Ira Ratner

You have to take all trailers with a grain of salt: They're basically all bulls***. I'm kind of a Trekkie, but a bizarre one--since I thought Deep Space Nine was the best of the TV series. But I love the fact that Shatner has been going around complaining that he wasn't cast in this film. The guy really has no concept that it's almost 2009, and his long history with the franchise has nothing to do with the continuing FUTURE of it.

I'm not really familiar with projector models, so yours might fetch more--substantially more than $50--but just don't expect a hell of a lot. Also, you have to be sure that the bulb is okay, and that the thing WORKS okay, or it's not worth the headache: At the very least, unless you can claim that you ran a few reels through it and it works fine, you have to say "Untested," which means no one will bid on it. And if you do claim it works (and I believe you) but the buyer has a problem, oy vey. It's just going to be pain to deal with via eBay. Try Craigslist first for someone local.

They did this in Alaska to throw you guys a bone for having to deal with the return of Palin. In this economy, EVEN in this economy, they're not going to drop their prices significantly on the large scale. When they do the math, there's just no reason for them to do that. They don't care if a theater gets 100 people for a showing or 175. They only care about which represents a higher gross, concession sales included, of course. We are living in bad, bad times now. And I can't believe you pay close to 10 bucks for a ticket--although I really DO believe you. But here in South Florida (near Ft. Lauderdale/Boca), the average is about $7.50. However, we don't get the free state check each year for a couple of grand like you do from the oil companies, so what the hell are you bitching about?

Mihai, if I understand you correctly, that technique was done with black and white film, correct? Or was it color? And I remember that "nuit" means "night" from my high school French classes! I'm going to see if that movie is available on DVD, because this really interests me. I'm a total amateur and hobbyist, but this is the kind of stuff that interests me, especially in Florida, where we have tons of sun, but I DON'T have lights for exterior night shooting.

I enjoyed doing it at home as a hobby thing. I'd shoot some stills then process. But for cine film--I don't think I would want to take a chance with important work like that. The final wash and drying has to be a b**** with 16mm or 35mm. For a roll of 35mm still, it's no big deal.

There's not much of a market for this stuff out there. If you go to eBay and see what 8 projectors are going for, it's not a heck of a lot. Same thing even with 16mm. I have 3--and the most I paid was $50 (plus shipping). You're better off keeping it and having some fun with it.

Totally off-topic: How the heck is HDTV TV going to affect what guys like Ken Burns do? For instance, don't all of the rules change if we assume a 100% hi-def viewing world? Especially when you don't want it to look that way?

Do you know what "shlep" means? That's Yiddish for carrying something that's way too heavy to be necessary for the shlepping. Buy a 1/4 or 1/2 size 12V battery at a SPORTING GOODS store that sells them for little electric trolling motors for boats. Sevylor is a major manufacturer of these motors and boats, and here's a U.S. link to a battery for 51 bucks, although they're worldwide: http://www.sevylor.com/dyn_prod.php?p=STRU122 It comes with a recharger and should give you MORE than enough power for most situations, provided you're not talking running heavy lights. But even then, who the hell knows. At 51 U.S. bucks, you can get two. And you won't get a hernia.

It looks like digital animation to me, like none of those shots were actually done as cine work. There were a ton of tip-offs for this, but the big one was the blue sky and clouds reflecting PERFECTLY in the lake water with no loss of color at all! Almost like it was a mirror! Hell, someone should SUE that country for false advertising. Plus, not one chick with big boobs, so I SURE ain't visiting!

Jason, in Apple's iMovie--which is the most basic post program you can use--what you want to do is called their Ken Burns Effect. Not just zooming in, but panning as well. I can't believe that higher end programs don't offer the same functions, but you sure wouldn't shoot these frames. You would scan it, then simply add noise in Photoshop or another program so it matches the look of the rest of the film. It's the only way to go. Just scan one file, and then digitally manipulate the zooms and pans later in post.

What the hell is a DSLR Baseplate Kit? And exactly what industry is it revolutionizing?

Someone here didn't like Juno? This film was revolutionary in a thousand ways. It has to be a cultural thing, but as a U.S. movie, it nailed it on a million levels for us. Great story, characters, dialogue--and modestly told. Of course, if you DON'T want to make a film that costs peanuts to produce and makes countless millions and millions of dollars, by all means ignore it. But I'm a 51-year-old fart who watched it in total awe and enjoyment.

Brian, there's something wrong with your link. There's an extra http in there.

Uhhh... Thanks for reminding me of what an idiot I am, Dave. Am I THAT old that I couldn't figure that out for myself? Yes.

