Kar Wai Ng

Hmm. Thing is, the camera was just serviced last year, and another project that was shot with the same camera had no problems (different stock though-7218), so I don't think it could be the rails. And the film stock we're using is fresh stock directly from Kodak, not something that's been sitting around for a while in various storage environments or humidity levels.

A bit of an update: Kodak doesn't yet have a determination what the cause of the problem is, but they have noticed the unsteadiness as well when they ran the film through their Spirit in Rochester. However, they also ran it through an older Shadow telecine...and it was rock solid. I know the Shadow was the precursor to the Spirit, but beyond that, I'm not familiar with the technical differences. The Shadow doesn't have EPR, does it? Does the film transport differ in any way?

We have a Zeiss 10-100mm T2 (B-mount with PL adapter) that we want to use with a 2x extender (PL-mount). Theoretically, there is no mechanical or optical reason for this not to work, except that I know certain lenses with protruding rear elements may collide with the element in the extender. This Zeiss zoom has a slightly recessed rear element. For various logistical reasons, the 2x extender that we will be renting (it's a Zeiss one meant for the Zeiss 300mm, it's not a Century Optics or P+S Technik or other) will not actually anywhere near our camera package until we are actually in production. So we need to know ahead of time with some degree of certainty that they will be compatible. The P+S Technik version explicitly states on their website that their 2x extender will not mate to a Zeiss 11-110mm (S16 converted). I don't know if I can extrapolate that to mean the Zeiss 2x extender will not mate to a R16 Zeiss 10-100mm. Zeiss did make a 2x B-mount Mutar exclusively for the Zeiss 10-100mm, but this isn't exactly an item rental houses carry. Does anyone have actual experience using the Zeiss 10-100mm T2 with a 2x extender that can confirm whether it works or not?

Sorry, this post should probably be in the 16mm forum.

I have been working as the sole camera assistant on a documentary shooting on S16 for the past couple of months, and we are running into a problem regarding image stability. A large percentage of our footage, when transferred, is showing image unsteadiness, side to side, up and down, and the image movement oscillates in elliptical or figure-8 movements, enough to be noticeable in wide, locked off shots. Reg tests show both passes completely in line with one another, with no breathing whatsoever, but the entire image shows unsteadiness. When reg tests were watched on a projector in prep, the only thing I could evaluate was registration...there is so much gate weave from a projector that nothing else can be evaluated. Only very recently when we were trying to troubleshoot this problem, did we put the reg tests up on telecine and saw the same unsteadiness here as in our footage. Camera is an Aaton LTR 54 that has been serviced recently. There does not seem to be a correlation of unsteadiness to certain mags we are using. We have also pretty much ruled out telecine as the factor. Footage has been transferred on two separate Spirits on two coasts; we have also put footage on a Spirit 2 and it was also brought to another post facility here in Toronto. When we are in the suite, other productions' footage looks steady, and in fact, the lab leader on our footage is steady, but once our footage comes up, some unsteadiness presents itself. On a Spirit we can't zoom out enough to see the perf entirely, but the edge of the perf that is visible does seem to move in sync with the image. I've been told the Spirit does not have EPR (electronic pin registration) so it cannot be dialed out on the scanning stage. Because the movement is both horizontal and vertical, it apparently doesn't have anything to do with film tensioning or rollers on the telecine. At the moment we're currently suspecting film. The vast majority of the film has been shot on 7219; so far we've shot 36 rolls, 32 of which have been 7219 (same batch, roll, cut), 3 have been another batch of 7219, and one has been 7201. It would be very easy to narrow it all down to this particular batch of 7219 we have been using, except not all of our footage manifests this unsteadiness, and in fact there's a possibility that the material we shot on a different batch of 7219 may be unsteady (hard to tell, because very little of this material is lockoff.) We have gotten many colourists, technicians, etc to look at the situation, and it is perplexing everybody. We showed some footage to some Kodak representatives, and we floated the idea that perhaps the perfing or some other tolerance of the film is out, causing the film transport to place the frame in the gate exactly the same way in both passes of the reg test (hence good registration between passes), but temporally speaking, an unsteady perf location would cause the image as a whole to swim around. We have gotten given Kodak a reg test shot with our 7219 batch and a rack leader that was shot on 7217 (which looked steadier) which will go to Rochester for evaluation. Until then, we have all this material that needs to be stabilized. No one noticed any of this in dailies and none of the dailies colourists reported problems...so only now in editorial when some simple compositing is being done that we notice the unsteadiness. We go to camera again in mid-July, and need to isolate the problem as soon as possible. Post stabilization seems to be the only option for our existing material (or is it?), but for when we go to camera again in a month, we cannot continue to stabilize all of that footage. I'm putting this out there to the cinematography.com community....thoughts/experiences/advice? Thanks!

