Robert Hughes

Road flares use similar technology to fireworks and should be handled with appropriate care. Handholding a flare sounds dangerous and unnecessary.

Look at some of the Asian medieval soap operas - they always backlight those moody outdoor scenes with giant arclights. No matter where the talent is positioned, they've always got that backlight!

Sunrise/sunset can be shot with tungsten film without a filter. The color temperature changes continuously, so do your color correction in post rather than trying to chase it in the field. If you have artificial lighting keep in mind it will NOT be changing color temp, so your background/foreground color match will be changing by the minute.

I used to own an Elmo 1012XLS or whatever it was called. It was fine, and had a long zoom. Sound didn't work on it anymore, but who cares?

Depth of Field is directly related to focal length. Wide angle lenses such as 20mm lenses inherently have a very wide depth of field. Shoot wide open, move your subject very close to the camera, but other than that? Can't do much about the laws of physics.

I was looking at that auction site yesterday, saw somebody in Photography>Lighting>Continuous Lighting selling HMI units, new, for $350. These use the kind of HMI bulbs you see in gas stations and parking lots.

Anybody have experience shooting under these kind of lights? Are they usable, cheap equivalents of the real thing, which start at $1500?

- Like a dentist office on steroids.

Just about any Rust Belt city, of course. Milwaukee used to have a perfect ruin near the Amtrak line, but they tore it down a couple years back and put in a condo! Meanwhile, check out junkyards, architectural recycling lots, highway demolition projects, anywhere you'd find lots of busted up concrete and rebar. Chernobyl won't work, because the film fogs faster than you can shoot it, and gives you radiation poisoning to boot.

Please let me know what the rules are, I'd hate to have to go to prison for aggravated film making, felonious story content and writing over the age limit. <_<

First of all, beginners don't work with HMI's or Kinoflo lights; they're just too damn expensive. You'll start off using tungsten lights like in live theater: Fresnels, Scoops, Leico's, PAR's. These all (with the exception of scoops) are called "hard lights"; they leave a definate, well defined shadow. You can also use standard fluorescent lights, which are "soft lights" in that their shadow is diffuse. You will find that different kind of lights have different "color temperature", meaning some (tungsten) are orangish, others (fluorescents) are greenish, and diffused daylight is bluish white. Lighting for cinema is a deep subject, and there are tons of books written about it; look at the recommended reading list at the top of this forum topic for reference.

Come up with a good story first. Find some decent actors/performers to work with. Shoot said story (on MiniDV) outside to save on lighting. Edit, put on YouTube, let everybody know about it. Rinse, repeat.

If you're any good and willing to work at it you'll develop your network, and probably run into somebody with a 16mm camera to shoot a later project.

I just saw an ad for American Express - it was a parody of the "On the Lot/Producer" ads. I laughed.

Why is it that filmmakers seem unable to make movies these days with a good story, good acting, and good cinematography? Like the vaulted triple crown, I think this fabled trifecta of filmmaking has gone unachieved for several years now.

I saw "Death at a Funeral" the other night; it had all three. But no car chases. And I noticed the film, in its 3rd week here, had an audience of more than 50 people. Some folks will still see a movie without guns, explosions, etc.

...which Super 8 cartridge camera produces the best results seems never to end. Maybe the best way to answer the question is to conduct an objective side-by-side comparison test, using cameras adjusted to their factory specification...

This question has been beaten to death over the last several years, and the answer always is: Any camera needs overhaul and regular maintenance in order to provide its best performance. Curiously, almost nobody in the Super 8 world bothers to spend $500 on an overhaul of a camera they bought off eBay for $100. If you are willing to expend the resources necessary to get your Nizo, Braun, Beaulieu, Canon, Nikon, Leica, Bolex, Elmo, Sankyo or whatever camera up to snuff you will get better pictures than 99% of the S8 shooters out there. But if not, it doesn't really matter what brand of 40 year old, broken down piece of crap you have. ya dig?

I always used a 1/3 stop loss with my old Bolex reflex, seems about right.

Keep in mind that the electrical service at a rural location such as a farmhouse may have significant distribution wiring losses; if you're counting on a full 120V circuit you may actually be getting something closer to 90 volts. Will your lights still strike and operate at that low voltage? You may want to bring a generator along as a backup.

I was in National Camera, Minneapolis, MN the other day; in their "Shutterbug" used camera store they had a half dozen spotmeters, starting about $150.

RED made its delivery schedule, with a working, shippable product. Congratulations all around.

Whether it's a 35mm killer remains to be seen, but it's no longer merely a marketer's pipe dream.

Cheers!

Daniel, keep in mind that 16mm started out in the 1920's as an amateur format. If Grandpa could figure out how to run his Kodak, you probably could, too. Of course if you're planning on renting an Arri 416 or a new Aaton, you'll want to RTFM and get a little practice at the rental shop (where you will have already signed the million-dollar insurance form, right?).

On a documentary style shoot like "United #93", would the operator on an assistant pull focus?

...we've never had the kind of issues regarding those cameras that we have regarding Red. I'm not sure why that is, but I wish it would stop.

The reason outsiders pile on the RED phenomenon is obvious - the company's marketing department has been generating (for how many months now?) a tremendous cloud of hype over a product that remains in the development stage. Reputable manufacturers promote products, scam artists sell dreams. Where does RED lie on this marketing spectrum?

You'll have to pull the sprocket wheels and machine off the sprocket teeth on one edge of each wheel.

$600 sounds like a lotta money for a camera like that. I bought a "chop top" Auricon cinevoice a few years back for about $150, and it came with a Nagra 3 in the deal. The 600's are reputed to be quite heavy. That Pan Cinor lens is one of the really early ones, I used to have one like that and wasn't crazy about it. I'd pass and wait for a newer (and lighter) camera or a better price.

"No Reservations" is a no-frills romantic comedy. What is the post production workflow for a movie like this? According to IMDB, the origination format is 3-perf Super 35 and the projection format is anamorphic. What happened in-between? Was the production run through a 2K digital intermediate and anamorphically manipulated on the computer, or was the camera original conformed and optically printed to anamorphic?

A Kodak K100 is really a fabulous camera; super steady, easy to load, runs for 45 seconds on a wind. Ergonomically, it leaves something to be desired in handheld work; that's a lot of weight to hold in front of you. But the same can be said for an Arri S.

I've never been seriously tempted to buy a Keystone; I am very happy with my Bolex and B&H Filmo cameras for MOS and the Auricon "chop top" and CP-16R for sync sound shooting. But again, I paid real money for these so I can look these horses in the mouth.

As for Fomapan, remember it requires a special processing chemistry that is not compatible with everybody else's process. My local b&w lab refuses to touch it.