. I think it must have something to do with the fact that negative wasn't meant to be projected. I find that it's hard to get the color right. I spend a lot of time in final cut color correcting. Even then it isn't as vibrant as reversal. I think the biggest issues with my footage is color and sharpness. If anyone else has experience with transfering their own footage for personal use, I'd love to hear about it.

ray, I am in a similar situation shooting a low budget film with an eclair. I actually have an acl and an npr. I have found so many more ways to creatively move the ACL rather than the NPR. The argument that the NPR is harder to load isn't really an issue because once you learn how to load a mag properly, you know how to load it. If you want a camera to do a lot of projects on I would highly recommend the ACL granted you have the bigger motor and a 400 foot mag. Now the matter of aspect ratio. I didn't see anyone mention of ultra 16 on this thread and didn't know if you had considered it. My acl is ultra 16 and it works flawlessly at capturing 1.85 to 1 by capturing the space between the perfs and extending the other side. I see you are considering the super 16 NPR because it costs less than a ACL conversion and the cost of the camera. Ultra 16 is a very simple conversion. With the acl the gate needs to be widened and the mirror shaved down a tiny bit. It is a much cheaper conversion to do or something that is feasible by someone trained with the tools needed. I bought my acl converted to ultra 16 but I had a mechanical engineer convert my NPR for me, it took less than an hour. The only issue you have to check for, and its easy to check, is that the widened gate doesn't have any sharp edges or points that scrape the film. A few years ago I widened an old russian 16mm camera gate myself with a file and when I shot with it, there was a ball of pink stringy substance in the gate afterwards. The issue with ultra 16mm is limited transfer posibilities. Cinelicious, http://www.cinelicious.tv/ offers a very reasonable rate for ultra 16mm HD transfer direct to drive. I have yet to work with them so I can't vouch personally but I intend to transfer my film I am working on now with them. I am just putting more option out there incase you hadn't considered them. Of course Super 16mm is the standard for high def and by far the best option. However if are considering cropped regular 16mm, the upgrade to ultra 16mm would be worth it for the extra negative you'd get. Also it's just a personal taste, but I wouldn't be able to part with my ACL for a NPR, widescreen or not.

Thats everything you need to do your own transfer. Shooting 24p on the HVX200 should illiminate any flicker. If you shoot color negative all you need to do is invert the footage and remove the blue hue that is added to the film.

Thanks Jason. I project it at about 2 feet wide. I capture it with a sony HRD-FX7 connected to a blackmagic HDMI capture card so I can skip the HDV compression. The 5 blade elmo projector is made to work with 30fps so I still shoot it at 1080i60 then converted it to 24p with compressor. I get okay results after practicing a bit. Having properly exposed film and the proper iris setting on the camcorder are the most important factors, also the brighter the projected image, the better. I found the exposure on the camera is what you use to pull or push the film so it is nice to connect the camera to the computer and invert the image so I can see what I am doing. I've gotten back a few more rolls of film and will post results of the transfer.

If you are in a learning/experimenting phase of filmmaking and want to shoot film as cheap as possible, I would suggest buying a projector and using a minidv or hdv camera to transfer the film yourself. The results will not be close to what you get for an HD transfer, however if something you shoot ends up being terrific and you want to enter it into festivals or do something important with it, you can always transfer again later. I have been shooting 16mm, about 2 rolls a month testing my equipment and I didn't want to spend the 100's required for telecine just to be able to view my work. I bought an elmo 5 blade projector so that there wouldn't be a problem with the frequency of the camera, I'm not sure what is required for 8mm projection. If you have a 24p camcorder, you can use any projector. I shoot the projected image with my HDV sony camera and then in final cut I invert and color correct the picture. Like I said it isn't near the quality you will get from a professional, however if you are like me and still learning, it is great to have a way to quickly view my work. You don't have to shoot reversal if you want to project it yourself. I shoot color negative all the time and it is quite easy to invert and set the color to the right levels. You might not have a camcorder or projector but a projector can be found on ebay very cheap. It would be less than the cost to telecine 200 feet of film. Everyone has access to a digital camcorder in some form or another, I shoot HDV, but the projector, not the camcorder, is really the limiting factor for detail in this kind of setup. You can get results which are very viewable with this method. It is not comparable to an HD telecine in quality or resolution. I greatly overexposed this film so it is really light. It gives a good idea of what you can do with a projector. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jk5d8Mq3gU

Thanks for the help Bernie. From what I've seen it makes sense that something with the claw is going wrong. I am shooting my final project at Syracuse on film starting in September and my acl has been working great (now that I know how to load it properly) so I will just use that, although I have to respool my 400 foot cores. I got the NPR for a good deal so I might just hang onto it and bring both cameras in for a tune up with you in January after I graduate and am working. I plan on using these cameras for the rest of my life so I am not in a great hurry to fix up the NPR. Ultimately I want a video tap and super 16 so I might wait until I have to funds to get the rig together. Your knowledge and the help of everyone on this site has made it possible for me to shoot on eclair for which I am very grateful.

I need some help getting the settings right for my motor and figuring out what the problem is with my loops. The motor that came with my NPR had the back button broken off (see picture). I need someone to explain if I got the switches right for the NPR so it is at 24 crystal. I assumed that I set the 2 so they are at the 60 mark and the other at 24. What does the switch which says Int/Ext do, I thought it might switch between the crystal and the tachometer. There is a small gauge on the top of the motor that goes from 12.5 to 40. I am assuming the button that broke off controls this speed. Could someone please verify/explain the motor buttons to me. Also when I loaded a dummy roll of 200 feet on a core, I can't seem to get the noise maker to stop going off. I loaded it about 20 times and know I am leaving enough loops. I tried bigger loops too just in case. The problem is that every time I start the camera, I can see the lower loop instantly get pulled tight and start the lower noise maker. I tried giving all the loop to the lower and it still is pulled tight right away. What could be wrong if the lower loop goes away right away every time? I know I need to get this camera serviced by a professional, but I wanted to make sure it wasn't something I was doing wrong.

I ran some dummy film through and it appears not to scratch. I believe the seller was more of an ebay seller than a cine expert. I knew it was a gamble going into it. After talking with the seller, rather than return it, he has offered to give it to me at a reasonable price (less than 500). I am shooting a test roll today to check everything out. Although it is not super 16, it seems like I got a nice working regular 16 NPR for a reasonable price. I am considering converting this camera to ultra16 to match my ACL.