timHealy

Cinevision is the former camera department of CECO on 15th st. They even operate out of the same CECO buidling. This web site puzzles me a little because Lowry Drake bought it from CECO and ran it, but I heard he retired and moved to Florida. The thing that puzzles me is that his name is one the website. Perhaps he still has ties or the website may not be updated. So I would suggest a phone call to see if everything is as advertised.

You'll also need crystal sync if your shooting with HMI's. With incadescent you don't.

Hey David, That is interesting news and a good addition/alternative for the filmmakers I e mailed you about who were considering an anamorphic format. Thanks, Tim

I have a High Speed SR and there are other things that may go wrong especially if the belts are too tight or too loose. The main difference between a HS mag and a normal mag is the pressure plate. The high speed mag has a spring loaded floating type plate for the high speed work. And a normal mag plate is fixed. Many will say you can use the two interchagably as long as you don't use a normal mag on a high speed body for frame rates of 75 fps or higher. I have done this and vice versa and 99% of the time things were ok. BUT I did have one job where something happened and focus was off, and when I brought my camera to Arri in Blauvelt to check things out, they recommended not interchanging mags. So do it at your own risk. Tim

A reel for a gaffer is not neccesary. What is more important for a gaffer to get jobs are primarily personal relationships and secondary, a resume. Personal relationships with DP's and production people, mainly production managers and producer's get gaffers most jobs. But also the resume becomes important just to have a list of credits and jobs. Additionally the resume becomes paramount when a DP wants a certain gaffer for a studio picture. If they haven't got a good resume a studio will probably nix the choice. They not only want someone experienced technically, they want someone who knows how to deal with schedules and the various personalities diplomatically. just my 2 cents Tim

An SR is a great camera, but it is not the best handheld camera. I know because I have one. Strength does become an issue if you are going to be hand held all day. If you are doing one or two shots it will be less of a problem. Aatons are much more comfortable for hand held than SR's. But you can do some things to make the SR more balanced on your shoulder. First a prime lens will be better than a zoom lens like the Zeiss T2 10-100. The 10-100 puts more weight out in front of the camera and that is weight you have to deal with. Same with matte boxes and rods. It may not sound like a lot of weight but over the course of a day it will start to matter. Using the SR handheld, an on board battery helps by putting weight in the back of the camera balancing whatever weight is on the front. Also a left side hand grip helps too (or some sort of hand held device that gives two hands their own handles) Arri used to make an shoulder pad that screwed into the base. That helps take the edge off things too if you can get one. good luck just my 2 cents

https://ui.labor.state.ny.us/UBC/index.jsp I believe unemployment is based on your previous 18 months of work and may be differnet in another state. So if you have been paying into it when you ar working you may as well take advantage of it when you are not. You need your stubs and employers organized to give them all of your info. Just do it. It may keep food on your table or help with the rent.

Though it doesn't sound safe, water and electricity can be used together with precautions. I forget the name of the company, but some one makes a 400 amp gfi (and probably other sizes) that may be used on your trunk runs to power a set. They can be very sensitive with the slightest notion of a short and they trip. For extra safety smaller 20 amp gfi can be bought and used on individual lights and stingers running into pools and other water sources. Hydroflex makes a variety of water proof tungsten, hmi and fluorescent lighting for use with actors and camera operators in the pool. I have used a bare incadescent par bulb in a pool with no actors, with the connections silconed to death and it can work fine. I have a friend who did the same with a bare 10k bulb. But I suggest testing with any home made jobs. I wouldn't put a normal HMI in a pool ever. As an electrician, when gfi's and caution are used, shooting around a pool can be safer than a normal shoot day doing a xmas scene. I had one job where we were doing a xmas scene with zip cord running to xmas lights on all the trees and bushes. Epson salt was added to look like snow and ice. Then the water truck came by and watered down the streets. Not a safe combination. Electricity was leaking everywhere. We should have had gfi's on everything that day as if we were shooting near water.

I have been doing these.. http://healyweddingfilms.com/portfolio.html mostly for friends and family. They are fun and I completely enjoy doing them. But I live in the states too. Tim

It may be the first time Dick Wolf has used 16mm on a Law and Order, but he has often used 16mm on other short lived NY based shows that have not been as nearly successful as LaO. Like Swift Justice, The Wright Verdicts and NY Undercover. Actually NY Undercover was failrly succesful. It was around for 4 or 5 yeasr if I recall. But they were all 16mm shows. I'm sure there are a few others that I cannot think of right now. Tim

And I forgot to mention: http://www.super8sound.com/ Tim

Hey Sean, a friend of mine who is a colorist, doesn't seem to think that post houses keep super 8 in mind and his company, Company 3 in LA, doesn't even have a super 8 gate anymore. Plus that is a really expensive way to go. But I recently came across these two links. One seems to have some sort of color correction software that goes along with some 16mm and supe 8 low budget transfer machines with ccd cameras. You don't have to buy the machines as they do transfers too. It might be worth checking out. I have not used them yet but was considering sending them something and check it out. http://www.alternaware.com/ http://www.moviestuff.tv/ Hope this helps Tim

I wouldn't worry about it e mails such as these. Why of course the internet is loaded with numbskulls, I wouldn't let it second guess any desire to shoot and continue with your career. But I would like to share a Mandy story. Like the original writer I took a shot at awnsering a Mandy ad for a shooter and e mailed the filmmaker with an on line reel and the promise to send a DVD if he so desired. My reel has all 35mm and 16mm work on it. I recieved an e mail that said I really he liked my reel and he asked what kind of cameras I used. I replied I am most comfortable with an Arri 535's, Arri SR's and Arri 16 BL and S, and Bolex's. He then replied "but have you ever used a camcorder?" It was really difficult not to reply to that statement. So to completely agree with Dan, DV has democratized the film business and there are many people out there who consider themselves filmmakers. But it also means there is a lot more junk out there. Some will learn the craft through DV, and but I imagine most will keep making garbage. my 2 cents..

