Claude Mangold

Josh, my advice would be to find out more about the director, in particular whether this is his first feature as well. If so, I would stay away. If he's made other features, I'd jump at the opportunity. I am speaking from experience. When I shot my first short film in 35mm, it was the DP's first, as well, and the project nearly ended in disaster. At any rate, very different from what I had wanted. And bitter feelings allround. So, as a director, if I want to tackle something I've never done before, I shall now always choose a DP who has done it. I would imaging that this is also true the other way around.

Evan, for what it's worth, Leica has a 50mm M-Series photo lens out which is an unbelievable f 1:0.95 (they don't publish T values since it's a photo lens). The latest Noctilux. I saw it in Berlin last week. Now I realise that adapting 35mm lenses to PL mounts is not possible with most cameras, and they are difficult to focus etc. but if you do much lowlight work it may be worth investigating. For flare & bokeh you'd have to test, unless someone has already gone through this. Also - DPs please correct me if I'm wrong - some Mitchell cameras used to come with a T 1.0 lens. Since this would be an old lens, it may well flare. Beware, though - we just used a very fast older Zeiss 35mm lens - forget which one - which had been re-housed for 16mm and lost some T in the process and had a zillion other problems such as some vignetting. But gave a very nice «sharp yet soft» picture when fully open.

Where can I get this done in Continental Europe or London ? Does anyone know a shop that can be recommended ? I have the M42 model. Thanks a lot

also check out : - Derry, C., The Suspense Thriller, Jefferson NC, 1988 old but useful - Rybin, S., The Cinema of Michael Mann, Lanham MD, 2007 more about writing, but still: reading up on Syd Field can be very illuminating and Vogler (The Writer's Journey), see Shapeshifters