Kim Sargenius

You won't get all that much barreling with a 14mm UP, it's pretty rectilinear. Look for something like the Peleng R8 8mm - it's proper fisheye on 35mm stills but won't give you a circular fisheye view on motion picture as you use a smaller imaging area. There are some of these converted to PL mount. http://www.longvalleyequip.com/lens.php HTH, Kim Sargenius cinematorapher sydney

Errrrm - I feel like I'm about to ask the dumb question here; but no-one's thinking strobes???? Kim

It will help further as well if you can keep your lights on different legs / phases. cheers, Kim

Agree! Colour for B&W is just not quite the same, and I think it comes down to silver grain vs. dye clouds - dye clouds when desaturated are just blobs, not grain :P Plus X neg with a Wratten #25, and if you want to be real gutsy play around with a polarizer as well :D cheers, Kim

Would be interesting to see these in there as well: http://www.bmlighting.com/catalog/mactechhpl.htm Bardwell&McAllister have put ETC's HPL lamps in various mini-brutes etc. Anyone had a chance of trying these yet? cheers, Kim

AKA 'Cat's Eye' Bokeh :D - which a function of mechanical vignetting in the lens. That's probably the most extreme example I've ever seen! Must be talking f1.0 or Kubrick's infamous f0.7!! Where'd you get that photo from? Flickr? cheers, Kim

Combine it with some sort of three-colour separation technique and you might be onto something! cheers, Kim

Dominic, Thanks for putting that so much better than I could! And with an explanation in words that I can actually understand! cheers, Kim

Does this refer to any particular 'Phil Rhodes' or just a general 'Phil Rhodes' type personality? :P Sorry, I'll stop the phil-bashing right now... :) Kim Sargenius

Have you tried didymium / enhancers? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didymium http://www.singh-ray.com/colorintens.html I've only ever played around with them (Tiffen ones) and there does seem to be some increase in saturation - especially in the warmer colours. Most of the available ones are designed for on-lens use but I wonder if they might work on lights as well? Some of the sizes should fit on a Dedo... cheers, Kim

Brian, I've come across something like that on lights from AFM here in Australia. There initial inventory here was all brought over from the UK. They all had some big adaptor plug dangling off them and the prep tech used some specific UK term for the little jumper cable they used - 'turnover' or 'change over' or something like that? You familiar with what I'm talking about? Just curious about the lingo :) cheers, Kim Sargenius

Hi Milo, Some stupid questions to start with: Are you shooting both '18 and '73 in the same scene under the same lighting? If not - could it be that the scenes you are shooting with the '73 has just that little bit more snap? How have you been viewing your rushes? Ignore all of the above if you've already been through all that :) In my experience the '18 should if anything have just a little bit more snap and contrast than the '18. HTH, Kim

Yes, the mattes can under certain circumstances act as another iris - a Waterhouse stop, so called because the first stops used for controlling exposure were just holes drilled in sheet metal, invented by John Waterhouse. If the mattes change the shape of the bokeh then they might also affect your exposure but it would have to be a pretty drastic change of shape before you'd really need to worry. This is to check - point the camera, with the matte on, at a distant point source, such as a traffic light or car head light, throw it out of focus and if the resulting disk has any square corners you might want to think about going to the next size up on the matte. further reading: Waterhouse stop http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterhouse_stop Bokeh: http://www.vanwalree.com/optics/bokeh.html HTH, Kim Sargenius

In David Mullen's spare time... I got a good laugh out of this :) I don't know anything about your culinary skills David so don't take this the wrong way mate! cheers, Kim Sargenius

IMHO it sounds like you're looking at an all or nothing approach - you want a fully fledged Cahiers du Cinema or nothing at all. My personal take on it would be to start as a blog - if nothing else you'd get good essay writing practice for your studies :) I think the key to success would have to be very strong editorial direction and focus - keep a very close eye on the signal-to-noise ratio. My 2c worth :) cheers, Kim Sargenius

Also have a look at 'Klute', shot by Gordon Willis, ASC. cheers, Kim

That's funny - I'm the EXACT opposite! Shooting Kodak means a split second of mental 'translation' whereas I Fuji 'sees' much more the way I see :) Having said that, with the new Fuji Eterna stocks the gap is narrowing - I feel both Kodak and Fuji are moving towards the centre, and add on top of that increasing use of DI's and soon the stock choice will be made on $$$ rather than look... :( cheers, Kim

I'll try this - I think this attachment is what Max refers to as 'condom' bokeh. Paul Van Walree's site is also a very, very good companion piece to Ken Rockwell's excellent site: http://www.pinnipedia.org/optics/bokeh.html cheers, Kim

Actually, it's a combination of the 'optics' of the source, the atmosphere (smoke) and overexposure. A light source such as a search light, beam projector or a Dedo collimates the light - most of the light follows the path of the 'beam', very little stray light. Most xenon lights are of this type. A light source with less precise optics (think redhead etc) will scatter the light more and so doesn't produce a distinct 'beam'. Of course, to get that hot white beam you also need a certain amount of atmosphere to 'display' the beam and a few stops overexposure, preferrably against a darker background (try creating a beam in a white cyc!) cheers, Kim

They're NEVER big enough... :angry: Make sure you have the sturdiest / heaviest stands you can afford and LOADS of shot bags and weight buckets to tie them down - any little hint of wind and you will have to wrangle them like you would a sailing boat, anything bigger than a 6'x6' at least. Having someone on your crew with sailing and/or rigging experience would be very handy. The silent diffusions and fabric based ones are better as they won't be as noisy. Heavy diffusers can look a bit strange - they might cut down and soften the light too much relative to your background, so keep that in mind. HTH, Kim

I like SoftCons for DFN - essentially a Diffusion filter (spreads a bit of light into the shadows) sandwiched with an ND (holds back the highlights a bit). One time I could only get a set of UltraCons for a DFN pick up shot - the rest of the scene had already been shot with SoftCons. To match the two I used a bit of hairspray on the UltraCons, just a very fine mist from about 6in away - matched very well in the end! :) So, yeah, if you can only get one or the other, get the UltraCons - some Streaks'n'Tips will get you the halation if you want it! :P cheers, Kim

"Between the hours of eleven 'till three, stay under a tree" :D Shoot your close ups / tighter shots during these times - a lot here will depend on your ability to choose your background so it won't look too harsh and bright compared to your subject. Shoot wider shots in the early morning or evening when the light is softer. HTH, Kim

Same here; about 1/3 darker than 18% (so I'll open 1/3 from any reading) though this is highly dependent on the seasons - my tan is darker still :) I've found that the palm is more consistent... cheers, Kim Sargenius

Reminds me of an excellent blog entry on what we are up against as the barriers of entry to filmmaking gets lowered - the dilettantes, dabblers and posers: http://www.thinkvitamin.com/features/desig...for-your-rights Kim Sargenius

My experiences have been far more mixed - processing itself not too bad but turnaround times rather on the erratic side, though I guess beggars can't really be choosers, eh? :) Kim Sargenius