Michael Lehnert

Hi Martín, after 1.5 years delay for health reasons, Herr Dresel finally wrapped our S16-converted Eclair 16 NPR. As promised an eternity ago here, here and here, please find attached below a digipic re. the Arriflex 16 BL handgrip that was modified to fit on the NPR. The original ergonomic base part was modified with an extended cantilever base. So it's now an "augmented" version of an Arriflex 16 BL handgrip, if I may dare say so ;) . The reason for this was to move the entire handgrip forward towards the front end of the camera. By doing so, the BL handgrip is not obstructing the variable shutter adjustment control on the right-hand side of the NPR body, plus the entire handgrip now resides further forward at a position parallel to the lens, which makes the entire set-up significantly better balanced. You can hold it with your hand and arm being much less angled. I was expecting a cantancerous feel as one usually does with a standard NPR (compared to cat-on-shoulder designs). Holding this rig however is just a pleasure. It's much more comfortable than a Eclair ACL, Aaton 7 or my beloved-yet-underused Bolex 16 Pro. This really works. Again, sorry for the delay in posting this, Martín. Havn't been around ciny.com that much recently anyway, as work kept me from doing so. Hope you're doing fine.

No problemo!

that really depends on the way your credits are styled. When I use logos, I put in place: Shot on (Kodak Logo) Super 8 motion picture film Kodak Vision2 200 T (7217) When I go into non-logo designs, I use the following: Shot on Super 8 Motion Picture Film Kodak Vision2 200 T (7217) Kodak Vision3 500 T (7219) THis works for both rolling titles as well as slideshowey plates.

Variable shutter designs (which can be adjusted electrically or manually while camera is running) paired with good glass are the hallmarks of some top-level production cameras for the Super 8 format. The Schneider on the S560 isn't particularly well-coated, but it's fine lens, and a good camera you chose in the first place. The Nizo S560 manual (which you might not have?) states (translated from German to English by Marty :) Shutter leaver: When forward....shutter is fully open, when you slide it slowly backwards the shutter slowly closes and will effect a FADE-OUT. If you hold it all the way back, then begin filming and slowly release it to the front it will effect a FADE-IN. By moving it to the middle position (half darkened circle setting) and then pulling it down so it locks into a small detent....you can lock the shutter in the half closed setting, which increases the shutter speed per frame by a factor of two, and will open the lens up if set to AUTO exposure by 1-Stop. Useful for smoother fast action, or if you desire less depth-of-field etc. By depressing a small black button at the end of the fadeout range....you can move the lever into that position and then release that button, and it will hold the lever in that position. This will LOCK the SHUTTER FULLY OPEN. By doing this...you can make a timed exposure longer than normal per frame. By using the time lapse intervalometer, you can time the exposure per frame from 1/10th second down to ONE MINUTE PER FRAME! This means you can film under a full moon with Kodachrome...believe it or not....however....when doing this...you have to use a separate handheld light meter to determine your correct exposure, also you'll have to lock the run lock switch or use a cable release so the camera stays running continously for the duration of your long exposure filming session, and you'll want to use a tripod of course. Using this....you can film highways at night...and get those nice long colorful streaks from the car lights coming and going like in TV commercials etc.

Motion Picture film production and packaging is being centralised now as originally intended in the 2005 road map of the MPI division (that re-developed large part of Rochester plant anyway). Windsor was never intended to be permanent. Rochester will be. All under one roof. Very nicve Surprise by Wittner about the welcoming is largely due to their German backgriound. Anyone having had to deal with a German company or coming up with their request vis-a-vis a German company will no why they were astounded to be so welcome. Here in DE, you mostly get a could shoulder if not a "what the f##+ß do you want?" So this is purely socio-cultural. I was shocked how many doors open up here in London or last year in LA, coming from Germany. Superb article, and hopefully (once more) stopping those scaremongers blurbing about the immediate demise of the format, or of film generally. It's just not going to happen.

Yes, always. Referencing stock is sthg I regard as good practice, as it helps people who are interested in such thing to learn more about material and stock used while watching your work.

