Ira Ratner

If you need any Florida location scouting, let me know. I'd be glad to do it for the fun of it.

James is also called Steve? You're confusing the hell out of us here.

Dave, can you give me a dummy's primer on how NDs are rated? I know they come 2, 4, 8, etc.--but that doesn't mean how many stops. Also, you were mentioning some LARGE compensation numbers there for those long exposures (24!? 30!?), so is it cumulative (adding) how many filters you're using depending on their individual exposure factors, or is there like multiplication involved in this? Finally, this stuff is listed in the film documentation, isn't it? So how would you normally meter, your settings, and then make the adjustments? I know--I'm an idiot. But what else is new?

I'll tell you as soon as I can kill this damn BUG that's on my screen! Damn sucker is as quick as can be, and won't DIE!

I know this thread is probably in the wrong place, so I apologize--but I tried and can't figure out how to make this request. Can a Florida forum be added to the Offline Communities Forum below? Yeah, I know that Miami and Orlando are the "major" cine centers of Florida, but having two separate forums is even MORE ridiculous. Just thought it would be helpful for a lot of us Floridians to be able to connect there more easily for support and to arrange get-togethers, and it might also be useful for people coming down here to the Sunshine State to shoot, as far as locations and other logistics go. Thanks! And if you now delete or move this thread, I understand. Just wanted to get this message and appeal across to you.

I love listening to how these Brits speak--so formally structured and POLITE!!! That'll get you nowhere on THIS side of the pond, though. If you don't throw the "F" word in there at least once, no one listens. HAH! Just JOKING guys! But when are you guys going to come to your senses and drop that irrelevant "u" in "color" and "flavor?"

I've been debating whether to make the jump. Yeah, I can afford to send NCS in New York $265 for the gate, and I ASSUME I'll get my $75 rebate after sending them back my regular gate. (I'm afraid to assume I'll be able to make the conversion myself, but their instructions don't look THAT hard.) The thing is, I called NCS yesterday, and as someone who has smoked tons of pot between 1970 and 1990, I can tell you that the guy I spoke to had me beat by a MILE. Totally, totally ridiculous--and not business-like at all. I also asked him about the ring, and in between his giggly fits and what I guess were sounds of him enjoying his munchies, he said that the two rings he/they had worked with from the guy in Belarus were machined too thick, and that under 5.6, you were really asking for trouble with focus relating to depth of field. Does this make any sense?

Did you ever mount the recentering ring? I'm thinking of pulling the trigger for the S16 gate with NCS, but what's the deal with that ring? What's involved?

I was going to wait for the DVD, but now I changed my mind.

And Alfeo and David--thanks for these descriptions, in relative order: "Destructuring" "Thematic connections." That gives me a way to describe the damn approach.

And Hunter--on the DVD I watched, they only showed one vagina scene. And you can hardly call it a vagina--it was just hair on a crotch. Plus there was only one masturbation sequence, and believe it or not, BOYS at that age DO masturbate. And my wife and I laughed our asses off. Best part of the whole film!

Stuart, I guess that's the description I was looking for--over-contrived. Most of what you're watching there is damn interesting, but there's never a connection made between any of it that really matters in the end. Like, the Japanese scenes--WONDERFUL acting, cinematography, editing, sound, for what those scenes were supposed to accomplish--but that's all there just because the guy gave the gun to a guy in Morocco on a hunting trip. I just couldn't reconcile how this minor detail warranted anything. Plus the Mexican caretaker and THAT subplot. Again, she was UNBELIEVABLE in that part. But it seemed like they had 4 stories to tell and just crammed them into one film whether it all made any sense or not. (Moroccan kid shooting woman, husband trying to save woman, Mexican babysitter, deaf Japanese girl with nice boobs.) I wanted to ask the question because based on this film, it just seems that all a producer has to do is buy the rights to 4 great shorts, do some minor rewrites, and you got yourself a film. It all seemed so lazy to me, but at the same time, it kept my interest. However, I DID feel cheated at the end, that it could have been so much better.

Watched the DVD this weekend, because I'll never go to a theater to see Brad Pitt: Although I like a lot of their stuff, Pitt and Jolie are too weird for words and must be stopped at all costs. Anyway, is there an actual word for this genre where they take several seemingly unrelated story lines and tie them together? I mean, they're obviously related, but the whole structure is in your face like this. My review for Babel was that it was kind of a stretch, whereas Crash was superb.

