Satsuki Murashige

Kodak Vision Premier isn't available in 16mm, according to John Carlson, VP of Monaco Labs in San Francisco. If you're going to be watching workprint of your work from now on, I would take the time to shoot an 18% grey card at the head of every roll and order a one-light "Print to Grey Card" workprint from your lab. This way, you can objectively judge your exposures from shot to shot, and begin see where you like to print on the Hazeltine (25-25-25 being a mid-light "normal"exposure). Maybe you'll find you like the look of an over-exposed negative printed down, or maybe not. It's definitely more challenging to fine tune the look you want when shooting for print instead of telecine. Good luck!

Also, prime lenses will generally focus much closer than zooms, making them much more useful for certain types of "Wellsian" wide-angle framings. For example, the Ziess 10-100 T2 will only focus to 3'6" (the lens is only marked to 5', so you'll have to add your own marks to the barrel with paper tape), whereas some of the Superspeeds will focus down to a few inches. Also, the aforementioned zoom breathes like crazy when you rack focus, whereas the Superspeeds breathe very little if at all.

Thanks everyone for the quick reply! Bob, you're right, I didn't even think about the insurance (duh). Since this is a low-budget student production, the Fisher dolly is probably out of our reach. I guess the Matthews doorway dolly + a very small, lightweight jib like the Microdolly jib (http://www.microdolly.com/micro_3.html) might be a better fit. The doorway dolly is quite reasonable budget-wise, about $70/weekend up here with two 8' sections of straight track. Jon, thanks for the tip on the Cricket. Looks like it's hard to find up here in NorCal, unfortunately. David, the hallway I'm shooting in is pretty wide, about 6', so I don't think clearance for a small jib will be an issue - does this sound right to you? As for seeing the track in the shot, I guess the simplest option would be to keep the pneumatic tires on the doorway dolly. I like the Steadicam idea, but again, probably out of our budget range - while I might be able to get an experienced operator willing to work a day for meal and copy, I'm sure they'd insist on production insurance for their gear (and understandably so). For those who are interested, I found this link on the various dollies available for rent, and their attributes. Good for dolly newbies like myself. http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/winter1997/moving.php Also, for those in the SF Bay Area looking for jib rentals, I found this: http://www.chatercamera.com/porta_jib.htm Again, thanks to all who responded - I really appreciate it. I had an additional question about operating a Fisher-type dolly, if someone will oblige me - how do you keep your eye on the viewfinder when using the boom arm? It seems like the operator's seat is too low to comfortably operate the tripod head and look through the viewfinder even with a long extension. Of course, I've never used one, and I'm sure it works, but from the pictures online I can't see how.

I second the recommendation of the Kodak Pageant. Mine's a AV-126 TR model, very quiet and gentle on film. Simple manual threading, so it's easy to keep clean. You can put up to a 1000w bulb in it, so it's quite bright. Only cost me $40 on ebay! Are you rephotographing the projected image? The Pageant has a 2-blade and 3-blade shutter configuration (depending on whether you run it at 18fps or 24fps), so you'll get some flicker. A five-blade shutter is better for telecine.

Hi all, I'm trying to accomplish a shot where the camera tracks back along an apartment hallway, leading a character exiting his room, and then pans 90 degrees and booms up over his shoulder as he looks over the railing to reveal a character several floors below. I was thinking about using either a doorway dolly with a small jib, or something like a Fisher 10/11 dolly or a Chapman PeWee. The camera is an HVX200, so about 5lbs. What's the simplest/most economical way of accomplishing this shot? The camera would need to travel from about 3'6" in height to 6'6". I've never used a jib nor a Fisher dolly, so if anyone has any tips I'd be very grateful. I'm also located in San Francisco, so I'd be renting the dolly from DTC Grip in Emeryville, most likely. If anyone local knows where to rent a jib, let me know :) Thanks in advance!

Thank you, Doug. Wow! You musta been digging through quite a few old posts to find this one! If you don't mind my asking, it seems that you've been a 1st AC for a long time (and for some great DP's). Do you shoot your own projects as well? Have you ever wanted to move up to the DP position?

I guess you've already made up your mind, but I was wondering why you'd want to attach an anamorphic lens to a 16x9 camera (which the HD ones all are). Were you trying to get a 2.39:1 aspect ratio by using an additional 0.33x anamorphic adapter (like the Panasonic), or did you want to use 35mm 2x 'scope lenses via a mini35-type adapter? If the latter, the resulting aspect ratio would be about 3.55:1. You'll have the same problem trying to get 2.39:1 in Super16, but you probably know about that. EDIT - If this will only live on video, then you can just crop your footage, however you acquire it, to get the desire aspect ratio.