I have of agree. Returning to this forum after an absence of some months, and not having experienced the switch-over (and the forum topic shuffling... pooh, I have to retrain myself to find things :) ), I find this forum iteration during peak times of posting a tad sluggish. However, right now, it's pretty fast, on a fast Mac with 10.5 running Safari. -Michael

The GK thingy is pants and will RIP, and deservedly so. Poor Klose was lured by some self-declared "luminaries" of the German small format scene into believing that all Super 8 needed to survive was being "liberated" from the capitalist unloving claw of the Yellow Giant, and freed-up with "superior-Single-8-halo'd" Fuji stock in a brand new cartridge design with a metal pressure plate shovelled into it. So he spent his pension and took on debt on a bonkers idea that will - so I hear - finally see the light of day this spring (again, like last year, and the one before). What I find despicable is that those German luminaries turned their back publicly on Klose once it became evident that this just won't work out and the great Fuji saviour headline won't be making them the global super 8 scene stars they craved to be. For most non-German forum members, you will have to see that there is a lot of baggage in the GK project, which is part of while it failed - the other is lack of understanding of what it actually involved to create a sustainable technology-driven business venture targeted at a global niche market in the 21st century. A shame about Smallformat, too, while we are at it. Cheerio, -Michael

Thank you, Mark, for this more reflected view on the two 8mm formats. Super 8 is in many ways a more sophisticated and better-performing format concept than 8mm, and although the mechanic constructions that drive most Double 8 or Normal 8 or Standard 8 cameras appear to be superior and more appealing, and for many film projects is frankly totally sufficient for the DoP or the key visual idea of the film, it's not that clear cut on a technical matter. Alot of filmmakers here are quite young. Although I am not a greybeard, I have been involved with Super 8 for a long time, and remember and have archive and freshly-developed film reels that show how the Super 8 format is in no way automatically visibly inferior to Double 8 camera reels. An out-of-the-box 1970s Super 8 camera with a Kodapak delivered (and can deliver today with proper CLA and properly sourced cartridges) superb frame stability beating Canon Scoopics and the rest of the "usual suspect fanboy tools" ;-) . And ahead of demonising the Super 8 cartridge, one should not forget the possibilities offered via the cartridge design that opened up creative filmmaking means that previously couldn't be deployed to 8mm shooters. I agree that the quality of Super 8 cartridges has fluctuated significantly since the turn of the millennium, and even before that, there have been one-off bad patches that troubled filmmaking in the 1980s and 1990s. However, the quality of the cartridge is very good for what it is, and has been equal or superior to Normal 8 when S8 launched and for most of its lifetime. With a CLA'd camera in hand, and if quality control would be enforced by Kodak at all times, and third-party suppliers with own-packaged film stock would have some quality control in place at all, then we wouldn't have these discussions at all. As regards the Bolex halo: We have an ultra-rare Bolex 16 Pro in our system park, which is by far the most advanced and exquisite 16mm construction ever made. The more entry-level H-series is doubtlessly very good and has a huge and solid cult/indy halo plus the association with Swiss precision engineering that even pales the (mostly overrated) German reputation. And the look and resolving power that Switar glass is allowing is very good for its price point. Many love the more simple and consumer market H-series, and I too appreciate it for what is. But I have seen footage from H-models that were sub-par to well-maintained Super 8 cameras (which frankly, most today aren't on eBay or outside the areas where good service is around the corner, i.e. CH, DE, USA-NY+CA, JP, maybe UK). To proclaim that any H-8 will deliver better results continuously and consistently over Super 8 format cameras is too much of a simplification for the sake of "making a point". That I find problematic to leave uncommented on a forum of the quality that is ciny.com here. Why? Because pretty much any Bell & Howell design from the 1940s beats the terrible Arri 16 SR-series (series 1 to 3, exlc. the Advanced and HS) in respect to frame stability! That doesn't mean that John or myself in the 16 forum would state that Normal 16 is superior to the Super 16 format.

After half a year absence from this forum, it's good to see that some topics never die ;) . From a European perspective, I am always astonished how much is actually still shot in 16mm in the US. As was noted previously, 16mm is still a regular format for tv series & dramatic productions, certainly in Germany, and also in France (and even in the UK, at least more in 2008 than in previous years). Meanwhile in the US, that has always (or to be more precise: more than not) been filmed on 35mm. So while the drop of 70% that David shared ealier here is dramatic indeed, from a European viewpoint, the fact that things get shot on 16 at all is quite surprising. If I go to the RED forum now (my first time since August), will I find a thread saying "RED finally killed off 16mm obsolete format?" Good to be back here, -Michael :)

The Pro also has more sepmag sync tools on board, also I am unsure you might need them ever, but who knows. Recent issue of Super 8 Today has an article about the Nizo Pro in it, including a nice pic from its circuit board courtesy of Braun :-) (disclaimer: yea, I wrote that article, sorry for the ruthless self-promotion, but every issue of S8Today sold is worth it!)