Yeah--I remember now that it wasn't a different planet in Contact, but I recall really liking that scene.

Boy--it's been so long. There used to be a bar on Austin and Lefferts called "Bailey's"--where Kitty Genovese was killed way back--but I doubt it's still in business. But that street is fantastic, nice and winding: If you start right at the end of Austin there and Lefferts, and walk down the street/hill toward Metropolitan (not towards Queens Boulevard), on the left used to be a porn theater, and further down the block on the same side a great restaurant named Regents Row. Again, I DOUBT that's the same place (next to a little supermarket), but right across the street on Lefferts is an outstanding Italian restaurant owned by Albanians, named Danny's. Sigh--where do the years go? I loved that neighborhood, because not only could you walk to everything, but the LIRR and subway were real close too. Used to also just walk to Forest Hills, too. Here in Florida, you have to get in the car in pick up a damn newspaper! And although I don't miss the snow and cold up there, I sure miss the food. It STINKS down here compared to NY, and the WORST place up THERE is still better than the BEST place down HERE.

HAH!!! I LOVED IT!!! Plus, I saw the Forest Hills subway sign which was real cool to me, because I lived in Kew Gardens for a bunch of years. I've said it before and I'll say it again--the Super 8 forum is SO much cooler than 16, where I spend all of my time. I'm a rank amateur with a 16mm K3 arsenal, with a long background in still work, but your Plus-X and Tri-X footage REALLY touched me, and confirmed my original plan to only shoot b&w reversal. OUTSTANDING!!! And GORGEOUS!

Tom nailed it: The front door can be open, and you can max out the temp to make them bake faster. You're not eating then--just filming them. If you want some real versatility and latitude on the sequence, consider using a propane barbecue with the lid removed--real easy to temporarily remove the lid. You can hang your pan above the grill grate, and use your choice of backdrop. But if you want it to look like an oven, you gotta use a real oven.

I've never seen a scene taking place on another planet that comes CLOSE to looking like it's another planet. The best that comes to mind is that end-scene in Jodie Foster's "Contact," and that looks so good because of camera angle, soundtrack, dialogue and PLOT, and I'm guessing Green Screen. If it's going to be other worldly, it ALL has to be other worldly.

I found a great offer too! And it will only cost you 40 bucks, if you're lucky, to enter. If you're a TOTAL moron, it will wind up costing 250.

Nick, what kind of diameter are you talking about? The entire width of the street? Or something less intense? Also, although Warwick is assuming a full circle, I was assuming you just want 180 degrees, because circular track doesn't necessarily mean full circle.

I've had my camera since July, and since then, all I've done is buy stuff (tons of lenses) and build rigs. Haven't shot a single FRAME yet. But I'm ready now, and after the holidays, I start. I respect the high cost of film to give it all of the time and procrastination it deserves! Gotta hit WalMart now for last minute shopping--including the iTouch for my wife. She bought ME one too, so this whole thing doesn't make sense. We're totally balanced and neutral in the spending department, so what's the point? Doesn't seem like the real spirit of Christmas to me at all. I want to get more than I give.

Or you can tell them that you had to walk all the way from Fairmount Park to Seaview Park in Canarsie. Now Fairmount--THAT'S a park! Used to ride horses there in the 70s, and spent some time in Germantown.

If you have any problems, tell them: "Damn! We had to drive in through Brooklyn, and went through Canarsie to pick up the Belt Parkway at exit 13 to make it here to JFK! That was HORRIBLE!" They'll sympathize and tell you to drop dead--but you can still tell them.

I can't afford to give you blank check for the holidays like Adrian did, so here's the next best thing, as we all prepare for the 24-hour marathon tomorrow night of "A Christmas Story." And for the Yurps (Europeans) and other people here from different lands, the U.S. is indeed so retarded that one of Ted Turner's cable channels actually shows this 1983 film nonstop for 24 hours--and they've been doing it for YEARS. The film was a box office yawn at the time, but it so captured a typical American Christmas of the past (the 40s), or it captured a Christmas that we all WANTED to have, that since home video and cable, it has risen to become one of the top 5 Christmas films of all time in the U.S. The production of this movie also provides a great insight into the intricacies of filmmaking, a fascinating history told here on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_christmas_story MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

HAH!!! Don't worry--it's going to be FINE! However, flying into and out of JFK is a DIFFERENT story! I grew up 5 miles from there--Canarsie, Brooklyn--and I could hear the cries of frustrated travelers every night.