John Woods

About the only high end school that might interest you is the Canadian Film Centre. Its about as close as you can get to a school like the AFI in Canada. The Canadian Society of Cinematographers offers some workshops from time to time. Capilano University has a large film program and a snazzy new building and offers cinematography courses. However, I've not attended any of these and don't have any first hand reports on them as to how advanced they get. There are several multi-year programs at various universities that are well regarded but are probably too broad and time consuming for your specific interests. With two features shot and a nice reel I think you'd be wasting your time at any school. Film schools don't have the money to rent the latest gear, they tend to use what they have on a fancy camera to lure in the students looking for buzz words like "RED" or "ALEXA", and won't get you working with technocranes, large sets with studio rigging or doing big night exteriors with 18ks in condors and wet downs and all that jazz. If you're really new then a school can be a good introduction to lighting and camerawork but you seem to be already at a high level.

There are a lot of naysayers out there but you can achieve surprisingly good quality with home equipment. The problem is handling the long lengths without an industrial setup. A 100' of 16 or 35mm is about all you can realistic manage in a typical home darkroom. Also while you can get decent results for B&W film or colour E-6. Its difficult to get good colour negative results because rem jet removal is a difficult step to manage with an amateur setup. If you are lucky and patient you might be able to locate a Cramer film processor. These were made for small labs, hospitals and news rooms to process 400' lengths of Super 8 or 16mm. It'd take some effort and money to get 35mm rollers and modify the machine for that guage. I know a fellow who is in the midst of restoring one, its very compact, maybe 6' long 4' high. Practically a tabletop machine. The manual for it has a brochure that says the company also made 35mm machines but I imagine those would be even rarer. There is a guy in the UK who modified a Jobo processor to handle 50' of super 8, but I don't see that being realistic for 35mm. More likely, you might also be able to modify a microfilm processor or a 1 hour photo lab processor to handle long lengths of film. Here is a film done on a microfilm processor: And an article on the machine used: http://cinedarkroom.wordpress.com/2013/01/28/processing-with-the-kodak-prostar/

As mentioned in the Detroit lab topic, Alphacine is shutting down their lab but will continue to offer digital post. Its not a surprising announcment, with the end of 35mm distribution there is going to be more lab closures announced. When Deluxe shut down the last lab in Vancouver last year, the manager there told an acquaintence that their business plan relied on handling about a million feet of film a month. I imagine that is the same for many other labs. The manager said there was no serious money left in film support except in the archiving side. I'm curious to hear opinions on the declining lab situtation and what the balance would be. Even if Kodak continues to offer motion picture film products for another 5 years, will there be any labs left? Maybe LA or NY might get enough Hollywood money to keep going but would those labs be interested in doing mail order jobs that the smaller labs do? Or do you think that the last lab standing will be a small one outside of NY/LA?

Niagara Custom Lab also does this, I've seen the results and its quite good: http://www.niagaracustomlab.com/digitaltofilm.html I've also seen 16mm that was filmed off a laptop computer screen with a Bolex that looked quite excellent considering the source material was grabbed off YouTube. NCL will do a short test for free as I would imagine other labs would. I'd suggest you submit a clip to as many labs as possible and try your own filming of a screen and decide for yourself what is right for the film.

There are some articles floating around the net talking about the various problems Schindler's List had with projecting true B&W prints. And that was made about 20 years ago! If you are lucky to see a B&W print today it is just not the same as it was show in the 30s and 40s. Nitrate B&W film looks different from the B&W safety film that replaced it, and those classic films were made to work with old carbon arc projectors that IIRC are about 4400 degrees kelvin. Modern Xenon bulbs are 5500K. I also recall being told that there are issues for old 16mm prints that were optimized to work with incandescent bulbs for classroom projectors while other prints were made for small 16mm theatres whose projectors used Xenon bulbs.

From the Criterion edition dvd booklet: "The material for La Jetee was created with a Pentax 24 x 36, and the only cinema part (the blinking of the eyes) with an Arriflex 35mm film camera, borrowed for one hour." That is all that is mentioned. I would guess that the finished film was assembled on an animation stand or optical printer.

Up until the last 10 years or so almost every film of the past 50 years was recording on a Nagra with 1/4" tape. Most films in the 80s & 90s will likely have used a Nagra IV STC. Any professional sound mixer would have had an array of wireless, omni and shot gun microphones. A shotgun mic with blimp is the most commonly used but there are many occasions to use the other main types of mics.