Ditch the girlfriend. Someone forcing you to make such decisions is not someone who has her heart at a place where it considers "you" - and that it should be, at least in a serious relationship that wants to go beyond the Friday night post-pub lay. Nizo Pro has better MC'd Schneider 11x7mm and bespoke internal componentry, plus the integrated energy solution for shooting on tripods without bridging cable. This increases it's cinematographic value way above the 801. But the 801 Black is rare, and is hence collectible. alhtough the silver-anodised bodies were the signature feature of Braun Nizo, the exotism of the Black edition is the little "va-va-voom" in the line-up... like you love white sheep, but you also fall for the black sheep in the flock (sorry, just came back down from Scotland...). If you want to primarily shoot, and shoot in the long-run (i.e. S8 is something you take professionally serious), then keep the Pro. If you are an occassional S8 shooter and deep down in your heart know that this is an episode in your life and might soon end with all the pricing going through the roof and the looming Second Great Depression making cinematography an unsustainable career for you, then keep the 801 Black in it's mint-ness, and safe a space in your crystal glass showcase to flabbergast your diner party friends in the year 2030. Cheers, -Michael

Sorry, have been out of the internet's reach for some weeks (not sure how Stephen Fry achieves use twitter on his iPhone in the jungle's of Madagascar?!) and just catching up with what went on at cinematography.com over the past weeks (please turn a blind eye if I havn't read this thread in its entirety...) What does not seem to have changed in my absence is Pro8mm's fundamentally bad approach to do business and how to treat customers. I'm afraid this forum is full with people complaining about the bad service and ill-informing customer communications of Phil, wife & company. How they achieved to built the image of a "pro house" getting studio jobs is a myth to me (apart from their hardware investment and Burbank base, of course). If you ordered a 4:4:4 transfer, and have that placed order and recourse acknowledgement in writing from you and from them as well, then you should insist on compensation or them doing this job (if they could, that is - they peak at 4:2:2). Always doublecheck and put in words orders in this industry, even when dealing with established companies in bigger formats. Golden rule. Always overcommunicate. After all, it's your film and your reels that you have to show and live with in your filmography. Keep us posted about how this continues. Very annoying. Cheers, -Michael

Your best chances to get hold of a Beaulieu SD8/60 would be via Bavaria Cine Home, which is a "sort of" subsidiary of the Bavaria Studios focused on Super 8. Dr Carl-Hellmuth Hoefer of Smallformat fame is an associate there, and when Ritter (Beaulieu DE) went bust a while back, they were to top competitors to take over the General Representation of Beaulieu in Germany - until Daniel Wittner snapped the deal to become Beaulie DE out of their fingers in the last minute... those were the days... :-) Website: http://www.bavaria-cinehome.de/ Language: should work in English, actually. Price: premium region (ebay.de might be cheaper, but rare) Issue: Beware that you will have to get your Beaulieu 6/7/9008-series camera quite heavily modified before it is "magazine-ready". Just to snap it in doesn't work like that. It's not a 16mm clip-on job, plus: it's Beaulieu! When the product was launched, the modification of the cameras had the same price as the magazine itself (several thousand bucks in today greenback money), so no wonder that it remained a rarity. Also, the first run of the production has flawed, and it became a bit like in the early days of coachbuilt automobiles were camera/magazine combos were individually tuned to each other, solving haunting gremlins bit by bit (leaving behind many elderly Germans with red faces out of anger over cameras away in service for weeks, but with quadruple digit bills coming in every other week :rolleyes: ) Best wishes, -Michael

No, but you might end up in an asylum doing that. Might be a good place to be in now, mind you. Assured food plus light activities for you. -Michael

I cannot believe that there isn't more feedback and interest in this thread other than from Alex and myself and Giles from onsuper8.org :blink: . No one expects hordes of volonteers giving up every spare minute outside work. But at least some feedback and input, folks, on what you would like to see or what you think?! Hello? -ML P.S.: Dan, got your message, am waiting for Giles to send me his e-mail contact so that we have our e-mail addresses to work with outside the rather limited ciny.com messenger. Once I got Giles e-mail, I will come back to you!

:D Actually, I am from Basel (regularly refered to as either Basel, Bale or Basle in international air traffic ;) ) but cannot believe that you can stand living there as someone from Züri. How come you changed the "Böögg" for living amidst the "Daig"?! :) (don't answer, it's a rhethorical post - British humour, I'm afraid :unsure: ) P.S. to David: Dresel was in hospital, back in recuperation. Incorrect medicine prescription from his GP nearly killed him (no joke!). Attempt to get NPR in late October or so.

