Aapo Lettinen

are the "resolution" numbers based on which mtf response? 30%, 20%, 15%, 10%, 0%, etc. ?? film and video handle fine detail contrast differently which is one of the reasons why film image may often look "softer" and less detailed even if it is technically more "sharper", its mtf curve just drops generally faster than video's so that the small details are presented with lower contrast compared to video which gives the impression of small softness compared to video even if the video image is much less detailed near the 0% mark. the whole concept of resolution comparisons between film and digital is a bit unnecessary unless one has to convince a producer that shooting on film is still a viable choice. the audience does not care much nor notices the difference but for scanning purposes it may be useful to know how much one needs to oversample to get the most out of the negative and to avoid aliasing problems

if you have a 35mm SLR it is easiest to test developers first with stills using small 1-roll tanks, especially if you are using the same or approximately the same emulsions with both motion and stills. you may also want to build a film dryer which makes drying mp film much easier (the factory made ones are expensive on eBay so you may just want to make it by yourself) . pre-wash before developing may help to maintain consistency throughout the roll and some films require it anyway to get best results. before starting to develop it is good to first find out where the nearest hazardous waste disposal is, used developing chemicals are very bad for environment so they have to be discarded properly (note that the chemistry changes when the chemicals are used, so a Coffenol batch which is relatively harmless when freshly made is after developing contaminated with bromide and silver salts and cannot be poured to drain. same thing with the fixer. some of the chemicals are also bad for your health so proper precautions have to be taken according to which chemical is in question. I advise to start with b/w and advance to Color later if absolutely needed. then you have much more experience and can handle the process safely, color chemicals are generally more toxic and harmful for human health than standard b/w chemistry. they also need much tighter process control and are more expensive and age more quickly)

either someone has found a garage in Ukraine full of them OR people are not using DS8 and 2x8mm cameras as much than before. the UPB1 tank is for 10 meters of 8mm or 16mm film and the UPB1A is for 2x15m of 8mm or 16mm or alternatively 1 x 15m of 35mm. I have both tanks but almost always use the UPB1A unless when testing new developers when it is easier to take the smaller tank which only needs about one liter of solution, the 1A needs about 1.8L when both spirals are in use

are you using a lab or developing by yourself? if using a lab you should first ensure that they can handle the bulk film without problems. if you specifically want to use the stills stocks with pin registered cameras you can try to purchase the film non-perforated and let a separate company to do cine perforations to the rolls. ORWO in Germany does this for example and it is not that expensive ( I asked from them about this because I investigated this Spring the possibility to use DELTA3200 with cine cameras, initially did not have the funding to purchase the unperforated raw film 'cause that's expensive stock but the perforating service was very reasonably priced) but you need to do quite a lot of rolls to make this economical (maybe 50 or 100 or so at a time, depends also of the film manufacturers's minimum order policy)

I just started to experiment with this, will post results later. my Konvas 1KCP works with them without mechanical problems. finer cameras may have issues due to completely different perforation and pitch compared to cine film ( KS perfs and "print",aka long,pitch) . static electricity and halation may also be possible drawbacks. DON'T use with any camera which has reg pins, you will ruin your camera. older non-reg gear like Konvas, Cameflex, Eymo, Arri2c should be fine but you have to still test it individually with each camera body to ensure you don't run into problems. the long pitch is bigger issue than the different perforation profile. note that most of the bulk film comes on different cores the cine stuff and you have to rewind them to standard 2" cine cores for use. though I bought some stills bulk Foma400 which was already put on 2" cine cores in factory so it may vary a bit and the used core may not be marked on the can, you may have to open all the cans before use to check it out... ;)

the one thing most persons want is a camera which has as universal lens mount as possible so one is not limited to a few old and rare special mount lenses. I haven't actually used a CP camera but have considered buying one for years and looked for them on eBay etc. but always backed off because it is so darn difficult to find lenses for them. the PL mount seems to be a good idea though most of the people who would really use this kind of cameras a lot would maybe be more happy with a stills mount so they can use cheaper lenses. MFT would be among the best option but too difficult or impossible to do for most camera bodies so either EF or Nikon would be nice I think

very thin steel disc/spacer under the rear screw on filter would be nice for that, I don't know if it would affect back focus too much though. would probably be custom made stuff so glue+tape would be much easier

developer, fixer and wetting agent (reduces surface tension to aid drying, I use Ilfotol but some use even soap for this) . those are the basics. stop bath may be necessary with some processes, for example citric acid based solution, but usually water will do for this step.

