DanStewart

A 3 chip camera with a nikon mount WOULD be impressive. Do let us know when you've seen the prototype.

If it's a locked off shot consider using a couple of exposures and compositing them in post. This won't work on moving shots or subjects but then niether will cutting out shapes in gel.

You probably mean the neg..?

Agreed! Unfortunately we also now have too much 'kind of like Dogme' DV crap too, where people think the answer is to go to the other extreme - no lights, no design. I may be up for a C4 show that does precisely this, so I shouldn't throw stones, but it is so nice to see shooters with the confidence to do what is right for the story without having to resort to gimmicks or generic approaches to justify the work. But I should note that some of the people I most respect in the UK are indeed grey haired and in at least one case ex BBC :D

Contact Kelvin Crumplin there, this is best done on specifics. You might be able to piggyback on a feature or something. But arrange post early, that's where any savings are most likely to dissapear.

Movielab have Super Americas, 2c's and BL4's. There are some 2c's floating around europe from the old spaghetti western days.

Not just DV though Phil, needs to handle uncompressed 601. Did you get my email? Cheers Dan

You may have difficulty getting 2perf scanned. In theory you could scan in 4 perf and split the frames somehow. Note that 2 perf and super 3 perf are not equal in quality. A 2.4:1 extraction from the super frame uses the entire width and gives you a little vertical room to reframe, while 2 perf Techniscope does not use the soundtrack area and there is no spare room at all. I feel 3 perf is the better option, despite the theoretically greater savings of 2perf. East coast: http://www.multivision235.com.au/ :)

There's been a lot of previous discussion about both Minolta and Sekonic meters (esp. the sekonic 608 which may be what you're after). Check the archives.

If you are seeing superflous parts of the image then sure, just crop them out. But If you are seeing a distorted image that isn't using the whole width of the 16:9 screen, you want to tag the movie as anamorphic as Alvin said. If it's not anamorphic and you want to zoom in, then crop away but be aware that you are reducing the resolution of the image that will then be blown to fill the vertical size of the screen you display it on.

Which made slightly less noise than a 2c :P It seems to me you need a steady movement, lens, sensor and fast disk. Do you really think you're going to do better than a 35mm size sensor in a DSLR, nikor macro lens and optical printer movement combo? I think you're getting into some fairly advanced engineering to compete with those guys. A SCSI RAID can handle the data, though the camera won't do better than 1fps @ 2k. For faster - build more. Of course its way short of a proper film scanner but then you're talking about competing with the big boys - but do that for less than 100k/unit and you're in business... Cheers Dan

This is more like it - http://www.jkcamera.com/digital_printer.htm Use a nice fast high quality Nikon tethered to a PC, and use Nikon Capture software to record directly to the PC hard disk. In any case get a DSLR with a nice macro lens - for a list of cameras and software control options: http://www.steves-digicams.com/ Jeff Kreines hypothesised this could achieve 1fps @ oversampled 2k. I'd be interested in how it works out if you try it. Cheers Dan

Phil- What's the difficulty in getting a macro/ diopter setup to shoot the GG? I'd have thought this was the easiest bit (good job I'm not building one). Also you're apparently better off with a vibrating ground glass to avoid visible artefacts closer to the centre of the disk. (I think Anne Summers has something you could use...) Cheers Dan

Congrats David!

I heard Joe Dunton in london has developed brand new S16 anamorphics. If anyone's used them, I'd be interested in how they perform. Cheers Dan

Sure man go for it! :D The garbage matte principal can be used to cover any part of the frame you don't want the keying to affect (although it is a case of actually masking the keyed layer to only include the relevant area). The only caveat is to get a nice workable and consistent distance between the key and non-key areas, or you're going to find yourself adjusting curves frame by frame until YOU go bluein the face (or green B) ) Dan

How about the 'L3' compression used in the Origin? This is supposed to knock a 1gb/sec feed down to 300mbps, but is totally lossless. That is, the original image can be precisely reconstructed from the compressed one. :blink:

Also - if you're recording human voice on a mono mic you really don't need to go crazy. Mag sound and DAT can both handle it just fine. I have talked with sound guys who reckon 24 bit 48/96khz audio is noticeably better than 16 bit 44khz (DAT), but any of these tried and well tested solutions will do you fine, so go for price and convenience. This means DAT. If you can afford a HD recorder of course... The other solution much discussed by indie guys is to use a laptop with a balanced XLR interface like the M-Audio mobile USBPRE. 96khz 24 bit for peanuts. Go to a sound forum and propose this. They love it.

'You don't know what you got till it's gone'. Yes, you guys have a lot of dicks over there but you also have the highest concentration of enlightened educated human beings on the planet. It comes to faith - like you said David, it worked out OK in the past. Like the march against the war here (bigger than the electoral turnout), people can and will change things when they realise those in charge are not acting in a philanthropic manner. Blair is in deep poop over Iraq. The delay is their faith in people, which is worth waiting for, because you wouldn't want to lose it. Dan

Thanks Randy. It's true London is good practice for spending money, though my ex was from Oslo and I think that might take the world title. Cheers Dan

Hi, I'm planning a jaunt over to the Big Apple, haven't got a clue what it costs to stay there. I don't mind being out of the way a bit, and am looking to stay a month or whatever I can afford. Can anyone from that part of the world give me an idea what an room / flat/ cardboard box would cost? Don't worry I live in London you can't shock me <_< Is $100 a week out of the question? Much appreciated, Cheers Dan

This certainly is a big factor here in the UK. I had the notion of getting a Kodak HR500 digi photolab scanner and using it for motion picture scanning. It's slow (4 secs a frame) so you'd have to be willing to wait a few days for your TK (in any format). However, it can also do upwards of 4K, and the keycodes are included in the scan area so rescanning at ridiculo-resolution is easy (if you don't want the storage costs). It can only take 200' rolls off the shelf but I think this is not a major problem to overcome. Same for 16mm feed. Fine tuning registration is done in software (Combustion) afterwards - works perfectly, I've tried it. That's about £30K down but even for a couple of indie features it really makes sense. Digi grading in combustion (or even photoshop) on the .TGA sequences is a pleasure, and as long as you make the contrast compensation on your monitor you're ready for film out. (And you have a sweet looking DVD to raise the funds with). With processing at £0.1/ft, free TK, free DI, filming costs become much less of a headache. Cheers, Dan

Very clever! That's the beauty of this plan dude, it's simplicity. Congrats ASOM. How about a few seconds of DV footage for us to inspect? The f**k the moving focussing screen approach is great, but I'm interested in why PST thought it was worth all that effort. Cheers Dan