This one's an oldie but a goodie. "The Crime of Monsieur Lange" (dir. Jean Renoir, France, 1935) The film is about a mild-mannered, idealistic writer, Amidee Lange, who helps form a collective at the printing company where he works, which has been nearly bankrupted by his shady but charming boss, Batala. With the cops and the company's creditors hot on his tail, Batala flees Paris and stages his own death by derailing a train. He returns to Paris, disguised as a priest, intent on trashing the collective. When Lange discovers Batala's plan, he resolves to kill him and flee to Switzerland. The setting: The printing company is on the second floor above a circular courtyard. It is nighttime, and the workers are celebrating the success of the company in a room on the floor below. Batala, dressed in a priest's habit, crosses the courtyard below. He runs into a woman who recognizes him and gasps. Above, Lange grabs a pistol from Batala's desk and and walks to the stairs, appearing and disappearing through windows. He descends. The shot: The camera is in the center of the courtyard on a crane 25' off the ground. The camera begins on a wide shot of Lange on the second floor balcony looking down. The camera pans left 90 degrees and booms down to the first floor, following Lange through windows in the stairwell. Lange emerges from the stairwell into the courtyard and moves toward the camera into a medium-long shot, holding the gun. The camera tracks back and quickly pans left 180 degrees to reveal Batala and the woman. The camera tracks into a medium shot of them, catching their frightened faces as Lange enters frame left, sticks the gun in Batala's belly, and fires. Batala cries out in shock. This is done in a single shot. For those who don't know, Renoir was a master of the long take, the moving camera, and staging in-depth. While his other films "Grand Illusion" and "The Rules of the Game" are more famous, this shot from "Monsieur Lange" is by far his most virtuosic.

Hi David, I've been reading your posts on this forum for quite some time now (and learning quite a bit), but have only recently begun posting myself. Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for consistently and generously sharing your knowledge and experience with those of us who are just starting our careers in the biz. Your production diaries have been especially inspirational - I think it might be a nice idea for the AC's and gaffers on the forum to post their diaries as well (if they want); it would be great to read and learn about the craft from their unique perspective. I'm surprised that you have the energy to do it, though; I've only been crewing for the last year or so, and I'm usually wiped out at the end of the day! Looking at the still frames, I'm especially struck by your 'scope compositions - the exterior under the bleachers looks like it's from "2001: A Space Odessey" (shot by one of your heroes, I know). I've noticed your flair for 'scope framing in "Northfork" as well; I wish that more DP's would compose in depth with greater depth-of-field, even deep focus. Of the many directors that you've worked with, are there some that "think" in deep focus, imagine their film looking like it was shot by one of the deep-focus masters (Toland, Miller, Urusevsky, etc.)? In this day and age, could you give such a look to them, given shortened production schedules, stretched budgets, and money men wary of anything "new" and different? I realize this thread is about filtration and lighting more than composition, so I'll stop here. Again, thank you David for being so generous and gentlemanly with your time. Cheers, Satsuki

Hi Matt, My Scoopic has the newer style run-lock release button on the handle and thus automatically goes into run-lock mode when I roll camera. No funny noises, though. I've used a bunch of Scoopic M models of various vintages in film school and never had that problem. I wonder who you'd send it to in order to have it serviced - I doubt there are many dedicated Scoopic techs out there.

Cole, I just read your other post which answered all of my questions, d'oh! Thanks for taking the time to answer them again. I'll check out your earlier video. As far as your production woes are concerned, I think you pulled it off despite them because I'm definitely buying their album when it comes out!

Yes, 400' rolls always come on a 2" core. 100' daylight spools obviously have no core, but you can use them in the ACL2 magazine by removing the flange. I think you can get 200' daylight spools with some weird wind (for use in the A-Minima, if I'm not mistaken) - someone please correct my if I'm wrong about that. I don't know if Kodak makes a 400' daylight spool, but if it exists, it probably wouldn't fit into a 400' magazine.

Beautiful work (and beautiful ladies, as well)! I especially liked your mix of high and low angle shots, shallow focus long lens work and wide angle handheld shots, and the overcranked dancing girl shots. Seems like you had a lot of coverage - did you use multiple cameras? What was your strategy to light and cover the band, given your time and budget constraints? All the women seem to have eyelights in their close-ups - did you spend a lot of time relighting for them? What's the name of the band?

Hi, I own a Scoopic 16M as well, and I concur with the others - the Scoopic is a really unique camera for its price range. I got mine for $400 on Ebay, and spent about $200 more on recelling the batteries, adding filters, etc. The lens is quite sharp from T4-T8, soft at T2.5 and T22. In film school, most of our cinematography projects were shot either with the Scoopic M or an Arri S/B or SR2 with the Zeiss 10-100 T2. Watching projected workprints back-to-back, we were often fooled by which lens was used. That said, I'd take the Zeiss any time I could get it, but it goes to show how good of a lens the Canon can be. About the lens: I think the best thing about it is the macro feature - you can switch the lens into macro at any focal length, allowing you to preset the focus and rack from the extreme foreground to background by twisting the macro ring. There's also less lens breathing when you focus with the macro ring (otherwise, the breathing is pretty bad). The circles of confusion when stopped down are octagonal, by the way. I don't think it's worth spending an extra $500-$1000 on the MS model. The only real difference is the ability to use behind-the-lens filters and the 400' mag capacity, which you can't even use without the rare and expensive adapter. Later models of the 16M have the same run-lock release switch on the handle as the MS.

