Alex Birrell

I see you are a student. Well, I'm a film student too and for the past two semesters I've been forced to shoot in 4:3 16mm and it felt like having one of my eyes cut out! We're moving onto 1.85 in January but for me it'll always be full scope all the way!

Hello, I may be working on a project soon that would involve shooting some video projections. We would be shooting on 35mm with a Moviecam Superamerica. I have previously worked on a 16mm project shot with the Aaton Xtr that also involved video projections. On that project an annoying flicker was present in all the projected footage. The video projected was 25fps and we shot at 25fps. Was the flicker caused by an incorrect shutter angle or by the video being interlaced and is there any way around these problems for the upcoming 35mm project? Many thanks in advance for your help :)

Hello, I am currently considering buying an Arri BL4 body without magazines. I have seen an earlier post on here that says Arri bl3 magazines are compatible but other sources online contradict that. Does anyone know for sure if I can use bl3 mags on it or if its bl4 mags only? It's 4 perf by the way. It also comes with a ground glass but no eyepiece. Am I right in thinking that if I don't need an extension eyepiece, I only need to get an eyecup and it would be ready to go? Thanks in advance!

Hello, I have just seen your listing here and on ebay. Just wanted to check- is the camera pl mount? Also what would be the shipping cost to Great Britain? Also would it be possible to see some photos of the camera assembled with the matte box set-up and the handgrip. Many thanks, Alex.

Hi everyone, I am going to be directing my second term short film at the London Film School in the next couple of months and am trying to sort out the look of the film with my dp. It is a dark themed short with a horror/thriller flavour all set in one night time interior. They will be giving us Kodak 7219 500T, three 800w redhead open face lights with flags, various gels and diffusion materials and a felloni led light panel and we can use whatever practicals we want. I am going for a very high contrast, hard light look and would like pools of strong illumination in areas of complete blackness. Previously we have only worked with 200T and I was shocked with how much it sees into the shadows even when the meter indicates underexposure. I am worried that with our open face lights 500T will be too much and the whole film could seem flatly light and without contrast. I was wondering if it would be advisable to use our ND6 filter on the camera at all times and expose the film as 125ASA. I have taken some DSLR stills at 100ASA in my flat just with domestic lights on and am seeing the kind of results I like. Does anyone have any suggestions or think the ND idea might work out? By the way we cannot push or pull the film in any way or manipulate it digitally in post. Part of our brief is that what we expose in camera is what we get.

Hi guys, I am in the first term at the London Film School and will be directing a silent 3 minute short to be shot on regular 16mm in the academy ratio as our first term exercise. We are shooting with Zeiss distagon primes and using Kodak 7217 which will be telecined as a monochrome best light transfer for editing. We are using the Aaton XTR and the brief is that we have to shoot with available light only. I really imagine the short to have a soft diffused look and would like to experiment with netting the lens with stocking material for a slight flair in the highlights. I'd be very grateful for any information and what materials work well for people and any pitfalls I might have with this. Also I imagine one shot as a deep focus frame initially framing a street in long with a man's face entering from frame left in close-up (obviously all in focus from the face to infinity). We plan to achieve the effect shooting outdoors stopped down and studying the hyperfocal distance chart for our lenses. Thing is, I would really like the man's face to be in near silhouette. Would we achieve this by taking a reflected meter reading of the sky and background and exposing mid way between those reading and just let the man's face drop to black or do you think we'll run in to problems? Thanks in advance.

I understand completed where Emma is coming from but I have got to the ripe old age of 29 with this situation. After completing my film degree and also doing photography and digital media qualifications I started to look for volunteer camerawork positions that took me out to Italy. I stayed there until I was 28 working on a couple of indie features and various music videos and shorts. It was a great time and I got to the basics by working as operator or assistant with 35mm, 16mm, the Varicam, the Red etc. as well as actually DPing a couple of these shoots. Thanks to connections there I also managed got to direct a feature script I had written as a very small indie film that has got a DVD release in the States even if I haven't (and probably never will!) see any money from it. Since coming back to UK at the end of 2009 I have found a complete black hole - I have volunteered for a dozen things, tried to set up shorts and projects of my own and everything has fallen through for various reasons. The closest I have been to some real work is an indie feature last year as DP that got aborted in the middle of production and DPing a student film with the Red. When I say real work I of course mean in terms of enthusiasm and passion because it has been a long time since I have actually been paid for the work that I have trained for :rolleyes: Phil, I read your generous offer to Emma about upcoming shoots you have and wanted to volunteer myself as well to yourself or any other DP out there. I am more than willing to work in any assistance, apprentice or volunteer capacity to gain more skills and network a little - and hopefully get out of this rut :) I'm always more than willing to travel so anyone who is interested, please drop me a line.

