Heikki Repo

The author of the book writes: Secondly, Kodak has announced that they will stop making acetate support (cellulose triacetate, CTA) that is primarily used for still roll and motion camera films. After their existing stocks are consumed they plan on purchasing acetate for these films from other manufacturers. I don't believe that this will cause any significant decrease in product quality or availability of Kodak photographic film. CTA is used for applications like flat screen TVs so other have learned how to make high quality CTA. http://www.apug.org/forums/forum390/119376-kodak-stops-making-acetate-film-base-making-kodak-film-author.html

That's 1R (1 RA-2994) so yes, perforated stock.

Just for the record: Wittner is now selling the unmodified AGFA Avichrome 200 in large amounts in 16mm and for quite a good price: 732 meters: 499,00 € and when buying more than one package of 732 meters: 3 packages à 469,00 € 5 packages à 419,00 € 10 packages à 379,00 € What are the differences between this and Wittnerchrome 200D? Some have proposed that Wittnerchrome is lubed for motion picture use and for this reason plain Avichrome might not run as well. Caution might be necessary.

With color film you can't use safe lights. IR night goggles would work, but it isn't really that complicated to do without sight. Usually you'll only need to load the giving side and unload the taking side blind. That's easy. The trickiest part is loading the taking side and it can usually be done in daylight even though you do lose some film.

Color negative Kodak Vision3 50D Kodak Vision3 200T Kodak Vision3 500T Pro8/01 (Vision2 50D, slit and perfed by Pro8mm) Pro8/07 (Vision3 250D, slit and perfed by Pro8mm) Pro8/46 (Fuji Eterna Vivid 250D, slit and perfed by Pro8mm) Pro8/47 (Fuji Eterna Vivid 500T, slit and perfed by Pro8mm) Pro8/22 (Fuji F-64D, slit and perfed by Pro8mm) Pro8/92 (Fuji Reala 500D, slit and perfed by Pro8mm) Color reversal Ektachrome 100D (production stopped, remaining stock available, esp. from Wittner) Velvia 50D (slit and perfed by Wittner) Velvia 100 (slit and perfed by Wittner) Astia 100F (slit and perfed by Wittner) Wittnerchrome 200D / Agfa Aviphot (slit and perfed by Wittner, on polyester base) BW negative AGFA APX 100 professional (slit and perfed by Wittner) ORWO Negativfilm N 74 plus (slit and perfed by Wittner) BW reversal Kodak Tri-X ORWO UN 54 (slit and perfed by Wittner) ADOX PAN-X 100 Reverso FOMA Fomapan R100 (slit and perfed by Wittner) AGFA SCALA 200X professional (slit and perfed by Wittner) WITTNER PXR 50 (slit and perfed by Wittner? Only available as bulk)

For the first time I'm feeling a bit sorry I don't own an iPhone! ;) Very nice setup.

You could get a dummy block here http://www.beaulieu.de/pages/s8_azub8.php?rubr=s8_azub8 and then either buy from the same place an external battery ("Externer akku") or build one yourself. My Beaulieu was modified by the former owner to only accept external battery, he supplied one with the camera and it has worked remarkably well.

Dom already answered this, but just to clarify: focal length is always the same. Your 100mm lens on 35mm still film camera or full frame digital camera is still 100mm, on a crop sensor camera it's 100mm and on 16mm film camera it's still 100mm. Only the field of view changes, because the area used of the lens is different. When using Octameter you just select 100mm and it'll show you the field of view in 16mm film. But it's true that it might be difficult to obtain wider lenses for 16mm, even 25mm lens corresponds in field of view to that of about 80mm in full frame 35mm.

Hi Austin, focusing through the top should be possible. However, when shooting you'll probably notice that it can be somewhat tedious to turn the lens to the top position. You could though test with the critical focusing if the marks for focusing on the lens are correct when used on the Bolex and then you could focus with tape measure. As for Octameter, it is quite nice. It has different focal lengths in the same viewfinder. It has the following focal lengths: 16mm, 25mm, 35mm, 50mm, 63mm, 75mm, 100mm and 150mm. You can use it with any lenses.