Well, I'm not Bernie, but I think I can answer your question. There are 2-inch and 3-inch cores available. The 2" are for your camera. The 3" are for lab work (they should put your camera negative on 3" so that there is less tension on the film when it is being telecined or printed). You can get 2" cores for free at your local film lab - just say you're loading on a production and you need 16mm cans, cores, and black bags. It's standard practice - you'll need these for downloading short ends. The lab will then get these back when you process your film. Also, as you shoot, you'll build up a collection of 2" cores - save 'em! I've never heard of using scotch tape rolls, and I don't know if I'd do it personally. The 2" cores are made to fit perfectly onto the flanges, and since you can get them free, there's really no excuse not to use them. If you're not near a lab, you'll probably have to buy them at a local photo store (that services motion picture film). In my neck of the woods (SF Bay Area), that'd be Action Camera. (415) 564-0699. They should be about $0.40 a piece.

Hi, My cameras are - 16mm: Canon Scoopic 16M Super 8: Canon 1014 XL-S DV: Sony PDX-10 stills (35mm): Pentax SL, Pentax MX, various lenses Planning to add an Arri 2C and a Hasselblad to my collection, eventually. Personally, I find myself sorely tempted to acquire 16mm and 35mm sync-sound gear, but have to keep reminding myself that the costs of upkeep and insurance make such an investment impractical for me. I think that owning MOS cameras, plus a tripod, filters, etc. is a good compromise, in that I can still shoot my own small projects whenever I want (though not often enough, unfortunately!). When I decide to shoot a bigger, sync-sound project, I can always rent quality gear. Until then, I'm happy to work on other people's projects and learn from their mistakes. I am steadily acquiring a bunch of AC gear, though.

It sounds like you had multiple camera setups within one lighting setup - how large was the space you lit, was it high-key, low-key? Chiaroschuro? Can you post some still frames so we can see what kind of exposure variation you're talking about? What I'm getting at is that exposure variation is not necessarily the result of a camera/lens malfunction - it could very well be that the camera angles you've selected to cover the master shot required a different stop, or a lighting change. And it's near impossible to say whether that's the case without actually seeing the footage. That said, with the Bolex, there is the manual shutter used for in-camera fades and dissolves which is very easy to bump and underexpose your footage. Also, the shutter is 135 degrees, not 180, so you lose 1/2 a stop there, and the prism loses another 1/2 stop, so you may have forgotten to take those into consideration. The most likely culprit is the cross-processing, which can be unpredictable if you haven't tested it (especially when you're pushing the film, as well). So did you test it first? :) Hope this was somewhat helpful.

Hi there, You should definitely call the camera rental houses in your area. It helps to be specific about what mags you'd like to learn to load in advance - for example, if you've got an upcoming shoot on an Arri BL4, let them know that. Usually, busy days for the rental house are Mondays and Fridays (returns and check-outs from weekend rentals), so try to avoid calling them on those days. Do a bit a research beforehand and look up magazine threading pattern in the ASC Manual or Elkins Assistant's Manual. Be nice, and don't take up too much of their time - they're doing you a favor. Also, it doesn't hurt to bring them food - bagels, pastries, etc. - they'll remember you. Just think of it as building a relationship with the rental house. When you're DP'ing bigger budgeted films, you'll be bringing them business. Hope this helps!

Ah, that makes sense. By the way, the shoot went well, so thank you for the assistance. We only used the ACL for a few shots because the DP's CA-1 to PL adapter was janky and threw off the flange focal distance. We got off a few shots using our longest lens (50mm, T1.3 Optar) for more depth-of-focus and used eye-focus exclusively while we waited for a replacement camera to get to the set. We switched to a Aaton LTR 54, and things went smoothly after that. -Satsuki

Cool, thanks! Yes, this seems to be almost identical in wording to the el crapo manual that I have, but the pictures are much more helpful. I've already disregarded my AC Manual (7th Ed.) because the threading diagram in the appendix is way different than the mag I have ... weird. Thanks for the info.

Hi all, I'm loading the ACL for the first time tomorrow and I want to make sure I have the loop set right. I've loaded the mag with a dummy load, but don't have a camera to test it on. The camera's manual doesn't specify the number of perfs - I've estimated it's about 15-16, according to the picture in the manual. Otherwise, it seems very similar to the Aaton XTR mag (not surprising, really!) which I've loaded before. Any advice you guys can give me as to the proper size of the loop would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Satsuki Murashige 2nd AC

Hey Daniel! So this is probably a stupid question, but what exactly does "High Concept" mean? Also, I assume that MiniDV and DVD are acceptable formats for submission. Are there any other formats you'll be accepting? (I browsed the linked site first, I swear). -Satsuki