In my experience labs will do small tests for free as they will expect you to return with more work (the previously mentioned NCL did not charge me for my tests with some old VNF I was given). You should be able to work out a deal with a lab to sell you print stock put onto daylight spools and do the processing. It will have to be a lab that offers printing as the chemistry for prints is different from the negative process.

If the lab you are working with can't help you, Niagara Custom Lab is friendly towards selling various lab stocks on daylight spools. LIFT in Toronto sells print stock in small quantities for JK printing: http://lift.ca/equipment/store/kodak-16mm-film-stock-7399-print-film

What do you mean? Nearly all of his films are available to view as a Quicktime file on his website. Which after loading you can click 'save as' if you really need a private copy. How much more accessible do you need it to be? Why don't you e-mail him and say you like his work and would like to buy a DVD instead of whining that you can't steal his work instantly on the Pirate Bay.

You might want to try contacting John Price: http://www.filmdiary.org/ He makes experimental films and is a master at using non-camera stocks, hand processing and optical printing. He's got quite a bit of 35mm work (though much of it originates on 16mm or Super 8). Many of his films are on his website available to watch. He lists what stocks he used for each film at each stage of the film. Provided you have enough light, you can get an image from any lab stock used in camera. However don't expect anything like a 'normal' look.

If you're going to spend $3K+ on a camera then at least look at a tripod that is in the $300-$500 range but a $1000+ will get you a lot more. A $92 tripod is not going to cut it for professional use. If you get a quality piece of gear your tripod will outlast the life of your digital camera and could be used for 10+ years if treated well. You have to choose a tripod that is appropriate for the weight of your camera and the type of work that you want to do with it. If you want to just lock off wide angle shots then a cheaper one might be ok but if you want fluid camera moves, and rock steady close ups and macro shots then you really need to look at better gear. You need to consider the weight and material of your equipment as well. If you move your gear in a car then a heavy tripod is not that big a deal but if you're shooting a film on mountain goats then you might want lighter gear to carry. Manfrotto 501HDV PRO's are pretty good and popular for price/performance for prosumer cameras. I personally like the Sachtler FSB series more.

Since this problem is not consistent throughout your film its not likely to be a transfer problem. I'd be suspicious of those fluorescent lights. If your motor is off slightly that could also be a problem. Have you seen any other film shot recently with this camera package? You said it affected 2/3rds of your footage, is there anything common about that footage? Different film stock from the good shots? Is the strobe only in scenes shot at this location? Is the problem footage coming out of certain magazines? Was the bad film shot later in day (maybe the batteries were weak)? If this was my project I'd just embrace the problem and take a more experimental/arty approach to the material. Desaturate, pump the contrast and grain, add some abstract music/sound design, and then declare the strobe as a 'look'.

I shot a wedding last summer for a friend with a modded 1014XL-S. It was out of town and he said he'd provide a 1014 camera and was surprised it was one of those Pro8 jobs. The footage has an inconsistent scratch in the widened gate. Maybe 50% of the footage has it. As I was unfamiliar/unprepared to work with this camera I found the frame lines in the gate to be confusing because I was unsure whether the viewfinder was showing the information in the widened gate. I suppose if they do take apart the camera and give it a much needed tune up as part of the mod then it might be worth it. But the gate scratching is pretty unacceptable for a professional facility that can easily do a scratch test in house. Personally, I'd rather shoot full frame and crop in post at the time of transfer if needed for the project, or invest in an anamorphic setup. Yes you can still project your films in 4x3, you'd have to also widen the projector gate to show that widened film image.

Exactly. Camera stock is B-wind (emulsion out) so with reversal film you project the original camera stock as B-wind. Now if you had a print struck you would get it as A-wind (emulsion in) because you go emulsion to emulsion in a contact printer. As for the OP's other questions. You can pretty much manipulate the image anyway you want if you had a digital transfer made. If you want a film print for your art show you could use an optical printer to get the film blown up to 16mm. And depending on how you load the film and the capabilities of the model of printer you use, you can flip, flop and rotate the film image. If you are editing your original film you may want to get it blown up to 16mm for presentation/preservation reasons if you think your work might have a life outside of the particular show you are doing it for.