I have an Arri High Speed SR one I have been thinking of selling and I have a fair amount of accessories though. You can easily find stuff all over the internet and the back pages of American Cinematographer too. Oh yeah they also have a website. But believe it or not, ebay has a ton of Arri gear that frequently changes. Just search for Arri. But let the buyer beware. Who knows the history of any of those. Though 16mm film cameras are cheap compared to ten years ago, you should think seriously about dropping a whole lot of money on a camera. Ask yourself do you really need one?? If you come from a rich family and cash is no problem, sure do it. But you could easily invest 50-60 thousand dollars US and still have plenty of gear you may need and not have. Renting a package for a weekend or a week from time to time is far cheaper than owning the whole frigging thing. Renting a camera is a pain too. No matter what your price is, everyone will want to chew you down. And again unless you are really rich and can buy everything, you will never have everything they need for their particular job. Then you have to deal with insurance, maintenance and repairs. And all at the same time if someone breaks a lense on you. And you'll be missing it for 5 months. But you may have a contact that will always rent from you. That would be a great scenerio. But you may have to consider what happens when the camera breaks down? On a job? So my advice is (again unless money is no object) don't buy a camera unless you really know you need one and can rent it so that it pays for itself. If you buy one to rent get an Arri. They are a little tougher than Aaton. But if you buy a camera don't rent it. It can be a real hassle. If you buy one and don't rent it consider an Aaton. They are cheaper and are already set up to do super and regular 16 unlike original Arri SR's one and two. Just my 2 cents

Theoretically you might be able to call a DC generator "flicker free", but that would be a stretch and you would be limited to tungsten and arcs. But if you used tungsten you could stick with an AC generator anyway. Could that be an option with 1200w parcans or 2k blonds? You wouldn't have flicker issues. But perhaps less light with tungsten than HMI gives with color correction would not be exceptable. Just a thought....

You can go way further than that. He was a Broadway song and dance man way before Law and Order. Caberet comes to mind way back when. Broadway is not my forte so someone better than I could list his accomplishments. imdb.com doesn't cover it. Perhaps a website that covers Broadway as well would be a great idea.

Looks like two problems to me. But first I agree that a trip to Arri would be great. The first problem: in the test movies it looks as though they are lens flares from the lighting sources. Even soft lighting sources like the sky or the window. Older lenses don't have the anti reflective coatings a newer lens has. Do you get these flares using newer lenses? The one shot where the girls walk to the right and the camera pans and dollys to the right, there is a flare from the window. As you pan away the flare goes away but then comes back! Like light is hitting the lens from somewhere else. Is the matte box correctly attached and in good shape? Sometimes if the matte box is not attached properly you can get a flare or light bouncing off any glass filter in the matte box itself. But I don't think that is the problem here. The one shot where the girl is eating dinner the warm tablelamp is the obvious source of the flare. The light is just bouncing around the elements in an older lens. Same with the guy looking down at the camera. The light on the cieling is the cause of the flare. Now the flicker is another issue. Though a trip to Arri is warranted to get it checked out I was wondering why it is flickering (duh). It seems as if during the movement the flare is reduced or eliminated. Is there something during the rotation of the mirror that blocks the light leak or flare? or could it be part of the the old lens coating issue. I don't have a suggetion on this one. Please post your solutions when they are found.

Unfortunately I did not see this in the theatre. In the months after Sept 11, I had no interest in seeing war movies, but I did discover the film on DVD and I do think it is awesome in a filmmaking sense. But a friend did the transfer to tape for the DVD where they increased the green a bit and probably increased the contrast too. I would love to get a chance to see it projected from a print to see the difference.

I love working with footcandles under low light conditions. It seems as though most electronic meters won't go lover than f 1.0 or so. Maybe f 0.7. If I know my key light exposure and am using my old fashion analog spectra, I can easily take out the slide out, record what footcandles are at key and check fill levels down to one or two footcandles. But I'm an old fashion guy in that regard. Too bad the damn thing is so fragile.

Dave, Phili is part of Local 52 in NY and it is slow right now. You could have the pick of the litter right. However next month is going to get really busy. People are starting to sign onto things. Tim

try checking the ny section of craigslist.org. It is a pretty good site for last minute sublets and apt's.

I live in the US and will travel to Greece for a small project in 16mm. Would any experienced overseas shooters have advice on purchasing 16mm film and processing? Should I buy film here in NY and shoot in Greece and bring unprocessed film back for processing? Buy and process in Europe? Perhaps ship FEDEX back and forth? I am not using much film. It could be a carry on item. But just looking for the safest options. Thanks Tim