Simon Wyss

Excuse me, Frank, for interfering but you hit a nerve with me. Step printing seems to be something odd with you video people. I want to be absolutely polite. The term step printing says nothing about frame rate. It is simply one of the two mechanical approaches to the process of copying a film's content onto another. Step printers can be run slowly, as you suppose, but also at faster rates like 30, 40 or more. Again, in all courtesy, we film folks never use video terms to speak about something in the trade. Is it possible to avoid step printing when you talk about, let's say: a hiccup effect ?

Servus, David Ich kenne mich aus mit den Steenbecken. Praxis mit vielen Modellen, Überholung von Modell 938 (ja, das gibt's), 6000 u. a. Das Wichtigste gleich: Netzspannung richtig einstellen. Wir haben heute in Basel 233 bis 235 Volt. Am Trafo gibt es entsprechende Kabelbrücken. Sobald die Steuerkarten Überspannung erhalten, kann es schnell gehen. Dann Motor und Getriebe pflegen: Lager, Schmierung. Ach ja - man will bald auf 240 Volt gehen. Same in English for those who are open to learn some German: I know my way around with the Steenbecks. Practice with many models, overhaul of model 938 (yes, it exists), 6000 a. o. Most important thing first: adjust for line voltage. We at Basel have 233 to 235 V today. There are wire bridges on the transformer accordingly. When the control cards are overtensioned you can readily have a blast. Then take care of motor and gears: bearings, lubrication. And, oh - they will soon switch to 240 Volt.

He did CIRCUS with one of them, a short. You'll find an article on that production here, July 2008 issue.

Moving images are achieved by an optical trick, you know it. Now, by sustaining and not sustaining the trick you employ already another one. Movies have to do with energy. The words rhythm, pace and impact have been mentioned. What happens when you cut, when you force the spectator to mentally jump from an illusion to the next ? You see, there is your responsibility inside, your power if you want so. For me power and energy go together, energy being the whole subject and power the access. Either you smack your public or you don't, so decide on one shot or interruption before that background.

There is this process called Tetraphony, invented and patented by the German Gerhard Woywod. Recording with four microphones as corners of a tetrahedron built flush with the surface into a ball of about 10 inches diameter. You can set it upon a stand. Reproduction by four speakers also arranged as tips of a tetrahedron. Speakers can be far more apart so as to embrace listeners. You can see-hear a bird in a tree or feel-hear a door being slammed in an other direction. Orientation is very, very precise. As much as I know the patents run out next year. That could be something for the cinema, perhaps IMAX. Still I'd advocate monaural sound. Movies are first for the eyes, then for the ears. The simpler you can keep sound technique the more convenient it goes with the action. That does not mean there should be no room feel or space with the sound but I prefer the inner coherence picture-sound to all outward fuzz. Let's have a drummer in front of us tabouring with two sticks. Why more than one mike ? I'm not a sound engineer and may be up a blind alley. Only, with Perspecta Sound they fooled the kids in the 1950s. It's always mono but one time from a central speaker, then from right or left, and so on. It simply switched to and fro.

Paul When they go into bigger series the alloy is silumin. But - here comes the big but as usual - once the alloy is not very precisely met you can have deterioration. The metals disintegrate. I have seen this with many comsumer products like Super-8 home projectors. There are many more different alloys. It's a question of what the designer wants to achieve, be it ruggedness versus weight, be it advantages with the assembly versus price, and so on. You can probably imagine that it is not the same to build a Mitchell in 1928 or to release an Arriflex 35 BL forty years later. As to the Bell & Howell "Standard Cinematograph Camera" of 1911 I know that it was cast in a special aluminium alloy number 12 . More is not available up to now. Possible they put magnesium in. Chicago, the city of steel and steam, was leading in metallurgy at the time. I still doubt that Howell and Bell were in the position to construct the first all-metal motion-picture film camera. There must have been someone in the background with the necessary know-how. If you look at such a camera body, I mean the single piece freed from everything else, you are amazed by the complicated form it demanded to be cast. It's sand casting, no doubt. On December 1st, 2005, I had the opportunity to see it with a friend of mine who is the master of camera restoration. He has three 2709 entirely restored including carrying box and side viewfinder. He even found that the glossy black lacquer was a Swiss product. He recovered the formula. He has also restored two Mitchell. Gears versus timing belts: Today you have movie film projectors with timing belts. They work, but you don't know when the drop out comes. With solid lubricated gears there is no worry for fifty years. And belts are not more silent than gears. Mitchell had hard paper cog wheels alternating with brass or bronze gears in the "sound" model.

Fine. Thank you all the same

Unfortunately we're not yet ready with CARGO. Please refer to this name and please contact the company here.