Ja nee, s'isch ja nicht meeglig: und was isch mit'em Baaseldytsch?! Oder schöönscht's Schwyzerdütsch, zum minimum? Weenn d'scho ee linguistisches Chuchichäschtli aufmachsch, denn scho richtig! :P Greetings to Vienna and Basel (or Bale, or Bâle, or Basle, no one really seems to know how to spell it in English proper - so much for hedging chances), -Michael

Oh, and Matthew is actually a better person than his reputation here :P ;) B) .

Welcome to cinematography.com! I can assure you that normally, this place is very much different - even in RED threads... well, sort of. The intellectual and professional level on cinematography is very high, and it is without a doubt the most profound and diverse internet forum on this subject. I would however stick to two rules: Never start a threat that has as topic line "Film is dead", and stick to discussing political, economic, legal and societal issues with people able to impart insights into it that are not based on blogs or news websites :) . I can assure you that Richard is a very professional, determined and creative (and film-savvy) filmmaker, and Michele is one of the people who actually work in the LA area professionally in film (there are too many consumer camcorder videographers around recently). Whether you are a pro, or a newbie, this is the place for you. Just by reading around, you will learn alot, irrespective of your existing knowledge. Cheers, -Michael

This is an excellent idea, Dan. It is overdue that a panel discussion and symposium on Super 8 occurs to showcase the possibilities it offers both conventionally as well as in respect to the increasing professionalisation of the format. I have always maintained that such events are crucially important to raise awareness in the industry about the capabilities of the format. And the more "serious" the setting (nothing against underground indie festivals here ;) ) in discussing the format and the industry, the better the appreciation from Kodak and other stakeholders for it will be. Having just returned from a trip to LA, the super 8 possibilities that have yet to reach European shores are truly limitless, it seems. If you need some help, please do feel free to contact me, Dan. As regards a Aaton Super 8 camera: I am currently chasing this up with J.P. Beauviala as I once wrote an article and did some planning about how an all-new super 8 camera could look like design-wise back in 2001 (that was in coop with Beaulieu Germany then). With my work on S8 cameras for Super 8 Today and the article series on the history of cameras, I have taken this with up Grenoble based on their 1979 prototype design for a S8 cam. But at this point in time, I have to state clearly that Aaton is incredibly busy launching the Penelope (utterly gourgeous thing!) and will not visit a S8 system for some years. The Aaton Superette and Aaton Superette Elongate camera rumours that circle around here started as an inside joke between Alessandro Machi and myself (hyperlinks hub here to the original posts). As it stands, they might actually rather go for an Aaton Titania 65mm design that we also tossed around here, as 65 and 8 are both equally niche yet prolific and in-demand formats. The bookends of cinematography, so to say :) . Re. Alex post above: Alex, the Nomos film awards that Schmalfilm hosts in Berlin have a marketplace in the entry hall of the cinema theatre which they have used so far (but fallen out with last time - so not sure what will happen next year). That is - however - not a symposium as such. Do not mistake this with the BCFI Cine-Forum that also gets editorial space in the magazine, but is independent, despite Schmalfilm authors appearing there as speakers. That is a true symposium with seminars, workshops and 4 days filled with film projection - albeit German-language based. I organised these annual events for 6 years when I was part of the executive team of the BCFI, and that was great fun. I always hoped that this could be organised in the English language realm, but the scene here isn't as organised as in Germany (at least at it was there). LA would be great, if not ideal, but UK, too. After all, the Aldwych Hotel here in London has a Super 8 projector set-up in their screening room, as I recently found out to my amazement :blink: . Re potential guests, Dan: I would consider inviting Ludwig Draser from Andec, as he has single-handedly kept S8 alive on the Continent more than anyone else by sticking to developing film stocks in his lab - and will probably continue to do so when Todd-AO/SOHO are long forgotten! You should also consider inviting Alex here, who has done alot for this format here in this very cinematography.com forum! Cheers, -Michael P.S. to Alex: how are you doing after your hairraising experience you wrote about in Super 8 Today? I was actually passing the bridge you stood on when I was in LA, and hope everything has healed or is getting better!

