Robert Hughes

It can be artifacting from the DV codec, yes. Limit your rapid camera movements. It's not so much an NLE issue as an application issue. But remember how any compressing codec works; the more interframe changes, the higher bandwidth hogging. Something's got to give, and that something shows up in artifacting. Practise with your tools to find out the limits of their imaging usefulness. There are only about 4 thousand books written about it. Look it up and tell us. ;)

If you don't like color correction don't let the editor use it. If you don't like establishing shot footage don't shoot it. If you storyboard effectively and have director, DP and editor meet during preproduction to discuss the project in detail, shot by shot, you should be able to save time during shooting and post, and avoid a lot of the confusion and wrong turns your projects have taken to date. By the way, since you're a student and therefore part owner of the process you can cut your demo reel footage any way you want - it doesn't have to match the class project. But depending on your post production method you may need to get a copy of the footage before it gets cut up on the conforming table.

Great. Except an Arri costs about 50 times as much as a Keystone, even had you paid for it. First things first. If you have a paying project, rent an SR or Aaton, otherwise be happy with the Keystone.

The MKH-60 is one of the best mics ever made, the only complaints I've ever heard about it are down to personal taste. But you shouldn't second guess your talent. First session, line up a half dozen mics: SM57, U47, U87i, AKG 414, MKH60, MKH416, or whatever else you've got around. Record a couple voiceover samples on all mics and see which works best. Sometimes the voice sounds best on the cheapest mic, sometimes not.

Anybody watching YouTube, Veoh, or any of the other video networking sites? I'm just learning about the YT communities; it's all come up in the last year and a half and is completely different from anything I've experienced. It's not just 15 year old girls yakking at their computer screens (although there are plenty of those); there are whole series of vlogs, skits, demonstrations, by posters putting serious time into their work. The camerawork, lighting, directing, acting, etc, is totally amateur stuff, but the ideas coming out of YT are the raw materials of next year's mainline programming. And a lot of underemployed LA actors, directors and crews are using YT as virtual demo reels to parlay them into the big time. What are your favorite channels? My favorite today is the NoHoGirls / WeHoGirls / VanNuysGuys constellation of channels; it's a multiple soap opera/reality series set told simultaneously from the perspectives of 3 or more houses of players. Viewers go from one house channel to another, commenting on the action; the channel actors read and react to some of the comments aloud as part of their performance. Interactive soaps! Classic novels meet the hyperlinked generation - "Young and the Restless" meets Dostoyevski. Other Faves today: CommunityChannel, ChannelReviews, LittleLoca, Renetto, LisaNova/Diamond Factory, ResurrectionOfCG, theResident, averageBetty, ysabellabrave, WhatTheBuckShow, v6Tempest, MelissaJenna, Katers17...

Yep, pretty wobbly on long lenses. Made me carsick. Speaking of which, how many cameras did they destroy in the car chase? Hmm, think Jason Bourne will win? As he always does? The part of the story I liked best was the battle of nerves between the 2 main CIA bosses; the powermad guy who's only solution is "kill everybody now" and the woman who's position is "this is not what I signed up for". The CIA folks I've met are all in the second camp, legit gov't workers, but my suspicion is that this sort of turf war goes on all the time in Langley.

Ever seen Andy Warhol's "Chelsea Girls"? You can be as sloppy and zoom-happy in 16mm as you can in Super8, believe me.

Say, David, I'm gonna be moving in a few days, and need to know what kind of moving vehicle I need. I've got a VW Jetta and its trunk is like way huge! Is it true I can fit as many boxes in my Jetta as in a panel truck? How about if I replace the trunk top with one of those 1.85x anamorphic thingie trunk extensions? And are you free this Saturday? :rolleyes:

Raphael, let's review your project proposal. Any off-the-screen style film chain will be inferior to a decent telecine; it doesn't really matter if you use a RED, HDCam or a cell phone cam as your capture device. Is the film you intend to transfer reversal or negative? Negative should never be run through any general purpose projector as it is a much softer base than reversal or print stock and will be irreversably scratched. Camera original should never be run through a projector (unless it's disposable footage) as the film will suffer some degradation with each pass. At this stage in your learning you'd probably be better off taking the film to a not-very-expensive PAL SD transfer house and not worry about HD.