Julio, are you also interested in black-and-white print stock ?

Hello, Max I once shot in a cinema and from then I can recommend that you'd light the walls. Most cinema theatres have wall lights, be it some kind of lustres, be it tubes in cavetto. Add front and back light as coming from the booth, why not, and it will look cinema.

James, one major difference between Bolex H cameras is the aperture plate. The older models have a steel plate, blackened between the side rails. 400-ft. magazine models from number 226,001 on have an aluminium plate, anodized. It looks light greyish. Now with temperature variations and differences in film top gelatine the adhesion can change. Second influence is the drive: best image steadiness results with regular drive force. That is why the electrically driven Bolex tend to show better steadiness. Third thing: Bolex H from beginning to number 97,800 have a quicker acting spring loaded claw in conjunction with 192 degrees shutter opening angle. From number 97,801 on they have the slower drag claw (one joint less) and 170 degrees shutter angle. The younger cameras seem to bring better steadiness by the cleverly made claw mechanism. You will recognize a drag claw Bolex by the little eccentric sprocket disc just below the gate. This feature is a loop restorer. It was introduced because the drag claw may slip over a perforation hole with thinner film.

Yes, you are reproducing partly what Belton described. And, yes, Karl, it's always the Illuminati. Didn't they also send people to the Moon in 1969 ? Puzzling they had the recording done at 75 fps and the master tape run at 30.

Anthony I have opened (and closed) many Bolex-Paillard cameras (and projectors). Film jam with a Bolex-Paillard H camera is in most cases caused by either bent side guides or by improperly set feed rollers. These must be so adjusted that the film entering the gate will retain a not too large upper loop when the claw begins to transport, and equally a not too large lower loop when engaged on the lower feed roller. The loop guides must also be properly set. Altogether some tricky work for the novice. Never force anything with an H. Better cut jammed film out of the mechanism than to pull it. Unfortunately, the built-in film knife can only be taken out after having taken out the works. Often it is not sharp. Then you take some scissors and cut the film in the same way the built-in knife does. That is important. Most Bolex cameras are in a bad shape. Governor dry, gears dry, axles not lubricated, rust, sand, dirt. It is possible to quieten a Bolex to some extent by mechanical care. The claw-film noise is harder to dampen. In the end it's an amateur product.

Hello, Karl Yes, any stock after every desired formula in every process in lengths up to 100 foot; 500 ft. and 1000 ft. in preparation Push or pull development almost endless, i. e. if you desire to plague a given piece of film, I'll do that. Since the baths are of natural temperature but never under 20 degrees Celsius I change the times. The tolerances are barely measurable. When I put a test strip under the densitometer to compare values I rather compare differences in chemical developer composition than of my work. Prenoted footage, minimum 48 hours in advance, can be treated like 100 feet every half hour (to negative). Reversal development time is one hour, mostly we have Fomapan R. One foot of 35mm film developed to negative costs Swiss Franc --.64, same in 16 is --.48, no matter what changes you demand. Reversing is --.83 and --.54, respectively. I'd definitely emphasize that you are the world's ONLY LAB OFFERING REVERSAL PRINTS FROM B&W REVERSAL IN 2008. Thank you for the stressing ! As a matter of fact I'd love to have such business. At the time being it is dead calm. It's a cinch and it is not ! How can a movie producer, I ask, not have his production shot chemically and not in 35 or 65 ? To have cooperation with us lab people is social, teaching, is such a joy. About a year ago there was a private man here who had an Arriflex II C overhauled in München, then started with Orwo UN 54, viewed my "muster" in projection, bought himself a Steenbeck 6000, you know, and so on. Unfortunately, he had to interrupt production. It's almost a wrap for us now . . .

There is this article in the SMPTE Journal of August 1990, pages 652 through 661, by John Belton: "The Origins of 35mm Film as a Standard", wherein he examines the 4:3 aspect ratio settled with Dickson's work. As to frame rate we must not forget the forerunners to cinematography, phenakistiscope, zoötrope, and praxinoscope. It was already well established knowledge in the 19th century what number of impressions per time unit produces a pleasing appearance. Dickson, by the way, fumbled with frame rates of 40 to 50 until he met Eugène Augustin Lauste, the man who conceived the Latham Eidoloscope projector before May 1895. Actually it were the Lumière to bring 16 frames a second simplex to many countries while Skladanowsky also reached that rate by the duplex process (alternating between two bands at 8 fps each). At the Paris conference of 1907 a standard frame rate of 1000 per minute was agreed upon. 3 to 4 is a dynamic ratio contrary to the calm golden section or the square, the perfect still. As far as I know this was never discussed intensively.

