Webster Colcord
-
Posts
237 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by Webster Colcord
-
-
IMHO, it's got a lot more of a solid and engaging plot than "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly", which at times barely makes any sense. Plus he had a higher budget and those shots of the town being built around the train are amazing. Henry Fonda is a great bad guy too, and Jason Robards is in top form.
Also, they're wrinkly, sweaty, and oily. Like leather - they been in that sun a long time.
-
Autodesk makes a photometrics application that does just that, but it's meant for architects/engineers to design the lighting in the planning phase of building construction. Actually, I think there's several applications including Autolux and Revit and I'm not sure which one would be best in terms of cost/ease of use/customization for film lighting.
My wife is a lighting engineer and does exactly these kinds of calculations, but for construction. Let me ask her if it's hackable and I'll get back to you.
-
5 hours ago, Phil Jackson said:
I'm also not convinced that de-aging is quite there yet, in the same way that aging a young actor with hair/makeup never quite looks convincing (see Guy Pearce in Prometheus). So I guess there are limitations.
I agree with what you said Phil. I would add though, as a VFX worker myself, the issue I have with these kinds of conversations - akin to the "Practical vs. CG" discussion - is that all of the VFX industry is treated as "one entity" in the discussion, without regard to the specific talents of a given team. The de-aging that the team at Lola FX (which was set up specifically to do de-aging work as a spin-off from another VFX house, Hydraulx) did for Michael Douglas in Ant-Man is impeccable, and I'm thinking that if you had the late Dick Smith available to do the age makeup in Prometheus, it would have been equally as flawless.
Even though the tech brings everybody's level up, the stuff is still really difficult and skill/talent makes the difference. Also the Irishman comparison is not really fair, as choices are made on shows like that to go for a certain look. So they may have tested the technique used in the "deep fake" video and decided against it for creative reasons. It kinda gets into the territory of "Cats" - it's not the VFX teams' fault that the work gets laughed at for the wrong reasons, those choices were made at a higher level.
-
I love those so much!
-
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:
-
2
-
-
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.
-
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):
-
1
-
-
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:
-
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.
-
On 2/13/2020 at 7:20 PM, Dennis Toeppen said:
I think I'd probably not want to sell less than 1000', because that's how it's spooled. Cost is pretty high, though. I think it wound up being about $1.50/foot, possibly higher. I'd have to look back at my records.
Understood, and I still need to order some of your Wittner-perfed Ektachrome. One of these days.
-
3 hours ago, Dennis Toeppen said:
I bought unperforated 3383 from EK and had it perfed by Wittner.
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:
-
2 hours ago, Dennis Toeppen said:
I have, I think, 6000' feet of R8 3383 print film. Fotokem is willing to print it.
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.
-
21 hours ago, John Kessler said:
Anyone have access to a manual for this DBM4A? I need pinouts. I am getting the connector. Just bought a nice gray military case.
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":
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:
-
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.
-
Let's see your Bolex.
in Bolex
Posted
Rex IV, Super 16 conversion by Jean-Louis Seguin. MST motor with a piece of tape on top to keep me from accidentally throwing it into reverse when the motor is going forward. I have a pretty full set of Switars but I am experimenting with a couple of video lenses: a 17mm Xebec, and a 12.5mm Computar (which in my experience is actually a pretty good little lens).