Kim Sargenius

I haven't had any film go through there for quite a few years but I do know this - it's literally a garage setup, as in they operate out of their own garage. Curious to know what your experiences have been like? cheers,

Hi Condor (?) I don't know how things work around where you are but my local lab will develop motion picture stock from stills cassettes. 36 exposures is about 3' or 4' so it can be a very cost effective way of doing tests. I've shot a little bit of 5222 and I've always found it a little flat for my taste - developed normally you'll get a lot of tones of grey and it will show quite a bit of grain if you have a lot of flat mid tones. Would your tests include different gammas? Hope this helps, Kim Sargenius cinematographer sydney

Hi there, Program or no program - anything more than just a quick stick figure or floor plan is going to take some time and some skill. I've tried Frame Forge a few times and always find myself lost in all the detail, losing sense of the general feel of the shot I'm working. I ended up doing thumbnail sketches and floor plans for myself before I even tried the shot in Frame Forge, and at that point I had what I needed for my needs - a visual indication to communicate the shot to others. I would probably say that for the price of Frame Forge you're better off enrolling in a drawing class. ANYONE can bring their drawing skills up to a level where others can recognise what you've drawn - it just takes practice, practice, practice. If you're looking to Frame Forge (or similar) for help with 3D space, perspective and lens field-of-view, you can get a lot from open source programs like Blender and SketchUp. Hope this helped :) Kim Sargenius cinematographer sydney

Touch of Evil is definitely my favourite! - to that I would also add: Twentyfourseven - Ashley Rowe Fallen Angels - Chris Doyle (parts of it in B/W) Paper Moon - Laszlo Kovacs Kafka - Walt Lloyd

Personally I prefer bokeh the rounder the better. Zeiss Super Speeds MkII with the three bladed aperture drive me nuts, and I have to admit that I'm not too fond of the Cooke SK4's either, as I find the octagonal aperture rather distracting. Add to that I kind of dislike pentagonal and hexagonal as well, and you start getting some pretty limited choices :angry: I agree with you that the so called "perfect" bokeh is quite boring. I like something which if you graph it would look like a table top with ever so slightly raised edges and a pretty rapid fall off. In fact these days I'm getting more and more into optical "flaws" - eg, Cat's Eye bokeh used to distract me quite a bit but now I'm looking for ways of incorporating it as an expressive tool, much like lens flares. I'm still on the hunt for the "perfect" bokeh for me. cheers, Kim Sargenius cinematograper sydney

Gate flare?

Sorry but that's not what I was asking - I was asking if anyone's seen and adaptor to put PL lenses on a Nikon stills camera.... cheers, Kim Sargenius cinematographer sydney

Has anyone ever seen this done? cheers Kim Sargenius cinematographer sydney

James, Plenty of light w/ these as I can remember. I think they were 2x9W tubes in a batten and I used to of them (battens that is). I was shooting at about T2.0 I think and from about 4ft away I still had some useful fill out of them. I have also used them for dashboard-lighting night shots in cars. Of course you'd be better off using mini-flo's but you'd still have to gel them to match the rest of the bus and I bought these two fluoro battens for about $30 AUD each. HTH, Kim Sargenius

Hi James, Are you finishing to tape or print? I've done a similar scene in a bus, shooting Fuji Reala 500D, which handles mixed colour temps *beautifully*. Compared to 7218 it looks like a grain storm though so might not work for you. Personally I liked the texture, and this being a tape finish, a bit of noise reduction helped a fair bit. As for lighting I used a couple of cheap 15" 12V camping fluoros which turned out to be very close to the colour temp of the bus's existing fluoros. HTH cheers, Kim Sargenius

Never actually seen it in the flesh but apparently De Sisti makes one, the Caravaggio: http://www.cdaust.com.au/PRODUCTS/prod_Caravaggio.html cheers, Kim Sargenius cinematographer sydney