James I want to sell my 16 mm Steenbeck 938. It is the version one picture gang and three sound gangs. It's in very good shape with additional variable speed control 15 through 25 fps. Built in 1978, bought by Swiss TV in Geneva at the time, now in Basel. $ 2500 plus shipping. Of course, too far away for you.

For me good cinematography is something about which I sense human work, physical, emotional, mental, in every respect from a thouroughly discussed story/event over the recording complex and editing to all the details of prints' densities, light source of the projectors, screen, room. Cinema is perhaps the most technical-artificial expression form. I want the characteristic cinema experience for the money I pay, and that is magic, silvery, fantastic, surprising, vibrating. As soon as I discover patterns like longshot-medium-close up-reverse angles, sweetening, all the industry, I am bored. Good cinematography smells of sweat.

Ciao, Daniele PXN is already an oldtimer, it's got major redesign in 1957. Since then almost unchanged with the exception of more hardened gelatines and small chemical things. You will have black-and-white pictures like everyone is used to. PXN is a money maker for EKC. Don't think they sell a bad product for so long time. Expose it exactly to ISO 80, have your lab people developed it with care, and your negative will yield fine positives. If you plan to scan I'd suggest to ask the lab manager for fine-grain treatment (different developer recipe). On the other hand you shoot only 400 foot. They might smile at you and not change anything. Ah, yes, black and white is contrasts.

Hello, Leo Not there, prices are equal. Look, with the common Bell & Howell or Debrie continuous printers you can't go beyond ten or eight frames between splices. And I always doubted the lamps and the trimming. Now it is certain that 25-25-25 comes out when set. It is so accurate that it can replace a sensitometer.

Now every single frame programmable with 50 steps for each colour ! System WRR introduced with step contact printers like Debrie or Dixi, 35 and 16. Most constant Red-Green-Blue (more accurate than can be measured) and most constant quantities of light (invisible 0.1 percent deviation). Printer's speed freely variable between zero and 25 fps at any point in the run. Up to 32'000 frames in one programme with your fades, flash effects or colour shiftings according to the conform list. Zero-cut, overlength, checkerboarding - all in one. Enough light for slowest printing stock. No incandescent lamp, no cooling necessary. 25-25-25, 17-34-48, 0-0-0, 12-46-8, . . . no problem I have seen it and must say that I like it. I prefer step prints to continuously exposed ones anyway.

Hey, Robert You are at the heart of cinematography, technically. What I can tell you is most simple: Do shoot and look at your moving pictures in projection, I mean big, perhaps in a cinema where you find a friendly projectionist. One has to have seen the various effects of different shutter angles on people walking, on horses galloping, whatever in motion. Forget the theory for a while and dive into practice ! Only one more thing. Until today the longest shutter opening with a cine camera is still 230 degrees. No one knows how a film might look when exposed with, say: 340 degrees. Simon

In the Motion-Picture Film Laboratory List My lab is packed up at the moment but still existing. Above all it is the workers' skill what counts. Please take me into the list as the one who introduced Gigabitfilm to cinematography, reintroduced variable density sound recording (yes, and it's noiseless), and handles thinner stocks (0,068 mm). Pity for the London situation Thank you for keeping us chemists-physicist-night-and-day-strugglers as part of the community. Simon

Hello, everybody Own a camera and would like to shoot a little ? I have many years of experience in developing 100-foot portions by hand in spirals. Now, since I had to close my black-and-white lab end of august 2008 but do want to continue my beautiful profession I can serve you with this. Any stock is possible and welcome in 35 and 16 from Fomapan R(eversal) over all the Eastman-Kodak materials to Bergger or Fuji-Neopan and whatever. Dailies can be struck on our Matipo Debrie 35 and Dixi-700, respectively. You'll get step contact positives from negatives and reversal positives from positives. Yes, there ARE materials available which replace and even qualitatively surpass Eastman reversal print film. I print on polyester base reversal stocks that derive from the micrography sector, and they behave fantastically. A word on Gigabitfilm. I have introduced it to cinematography seven years ago in 35. We have made duplicate negatives on 16mm Gigabitfilm since 2005. You cannot see the intermediate. Gigabitfilm's resolving power lies in the region of 16 K, if you want to have it calculated. I like the modern stocks because they fix within 20 to 30 seconds at 21 degrees Celsius, only as an example. So, pull out the Eyemo, set up your Lunch Box, crank any movie mill you like. There IS a lab where one knows and cares. It costs, of course, but you'll have pictures for the world. Don't forget: you can ALWAYS shoot with a spring-drive camera. No electricity needed. Send me an E-Mail if you please. I have a prospect with pricelist. Schneewolke@gmx.ch