Niall Conroy

So I've been investigating various aspect ratios as of late for an up coming film i'll be shooting. (I dislike 16:9, and don't feel the film would suit any sort of anamorphic frame) - one day while looking through some still 35mm photos I wondered why the 3:2 (1.5:1) aspect ratio seems to never be utilised in film making - seeing as photographers have used it to frame absolute beauty for almost the past century. With some saying its one of the closest aspect ratios to the much sought after 'golden ratio' or 'golden rectangle' (http://fotogenetic.dearingfilm.com/golden_rectangle.html) so am i missing some films here or does anyone know of any films being shot with the 3:2 aspect ratio? If not, alternatively - would anyone recommend any unique/spectacularly shot 4:3 films that have come out post the jump over to wide-screen in the 50's? I saw Robbie Ryan shot some beautiful stuff in 4:3 for the recent 'Wuthering Heights' film Thanks for your time!

looks great! where did you get it scanned and how much did it cost?

yup - the shoot 16:9 and mask during shooting + in post sounds like the best workflow does anyone know of any examples of films/scenes being shot and composed with the square 1:1 format(or even youtube/vimeo examples)? Other than photography of course...

This is true also! I guess i just thought 16:9 as the majority of work would be shot/shown in it these days. Whereas 4:3 could also be susceptible to being played back wrongly at 16:9 and be horribly stretched

Hey guys, I'm toying with the idea of shooting a short film in 1:1 aspect ratio. Upon completion the film would be entered into many festivals - so i'm just wondering does anyone see any potential problems we might come up against - or any issues that might be problematic. For example, some festivals may play it back incorrectly at 4:3 - or would some film/playback systems even be equipped to project/play in 1:1? Maybe I could just have the final film in 16:9 but mask it for 1:1. I'm well aware that this is not a standard aspect ratio for motion pictures and is used with medium format still photography - but the film will be along the experimental side of things, and i'd like to explore the square as a means of composition - I think it could turn out well. So if anyone knows of any examples or has any wise words (or problems they might foresee) please let me know! thanks for your time and thoughts

Many thanks, Tony. I'll give these a look!

that's great news - Tony. Thanks. So i guess pretty much every website that is selling their own recordings of these classical pieces - if i were to buy one of the pieces, i'd have full rights to put it into my film and put it into festivals etc. without worry of copyrights etc.? would you recommend or know of any note worthy websites/companies in particular?

it would be a dream to get our hands on one if we had a nice pool to shoot in - or the Irish waters were not so cold this time of year! Besides, it may unfortunatley be a rental cost that our budget couldnt afford - considering we could get a gopro for free - or potentially find a see-through box suitable enough to shoot through

Hey guys, just wondering if anyone knows what the story is with using out-of-copyright classical music in films - i know the actual music (i.e. compositions, are royalty free) however i do understand one cant just take a current day orchestras performance of the royalty free piece, one might have to pay 'mechanical royalties' in said situation. I read somewhere that no sound recording made in the US prior to 1972 has (or will ever have) any federal copyright protection - so would this mean I could potentially find a recorded performance of the classical piece I want and use it with no copyright problems? also, I have seen websites that seems to sell single songs for $32'ish - once bought are these freely usable in ones film? thanks for any info!

this is also true - a few friends do own a gopro - which might be a solution if I cannot find a fishtank that is fully see-through the bottom - I guess the only draw-back is the auto-fixed focus and limited control over the image. Thanks for the suggestion.

Thanks for that, Matt. It does seem a see-through large fish tank is be the best option so far - However, I don't think I would have to shoot the milk drop separately - I have shot a similar effect in a bathtub once where a friend just simply had milk in their mouth and when under water- spit it out(in a whistling shape like manner), which produced a great plume like effect.

looks beautiful! What camera did you shoot it on? The trusted Elmo?