Whoops, meant of course to write "supplied with the Beaulieu", sorry!

Hi Jayne, what kind of batteries are they and for what kind of batteries is your charger for? It does sound like they weren't charged enough. However, on thing to consider is also that if these batteries are new, you might need to charge and drain them through some cycles before they get to their full potential. One more thing: You do have a separate charger for the batteries? If you are using a newer charger than the one supplied with the Bolex, you need to charge the batteries outside of the camera -- newer chargers might burn the Beaulieu battery charging electronics due to higher current (this happened to me -- it doesn't affect the camera operations, but you have to connect the battery directly to the charger).

Hello Dylan, at the moment there are following color reversal films available for super-8: Fuji Velvia 50 Fuji Velvia 100 Fuji Astia 100 Agfa Aviphot Chrome 200 The first one is available from these sellers: http://www.spectrafilmandvideo.com (US) http://www.cinevia.eu/ (DE) The whole list is available from http://www.wittner-kinotechnik.de/ (DE) The most affordable option is shooting on Agfa stock (Wittnerchrome 200D). One cartridge costs 22.90 EUR. For even more cost savings buy it as "meterware" and use refillable cartridges: http://www.wittner-kinotechnik.de/katalog/04_filmm/s8_meter.php One cartridge (not adding the price of a refillable cartridge) of Wittnerchrome 200D costs then only about 10.30 EUR.

Correct.

No problems there. Just make sure the camera isn't sitting in some hot place (car, for example). Depends on the lab. Usually, however, the lab splices the rolls together for easier telecine, if that's what you are asking.

At this point you might want to check on the details of your camera. There are different versions of Bolex H16 Reflex. Quite good source of information is http://www.bolexcollector.com/ which lists the different models and serial numbers. You'll find the serial number of your Bolex on the other side of the door. Oh, and by the way -- I was in high school when I registered on this forum 2005. Great place, really!

Hi Scott and welcome! :) Where are you located? If US, you can call Kodak and buy from them. B&H ( http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/Movie-Film/ci/341/N/4289360509 ) sells movie film as well, and for black and white you could also buy ORWO stocks from http://www.orwona.com In Europe Wittner (http://www.wittner-kinotechnik.de) sells different stocks in 100ft loads which fit your camera. However, Wittner doesn't stock Kodak negative film for 16mm so for that you'd need to buy from some other place like Stanley's http://www.stanleysonline.co.uk/category-193.html or http://www.film1635.cz/en/e-shop.php or http://www.widescreen-centre.co.uk/Catalogue/Kodak_16_mm_Film.html For processing there is quite nice list of different labs in different countries: http://www.cinematography.com/index.php?showtopic=59512 Concerning the camera you have inherited: do you know when it was last used and serviced? Over time the machinery of the Bolex might become slowed if not cleaned and serviced.

Okay, Wittner has the price up for Wittnerchrome 200D in cartridges. And.. well, to be honest I feel somewhat disappointed. I mean, if 72½ meters of this film costs 49,90 euros, how come one cartridge of about 16 meters length costs 22,90 €? Is the work involved really that high? The price per meter for bulk S-8 is 0,69 € and --- for cartridge -- 1,43 €. I guess I better buy some refillable cartridges and try that approach.

Though to be noted, Fuji axed the motion picture film stocks but keeps manufacturing color still photography film. If anything, that proves that one segment doesn't necessarily depend on another one (many people speculated before this that color still film would be buried with motion picture film. But it wasn't.)

And there is also new 2R film available. While Kodak sells 2R film only in larger quantities, ORWO has BW 2R film available and German company Wittner has brought to market color reversal film Aviphot 200D in 16mm 2R. While I'm not sure if ORWO North America (www.orwona.com) has 2R available (or whether you are even located in US), Wittner sells ORWO stock as well (http://www.wittner-kinotechnik.de).

