Stephen Williams

It's one of those things where you can make the no's go any way you want. I know 35mm features shot with a photochemical finish where the crew got paid for $100,000. What's your budget, what sort of Digital do you want to use? Alexa, F35, Epic or EX3?

The first one fitted better to the lighting & look. The shallow DOF was hardly shallow in any case....a compromise that failed. Does it matter either way? No not at all!

aAssuning you used 30 fps to smooth out the motion, then play back at 24/25 then nothing has changed so yes.

Fairly quickly you will just be able to use your eyes for that!

The pics are here:- http://www.wirelessgoodness.com/2011/05/03/reds-60k-epic-m-camera-gets-torn-down-by-the-fcc/ http://tinyurl.com/3qa5tzv

Tahing a basic light reading is very easy, don't try to get complicated! An incident reading will be fine, it's an average reading so will be correct! A spot reading is 'Advanced' use, most beginners will screw up their exposure because of using one. Google 'zone system' if you want to use a spot meter. I usually know what I expect the meter to say so will tilt it until is says what I expect!

With animation you have to time the voice over script & work backwards!

Why is my first question, what are you trying to achieve?

Yes or possibly some stop motion of upto 36 frames!

I think Rank (Denham) had 40,000 feet a day from the BBC, large quantities help with dirt. In Zurich 35mm is often dirty due to tiny quantities, it's processed whilst you wait, as long as you have booked processing in advance!

Whilst the Optex is very good, all the lenses are wide so close ups are a no no. (OK it is possible to get an image at exaxtly 1:1 without a lens)

I assumed you were a guest of theirs along with Keith!

Thats a good reason to use a shipping company. I get the feeling there is more to this, like not wanting to pay import duties on arrival.

"Ambush" tests comes to mind!

Negative has a huge latitude, more than a stop, you should do some tests to see what works for you. It's not rocket science I can guess the exposure within 1/2 stop. An incident reading with a Lux meter is more than enough.

The film is junk, being 25 years old. Light meters have very simple instructions, or just google Sunny F16 rule. Film is very forgiving but always overexpose negative 1/2 stop if in doubt.

I generally piss off rental houses by insisting every lens goes on a colimator & the depth is measured. I also like to use an autocollimator. There was somenody making a pocket autocollimator which he sold on Ebay for $175, unfortunately he has retired! In some countries in Europe it's an insurance requirement that a film test is done & every lens is tested. The results looked at on a microscope. However most of the productions I work on don't have the budget to test or for insurance!

Taping out does not chect the FDD which is whats important, your just checking ground glass & lens collimation combined. Using an autocollimator is very quick set the lens to infinity, look through the eyepiece & then look through the autocollimator, 30 seconds & you know the lens, ground glass & FFD are all correct.

Mechanics, Quality control, more user friendly & hand made. Lenses produce an image circle, so it's BS about cine lenses being more widescreen.

With a traditional film camera you measure the FFD. You are checking the lenses to the ground glass not the focus on the film. Using an autocollimator you can check the GG & Film with the camera running.

50% Upfront is fairly standard. If the client goes bust without paying, do you really want to cover the loss yourself? It happens quite often, personally I am bored with bank rolling people who are richer than I am. It's a business, making money is important, cash flow kills more business than anything else.

Ask for 50% up front, if that will cover your lab costs, if not try to invoice month by month with a smaller deposit.

Normally on a large job one would ask for stage payments. How long will this take from start to finish? Stephen

I had a shoot on a rollercoaster about 6 years ago, here is a picture that gives you an idea of what was involved. Stephen

Could you tell me what single lens costs $180,000?