Steve Milligan

Replying to my own post, just in case the information is useful to someone else someday: Gaff tape: Hanent (http://www.hanent.com/) or SLRrent (http://www.slrrent.com/SLRLINK.php) had 1" and 2" in various colors. Bounce: We got a 3'x6'x1" (or thereabouts, the dimensions were metric I'm sure) sheets of white styrofoam insulation from a hardware store near Bukchon. It's a common item, but only the "bigger" stores will have it. The storefront was the size of a budget hotel room, but was connected through a narrow doorway in the back to a warehouse. I got 60w and 200w tungsten lamps there as well, and they let me wire up some medium base to 220v plug circuits using their tools. Duvetyne: We found a credible substitute at a random market stall. Might not be fire retardant, but it's black, matte on one side, completely opaque, and about $4/meter x 120cm. Black wrap: Couldn't find this anywhere, glad I brought some scraps with me. I was reliably informed that one could borrow a wheelchair from a department store, but only without their knowledge. For our shoot we got a small low-ride dolly with lightweight 4' track segments from SLRrent.

Hi all! I'm shooting a doc/narrative/experimental in Korea next week (hoping to cultivate a Notes on Blindness vibe). I've been shooting in China for a few weeks and supplies are low, so I'm looking to source some expendables. I know about Jinrentals and SLRrent, but is there somewhere else one goes for black wrap, gaff tape, and etc.? I'm also teaching a workshop in documentary cinematography on Sunday, and would love to pass along any local wisdom you could share--e.g. where to buy reflective insulation to substitute for bounce boards, a good source for wheel chairs, black drape, and muslin, what will get you arrested if you shoot it, and so on. Lastly, if anyone wants to grab a soju or two, I've got the first round! I'll be staying near the Nambu Terminal station. Thanks, Steve Milligan Cinematographer Production Teaching Fellow, Duke University steve@ghostmap.com www.ghostmap.com

Thanks for the math, everyone, that's exactly what I was looking for. It was the tungsten filter/tungsten rating that worried me...i.e. whether the 85N6 would cut the 200D ISO by 2-2/3 or 3. Looks like 3 is the consensus, which is logical. Satsuki, yes, this is for the extreme case, bright exterior, 12fps, opened up--should it come to that. I have red, yellow, ND .3 and ND.6, but not ND.9...I thought 85N6 might be useful if it got that far over. A further question: I derive 32 from consistent advice of more experienced shooters: expose reversal for the opacities, close it down as you might open up for a fat negative. I think for myself, I'd spot meter and expose dead on, but I'm handing this off to students. Is 7266 just too contrasty for this? Any other thoughts on exposure or metering technique? I'll be doing the scan myself on a JK.

I need a sanity check please; I have my answer but I'd like to hear yours before I burn film. You have a Bolex Rex4 (with Rx lenses) a roll of 7266 (process as reversal), and an 85N6 in the gel holder. If your meter is set to 180 shutter and 24fps, what would you set your meter ISO to so that you could transfer the F-stop directly to your lens, including an underexposure strategy if that's your bag? I get 32, for what it's worth. And thanks!

Just wanted to give this a bump before I give up...any Eclair veterans out there who can enlighten me?

I'm having an intermittent rubbing problem in the S16 area of a converted NPR. You can see a frame demonstrating the issue here: http://www.ghostmap.com/images/Eclair_rub.jpg I've photoshopped the lower right corner for clarity. It happens with both mags (both of which have had the rollers modified). My suspicion is that the aperture plate, which still has both 16mm ridges intact, is the culprit. Does this seem likely? Can I/should I have it milled down on that side? Any other theories on what it might be? The camera was recently serviced, and otherwise works nicely. Thanks, Steve

Pardon the delayed response, I've been at Full Frame, and apparently didn't set up my email notification properly.... We spent $1300 or so on the processing/transfer. The total file size is just over 400GB on a FW800 drive we provided. The editor is working in FCP with 1080p ProResHQ proxies (overkill, I think, but apparently he has the horsepower for it), which comes to about 68GB total. We'll reconform to uncompressed before we send it to Apple Color for finishing.

Blackmagic Uncompressed 10-bit 4:2:2, they offer RBG 4:4:4 for a little more, and 2K for a little more than that: http://colorlab.com/telecine/colorlab_HD_guide.pdf We got a best-light, and honestly it looks a touch on the dark side to me, nothing that can't be brought up, since it takes desktop color correction very well. It was my first time out with both the lab and the stock--I'll probably rate it 320 next time.

We just had five rolls of 7219 transferred to hard drive, 1080p 10-bit uncompressed, at Colorlab, with no tape step.

Very beautiful work, Jarin, a pleasure to watch. I love the way you use long lenses. Great color, lots of great movement, timing and framing, and a good eye to boot. I'll be looking for a chance to see these shorts projected, and for your future work. Many specific shot questions, but I'll limit myself to one: the woman pouring milk for the boy at the table has some strange focus effect, doesn't quite look like swing/tilt. Was this done in camera or post, or both?

Z1U

I'm surprised no-one has mention the Rifa. Very quick setup, packs small, nice soft quality, easy to gel. If you take off the diffuser, it has pretty good throw. Hardest Lowel to cook yourself on, too. The Rifa Pro kit, with maybe a 650 Fresnel for the third light, would be my minimal kit.

Looks like I have the bandwidth to burn at the end of the month, so: http://www.ghostmap.com/clips/Tokyo3FPS.html All comments welcome. Thanks, Steve Milligan www.ghostmap.com

Thought I'd chime in, as I was the shooter on this one. Humidity is definitely implicated. I tested with a 100' daylight load a couple of days before in cooler temperatures. It was clattery, but didn't jam. On the day, I loaded 400' at home in air-conditioned comfort. On the humid set, I was unhappy with the noise on the first take, and couldn't put it down to a daylight spool now, so I went back in the tent/sauna to check the loops, which were fine. Taped it up and put it on the camera, and from then on we had the behavior Drew described, ten seconds to jam. I did have some difficulty getting the film past the top of the pressure plate, and when it jammed it did so in the upper loop. We never found any gunk on the gate. Another puzzlement: I snapped 60' or so off the first roll and ran it through, testing for various loop sizes, in several mags--I had a preternaturally calm director. Eventually I got it to run four times in a row at the familiar whisper. Reloaded the mag, it inched perfectly, ran for twenty seconds perfectly. Set up the shot, instant jam. We shot with a Bolex until someone made the four hour round trip for the ACL, which ran like a champ. If there's a lesson in there, I don't like it much. Drew's NPR is indeed super-clean, a Les Bosher rebuild, fetishistically maintained. The ACL on the other hand has been tested to within an inch of destruction by Duke students, and sounds like a sewing machine--we had a calm sound man as well. I'll be biting my nails until it comes back, but despite this and many other curses, the shoot went quite well. We were back on schedule by the end of the second day, and the reduced lens and filter choices drove us toward more creative lighting and blocking than we might have chosen had everything gone smoothly. Next time, though, I'll be tempted to shoot Vision2 and go black and white further down the line. Steve Milligan DP Chapel Hill, NC

Appreciate the correction, David. Would diffusion filters then magnify the effect more than they would on color negative? I'm trying to choose my filter set for a 7222/7231 project, wondering if I should knock the diffusion down a bit, or even do without.... Steve Milligan