Hey guys, Just wondering if anyone has any neat suggestions or thoughts that might point me in the right direction. I want to shoot a CU shot of an actors face underwater, exhaling milk - I don't/wont have any expensive camera housing units or water tanks for the actors - so i'm looking to try find an innovative way to shoot this In the past we've shot a similar scene where we got a see-through plastic container, filled it with water - put the camera underneath (outside the container) - and got the actor to place their head down horizontally into the container - It did work, however it was only trying to simulate a 'head in sink' shot - which isn't what i'm looking for. i did come across this video - which has a nice idea of placing the camera into a small fish tank and weighting it - only placing it a bit below the water level - however I don't have access to a swimming pool http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh_hf8p0qCY now, I realise i could shoot this in a bath tub - however, that would probably require the actor to do an awkward hand-stand or some other mad maneuver, which i doubt they'd be too pleased to do. So - any suggestions ideas as to how I could shoot this - some way in which i can get an actors face to be submerged in water - in a relatively comfortable manner which wouldn't require too much effort on the actors behalf? (also - i'll probably be shooting this scene on a 5D) thanks for looking :)

that was great, Cahit. Really liked it. the nizo seemed to produce some really nice near-swirly bokeh when zoomed in. Did you colour grade it much? seems to be a really nice shine off it. good work. where did you get it telecined?

hah! I read about you guys in that Kodak magazine a few months ago - really great to see you're trying something ambitious who did you go to for HD telecine? + how did it work out in pricing?

wow thanks, Dimiti - i'd love a copy if it is no trouble to you? I'll email you now.

wow looks great - i'd love to see a uncompressed version - if you'd be willing to upload it to a hosting website/torrent or something i'd love to see it in its original high-res glory! also - what sort of costs were you paying per-50ft in order to scan it at such high quality? and which company did it for you? great work, btw

Ahh cool - this clears thing up. I didn't realise it only had 1 claw - it just seemed unlikely to me that it would have 1 claw, considering that I assume the daylight rolls have 2-perfs and the K-3 is designed for daylight loads. So if you didn't have access to 100' daylight spools would it be possible to insert cuts of a 400' (or greater) roll into the K-3? I can only imagine it being a bit tricky?

Can a K-3 take super 16 film without modification? I know one would want change the regular 16mm gate for a wider super 16 gate. but that aside, I've read on websites that it can accept super 16 - but I can't get my head around the fact that regular 16 having 2 perfs on either side and super16 having just the one - therefore, would the camera not have trouble gripping the super 16 film seeing as it only has the perfs on the one side? If it is possible, and it is no problem - how would one load the camera? I also read it only likes to take 100' foot rolls? would one need to take a 400' roll and just cut 100 feet off? Seems like it would be rather tricky to do in the dark. Thanks for your thoughts,

Thanks, Luis. Yea i figured just as much - i guess best bet will be to shoot a flat picture style and try re-grade it - or just bite the bullet and shoot with the preferred picture style

It seems highly unlikely - but does anyone know of a method or way in which you can change the picture profile style of footage you have shot, while in post? (Canon DSLR) I'm guessing once you shoot with X picture profile style you're stuck with it -but could you even access the attributes of the picture profile style and then apply them to the grading of the footage? the reason i ask - I have beautiful high contrast + grainey picture profile style which I would like to shoot a few scenes with - however - I would like to shoot it in colour first, just in case it doesn't fit too well with the other scenes. I'm aware that I could just shoot with a Marvels Cine flat style and then just try match the grade to the other black and white picture profile style(with a short reference video shot of scene) - but it'll never be the same any ideas?

haha yea, i just saw this on youtube earlier today - great idea! I'd really like to see more examples of this technique with faster moving objects like people etc. just to see how well it holds up I see you completely removed the crank - could you not have just attached the nut ontop of the crank? great work, regardless

Thanks for everyones thoughts, help and suggestions! i'll look into these fuji stocks and find out what sort of student deals we can get our poor little hands on. (very interesting side by side comparison, Freya) i'll report back with more updates when they develop, thanks for now.

I completely agree, Nick. Real fire will always look best. Plus i wouldn't want to be sitting in post with great footage but a lackluster fake fire.

what is this '19 kodak stock you speak of, don't think i've come across it? To be honest i've only done brief re-search into the gh2, however a friend of mine who has looked into it further says that the gh2 is actually pretty top notch in low light, only with the new hack that is thanks for these tips, Vincenzo Good to note, Freya, thanks. I don't have much experience with Fuji stock, only dealt with Kodak before. I too am concerned about this 'best light transfer' from complete 16 - i'll definitely be reading up and trying to source the best scanning method and what may I ask do you mean when you say "a proper attended scene to scene transfer"? Definitely be shooting 24fps - and yes, we have the good ole' 50Hz (although most modern day LCD TV's can work with both) thanks for the tip with the TV I shall indeed. As i mentioned earlier, I've only had experience shooting Kodak stock, never touched Fuji - does anyone have any preference with stocks that are better or might suit these situations best? Eterna 500/Eterna Vivid 500? Thanks again guys!