how to store....the processing chemicals? you need a protection gas which is used to substitute air in the bottles to prevent oxidation and not store them in too hot conditions. anything which don't react with the chemicals and is denser than air should do fine, I think some photographers use lighter gas for this. there is factory made protections sprays which can also used and are less flammable. If you use raw chemicals (vitamin-c , hydroquinone, etc.) they also need protection from oxidation. R09 is intended for one use only as the name indicates, especially the very diluted working solutions. and it is very cheap, it's really best to always make a fresh solution for each film batch with that. there is plenty of photography resources on film developing and fine tuning the formulas for specific emulsions, if you want to really get the best out of the tri-x you should search those forums. you may need to mix the developer by yourself from raw chemicals if you want to really fine tune it but factory made developers are a good start. I would use something other than 4-aminophenol developer (R09 etc) if you want less grainy results. maybe Phenidone based like X-tol? some have had good results with it. never tried trix home developing (mostly I shoot Orwo, 7222 and various still stock in MP use, for example APX400) but Acufine could work quite well with it as far as I could find info from web.

bulk purchases most likely with lots of other films, not just single rolls or couple of dozen of them. Is your Kodak direct price the normal retail single roll price without discounts? http://www.frame24ltd.co.uk/epages/es768558.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/es768558/Products/KS4F721916MMKfresh

I would never buy a 400ft 16mm roll for over 200$, I can get a clearance factory sealed 1000ft roll of 35mm at the same price or cheaper depending on stock and even if the processing costs more, the telecine/scanning does not. and if one does not already have a very good S16mm camera it is cheaper to buy a low end 35mm one if not shooting excessive amounts of material...

fresh 7219 400ft costs about 109$ +VAT at Frame24, I think that is closer to reasonable price though I'm sure you can get it cheaper from States. just a ballpark on prices here, it is more practical to order from States to avoid unnecessary customs etc. at the latest short's 2nd unit we did about 1.7 ratio with 4-perf 35mm, it was silent film of course and the actor waited about 1.5 or 2 seconds after he heard that the camera had started (Cameflexes are very loud so he had no problem hearing it from distance) and started acting. So we had "camera action" command, then camera rolling, and the camera's sound was the actor mark. The 1.5 - 2 seconds was just the amount of time my Cameflex needed to stabilize the image, the speed up itself does not need that many frames. Something like at least 5:1 ratio would be more practical in most low budget productions though :lol: I recommend shooting standard formats as much as possible, it simplifies the post processing and may thus also lower costs. additionally it reduces the technical problems during the production and makes using multiple cameras easier. some people are very keen on inventing new film formats instead of actually making great films with that time. that is completely OK and great hobby as itself but it is usually not as practical if practiced on larger than shoestring scale productions ;)

1.5 or 2 hours should be ok, I would use the same time than with 16mm. If you are starting really early in the morning it might be best to take it out to warm up late in the evening just before going to bed so you are ready to shoot right away when you wake up

smeared nose grease is great for this effect. you can fine tune the effect by making strokes with the grease to different directions. it works mostly by diffraction so the streak direction is sideways to the stroke direction (just like with fishing line based streak filters, a vertical line makes horizontal streak) . if one filter is not enough you can make another on the other side of the optical flat to save filter trays ^_^

the Blackmagic 4k 's look is closer to Red One or Red One MX , I think. Treat it like it would be the original Red One and you'll be fine ^_^ I normally only shoot vfx plates and some of the low saturation and b/w stuff with the BMPC and everything else is usually with FS7 or film to get more dynamic range, sensitivity and much better colors

underexposing a BMPC and the cameras with the same sensor leads easily to visible fixed pattern noise and other issues. Expose to ISO200 or 400 with enough fill so that you don't have to lift shadows afterwards. If you really have to underexpose it and gain it after you can try to shoot a noise sample with body cap in place and try to use it in post production to subtract the pattern from the image, it may help to some extent

couple of months in warm conditions is definitely going to show in the final image. whether it matters or not depends on the project and shooting style. I would refrigerate the partially shot cartridge on its own as Mark suggested. I personally process the shot material at intervals of about 3 - 4 months and never had any problems with it. I keep the shot stock refrigerated and it is rarely in the camera for more than from 1 day to one week if shooting doc stuff and 1 hour to 1 day for other stuff. I would not recommend 3 months in camera even with the 50D (I don't do that even with 35mm 5203) unless you are going to shoot at regular short intervals which makes refrigerating unpractical, for example one shot every day for 3 months. Maybe would first store it in a plastic bag with silica gel pads for some time if it was partially shot in humid conditions and you are worrying about condensation/mold growth. it is gelatin after all, microbes love it if given a chance <_<

