Gregg MacPherson

If we knew how to read every grain of sand on the beach....each one would tell the story of the seemingly endless waves that had rhythmically moved it,. The light from the sun that had landed upon it. The interactions it had had with it's neighbours. The gravitational attraction to the earth, the moon and the other proximate bodies in the solar system. And more.... In comparison, a pixel, as far as I can tell, counts photons that land in a rectangle. Relatively large numbers of photons, relatively small rectangle, yielding an averaged value. This is a one dimensional piece of information. Hats off I guess to the programmers who are able to simulate a photograph from these. The word interpolation often comes up, but the word simulation always seems more apt. I'm not sure why as a society we are abandoning the fact of the photograph, I mean the sense of reality inherent in a photograph, the literal imprint that one thing has imposed upon another (and hence the cinema), in favour of these digital simulations. Chris, I'm not sure where your pithy jokes place you, what your opinions really are. Ask yourself, do you love the beach or not? Cheers, Gregg. PS. I finally got banned from the Kiwi 48hrs forum. Those mutterbumfers !

Leaving aside for now my reaction against morbidity on television...... The Killing is such an interesting watch. The sound is in perfect sympathy with the visual style. There's a sort of throaty compressed quality, almost no music, lots of abstract aural tones to directly convey emotions. The sound feels sort of grungy, but normally is easy to "read" against a sparse background. There is something very seductive about Holder's street slang mumblings, often barely understandable, very expressive. This is partly the content, the writing, the character, the photography helping to create how that feels. But it's also, obviously the sound rec and mix. Does anyone know anything about how they are recording or mixing sound for this show?

That's really funny. I hope Michael, from Chicago, who sounds like he's working on the beach near LA, gets it.

Hey David, I haven't found out any more on who made that PL adapter. I might put a picture up here tomorrow. It's all stainless, very well made looking. Cosmetically, there are a some grinder marks on the front ext of the locking ring. I don't know the story behind that, but it has no effect on function. Don't think I could come down much in price from USD300. I had a cheaper one two years ago that was made all of aluminum. I bought it and later sold it for USD250.

George, what movies were you thinking of there as niche artsy BS?

I've just had an email from Bruce at Arranda. Looks like I'm probably wrong that they made that adapter. Have to figure out who did.

Hey David, ACLs are great cameras. The adapter idea, really a (knurled ring) screw on remount, allows almost anything. There are probably a few people able to make the adapters. Les Bosher (UK) and Arranda (Australia) come to mind. Both are really well made. I think the normal Les Bosher one you can crack the locking "ears", if you are rough. I have seen them for sale like that. Probably a part that would be cheap for him to replace. The Arranda one, I'm assuming is still available on demand. Actually I have one that I am selling soon. I have both the Les Bosher one and the Arranda one. The Les B is new so I am selling the Arranda one. It's a very robust design, and I think it is designed so that you can screw off the PL front and replace it with other mounts. Just a guess. You could ask Bruce at Arranda directly. Bruce McNaughton <bruce@arandafilm.com.au> . This may nean it is a cheaper way to achieve some of the other mounts you need. All depends on what price ideas that they have etc. Prices. Les B has a list price of 380 English pounds (USD 597) but I think often gives discounts. My used but fit looking Arranda one, probably USD300. Let me know, I was going to soon notify the forum of the several ACL components I am about to sell on eBay. - AZSpectrum B&W video assist - Kinoptik VF - Anatomical handgrip with cable - 15mm rods and base setup for ACL II - PL mount (TS/PL adapter for all ACLs), Arranda made. - Top handle (factory made) for ACL. Cheers, Gregg

Which article was that? When we watch a film, empathy means we have an imaginative participation in the creation of the experience. We could also say that about games, just that some less subtle layers of awareness become hyperactive. And participation in the narrative shifts to a similarly less subtle partial authorship. So I'm interested to see how Spielberg defines empathic narrative.

Christopher, Is it your own personal experience that the local Panavision is non friendly to indies or is this just a myth that you want to promote? In Auckland New Zealand I found the repair and sales guys friendly, helpful and happy to do some tech stuff off the books for a case of beer.

Maybe Arri or Sony couyld buy them instead. Sorry, it's been a difficult day.

Hey George, Sorry I missed that personal, off topic note. Yea, most young visitors to NZ love it. Lots of coastline, surf, and you can find quiet, remote places, especially in the South Island.

Thanks Prashantt It's very hard to get actual numbers like those. Is it a fair guess that features, or any project with volume, negotiate down from those prices, or is the philosophy to help the short film makers by giving low prices as an entry point? Are the labs still full service? Can they do work prints? Optical blow ups from 16/S16 to 35mm? Those prices are low. What has happened to the rupee? In India in 81 I was getting about 8 INR for a USD. Now it's about 57 INR To save the other readers the conversion Kodak ....1300-1600 INR per 16mm 400ft can........USD 23 to 28 Prasad is charging (kit process) INR 9.82/mtr........USD 0.052/ft telecine SD best light INR 4000/hr...........USD 70/hour Thanks again. Gregg.