Richard, just a brief intermission here, I think the issue at hand is actually that the idea of total equality and a level playing field for everyone is one thing (even enshrined in constitutional texts all over the planet that were written at a time when this clearly was not existent at all), but the societal realities even today are very much different as in many parts of professional and societal life, race or gender do matter a lot for personel questions, more than many good men can possible (or possibly want) to acknowledge. This goes beyond the circumstance that to top it off, "these minorities" have been implicitly or explicitly deprived of key role models, entry to professional and educational institutions, or are stereotypically regarded as unfit to perform a certain job. These debates have even been held here in respect to women being stereotypically unable to lift cameras or being too girly to do a "field job" that was put forward by a sizeable amount of people here are signature enough of that. Opinions that a person of a physique like David here is hence regared as fit for a DoP, whereas a women - despite having a more "masculine" physique - is regared as unfit is not only a shocker for David Mullen or myself, but should be for many more people. Just 100 years ago, women were clinically diagnosed and scientifically proven to be unfit for higher secondary and tertiary education, let alone a proper men's job in a bank, as round-the-world sailor, or pilot; on grounds of their tender physique, limited brainpower, inability to act independently and objectively, and of course because their duty to God is childbearing, and biologically/natural-historically they collect berries in the field while the real men go hunting (apart from native societies in Africa, Amazonia and Indonesia where the women go hunting and the men sit at home and cook, but that was conveniently forgotten under the "primitive societies" banner by anthropology). Your contetion that your professional Candian body (probably having bilingual forms in proper English and that frog-eaters language) demands less credits is similar to the idea that humans of lesser means or traditional lack of accessibility shouldn't get benefical treatmant: such as reduced entry prices for museums to kids or students ("mostly rich middle class wankers anyhow whose daddy pays for the BMW parked in from of Phi Beta Kappa"), or preferential treatment for soldiers ("they shoot people, and then they receive preferences for good jobs over peace-loving tree huggers? pfui!") or that it matters for political reasons that Black Guy gets Oscar ("Although Marty Scorsese was soo much better - foul - the Italian-American community is getting ass-shafted here - let's start a riot") If the Royal Comission of Jordan participates in a training programm with the UK and Iraq for cinematographers under the condition that out of the 10 places, 3 must go to female film students, people (particularly those 3 men left out in the cold) can cry foul, but if one is not totally unempathic and detached from the social realities, this decision makes alot of sense. Let's face it, those loudly annoyed by affirmative action, whether its a Harvard entry, a gov grant, a union membership, a crucial job or a place in a team, are mostly those men that are least talented out of the selection that would actually have received a place despite being not really fit-for-it, yet whose place went to a "minority" usually not found in these professions, and with their absence having no obviously biological, explicit and comprehensive reason at all. Unless, of course, that there is a reason that 97% of all cinematography-based jobs (DoPs, ACs etc) are white men, with the tiny rest being flagship ethniticies and gender people rightly being paraded around as they break the mould and can serve as a role model. I am looking forward to hear why cinematography is one of the least diversified professions on this planet (after all, there are even male geishas in Japan, one of the more "conservative" societies on Earth - not to use the R/S'ism words here). I don't know, this entire thread really seems to be queer. Is that a White Thing? ;)

The Framemaster device has been discussed here since it originally came to the international market, oh, back 4 years ago or so. It was available in Germany since 2001/2, launched with an article in the CineMagica of the BCFI. There is no conclusive resolution as to the benefits of this device. What is know of it in respect to real-life results can be read in the Super 8 FAQ by clicking here (at the end of the post dealing with Super 8 Cartridges in general). The English site for the FrameMaster can be found at Andec's Website. I personally would not endorse the device, in fact, I am unsure about any dealings with Herr Klose in general at the moment, as over the past 2 years, he has accumulated a certain track record for non-delivering on promised and listed products - the GK Precision Cartridge that incorporated a new pressure plate derived from the knowledge gained with the FrameMaster is now almost absolutely pure vapourware.

[second attempt to get this post properly hyperlinked, sorry for original scramble] No problemo. I like your style, Michele! Quite overdue here to shake things up a bit, again ;) . After all, this thread has already been there back in May, when I posted this reply here. So, nothing new under the sun, I'm afraid. Remember, we have these "What's your favourite DoP? or "who would you like to apprentice with" threads going on for nearly a year now in the cinematography sub-forum with the same names of currently working DoPs reiterated again and again and no female DoP shows up in these lists, and very few historical or great masters of this profession before 1990, too. So much for imagination. Then Jaqueline started this thread about female DoPs, but after postings from the usual serious suspects, it unfortunately died down. That alone says alot about female presence in cinematography. As you are based in LA (lucky you), maybe you should get in touch with Geena Davies. She is currently running an interesting little project that deals with the visibility (or lack thereof) of women in the profession and on screen (small and big). Nothing fancy, nothing well-funded, and just at the beginning, but if you are interested, PM me for further details (I will be away for the next week but will reply ASAP after that). I am also working on two project with Maria Shriver and the Royal Commission of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Both are in its infancy but might develop into something next year. Can't promise anything but I will bear your name in mind. Best wishes, -Michael

Wow, Phil, I guess this is not your real personal view but just a flamethrower argument for fun's sake to keep this thread boiling... isn't it?