Tyler Purcell

Sharpening masks generally don't hold up well, they can get noisy very fast. The side effect is the area that's sharpened will have a cross-grid of noise that is unexpected. Mild sharpening like David describes, is used but nowhere near as frequently as de-grain or "softening" of the image. All of the artists I've worked with, de-grain film without hesitation. It's kind of the go-to problem fixer for film grain, which is quite sad. Adding noise to film through the sharpening mask, is rare. I can see if your transfer wasn't good, there maybe room for sharpening, but with a good transfer, film should offer plenty of crispness, that you should be more interested in backing off, rather then adding.

So the spring loaded mechanism that locks the head is stuck? All you need is needle noise pliers, push on the ring and twist, it should come right off.

Nice! One little "reel" tip, keep the same shows/sequences together. So the girl walking up to the window, you should start with the wide and go to the close up back to back. Then show a few shots of the little boy, then the next and so on. This way you're not going back and forward between shows.

I was referring to 2.35:1 anamorphic shooting, (one of the only real benefits to 4 perf).

There are a few methodologies at play here. 4 perf cameras are a dime a dozen, literally. Most sellers, are having to sell them for almost crap metal prices, which is INSANE. You can pickup a decent, quiet, large and hungry, 4 perf Super 35mm camera for under 3k any day of the week. You can pick one up, shoot the film and sell it right after and you've not missed a beat. Plus, if you ever plan on going back to film, 4 perf is really the only way to do it. 3 and 2 perf cameras are much more money and very few people are selling them. So doing the whole turn around thing on buying and selling, can be a lot more difficult and costly. Then you're also stuck to using 1.85:1 or 2.35:1, unless you have a lot of money and can rent 1.3x anamorphic lenses for the 3 perf camera. You're also using less negative then Super 35mm 4 perf, so more grain, noise and on 2 perf, the potential for hairs in the gate. The days of doing a blow up from 3 perf to 4 perf for a decent rate, those are long gone. Most labs charge a lot of money for that work, like $2.50 a foot or more. I personally don't feel 3 perf is worth the aggravation of not being able to do inexpensive prints. If you're gonna do a film workflow, you've gotta shoot 4 perf. If you're gonna do a digital workflow, then you can shoot 2 or 3 perf without a problem and "fix it in post". 2 perf is the cheapest way to shoot 35mm, even if you count in rental cost. We're talking HALF the price for everything; raw stock, processing, transfer, etc.. The money saved can be put into a better camera package AND have more left over for other departments. I've budgeted all three 35mm options and S16. Honestly, 2 perf and S16 are VERY close in price, if you're doing a digital finish. In the end, I still prefer S16 over 35mm any day of the week. Smaller/lighter cameras, cheaper cameras, cheaper lenses, cheaper stock/processing, filmic image and if you use lower ASA stocks, it's very clean. A lot of people waste money shooting 35mm because they want that "look" but a lot of that can be achieved through clever cinematic techniques during production on narrow gauge formats.

Yep, but it was their vision in the long run.

Yea, someone who brings their own idea to the big screen.

