Matt Butler

To expose for a real starry sky where you can actually see the subtle colours in stars is possible but incrediblytime-consuming.I shot some star-plates that where used behind the title credits of a scholck sci fi movie called SPECIES (the original). The rawstock had to be treated in a pressure vessel with nitrogen gas purges followed by 'soaking' it in a mixture of hydrogen/nitrogen gas on location. The treated rawstock has to be exposed very soon after otherwise the film loses its ability to pull in those in those pesky photons.Processing soon after becomes a priority because the film loses its increased sensitivity. I'm sure wth the new Vision stocks, gas-hypering motion picture film would result in some stunning footage. cheers

I think it's time to call in the forensic team from CSI:Hollywood (Clapper Slate Investigators)! Cheers

It may be just an Australian *technique*, but many TVCs I've worked on, have had the clapper-loader hold the slate single-handed in the open position with particular info including SFX insert notes,a reminder to the editorial dept.or film laboratory etc. written on the slate. Remember this is vintage TV, before laptops and computer based production tools. cheers

*It's a slate Jim, but not as we know it* I believe it is an *end-slate* where the slate is held upside-down and open to indicate an insert FX shot. A couple of older slates in my collection! stay open when held this way. The rest of the slate has been masked by the star field comped into the original scene over a blue-screen panel on the set.?? A possibility??? cheers

I have shot numerous sunrises,sunsets,full suns etc. My technique is to use a solar filter - (astronomers put them on telescopes/ eyepieces when observing the sun) - to block/frame your shot. Avoid looking at the sun,as other posters have advised, as you can do long term damage to your retina and other parts of your eye. After blocking with the solar filter, replace with a ND filter pack suited to your particular ISO rating,but don't look through the viewfinder unless the solar filter is in place!! A while back i was shooting a time lapse sunset with a 300mm long lens and while checking for scratches near the gate inside the 35mm camera, my camera assistant accidently removed the lens cap. Instantly an image of the sun burnt through the film emulsion/base in the gate leaving a 3mm circular hole! be careful

While we're on the subject of eye conditions and cinematography,I remember an *old timer* telling me about his deterioating eyesight after working constantly with carbon-arc lighting. I wear glasses & have shot maybe too many sunrises and sunsets,and have slight corneal surface damage. I was doing a gate check inside the camera body between takes of a time-lapse dusk/ sunset shoot. We were shooting 35mm with a Canon 300mm telephoto and the assistant removed the lens cap.A perfect circle of the sun burnt into and through the base of the film leaving a 3mm hole in less than a couple of seconds. I usually line up sun shots with a solar filter (as used by astronomers) and remove it just before turning over,but even that precaution isn't enough.Take care when shooting the sun. cheers

Does anyone have an idea how much camera weight you can load onto both a 10" mini-Moy or a standard 16'' Moy geared head? (Not at the same time of course!!!) Was there ever an *official* Moy rating for the allowable maximum weight before you started to overload & damage the gear mechanism? cheers

About twenty years ago(how time flies) I produced several 35mm anamorphic short films.Back in those days the cinemas in Australia ran shorts before the feature. I needed to re-transfer the 35mm prints, and part of the exercise involved viewing the original telecine transfers on 1" videotape and standard Betacam masters. This is where the story gets a bit sticky - literally - some of them just couldn't play, or suffered from serious drop outs etc. OK, the masters were stored in my relatively dry basement - not exactly SMPTE archiving specs. next to the large tins contaning the film prints. The good news was that the re-transfer of the original prints on a digital telecine to digiBeta was superb! great colour and sharp as a tack. There was a slight magenta cast in the prints, easily graded out and I guess I'll have to go through the same exercise again in twenty years to a new data capture medium!

I emailed Joe Dunton on May 14 - no reply as yet,I guess he is a busy guy afterall. This Mitchell has the pull-down shuttle of an NC type(metal gears with the claw mechanism on a slight down wards angle) and the main drive sprockect lay-out of a Standard & High Speed as illustrated in threading diagrams in American Cinematographer Manual 8th edition/2001.(pages531 &533) Is this the layout of a GC or a custom version?

I'm trying to find out the build date of a rack-over Mitchell #740. I vaguely remember that a camera-buff had collected a list of these numbers. I tried googling and found out more than I need to know about WW2 Mitchell bombers serial numbers! Any help in pointing me in the right direction would be appreciated.

If you need to see the print 'developing' you can try sepia-toning where you bleach a developed print and soak it in sepia toner to make the image slowly re-appear.I suggest you talk to a darkroom technician or qualified photo course person to get more info if you wish to proceed in this direction. This procedure can be done in available light - the process isn't light sensitive like normal B+W developing.

thanks for the info,Panavision Sydney use bright red plastic drive belts on their rental Mitchells.

As the recent proud owner of a Mitchell Hi Speed GC , could you tell me the actual spring-belt code if you purchase one from McMasters? And just for reference what is the actual loop length & thickness of the official Mitchell belt as I'm reluctant to pull my only one out of the body!

It's all about time,especially yours! Having shot the occassional time-lapse myself,I can certainly appreciate the amount of time you dedicated to your project. Do you intend to refine your techniques or is this a 'one-off for uni? Enjoyed the project, Cheers matt

many years ago i was working on a low low budget film that we were shooting on week-ends with borrowed equipment - some of which was not 'officially' booked out. after a very long day,the producer and myself were packing away the camera kit,which had been 'borrowed' without permission from the ad agency where i worked. after a 10 minute drive from the location in surry hills(a not so reputable neighbourhood)we arrive outside jwt and we open the boot.NO CAMERA! i see my career disintergrating before my eyes. "i thought you put it in the boot" i gasp to the producer - "i thought you did" replies the equally stunned producer. after an extremely tense and rushed return trip,we turn the corner into the narrow location street,and there STILL sitting on the footpath was a big shiny camera box. i learnt my lesson and now that i own my personal gear i'm even more paranoid.

check out www.digitalair.com/techniques they cover most aspects of 'time-slicing+motion' cheers,matt

have you tried US homepage? a basic product outline can be found on www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/products/index.jhtml cheers matt

have you tried US homepage? a basic product outline can be found on www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/products/index.jhtml cheers matt

According to American Cinematographer Magazine(Feb. 2004) all driving and flying sequences are filmed on stage using 20' screens and 10,000-lumen LCD projectors. The background plates are shot with Sony PD-150 digital video cameras. cheers matt