As for "Is it worth it?", the only way to find out is to give it a decent CLA at home (Don't pay a pro to fix one of these), then load up a spool of TriX and shoot (check to make sure you get dual perf film if the camera has dual perf sprockets). If you have an image at the end, you won! And even cheap 65 year old cameras can provide surprisingly good results. Give it a try.

Yeah, me too. I always use videotape for testing... :rolleyes:

Yep that fishbone belt disintigrates after a couple decades, I got a replacement from Whitehouse AV. The clutch may need to be adjusted to a torque spec; check with a repair pro to find out. Also, you might consider using a 3" takeup core if you're shooting 100' or 200' loads; I don't think a 400' load will fit.

That's cause no one here sells to anonymous hippies! :P

I haven't been able to get to www.filmshooting.com for days. Anybody know the story? It's like it just fell off the end of the Internet... :unsure:

33 may be too old to be making druggie movies. :rolleyes: I think I reused the first 200' of film I shot as a Halloween costume, wrapping it around myself like a mummy.

Your fastest fix is to buy another camera, perhaps another Nikon R8. The one I have came with the battery pack holder, and is an all-around very good machine.

I too, have had trouble unloading my poor deceased brother's ARRI BL2. He died tragically in a car crash after having unloaded two 100 round magazines of bullets at the Sierra Leonian border. I must now need to unload his camera, and $160,000,000 IN NIGERIAN BANK NOTES, and found that YOU <Mr. Godfrey> ARE HIS LEGAL NEXT OF KIN. Perhaps we can work together to our mutual benefit; please assist me in this humanitarian cause and I will be happy to pay you half of all proceeds after the appropriate duties and fees have been paid. May God preserve you, Mr. Godfrey... :ph34r:

Sometimes the yellowing in old lenses is not from radioactive decay but from aging of the Canadian Balsam used in cementing lens elements. Ive heard that the cement yellowing can be lessened by exposing the wide-open lenses to direct strong sunlight for an afternoon to bleach out the cement. Be careful not to let the lens overheat, or have anything directly behind the lens that might burn or melt, because a camera lens works just like a magnifying glass, roasting ants and lighting firecracker fuses like we did in our youth.

IIRC RED's not out yet, so the answer would be "no". You'll be using a RED to xfer super 8? Reminds me of using a Ferrari to pull a skateboard...

It seems clear that your idea of research is to wander into internet forums and start asking too basic questions. Tell ya what, go read a book about photography and call back when you're done. <_<

A couple weekends ago I opened up a Super8 cart with a bottle opener to one corner, just like cracking a beer.

Yes. Yes. Enough. Yourself.

For reference, an 18% gray card often is considered in Zone 4.

You don't absolutely have to have sound sync. Remember that the movie industry ran for decades without a single syllable of speed, and almost every feature still uses "MOS" shots where the shot doesn't use audio. I saw a beautiful Super 8 film a few weeks back that was done silent with audio interviews done at some other time, and I didn't have any problem believing the person on the sound track was the one working in the image. The Bolex is a worthy camera. I got one 25 years ago and still use it when I need its flexibility, like single frame shots for animation.

Interesting side note on Beaulieu battery supplies. I just bought a new battery for my Sony D8 camcorder, and saw it was a 7.2V Infolithium battery, which is the same voltage needed by Beaulieu 4008 an 5008 cameras. It may be a simple matter to rig up a battery supply for a Beaulieu using a modern, easy to acqure source (that costs $50 as opposed to the $150+ of the Beaulieu battery).