You would think so, but honestly it's too late... here is the reason why. The problem has to do with technology, theaters and the studio's being money grubbing. Film projectors are well-made, robust machines that are inexpensive to purchase compared to digital and they last forever. Early digital cinema was an experiment, theaters would purchase one or two projectors per theater, the rest would run film. A film print would cost the theater around $3000 + rental fee's, but they could run that print on multiple screens at the same time. So theater owners would keep the costs down by using their talented projection staff, most of whom were union. The film workflow was pretty bulletproof, prints were shipped via the standard carriers in locked boxes. Theaters would be given the combo via fedex and unlock them, usually on the wednesday before release so they could build and test them. Prints could easily run 200 screenings before they wore out, which is more then 2 months. Then, the theaters would ship them back, the studio's would recycle the prints and the whole cycle would begin again. Then came the move to digital. Instead of a slow ramp-up, the owners of Deluxe, the biggest print manufacturing company in the US (NYC/LA) said they'd stop making prints by the end of 2013. This announcement happened sometime in the end of 2012 and it freaked everyone out! All of a sudden, the theaters had to scramble to get digital projectors and LOTS OF THEM, very very fast! AMC worked out a lease deal with Sony, 150 million dollars worth of projectors. The smaller theaters had no choice but to go out of business (sell to bigger chains) or risk only getting lower-end movies on 35mm, prints made by only ONE company in the US in limited numbers. Then IMAX came out with a huge blow, they would stop releasing blowup prints at the end of 2014. So any theater projecting 70mm IMAX would no longer be getting standard movies on film. This was a HUGE blow to those theaters, they scrambled and were all forced to install digital projectors in order to stay working. Lucky for some, they were newer theaters and already had digital projectors. Those IMAX theaters that were forced to migrate from film to digital, spent MILLIONS doing so, one of them actually sued IMAX because they had just invested in a 3D 15/70 system that was now completely obsolete. What does all this mean? Since James Cameron forced every theater to buy a 3D projector to kickstart the trend of removing film projectors from theaters, we have seen ticket prices skyrocket. Today, most theaters are $14/ticket for 2D and anything that's 3D is upwards of $20 for IMAX 3D. The problem is, theaters are just starting to realize how unreliable digital projectors are over the long term. Theaters are scrambling to replace worn projectors, upgrade to 4k and of course, somehow get more money for tickets. Many theaters are selling customers on the newest gimmick; Laser projection. Where both Hateful Eight and Batman V Superman, did better numbers on 70mm then digital, screen v screen. The studio's can't sell movies to theaters which don't guarantee a certain box office. Since most of the smaller/independent theaters closed down (or sold out) during this film to digital switch, the big theater conglomerates now make the calls. AMC pretty much dictates what the studio's can and can't sell. Since the studio's are held by the balls by the big theater's, which are the only current way for the studio's to make a lot of money... they make these heavily marketed behemoths, which are made by research groups, so they can't fail. Rumor is, Batman V Superman had a marketing budget of over 200 million, which is why they needed a billion to break even. You can't outspend the studio's, your little indy film maybe coming out the same week as a big release, but nobody will know about it because all everyone wants to do is see the movie which has been put into people's faces for years on every social media, billboard and television show. So why don't the studio's make a 5M movie? Because each studio can spend a billion dollars a year on making two huge behemoth's that will make everyone happy and they'll make a billion in profits. For them, it's all about profits and outdoing one another. But the only reason why ANY of this exists is thanks to the high ticket prices. If the theaters were charging $7.50 like they did only 10 years ago, prior to the digital projection nonsense, they would be full of people watching on a regular basis. People would take a chance on those smaller movies and some could do well in the box office. Yes, the studio's profit has been up year over year, but ticket sales have been down, outside of 2015, thanks to Star Wars and Jurassic World, both had HUGE repeat viewership. Unique cinema viewership has been down considerably since the highs of the early 2000's, prior to the bubble burst, prior to the ticket rate bump. When the studio's feel more secure about showing their movies day and date at home, it will be the end of cinema as we know it. The cinema will turn into a different "experience" based thing and most people who want to see first run movies, will simply watch them at home. It's the sad but inevitable truth based on the direction we're currently on. This is why a 5M or even $20M movie, doesn't stand a chance.

Absolutely agreed. Directors are generally hired hands. Brought in to make a product. Filmmakers are generally creators. Bringing their own vision to the screen. With that said, there are plenty of examples of true artisans, true "filmmakers" being hired to do someone else's work. One notable would be Stanley Kubrick on Spartacus. In todays studio system, the "director" is brought in based on previous works, cost and availability. Most hollywood directors don't even get a say on what they're making.

Yea, the scanned grain is 10x better then the digital nonsense. The little scratches and white dots help sell it completely. Glad you were able to make it work! :)

Yea, the Zacuto tests are great! But it's been a while since they've done them. They also stopped using film as the base for their comparisons, which is unfortunate.

True, I mean a quick change of focal lengths to get different coverage, is a great use for a zoom. With narrative shooting, I personally like moving the camera to change my shot, rather then zoom because of course, changing focal length, changes field of view. I don't like it when filmmakers change field of view on coverage. Personally, I would only use a zoom if I'm zooming in shot, my primes are faster, smaller, lighter and crisper. When I shoot documentary, the zoom is my go-to lens. Honestly, I've done quite a bit of shooting with modern DSLR glass, shot a feature with the stuff and many short subject films. I have yet to find anything that holds a candle to the cinema counterpart. It's the small things like the type of coatings (inherent warmth), how it deals with boca, how it deals with reflections, then all the mechanical aspects as well, which are a deal killer in my book. I'm also not addicted to zoom lenses, I'm perfectly OK with using all primes and changing lenses between shots if I need to change field of view/focal length. It's true that some of the older Nikon still glass is pretty darn good. Even then, I'd still rather have something setup more like a cinema lens.

This guy has a great discussion about this and why there is a considerable difference between cinema and DSLR glass. One thing he mentions that I always forget is the cinema zoom's parfocus ability, which is super important. I just did a shoot this last week with FS7's and DSLR glass. Adjusting the stop was a pain, it would either open up too much, or not enough because it's not infinitely variable, like a de-clicked external mechanical adjustment. I personally would never recommend DSLR glass for a cinema camera, even if you modify it. Article: http://wolfcrow.com/blog/what-is-a-cine-lens-and-why-must-it-be-different-from-a-photo-lens/ Video: FYI, it's one of the main reasons I went with a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema camera VS a large-imager camera. It's A LOT easier to find old school glass that looks fantastic and covers a Super 16mm size imager. I'm starting to shoot a new documentary this week and I just started using my Zeiss 12-120 S16 zoom lens on the BMPCC for the first time and the stuff came out great. It's so wonderful having a REAL piece of glass, it makes all the difference in my opinion. So if you're just having fun shooting and struggling for money, better to buy a smaller imager camera and better glass, then a larger imager camera that almost certainly requires better glass.