From Wikipedia: Six-bath compared to three-bath There are two families of E-6 processing chemistries. The original and standard that is used in commercial labs employs a six chemical bath process. The 'hobby' type chemistry kits (such as sold by Tetenal) use three chemical baths, the first developer, a combined fogging bath and colour developer solution, and the pre-bleach, bleach and fixer bath solutions. [1] However, the three step process suffers from poor process control (i.e. color shifts and color crossover), especially due to insufficient bleaching and/or fixing in the bleach-fixer ("blix") mixture. Here's the link to the full page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-6_process I took the day off today to shlep my wife down to Miami, but when I get a chance, I'm going to research this old Cibachrome I used to use.

I just ordered polarizing, red and yellow Cokin clone filters for b&w shooting. Since they're not Cokin brand, and I'm not metering through the lens, can I assume that my exposure compensations will be equal to the Cokins? Yeah, I should have bought the Cokins, but there's no one on eBay selling them. And yeah again, I could ask the seller, but I'd rather ask for your input first. Here's the red one: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=290018800609 And the Polarizer: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=290018800609

Man, you got THAT right. Have you ever heard anything so retarded? As far as the spot goes, I wouldn't ever feel proud to be part of this kind of negative marketing. It starts from the gutter and can never really climb out of by its very nature. I hope the guy lost.

COOL! I LOVED IT! How the hell do you make a bag interesting? But you did it! I was just a little put off by the fact that the guitar would never fit in there, and since it was an electric with no amp, how could people hear it? (I'm anal with these things.) Coming from an advertising background (4A New York agency), you could really build a fantastic campaign around this spot--turning those bags into Felix The Cat's bag of tricks. The possibilities are endless of what you can make appear from that bag, and if you crammed a whole bunch of these events into a 30 second spot, FANTASTIC! That's an idea the client will buy, so if you pitch this, make sure you have some other ideas handy to explain to them. If storyboarded, even better,

Thanks for the help, Adrian. But do ASA sensitivities correlate like F steps? In other words, if I do a test in a controlled situation using the 80 ASA setting for shooting with 100, is that representing my 1/3 stop over? The main thing is, I'm trying to figure out a way to use that large 1/48 mark as my reference, as opposed to trying to read the tiny ones and do math.

The K3 is definitely 1/60 at 24fps, so does that mean I would use that reading for 1/48 and open 1/3rd of a stop?

Hey Arnis: I just saw your clip at the park doing turbo mode. That was Flushing Meadows, right? Or is there a Unisphere like that somewhere else?

Bought myself another toy off eBay, and the thing is built like I tank. But I'm confused. With this old analog meter, you hit the trigger and a motor moves the dial/exposure indicator. There's a handy dandy, easy to read cine scale with an fps range of 8 to 128, and there's a large reference line/mark for 24fps, naturally because this is the frame rate most people will shoot at. However, this mark is not lined up to a shutter speed of 60. It's about two thirds of the way from 30 to 60, which would make it around 50. I could understand if it was dead center making it 45, but 50? The rub is, my K3 indicates a shutter speed of 1/60 for 24fps. To anyone's knowledge, was there a "standard" shutter speed for home cine cameras way back when that this is referencing? (The meter was made in 1968.) I would think it would be easier for me to just change the ASA dial if I have to make an adjustment to get this thing working accurately, but shooting 100 reversal, my only other choices are 80 and 125. Finally, before tearing up any film, I planned to cross-check it with a digital camera set on manual, but is that a stupid plan? Like, can I expect an acceptable correlation between how a digital sensor works and how actual film is exposed?

Hey--that is amazing stuff. But it's simply out of focus. What speed film did you use? And the lens? And the F-stop? Also, did you mount the camera on reliable tripod? I don't really think the tripod has anything to do with it, but the focus/aperture sure does. For this kind of stuff, you have to be shooting at F16 for a minimum.

Back in the 70s and into the 80s, I used an E6 process with 35mm still film called Cibachrome E6. It was only 3 chemicals, requiring 3 washes, and its required temperature latitude was within 2 degrees--which as you guys know, is a LOT of margin for error with this stuff. It worked GREAT, and the volumes they sold at were perfect for infrequent at-home process. You bought a quart kit, but were able to perfectly mix its liquids into pints. I then had six pint size containers (three containing the chemistry and the other three holding the water/wash/bath). And no, it didn't ask for a running wash. These 6 containers simply sat in water in a long rectangular Tupperware, in the sink, thermometers in each container, making it real easy to adjust the Tupperware container temp (adding hot or cool water) to keep all of the chemistry at the right temps. The stuff was amazingly easy to work with, and with 35mm still, no big hassle with the tank. You just shook to agitate. If I could find this kind of chemistry still available, only 3 parts, and a tank that doesn't send me to the poorhouse, I would give it a try. I think a lot of people think that the tolerances for color processing are really, really tight--but they aren't for E6 reversal. I had like a 96% excellent success rate, and to boot, I was stoned on pot most of the time.