Stephen Williams

Phil, Mabe they should go on several days 16mm training.! Stephen Williams Lighting Cameraman www.stephenw.com

Phil, "many times more expensive" If that were true then only people with the highest budgets could shoot film. However many students make films on film, instead of making a video on video. Stephen Williams DoP www.stephenw.com

Phil, Who are you quoting? I said "I think shooting on film can be easier than video! mabe even quicker if you don`t have a video tap! " Stephen Williams DoP Zurich www.stephenw.com

The larger the soft box the softer the light will be. Stephen

Paul, I think this could be a capping shutter! Mabe the camera was used to shoot SLIT SCAN (Like the titles for 2001). The inside moving plate is the buckle switch to kill power if the film jams. Best wishes, Stephen Williams DoP www.stephenw.com

Rob, I have used a very yellow Cooke Speed Pancro 75mm lens! Its still a great lens and you don't need to use an 85 filter! You should test the lens, However I am sure that you will be able grade out the yellow by printing or in telecine. Good Luck Stephen Williams DP Zurich www.stephenw.com

IMHO it looks like negative scratches on the emulsion side of the film. You need to check the camera and magazine very carefully and try to recreate the problem with unexposed film. Stephen

Paul, Was that the camera from E-Bay? That is the shutter angle adjustment (Max 170). If you post some photos relating to the other questions I mabe can help further. Stephen Williams DP Zurich www.stephenw.com

Depending on how many days shoot and your shooting ratio , Super 16 could be an option as you want the highest quality. I charge the same whatever format I shoot. IMHO the final product looks much better when shot on film, so is the best value for my client. Stephen

It depends on where you are located and which HD format. Not every Facility can handle HD ! However it should be priced at a small (if any) premium to Digi Beta. The tapes are a little more expensive. Stephen Williams DP Zurich www.stephenw.com

I have used Arri III at most speeds upto 130 FPS without any problems. However don't let the film run out at high speed! Its not as steady as a Mitchell, but if you finish on Telecine double pin registered won't help. Stephen Williams DoP Zurich www.stephenw.com

I think he means the camera movement, I thought it was different and cool. Stephen

Daniel, I have been looking at the American Cinematographers Manuel, comparing Acadamy 185 and Vista Vision 185. Assuming you use the same focal length lens for both formats I think to match your picture's DoF on a motion picture camera would be approx f2.8. or slightly wider. (Assuming your picture was landscape and not portrait ) Stephen Williams DP Zurich www.stephenw.com

It was shot 16x9 as this is the standard for UK Television. Stephen Williams DoP Zurich

David, I think I have an answer you will understand! David Samuelson's HANDS-ON manuel for cinematography second edition page 220 explaines it well. I simplify as follows:- DoF is measured from the enterance pupil of the lens NOT the film plane. With a zoom lens the enterance pupil MOVES during Zoom and focus changes The Panavision Primo 11:1 T2.8 24-275 is a good example. With the lens focused at infinity:- @24mm the enterance pupil is 305.9mm in front of focal plane @275mm the enterance pupil is 263.4 behind the focal plane. At the wide end of the Zoom there is less DoF than a prime. However at the long end of the zoom there is more DoF! With all lenses the enterance pupil data is available from the manufactures. This is why the charts supplied by Cooke for the S4 lenses do not exactly match the Ultra Primes charts by Arri. Stephen Williams DoP Zurich www.stephenw.com

David, Thats interesting, I feel uncomfortable when using an Arri 435 because I don't know how to load it! I guess you came the Gaffer route! Stephen Williams DoP Ultracam & Mitchell Owner www.stephenw.com

Phi, I guess most of the loaders and second assistant cameraman would pick video cameras. Then they would call themselves cameramen or DoP 's! Stephen Williams DP Zurich Switzerland www.stephenw.com

It depends on how experianced the DP is, and how many days you are booking him for? Stephen Williams DP Zurich www.stephenw.com

Try and find an arri 2, much better for hand holding and cheap to rent! Stephen Williams DP Zurich www.stephenw.com

Oxberry camera's & optical printers sometimes come up on E-Bay. There is little demand and the price is usually under 1000 USD . IMHO This would be a perfect way to register the film, when building a scanner. Many years ago I did time lapse with a Nikon and a 250 frame back. As the Nikon was not pin registered I had to line up the images by overlaying the frames with reference to the first frame. Finally I filmed them on an Oxberry. It worked well Stephen Williams DP Zurich www.stephenw.com

Well you could line up the perf and make it sort of Pin registered! I think the perfs are accurate to 1/100 mm. The corners should match much better than 1mm as they are exposed in the camera gate, so for a non pin registered camera they would be very good. Remember TK's are not pin registered, they usually rely on the edge of the film. A very bad idear IMHO. Stephen Williams DP Zurich www.stephenw.com

IMHO If you have a good colourist then you can do a lot in 1 Hour! I find the slight adjustments made in Flame are nothing like as good as a final TK. The TK option is often cheaper as a good colourist is very fast. Stephen

Phil, IMHO would still go back to the original the original neg to grade. SDI is 4:2:2 , Digi Beta is about 2:1 compressed. Film has a greater color range than 10 bit DPX in any case. Stephen Williams DP Zurich www.stephenw.com

I would recomend the professional colorist working from the original film material. Remember the DigiBeta is compressed and the reduced SDI color space Stephen Williams DoP Zurich www.stephenw.com

Anthony, I shot on a Minima in New York 18 months ago. Camera Equipment from Abel Cine, processing and telecine at DuArt. We did a VERY GOOD Best light transfer on a SPIRIT to a PAL Digibeta in 16x9 FHA. Both companies highly recomended. Stephen Williams DoP Zurich www.stephenw.com