Having dealt with situations like this in a non-ideal fashion (plastic bags, slating under umbrella, etc) what I've done is taken an old scratched-up slate that doesn't erase very well anymore, and converted it into a velcro slate. I put patches of white adhesive loop velcro on the front of the slate, and covered the back of the slate in loop velcro. Then I made lots of 1" stick-on numbers and letters with a labelmaker and hook velcro, and put them on the back of the slate. So in a rainy situation, you can pull out the velcro slate, and just stick on new numbers as needed, without having to deal with a marker. Unfortunately, since I've made this slate, I haven't yet been in another situation where I needed it...

....yes, if you live in the States. Shipping to Canada is a very different story. It goes through customs, and not only do we pay our GST and PST taxes, we get dinged dearly by UPS with their exorbitant brokerage fees, since filmtools ships UPS Ground to Canada. In most cases, we're out about double what the order total is. That said, there are times when I will really need something from filmtools, but I'll only place that order as a last resort if I can't find that specific item in Toronto.

The Source Shop on Jefferson Ave will have everything you need. Panavision Toronto also has an expendables and supply shop, as do most of the camera houses. Cinequip in the west end sells expendables and supplies too. Rotblotts sells some expendables like camera tape for cheaper than everyone else.

The Arri Mini Monitor socket uses 4-pin Fischers. Carries composite video and 12V power.

In some situations with wide angle I will intentionally bias the focus forward (but still hold the subject in focus with some safety margin) in order to buy a little more background softness; some DPs will ask for this and others will just let me use my judgment.

It is my understanding that the majority of the electronics and circuitry required to drive the RED LCD's actually reside in the camera body itself, which is why it has to connect via a lemo connector with many pins. It's also why the LCD itself is so thin. I don't think it's possible to rewire it to accept an HD-SDI signal because all the signal processing is done by the camera, not to mention that the panel also has a non-standard resolution.

Avoid rolling out the mag, especially at high speed. You can end up with tons of tiny film chips in the mag, which can find their way underneath the film platens, in the throat, etc...essentially putting the mag out of service until you have the time to clean it out thoroughly, dissassemble the throat, etc. Since you don't have a 2nd or a loader, you really can't afford to spend time doing that...

1/4" is pretty thin; I'd be nervous loading up a frontbox made with 1/4" stock. Especially the back panel where it attaches to the bracket, there's going to be quite a bit of stress, and poplar has more flex than oak. Mine is made with 1/2" oak sides with 1/4" non-moveable oak dividers, and 1/4" thick poplar for the bottom panelling.

I've had a Rock n Roller R12 with top shelf for a while and even though they're terrifically handy for hauling stuff around, the handles that fold down are not particularly sturdy and there's quite a bit of play in their verticality...they wiggle a couple inches back and forth when locked into position. If they don't when new, they eventually will. With the top shelf in place it's marginally sturdier but I wouldn't feel comfortable at all putting a high hat, head, and camera on it to build, for example. The shelf is only rated for 100 lbs, and it's fairly narrow. Okay for putting stuff on when stationary, but things will jiggle or roll off if going over bumpy terrain since the shelves don't have raised lips. It might not be ideal as a serious camera cart, but it's handy as an extra cart to haul stuff around and since it folds up so compactly, it could be used alone for a little video shoot or corporate gig with a smaller amount of gear. I recently got a converted magliner jr. with a top shelf from Filmtools and I can say it's a world of difference. On the last feature I worked on, I carried both carts...magliner as my main cart on which to build the camera (also carrying my ditty, lens case, and other AKS) and the Rock n Roller to haul around extra cases. Robert (and any other interested Torontonians): I got my Rock n Roller from axemusic.com in Edmonton/Calgary since they had an amazing price; it was CDN$188.50 with free shipping to Toronto (free shipping over $199 so I just added a couple sheets of gel....) but that was a few years ago and unfortunately it seems as though it's no longer in their catalogue. I don't know how they sold it for that price since getting one from B&H, with exchange, taxes, and shipping to Toronto would have been over $300, not including the shelf. In Toronto, Henry's has it available as a special order item for $379, but I would try checking with Imagegear first as they carry them too.

