Nick Robertson

Hi all, I recently finished a 6 year project. It is called Monomyth, an 11-part short film serial. I shot on 16mm using a Bolex Rex5 and two lenses - a 10mm and 18-86mm zoom. This is my first filmmaking effort, when I began I knew nothing about working with film so I learned as I went. I made a lot of mistakes and built those mistakes into the look of the film. I'm now really good at doing the wrong thing. I'd really appreciate it if anyone would like to take a look and see how they think I did. If nothing else, it is interesting. You can find it on my Vimeo page here. Thanks in advance for checking it out. Cheers, Nick.

Thanks for the response, mate. It's just a print - should the dull side face the gate and the side with the emulsion scrape against the pressure plate? (very new to projection!!) N.

Hi all, This may not be the best place to post this but I'm desperate and everyone here seems to know everything. I have a 16mm projector - a Hanimex Eiki NT-1, to be specific. I recently purchased a film from EBay to watch on said projector - but - the film is backwards on the spool. By backwards I mean that the perforations are on the wrong side - everything else is cool, it's the right way up, it's at the beginning, etc... Now, I've tried over and over again to correct this, in every configuration, between two spools - back and forth over and over. I'm just too dumb to get it right, I guess. Can anyone (a) understand me and/or (B) help me? I'd really appreciate it! Thanks, Nick.

Is anyone here planning on doing this? I bought my iPhone 4 (16gb) outright with the intention to shoot with it. I messed around with it and got some decent results and to be honest I was underwhelmed with the way its camera functioned, with a little research I found an app called 'Almost DSLR' which allows me to lock focus, white balance, exposure, etc. Then I bought the OWLE Bubo, a Zacuto Z-Finder Pro with and articulating arm, the Vid-Atlantic 35 adapter and various other little pieces of hardware and all of a sudden I have something to really work with. Now, I know for the price of all of that I could have got some DSLR, but I didn't. It may seem like a complete joke to want to shoot anything on a mobile telephone, but the fact is that I've never felt so free to shoot in my life. I have tested and tested and every problem I have had there is an answer out there. There is even an iPhone Film Festival www.iphoneff.com - Even Park Chan Wook has had a go at it. Has anyone else been seduced by this? I was really against the idea of digital filmmaking until I just had a go and now I'm going to finish this 16mm short I've just finished shooting and let the Bolex rest for a while, maybe one day soon I'll get myself that Canon 5D that everyone talks about but for now I'm very much into the idea of working with this amazingly versatile and adaptable piece of technology. Check out these links - www.wantowle.com www.vid-atlantic.com/iphone35.html If anyone else has any experience shooting with their iPhone, let me know, I'd love to hear about it. Thanks everyone, Nick.

Thanks for the replies, guys! I have no idea what to do concerning greenscreen and know no one that does. I may have to screw around with the natural way of doing things. I happen to be an apprentice electrician so acquiring lights is no problem, plus, as I said, I'm shooting this at the local cinema/theatre so they have many many production lights... The greenscreen thing does sound MUCH better though...

Hi everyone, I'm looking at shooting a few shots comprising of the actor(s) and some sets as pure silhouette. I have access to the local theatre which has a big screen for showing movies. I'm figuring that if I pull the screen down and set the action up behind the screen and blast light from behind them towards the camera, I'll achieve the silhouette effect. But I'm quite sure that for a solid, crisp shadow I'll have to use only one source of light, correct? I also want the light to be a colour. There's a similar shot in Tarantino's Kill Bill II, I believe. Pai Mei and The Bride are training and they are just black shapes against a red background. Any ideas, guys? Thanks, Nick.

I'm wondering how you would shoot the pages of a book as someone turns them and you can clearly read the information on the pages. I'm thinking an overhead god's-eye-view type of shot. How to light it evenly and clearly is something I'm not quite sure how to do. I've got a great 10mm lens that has been used for a lot of animation, sure this will be perfect. Anyone ever done this? Thanks in advance, ladies and gentlemen. Nick.

Six months max - it's on a shelf in my room and I try and maintain the moisture in the room with desiccates and ventilation. It should be fine, it'll be ok... hopefully lol.

Hi guys, I'm shooting right now and I have several cans already back from the lab and I'm waiting to get everything shot and processed before I have it telecined so I can have it consistently graded, etc. How can I store this without it turning to crap? Fridge? Dry, dark environment? I've found a few contradictory suggestions so I thought I'd ask the experts. Thanks, Nick.

Yeah, that certainly is the point. The film I'm making is about a person dealing with the personification of death and the title at the beginning will be like this - skewed, unsure, erratic and the title at the end will be perfect and still - I'm trying to give the idea of his beliefs and experiences before and after and two different interpretations of the title. I'm really looking forward to doing this :) I've got 3 unopened rolls of Kodak 7201 that I haven't kept very well so I'll work on those. I appreciate the wealth of help you've given me. N.

Hi Adrian, Thanks for the advice. I have a lot of loose ends of spoiled film I might practice on. I was thinking I might just take a whole roll, and in regular light just work on the whole thing and have it telecined - am I correct in thinking this would work? I have a lightbox and a loupe - I'm excited to play around with this between days I can shoot. Thanks again, mate. N.

Has anyone ever scratched effects or titles into their negative? Is there anything that I should know before I do this? I want to scratch the title of my film into enough frames against black so I can go from that to a solid title generated by my editing software which sets up the theme of the film. I'll use a whole roll of 100' and do a bunch of experiments and versions but I'm shooting 16mm which is obviously very small so I'll use a magnifying glass or something... All I know is that I want to do this, just seeing if I could get some friendly, informed advice. Thanks so much guys, Nick.

It is really hard to say what everything would be worth. My Rex5 is in similarly excellent condition and I paid US$1000 for it. I may have got a good deal, though. If you're looking to sell I'll buy that 50mm lens off you. N x

My Rex5 runs for 23 seconds safe but drops a frame or two on the 24th second - needs a new spring motor to be perfectly consistent. 10 seconds isn't right at all.

Thanks for the advice, I just purchased 32,000 frames of 16mm film... or 800'.