Yep. Non paid jobs are a learning tool, NOT career building. This includes student films, indie films, most of the spec work, etc

Being good enough does not matter, there is 100 guys ahead of you who can do the same job better. If someone with connections can recommend you for a job it matters quite a lot. Doing non-paid stuff is only beneficial if you can learn very much from each gig and it thus help proceeding in your career but non paid jobs generally dont lead to paid job ever, whatever the greedy indie producer says. I don't do non paid work anymore at any level btw, other than shooting my own canera tests every once in a while. If a indie production has the budget to rent cameras and lights, pay the transport cost and so on they always have money to pay you at least something. And if not, then its not even worth for showreel material because they cant afford production value. Just my 2 cents

I didn't read all the comment, just wanted to say how it's here in a small country with very small film industry. We don't make multi million dollar indie fims here, its usually between 1 and 3 million euros for a commercial feature film. Very rarely over that. The 3 mil is already very "big" budget here. Here you can shoot whatever you want at filmschool and make indie features and whatnot but it rarely matters at all. Your career starts the moment you get in the pro world and start to get paid for your work. Nothing you do for free matters when you look for pro film jobs. They may laugh at you at most. If you got paid for something thats a guarantee you are worth something. Even unpaid intern job does not help much unless you can build connections that way (HODs for example) who can recommend you to paid jobs later.

democratising filmmaking does not help bad screenwriting, directing, acting, lighting, set design, etc. or makes distributing the film to larger audiences much easier. it still has to be a very good movie, much better than equivalent commercial movie because the indie film does not have distribution network or marketing available nor money to arrange them. So one can make a movie with quicker turnaround and at least get an illusion that it is cheaper than it would have been 20 years ago but it is still very unlikely (as unlikely as back then I think) to get a profit out of it or even get back the costs of making it. Democratising filmmaking may be even a bad thing because that encourages making mediocre/low quality content without paying attention to the learning curve. the end result is 100 or 1000 times more awfully crappy indie films and other content flooding the web when the amount of truly great work is not that much higher I think. The gear also has to be updated every 2 years or so compared to the past when 10 or 20 or even 30 years for a camera body and editing equipment was perfectly normal. A super8 cartridge or a 16mm roll was not that expensive either unless one wanted to make a feature film. What I mean is, democratising filmmaking does not make the indie films generally better. They may LOOK TECHNICALLY better than 20 years ago but they still have as bad writing, directing etc. than back then. better and cheaper cameras don't create experience or talent, at most they can encourage to experiment and learn more about filmmaking the hard way and that way help to make better movies someday

I also use the old FCP7 in El Capitan together with FCPX, that is also one of the things some people think is impossible ^_^ (fcp7 installed first, then move it to new separate folder in Applications, the folder is named something other than "FCP", for example: "FCP7" . then install FCPX. sometimes the programs mix each other's icons but otherwise no problem :lol: )

I think there is maybe some plugin problem with your Mac, I have used the XQ with at least 5 different out of the box mac setups and they all worked fine without anything extra

maybe they meant that it is difficult to use it at native resolution? it plays back fine in 1920x1080 timeline though a 32bit program is maybe not ideal for this type of material. I can't publish any footage because it isn't mine but editing seems to work normally as long as your raid array is fast enough

I don't know when the osx support was updated but at least last year it already worked when we did a movie in XQ, I was able to play back from Finder directly, Resolve worked correctly, etc. no problems at all. I think it was with Mavericks or Yosemite, nothing extra codecs installed. I can actually use the 3.2k proresxq with FCP7 with nothing extra installed, no problem at all. one thing to consider is that it is much faster to work with prores formats than with RAW. backing up is faster, you will get offlines faster, you can playback with basic laptops, making dailies may be 5 times faster... debayering+processing RAW is also software dependent so you may get slightly different looks from different programs. For example, you will get different results from Redcode depending on whether you use Resolve, RedCine, After Effects, Premiere or FCPX for processing. so, the problem with RAW is that there is too many possibilities to screw it up with untested workflows and it may be a complete nightmare sometimes if one is dependent on certain adjustments which can't be accessed with other programs. it is quite common to post in RGB for this reason if there is lots of variables involved, even if the project is shot in RAW and it is supported by all the post tools. VFX work complicates this much further and usually needs RGB intermediates anyway, it's not usually a good idea to work directly with RAW files there unless absolutely necessary because it makes matching the shots much more difficult and slows down the process