That article said that most of their 335M debt was written off in restructuring. Must be hard for lenders or investors to have confidence after that. Maybe it's an opportunity for the high risk takers.

Shameless bump.

Darrel, It says the video doesn't exist.

Did you ever look at the Kowa 1" primes. http://www.kowa-usa.com/frontend/Proddisp.asp?co=10000380 I thought they looked interesting but I never tried them. They were about US$400 each new. Can't remember where that price actually came from, not the USA branch above. The resolution is given as 120lp/mm centre and 80lp/mm edge. I never figuired out what contast value the line pairs have when the resolution is given like that. I thought it might be a cheap way to have a consistent set of primes, but I ended up thinking that used cine primes were a better idea. Some are actually cheaper, Schneider, Cooke, and MK I SSs are sometimes not much more. For pulling focus I thought the old cine lenses would be much better. But the biggest issue for me was that c mount just wasn't viable if one is swapping out lenses a lot, checking the gate.

What about this set of rehoused, remounted to PL, Zeiss Contax http://www.ebay.com/itm/EX-Modified-Contax-Carl-Zeiss-28-35-50-85-100mm-Lens-Set-For-PL-Mount-Arri-Red/251282049042?_trksid=p2045573.m2102&_trkparms=aid%3D555001%26algo%3DPW.CURRENT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D146%26meid%3D8127611873605447989%26pid%3D100034%26prg%3D1079%26rk%3D6%26sd%3D261029610166%26#ht_863wt_1193

Does anyone have hands on experience with a Cinetech Titanium follow focus? I was going to get a used Chrosziel 204-015, a single sided swingarm FF, but thought the Cinetech might be OK, and cheaper used prices. This short vid shows the FF being mounted. Cheers, Gregg

Actually Giray you probably don't need to send pictures. I've just been looking at pictures of similar lenses, perhaps a bit older, I can't tell from the info you gave. There is a problem using lenses that were originally in mounts with shorter than 52mm FFD. Can't easily remount them to PL. And the barrels are commonly smaller. I'm looking to eventually add some longer lenses to a set of 16mm SSs which will be remounted to PL.

What is the mount? Are you using an adapter on the c mount of your NPR?

Hey Giray, I don't want to be missinyerpreted in my post. I see some really interesting possibilities in the old Jena lenses for S16, I just don't know enough yet, and don't have a lot of spare cash to just buy a few on spec. I'm really curious about exactly which 50mm Jena you have. Do you have much info? Any ECU photos showing the front, the barrel and the mount? If you have some and don't want to use up your upload allowance here you can email me direct. Cheers, Gregg. viz(at)xtra.co.nz

I'm looking at a particular family of medium format lenses. They are often sold remounted to PL, have a good sized focus barrel, looks like a generous throw and good markings. Sample images on Frank's pages, shot on S35 or 5D sensors look great, good enough to explore the possibility. But I have to wonder if the resolution on screen will be OK for S16. They are cheap enough that one could just try it. These lenses were made 1963 - 67, for medium format and I don't know what their resolution actually is, whether it is consistent from lens to lens at point of manufacture, whether there are some other issues that help in selecting the best in this family. How they compare in resolution, apparent sharpness to the 16mm SSs or to modern S35 format glass I just don't know. So I'm not sure how fair it is to compare S4s or Ultraprimes to these old lenses. But yea I get that a S35 S4 or Ultraprime should have good resolution for closeups intercut with the S16 SSs Edit: spelling

OK, I gues scratch the M42 idea, that mount doesn't have a suitable FFD.

How sharp will the results be from Zeiss Jena Pentacon 6 medium format lenses if we are cropping to S16 format? How would they look if we intercut them with Zeiss S16 super speeds? I was looking at 120 and 180mm/2.8 aus Biometer. My thought is, when the lens is cropped this much, the resolution may not be up to that of the super speeds. I have seen them (SSs) on the projector resolving a very crisp 200lp/mm. For bigger formats, the lenses don’t need this in order to look good. A 35mm format cine lens that can resolve 100lp/mm will look as good with 35mm film on screen as the 16mm SSs blown up and projected to the same screen size. I think the zebra (black and aluminum striped focus ring) that some say are best are only single coated. Some interesting chat and pictures here. http://frankglencairn.wordpress.com/2010/04/01/vintage-zeiss-glass-on-modern-cameras/ http://frankglencairn.wordpress.com/2010/05/14/zeiss-buttersharp-primes/#comment-2417 Any thoughts? The Jenas are cheap enough to just buy and try. Perhaps if this cropping affecting screen resolution issue is real, then the M42 Jena lenses are better? Cheers, Gregg. PS: I think the zebra Biometers are single coated.

I think most professional crew are very happy when they can put all their "consistencey" towards very original and imaginative films. We could say that the apparent "consistency" of the crew results from mastery of method and technique, but he test of true mastery is the ability to improvise. So no conflicting concepts here, we agree.