Good advice, I will try them again. We've already had a great offer from Fuji in terms of stock so you never know.

Hi Freya We plan to use the Soho Images Film labs and to get the film there by courier. Shame about the lack of 2 perf equipment. We just can't afford the Arri 2 perf 235 or the Panaflex 2 perf that are on offer. With Panavision's SL cine camera though we can use super 35 (or even anamorphic but we can't stretch to that). Thing is that I can't find much info on the SL cine camera. I see from the Panavision listing that it comes with a video door, don't know if they have any Arri 2c doors and it also only lists the 200 foot magazine but I think this camera accepts the Arri 2C mags. Do you know anything about these cameras? Thanks Alex.

Hello I am currently prepping a short film that I have written and will be directing through a production company in Liverpool, England. We initially thought to shoot super 16 but I have been investigating price options and if possible we hope to go 35mm. I'd like to compose for the 2.40:1 ratio if we shoot 35mm and had thought of 2 perf. However, the available 2 perf cameras that I have found in England (from Arri Media UK and Panavision UK) are out of our price range. The scene can be shot completely MOS. There are three scenes, two are action heavy and without dialogue, one has dialogue but involves rain and metal surfaces so any production track would be mostly unusable. I am hoping that someone here will be able to suggest a place in England with an available Arri 2C or Mitchell R35 or similar camera for rental. Failing this, I have seen that Panavision offer an SL Cine camera system which is in our price range. Does anyone have any experience of using this camera? Would it be suitable for use as a main camera on an MOS short film shoot? Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Hi all! I am an enormous fan of the films of Dario Argento and wondered if anyone had any information or comments about the photography of two of his films, TENEBRE (1982 - photographed by Luciano Tovoli) and PHENOMENA (1985 - photographed by Romano Albani). I remember once reading an old Italian interview (in Italian!) in which Tovoli talked about shooting TENEBRE with a then new type of light called the Pulsar which pulsed at an unusual number of beats a second. Any information anyone? I can't find out much about these lights. TENEBRE has an amazing look, hot, bright and very overexposed. Does anyone have some info on how they achieved this particular look? I have to say that PHENOMENA features some of my favourite photography in the horror genre. Again I've read an old Italian interview and Albani talks about filmed with a process that eliminated 50% of the natural colours. I assume his is talking about the ENR process as the film was processed at Technicolor Rome four years after REDS. However, what interests me is that I have both the US and Italian dvds and the transfers are remarkably different. The Italian dvd is gorgeous with a velvety image and thick rich colours that limit themselves to exasperated tungsten orange and harsh blue "moonlight". The US dvd on the other hand is taken from rather scratchy source material and also features very pale colours with a heavy blue-ish cast. I was wondering which dvd represents how PHENOMENA was intended to be seen. As the ENR process is applied to prints maybe the US dvd is taken from a print and actually shows the film with colours as intended and the Italian dvd is taken from an interpositive minted from the negative with the colours unaltered. Does anyone know anything about it?

Hello all! No, I've never done this but was wondering (for purposes of experimentation) if anyone had every tried to expose the Kodak 50 ASA daylight stock as Tungsten 12 ASA. I love the look of 3 strip technicolor and dye transfer processing of early eastmancolor negatives. One of my favourite films is SUSPIRIA photographed by Luciano Tovoli which I have heard was filmed with a 16 ASA stock (and processed in dye transfer) to bring out amazing colour values. I was wondering if using the 5201 in a tungsten situation would result in the same need for ultra harsh lighting, heavy make-up on the actors and strong colour values (even with normal processing). Anyone ever tried?