Webster Colcord

Bolex also made a small rackover attachment which your camera would mount on. The camera slides on it so the critical focus lens is taking lens position. You may also want to refer to this old thread: https://cinematography.com/index.php?/topic/18989-reflex-viewing-with-non-reflex-bolex/

I have been experimenting with the UltraPan8 format for about a year now, taking baby steps. The real issue is procuring color stock in decent amounts. Hopefully that situation is getting better. This is a test I shot for a little zombie movie I am slowly making, 50D re-perfed Kodak stock, stabilized in post:

Speaking of war zones, this is the auction photo of a camera that I acquired awhile back. Filmo 70B (not sure about that letter designation) "Superspeed" camera - 128fps on a spring wind or a motor. The original owner fancied himself a wildlife photographer I guess, spent a lot of money on the camera and then painted the whole thing with a cammo pattern! That's an Angenieux 15-150 on there, to stabilize it there are extra pins in the mount and a turret lock screw in one of the three lens ports. I have run one roll of film through it and the image was very stable, though the lens is pretty much scrap (needs a new prism).

This company sells all kinds of parts for projectors. I made the mistake of ordering one belt at a time, not realizing that almost all of them were bad - I should have just ordered the "belt kit" that they sell for Eiki. https://van-eck.net/

I have been shooting with an old 2R Filmo 70E (picture of camera below) lately and have been really impressed with the results. I'm using another old piece of gear - a Pan-Cinor 17-85 with the sidefinder, so reflex viewing is provided by that. It's not a great lens, inherently soft, but it can give you a nice look in the right conditions. This is a piece I shot recently about my mom:

Nice job Uli! I work in animation/VFX and have contributed to a number of pitch pieces. These days a lot of pitches are done as Previs, or rather "PitchViz" which can be a combination of low-rez previs and animatics or anything to tell the story. Often times, a VFX house will be asked to do a VFX test. This was the case with the first Iron Man; a lot of companies were asked to come up with a sequence and would be awarded work based on that, sadly it was entirely on each company's dime, if I'm not mistaken. This was a piece that I previs'd, then was anim supe on. It's a little rough around the edges but the director liked it and actually worked it into the story. Later we did the finished VFX, but of course the margins are low and the company went out of business in 2009. Our editor put it up online (just standard resolution):

Patrick, how close are you to shooting? Do you have access to a camera yet?

Awhile back I had a lot of short ends/frozen stock that I was trying to sell, my observation was that no one is buying the 35mm 2nd-hand stock on sites like ebay - so it should be very economical to get yourself some 35 stock; there's just not that much demand for short ends. But yes, there's also less pro shooting going on so maybe the supply is low. There's still a seller of short ends in L.A. and there's this one (which I believe is the cheapest) in New York, catering mostly to students: Mono No Aware

I would definitely be interested but I imagine the price point would be pretty high to make it worth your time. I think the NCS Revolution Sync Motor sold for around 1K, not sure if they're still being made or not.

Understood, and I still need to order some of your Wittner-perfed Ektachrome. One of these days.

That's awesome Dennis! Would you sell any of that stock in 100ft quantities? I am shooting Ultrapan-8 (full width of 16mm, but 8mm in height) and a friend has a projector for the format. This is some zombie movie test footage, a mixture of Ultrapan-8 and Ultra 16mm. This had to be stabilized in post quite a bit, as the perfs were not done by your guys at Wittner:

Dennis, That seems like an impossibly rare stock - did you find that sitting in a vault somewhere at Kodak? You couldn't have gotten regular 16mm 3383 custom perfed, because it's estar-based, correct? - Webster

I swear I found one of these Milliken boresights recently on Ebay, can't find it now...

From what I have read and experienced, the Angenieux 17-68 and 15-150 cover S16, whereas the 12-120 does not.

Hi John, Would love to see a picture of your Milliken. This manual was sent to me by fellow Cinematography member Alexandros Petin: Dropbox Link to Milliken manual I have a DBM-54 or 55 with a 19-pin connector. It has been very tricky to find the matching connector - please let me know if you come across one. So far, using the pinout diagram as a guide, I haven't been able to get the motor to budge when applying current (28 VDC) to what I think are the appropriate pins. I haven't put a lot of work into it yet, and have seen that others online have apparently gotten into the camera and bi-passed the multi-pin connector, sending current directly to the motor. - Webster

Keeping it in the low-budget realm; I'm a big fan of Peter Jackson's blocking in action moments from his earlier films - Bad Taste, Dead Alive. Also the Coen Bros in Blood Simple and particularly the hilarious fight scene in "Raising Arizona": Raising Arizona trailer fight Here's a great video of Daniel Pearl, ASC talking about shooting Texas Chainsaw Massacre and coming up with the famous super low-angle shot from under the swing: Daniel Pearl, ASC

Just curious, what is it about the Angenieux 17.5-70 that you particularly like? I have the 17-68 with a dogleg finder, still testing it and I am not super familiar with the characteristics of the Angenieux zooms. I have used the Pan-Cinors quite a bit and the footage certainly looks like it came out of a late 60's news report.

Hi Matt, This is a piece that I did recently which has no actual interview footage at all, it's all voice-over interview but lots of handheld footage around the subject. So in a way, it's all "B" cam, all "subjective". People seem to like the way it turned out: https://vimeo.com/366172826/1beff2df6c

I purchased a Bolex MST motor from Jean-Louis Seguin in Montreal, in great shape, tested it out for about 5 minutes then broke it by pressing the "reverse" button on top while it was running forward. Sad to say, I didn't know it was the reverse button at the time - always read the manual kids! With Mr. Seguin's guidance I opened up the motor and tried to figure out the issue - the motor still runs fine in reverse but won't run forward. Whatever broke has something to do with the microswitches I think, but it's much less a mechanical problem than an electronic one. So I am looking for someone here in the States who can repair such a device. I'm told that Dieter at Procam doesn't like to work on electronic things, prefers to stay on the mechanical side.

Madeline Kate Kann

There have been some fine films made with the Beaulieu, including the work of Mike Jittlov, aka "The Wizard of Speed and Time". My observation vs. the Bolex is that the ergonomics of the R16 are amazing for handheld work, but quite the opposite for mounting on a tripod and adding a magazine. The tripod mount is under the fat handle and there's not a lot of area to help with stabilization. Add to that the mag seated on the curved top of the camera, at full height the whole thing becomes wobbly. The Bolex at full height is not much better, but at least you've got a flat base with the later models. Additionally, as I understand it, converting the R16 to Super-16 is very difficult. You also can't argue with the track record of the Bolex' claw design (the "trailing claw") and I think the R16 has a very simple claw. That Beaulieu viewfinder is gorgeous to look through, though.

Just for contrast, here's a Technicolor spinning camera rig. Photos Courtesy Jim Aupperle. We think it was used on Fred Astaire's “The Band Wagon”:

One of these modified Filmos for pulse-sync operation just came up on eBay: Filmo Pulse Camera

Simon, what is the Double-Eight and Double Super 8 stock that you're speaking of? I only know of professionally produced B&W stocks in 8 and DS8 - except for Kahl, but it has to be sent back to them for processing.

I loved the shots of the food! Simultaneously delicious-looking and curiously disgusting, I think because I couldn't quite tell what they were eating.