Chris Keth

It's made like that because focusing a dark image is tough.

The difference is lighting and set design. "Cheesy" public TV tends to have sterile crappy sets and flat lighting.

Why necessitate doing tons of correction in post when you could choose the right stock, shoot it right and get the look you want without a DI or with very little work on the DI? I'm sure a producer would be much happier with that situation as opposed to one where you shoot any ol' stock and have to change everything in post, costing gobs of cash.

Good call, it's the same DP as "Sleepy Hollow." :D

Seriously, rig the camera above a light table. Light your drawings and shoot them one by one (or two by two, if that's how you drew them to be shot). That will give you a neg of your shot cartoon.

Well, since you shot 35mm negs, you obviously have access to a camera. Why don't you shoot your animation on 35mm neg stock?

Wow, I used the unbleached stuff to help my girlfriend out a little tonight. She's shooting a self-portrait (she's a photography major) for a class and we put a strobe through about a 4-by area of doubled over muslin and it gave a gorgeous cast to her skin. It was filled and edged by bounce from the white background and a whitecard in front and low. The quality of the light from that is really attractive. I'll post one or two if she doesn't mind (they're nude, but nothing at all frontal).

Is the footage on 35mm negs?

Heh, I do that too, actually. Not everybody take it in stride. I would say don't lie about your age. Like others ahve said, be prepared, be professional, don't be too commanding and shouty and you'll gain respect. it might not be there initially, too.

Does most of what you need a lightmeter to do. Has FPS speeds from 8 to 64 including 25 and 30. This is the one with the sync cable attachment. I bought it new for about $200 but I'm asking $120. We can talk if you think that's too much. E-mail me if you're interested at <cdketh@alltel.net>.

The best way to learn, unfortunately, is to make lots and lots of mistakes. No matter how much you read in a book, you're still going to have to develop your eyes by doing it. DOn't be afraid to make those mistakes. A good book to get you started though is "Cinematography: Theory and Practice" by Blain Brown.

I didn't want to do the fanboy "rant and rave manouever" :P :D

I finally had the chance to see Northfork and I was blown away. It was as beautiful a movie as I've seen in a very long time. I just wanted to compliment you, David, on some really beautiful work. Out of curiosity, where was the film shot? I was born around the Northfork area of Montana :D

I'm pretty sure I remember hearing that the B&W footage was 16mm shot on a CP-16.

It's just a thinnish cotton cloth. Something like you might make drapes out of, I guess.

Wow, that's a cool offer I'd like to be in on if there's enough to go around. I've played with some old film on other occasions and achieved some pretty neat stuff.

Yeah, you definately will find them there but I don't own a copy. It's almost criminal to publish a reference book and charge that much for it.

I would get some sheet diffusion like opal or 216. I think you'll find that using those umbrellas for diffusion will lower the light level too much for a lot of shooting.

Those lenses ARE still the same focal length in a 16mm camera as when they're on a 35mm camera. They don't just magically change. It's just an apparent change since the dimensions of the film are smaller. Sorry, that particular bit of spread misinformation irks me.

$4.44 a yard at Wal-mart for all-cotton unbleached.

Just looking at it it is probably a tiny bit warmer but mostly just dirty-white looking. I think bleaching, more than anything else, improves the light transmission.

There's really no reason those lights won't work for all purpose stuff. You might want to get more in the future so you can light larger areas and more complex setups, but those will work. If I were you, I'd put your money into some frames and material that you can make flags (opaque black, for cutting light) with and some different diffusion and bounce materials. Often, cutting out light is more important to the final look than just providing it.

Just make sure you overexpose from your meter readings. It's easy to forget adjustments if you're not careful, but snow looks pretty awful in 18% grey ;)

F-stop, since it sounds like you've bleached it before, how exactly works best for you? Do you just do it in a sink with full strewngth bleach or do you make a solution? Just doing it in the washing machine on cold with no detergent should do it too. Maybe 2 rinse cycles just to make sure?

I go to the Rochester Institute of Technology. I think it fits the bill pretty well.