Martin Escalante

I have a beautiful ground glass for the AATON XTR PROD or Xterá. For use with regular 16mm shooting, this is perfect if you want to shoot 16mm with anamorphic lenses (like in the films I Stand Alone, or Japón). Or for shooting regular TV safe. With Aaton glow. Reference # is 01 812 22. This item lists for more than $1700 new. Please write if you have any questions. Please look at the photos on this page for more details: http://www.flickr.com/photos/martinescalante/sets/72157624030762465/detail/ Im in Lakewood California, about 30 min away from downtown LA. $700 or best offer. please write to escalante.martin@gmail.com Thanks Martín

Hi, I will be sitting in on the the digital color grading for a feature I worked on in about a week. The process is a S16mm blown up to 35mm anamorphic using 1K digital files. We already did tests with this same process before the shoot at the same facilities and got some very good results. The feature is low budget. The only images I can work off of now to prepare are from a very low quality telecine done in Mexico. These images were our rushes and we have not been able to afford something else for the work print. As a result, I've been looking at high contrast, grainy, saturated and shaky images for the last few months (our tests done before the shoot looked much better). I know that once we get to see the images at our post facility its going to be a world of difference. But I fear that my preparation is a bit out of wak because of the very low quality of our work print. We can't spend a lot of time in the grading sessions because of budgetary and time reasons. I would appreciate any advice on how to prepare and what to have in mind as I go into this very important process. Thanks in advance -Martin

Hi, Were almost 3 weeks into shooting a feature in Mexico, were shooting with an XTR prod and 2 magazines which were all checked at Abel Cinetech just days before shooting began. We have had a few problems involving the take up side of the mag. what happens is that the film becomes stuck and the camera begins to make a very loud bad noise like "tac-tac-tac-tac-tac...." but really fast. Then when I open it up in the changing bag to feel what's going on I find that the film that should have gone to the take up spool after being exposed and passing the second wheel gets eaten by the bottom side of the first wheel and becomes stuck between the first wheel and the latch that secures the film in the first wheel. It happened twice both with 400 foot loads always towards the end of the roll (once at 20 and once at 50 feet before the end.) on both my A mag and my B mag. another effect of this is that the film becomes spagetti in the take up side. only aout 2 or 3 feet become spagetti before the film stops completely. could the have something to do with the magazine moving around alot with film it it before using it? thanks for any help.... -martin

thanks hopefully I can do another test soon. I can also take the camera to you're LA shop to get the same service right? -m

Yes its consistent on all the mags. we did a reg test with a black cross on white paper but it didn't do any good because we wound the film too far and there is only about 1 second of both of the cross' overlaping. I do know that the framing chart that we filmed and some other shots with a lot of movement were done with the camera on a tripod and no one touching it. The trasfer for both the tests were done on up to date machines. the older tests were processed at fotokem and transfered at post logic in LA (where we had them scaned and blown up to 35) and they also showed some of the same kind of movement. sometimes the movement is not so bad, but at other times it is huge. do you think its necesary to shoot a well done reg test before making any big decicions? -martin

Hi, I?m working on a feature in Mexico. We are filming super 16 in 2:35 using an Aaton Xtr Prod. We did some tests recently and noticed that the registration was really bad on many shots. We had done some tests a few months ago and noticed some unsteadiness but this time its gotten worse. We did a telecine and noticed it right away. The movement is a kind of circular motion with both side to side and up and down wobbling. It is most noticeable in a shot with a zoom lens with the camera on a tripod filming a frame chart, the movement looks very bad on this shot. It is noticeable on all the shots with a tripod, and we made sure that the tripod was very stable and no one was touching the camera while we filmed many of the shots. We are scheduled to begin shooting on Nov. 1 but there is no way we can film with this problem. I may need to take the camera to Abel Cinetech in Los Angeles, which would set the filming schedule back 1 week! Is there anything I can do before I take it to a technician, to try and solve the problem? thanks for any help... -Martin

It was 7245 along with some other stock(s) which I haven't found out about yet.

I was wondering if anyone knows specificaly what emulsion was used in Vincent Gallo's film The Brown Bunny? I know it is super 16, Kodak stock but I don't know what emulsion specifically? thanks for any information you can give...-martin