Hi Andre, It's a pleasure to have you on the board. I too have been watching the series and have been very much impressed by how well shot it is and the polish it has. I really love the poignancy of the overcranked shots. The coverage is pretty amazing too; I remember watching the whole 3-wheel rickshaw race sequence in India and being amazed it was shot with just one camera. Since I started watching the series since the first episode, I've been wondering about several other things, mostly related to logistics... Since it was just the three of you guys travelling (presumably without a support crew), how did you manage to schlepp everything you needed around with you? I would assume all the camera gear, batteries, steadicam gear, tripod, hard drives, etc, would amount to a pretty heavy backpack? Also, what is the footage workflow like when you're travelling? Do you offload P2 cards with a laptop while you're on the go, do you bring a lot of hard drives with you, etc? Or did you courier footage back and forth so you're not lugging 50 lbs of hard drives around the world?

For a cleaning liquid I use Eclipse fluid. It's 100% high-purity methanol, never leaves any streaky residue. Evaporates extremely quickly.

I independently came across the AHSupply site over a year ago while sourcing parts for my own diva-like kinos (which I still haven't made yet) and thought, gee, these kits would be perfect! Great ballast, reflectors, all the bits and bobs come included. Glad to know others thought the same thing and have good things to say about them. At the time they told me their 5400K bulbs were a German make with a CRI of 91, which isn't bad, but I would probably just put the Kino-branded PL55 bulbs in for their better CRI. The only part I have to figure out is the enclosure...what are you guys making yours out of? Coroplast seems to be the easiest and cheapest (though least durable), wood is quite a bit heavier, and sheet metal is not something I really have the tools to work with easily. Does anyone miss the dimmability of a Diva kit, or the hi/lo output of a select ballast, compared to your homemade kinos?

If the fixtures are indeed T8, you still have a few options for tubes. I'd recommend the Philips TL-950 tubes for 5000K, or TL-930 for 3000K. Because of their high CRI (98 and 95), they're less efficient light-wise (less lumens per watt) than what's currently installed, but they do look very clean. You can rent the tubes at Whites.

Hmm, I guess always keep the over/under coiling method in mind. Alternate 'inward' coils with 'outward' coils, or overhand with underhand...hard to explain, but it makes sense if you see it. Most decent flexible cables will behave properly this way, but there are always those stubborn stiff ones that have a mind of their own. If the cables don't lie flat when you throw em on the ground (ie they stand upright like coiled barbed wire does) then they've got a very stiff memory and I just coil them the way they want to be coiled. If you're wrangling video cable for a live camera, i.e. it's moving and you're following, I'd keep the bulk of the coil in one hand, and a smaller coil in the other, feeding or taking up as needed as the camera moves. Have enough buffer to release cable quickly if the camera operator starts to run somewhere, but always keep an eye on having too much slack and hence tripping hazard.

I seem to recall that the little 12VDC power out on the camera doesn't provide the adequate amperage for the Bartech receiver and motor. I don't know how Sim Video has set your F900R up with this 'extension power box'; everyone seems to customize cameras differently. One possibility is using the 2-pin port on the Anton Bauer Gold Mount, if that's what the camera is configured with, which provides 12VDC and up to 10A, which is about double what the Bartech will draw. There are cables that go from the 2-pin 'PowerTap' to 4-pin XLR. Another possibility is just wearing a battery belt, though less elegant of a solution.

At distances less than 10 feet, it's pretty easy to judge the distance and/or run out a tape measure just as quickly. Also, these distances typically correlate to close-ups, MCUs, mediums, etc. and it's just more practical to use a tape measure with actors in these situations. Since focus is more critical for these shorter distances, and aiming the laser at their chest isn't as accurate a reference (never aim at faces) as getting a measurement right to their eye, the tape measure is generally the best tool. Distos are great for quickly grabbing the distance of an actor further away without having to run out a measure, getting distance references off other objects or walls to scope out a room's size, etc...also handy when pulling focus for steadicam. Main limitation in my view is that their range can be limited outdoors when you're in bright sunlight.

Well, there's the Panastar, but that's rather obsolete.

I was actually thinking about ordering one of those don earl brackets...matt, what makes you hate them in particular?

A google search brings a yellow pages listing. http://www.switchboard.com/swbd.main/dir/d...p;showsection=1 Stratton Camera seems to list a few products by CSE. http://strattoncamera.com/sales.html

CSE is Cine Support Equipment, but they don't seem to exist on the web.