I've been working with a few SRI and SRII's which have been converted recently. I've been shocked to find the gate and backplates still have standard 16 guides. This means, the area of the frame reserved for the soundtrack previously and now used for picture, is being squeezed by the gate and backplate as it runs through the camera. I was horrified by this idea because true Super 16 cameras don't have this issue at all. One side note, the SRI/SRII's are pretty loud as well. I would consider them borderline sound cameras, you need some sort of cover to do sound-critical filmmaking. Mostly this is due to the old school mechanical drive on the magazines. By contrast, the Aaton LTR/XTR's are nearly silent. I recently purchased an LTR 54 which was modified with XTR components to bring it up to modern Super 16 spec. Having used SR's for my entire life previous, for almost all of my sync sound filmmaking, I'm to this day shocked how quiet my LTR is. Yes, you'll still get the ever typical scraping of the film inside the magazine if its loose. You'll also get a tiny bit of gear noise from the mechanical drive (fixed on the XTR) but in reality, the camera in my opinion, is the quietest camera for the money. I'm glad they fixed many of those issues on the XTR, but they are a bit more money used because they're in a lot of ways, a better camera.

Yes, if you already have a game plan that puts you onto a real film set, then it's good to get some basic hands on experience first. Whether that's a $3000 class or not... thats up to you. I'm certain a book about lighting and working for free on some student films, would probably deliver the same experience, without the expense. You won't get paid for your work, but that's kind how you get started anyway.

Big problem is the focus/zoom ratio. Plus, since still lenses aren't designed to have critical focus changes done mechanically, it can be hard to focus them perfectly. Honestly, there are plenty of great/acceptable older zoom lenses which will work on the Ursa Mini no problem. DO you need the best if you're just going out and having fun?

Good question and it's a tough answer. Hands on education is good, but only if it's for a long period of time. An example of this would be mentoring with someone for one or two films. Get some real hands on experience over an entire shoot, plus learn those ever important personal tricks that everyone has. Sure, if you don't know anything about lighting, it would be great to take a basic starter class and get up to speed. However, there is a lot to lighting, far more then can be taught in a classroom setting. Learning the mechanics of lighting is easy, it's an Amazon order away. Learning enough to be valuable on a film set, that's the next step. Unlike cinematography, which can be studied though trial and error on your own, without a crew... gaffing really requires being on a show, being forced to come up with innovative solutions to problems. You need to learn how to be directed and come up with a proper solution. I don't think buying a light kit would do you any good, without the experiences I listed above. You may not be able to achieve your goal living outside of the film industry. It's really a "trade" job and as a consequence, if you really wanna get thrown into the mix, you may have to live in a media rich city first and perhaps find work as a best boy. You'd need SOME education first, but not much. The only real catch is that most gaffers have a full crew already, but if you work hard, you can probably find work. That's the real trick to all of this, getting booked on jobs and learning your trade through repetition. Hope that makes sense.

It's pretty loud, even with a blanket, it will be audible. Also, most of the motors are not crystal sync. I don't think it can be modified to shoot S16 due to the mount type, it's not really movable. Some people put a fixed mount on the front, but then you still have shutter angle issues and of course, ground glass re-alignment, which I believe is impossible on the S/M.

Thanks! I think it's pretty good for HDV as well. The camera was 100% stock, no adaptors, nothing. I believe the first shot used a fisheye adaptor, but everything else was the stock lens. If I hadn't screwed up and over-exposed some shots, it would have looked a lot better.

No worries, not rude at all. There are so many cogs to filmmaking gear, it's always nice to know why people did WHAT they did. I've pushed 16mm pretty hard over the years... shooting no budget short films with my friends. Unfortunately, I was the designated shooter, but the directors all kept the film and we NEVER transferred any of it to digital. We shot, edited and finished on 16mm, only existing thing would be a few reels of mag and a work print. All of that to say, I don't have many samples of color negative to show/discuss. Worst part is, some of my favorite stuff I've ever shot, hit the ground in cutting and is probably long lost. :cry:

It's basically a piece of over-exposed film that was put onto a scanner. You then composite it into the material and BAM, you've got instant grain. I tested many different grain's and preferred the more subtle 35mm one over the more grainy 16mm on. For such a celluloid nut, I honestly don't like grain. I'd much prefer to light for a lower ASA stock then use a more grainy stock. Tell me about it! This was shot with a first generation XA-H1 Canon HDV camcorder. 8 bit, 4:2:0 color space and a super small imager. I tried to get a better camera for the shoot, but the director didn't have any money and I was stuck shooting with what I had. I actually made a HUGE mistake whilst shooting, I accidentally set the zebras at 90 instead of 70. I have no idea why the camera goes to 90, but it defaults to 90, which is utterly worthless because at that point, there is no image left. So when I was shooting, I was exposing so it was just tapping the zebras, assuming they were at 70, which would have been perfect. However, when I got back to the editing room after two 20hr days shooting on location, (lots of the film wound up on the cutting room floor) I noticed the problem right away. I tried to do some mattes (especially in the driving scenes) to cover up the problem, but alas there was no information there. Big mistake, but I learned a lot since then and I'm just glad SOMETHING came out considering how much it was over exposed. The "contrasty" look was something I did to hide the MPEG noise. When you bring the blacks up even a tiny bit, the MPEG noise was so noticeable on the Pro Res HQ master, it made me want to throw the project in the trash. The only way I could fix it was to give it a more contrasty look, bring those blacks down a bit and kick up the mid's. I also added some blue to the mid tones, which helped the sky go pop. I wanted the film to be more like it was shot on Fuji which is more blue and green, then Kodak which is more warm. One more thing to note, we were using non-actors AND we had constant wind noise. The audio you hear from the final is a heavily manipulated mix, using dialog from alternative takes without wind noise AND most importantly, removing all audio outside of dialog. It was like mixing an animation film, two tracks of dialog and nothing else. This is why there are odd cuts and shots that look out of place. In some cases, I had to transition from one shot to another, not because I wanted to, but because the audio was worthless and they didn't say the same lines every take, so I couldn't just re-use them from a different take. So the editing was heavily influenced on what dialog could be heard without noise. So some of the best takes were thrown into the trim bin and thrown away. We had no audio guy... I was the only guy on set outside of the director, actors and a few helpers. All of that to say, I'd do it differently if I had to do it again. :)

A 16mm look starts with a small imager to get similar field of view. It would also need to have a lot of dynamic range, because film has quite a bit of it. I suggest 12 bit RAW or LOG 10 bit 4:2:2 recording. DaVinci has a few print stock LUT's built into it, which are pretty handy at creating a "film look" color wise. Grain would be added by using samples of real film grain, which is available on the internet. I actually prefer 35mm grain over S16, so I usually go for the Vision 3 500T grain, which does a decent job. It's kind of a pain to do those kinds of addition mattes in DaVinci, there are a few tutorials on how on youtube. Once you write the steps down on a piece of paper, then you'll have them for later. In the past I've just done the grain addition once the film is cut and colored. This gives a more even look to the added grain. Few other things to note... I rate my digital cameras at 400ASA when going for a "filmic look". This way, you're being forced to shoot wide open most of the time and of course, to light properly. Once you bring in the high ASA cameras and less lighting, things look very digital. Also, I'd under expose a TINY bit to not only protect highlights but it also helps to flatten out the image even more. Here is something I did quickly in DaVinci, shot with an HDV camcorder 6 years ago and made to look more like film in post. Obviously a lot of it's over-exposed and the MPEG noise is off the hook, but it just shows you how much you can cover up if you work at it.

HA, small world! I was at Cimarron when they went down as well. 220 employees, no pay for two weeks, and then the company goes belly up. The lawyers and banks took all the money left in the company, the employees saw nothing. I was owed around $3500 dollars when they went belly up. For post production, I take half up front and half on delivery. For cinematography, I take a down-payment up front (unless I know the people really well) and then take a weekly/bi-weekly payment. I know a lot of people who do 30-60, but I think it's away too risky. I've been on shoots where they literally let go of the entire crew after week two, before paying. Then they changed the name of the show, moved all the assets to a new production company, started it up again, got an all new gullible crew to finish the show, changed the title again and wound up selling it to some out of country distributor which means, the money trail stops. If people want to screw you, they will get away with it. Of course if you're a millionaire, you can go after them, but you will be spending all your own money because you won't get a dime from them.

Welcome Michel, It's not a difficult process as most lab's are setup with film recorders of one kind or another. Telecine is the process of transferring film to digital. RECORDING or "lasering" is the process of taking digital and putting it back to film. You may have to go to a lab in America or Europe to do this, I can't imagine anyone in India has the facilities anymore.

It's actually the most important comment too because generally, people don't pay because they can't pay. All of those contracts, paperwork, legal documents, they're worthless/useless if the person who is suppose to pay you, doesn't have any assets. So you spend your own money to go to court, you sue the guy for the money you're owed, but getting that money from someone who doesn't have the money to pay you, is almost impossible. Lets say you get a settlement out of court, back end from the sale of the product. Who says they will actually pay? Most of the time they sign legal documents and they simply change the asset in some way so when it's sold, it's not considered the same product.