If you can get hold of it, there's a Dutch film called 'Zusje' (Little Sister) that is told entirely through the 'video journal' of the main character. Kim Sargenius cinematographer sydney

Sort of - it's called "Cat's Eye Bokeh" and is a form of mechanical vignetting you could say. It's caused by either the front or rear element being a bit too small and so it will cut the bokeh much in the way that a front matte can do on long lenses. Check out Paul Van Walreewebsite for great primers on this and a lot of other optical phenomena. HTH Kim Sargenius cinematographer sydney

Thanks for posting that Rolfe! Iceland sure does like somthing teleported from a distant planet! :) Definitely anamorphic - you can see the ellipticial bokeh and even the odd elliptical aperture ghosting. Not too much breathing though but I guess there aren't really any major focus racks. Anyone venture to guess the actual lenses? cheers, Kim cinematographer sydney

I hear rumours you can make a half decent living out of it ;) in fact one of the guys I work with regularly seems to be doing well. From my own limited observations over here, TAFE seems to be the ticket to AC work. cheers, Kim Sargenius cinematographer sydney

Mate! Good to see another Aussie here! Whereabouts are you based? cheers, Kim Sargenius cinematographer sydney

Anyone had a chance to "kick the tyres" on the Fujifilm S3? Seems handy with that extra bit of dynamic range...

Hi, You can get a "pearl catch" from any electronics / DIY computer store very cheap. Commonly they'll have three claws but with a bit of hunting around you should be able to find a four-claw one (like the Arri one) for a fraction of the price. cheers, Kim Sargenius cinematographer sydney

Hi Bob, Shot a few small tests a couple of months ago and was quite astounded - the grain of the old '72 has just vanished! Before I get too carried away, of course there's still *some* grain but boy does it blow the old SuperF 500T out of the water! Contrast wise it has a few shades of '82 (low con 400T) ie, it has little bit less punch than the '72, with a hint of cream in the skin tones, if that makes sense : ) HTH, Kim Sargenius cinematographer sydney

Hi, In addition to Lemac and Panavision, Cameraquip also services Sydney but ships all equipment from Melbourne on a per-project-basis (S16, 35mm, lenses, accessories) - 434 Clarendon Street, South Melbourne, Victoria 3205, Australia +613 9699 3922 - Malcolm Richards www.cameraquip.com.au There are also a couple of smaller places specialising in video: Brodcam (SDX900, F900/3, Varicam, Digiprimes etc) 93 Union St, McMahon's Point, NSW 2060, Australia, +612 9460 0344 - Nick Kelly www.broadcam.com.au Videocraft (HDCAM, Digital Betacam, SX Betacam, SP Betacam, DVCAM, Mini DV, HDV) unit 5, 18 hotham parade, artarmon nsw 2064 australia (just down the road from Dominic :) +612-9436-3050 www.videocraft.com.au There are also a few lighting companies around. HTH, Kim Sargenius cinematographer sydney

Being very modest there Dominic : ) I think you deserve to give both yourself and Olivier a pat on the back - great work! cheers, Kim Sargenius cinematographer sydney

There is a 2mm Hex key nut near the centre of the mirror -- turn gently until the shutter appears from behind the mirror, it has markings at (from memory) 172.5, 90, 45. HTH Kim Sargenius cinematographer sydney

Check out the feature film 'Chopper', starring Eric Bana, directed by Andrew Dominik - it has a couple of scenes with what looks like 6fps, with near perfect lip synch. I guess they would have had pre-recorded dialogue, and just a *lot* of rehearsal time for the actor. Anyone know for sure? Kim Sargenius cinematographer sydney

Unfortunately quite out of my league at the moment :( Kim Sargenius cineamtographer sydney

For Australia try Tim Waygood or Boris Mitchell at the Sydney office. Don't have the number on me right now but shouldn't be too hard to find mate! cheers, Kim Sargenius cinematographer sydney