Finland: A. Alhosen elokuvalaboratorio http://alhoslab.fi (super-8 and 16mm)

Some thoughts: 1) Go to your friends. What kind of apartments do they have? Buy someone out of town for a while, pay for their hotel room while they are away and let you shoot. 2) Try to find some place which you could use for different scenes by building sets. Sure, that'll take time and effort and trying to loan / buy used furniture. But sometimes that's the only way if no suitable location is available. 3) Again, go to your friends and people you know. If you have no name, it'll be really difficult to obtain permits for locations with no money. So you have to use all contacts you have. You might also want to try to contact smaller organizations which might find it beneficial for them to help such a project by letting you shoot in their office during weekend or at night (provided the house doesn't have people living there). Give credits and organize a showing of the finished film at their place etc. Offer what you can offer. For some diner you might be able to offer making a marketing video or something like that in exchange for the shooting permit during some time there are no customers or only very few customers. 4) If obtaining some location seems to become a big problem, don't be afraid to make some adjustments to your script. There rarely is only one solution available. Get creative.

Have you done such work before? I'm just asking that because with chroma key work there can be many stumbling blocks on the way. The worst case scenario is really that it looks like .. well ... like it was shot in front of green screen. That's what you'll get if the lighting doesn't look the same in the two and sometimes even that's not enough to make it look convincing. The way I'd see this question is that what kind of film do you have. Are there other such elements which somehow "bend the reality" and involve compositing? If this is the only time in the film that you are going to use this kind of technique and the room isn't in some way really special, I'd try to avoid doing it. It just isn't worth the trouble and the fact that it'll draw at least some attention from those watching the film.

Thank you James, happy Easter to you as well! :)

There are many good answers to your questions, but let me start by giving you mine :) I suggest you buy as manual film camera as possible but preferably not rangefinder. Olympus OM-1 is a good camera with cheap but good optics (Zuikos). In addition to that buy an external lighting meter, possibly spot meter. Then read this: http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm After that you'll begin to understand how exposure works: shutter speed, aperture, film speed. Begin by buying some reversal film. That is slide film. While most film originating movies are these days shot on negative film, reversal film lets you learn to expose correctly. You'll see when you have exposed something correctly, and then it should be easier for you to move on to negative which is much more forgiving than reversal film. Buy this for example: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/181489-USA/Fujifilm_14883175_RDP_III_135_36_Fujichrome_Provia.html If you want to you can also learn to work in a dark room. However, my suggestion is to start with slide film and process at a pro lab because then you can rule out your lab work when examining the first results. Later on you can experiment with processing color reversal film (E-6) or negative film (C-41) or doing black and white work. For building your own dark room please consult http://www.apug.org If you want to buy yourself some cheap motion picture camera you'd better stay off super16 at this point. Mainly because they aren't exactly cheap even though they are a lot cheaper than say five years ago. So which camera should you begin with? The question is, what features do you need. Is this a camera you want to shoot sync sound with? How long takes do you need to take with it? 16mm film cameras usually take two different kinds of loads: 100 feet and 400 feet. 100 feet of film is about 2½ minutes @ 24 fps. Low end cameras usually only accept 100 ft loads. Professional cameras usually have the ability to load magazines of 400 ft. Regarding the sync sound, many 16mm film cameras are rather loud. In addition to that, if a camera doesn't have crystal sync motor, the speed will vary a little and might change after a while so that the picture isn't in sync with the recorded sound. Amateur cameras rarely have this feature, professional cameras usually do. There are also amateur cameras which to do not have reflex viewfinder. I'd suggest you don't buy one of these even though they are cheap. So which camera should you buy? Which features do you need. Here's a little list, from the cheaper end towards the more expensive professional end: Cameras with reflex viewfinder and 100 ft loads, no motor (unless later installed): Krasnogorsk-3 Bolex H16 REX-3, REX-4 (some suggest not buying older REX versions because they have so dim viewfinder) Cameras with reflex viewfinder and option of 400 ft loads Bolex H16 REX-5, SBM (400 ft loads with an external motor) Bolex H16 EBM Arriflex 16S, ST Cameras with reflex viewfinder and option of 400 ft loads and crystal sync (blimped for more silent operation) Arriflex 16BL Auricons Eclair NPR Eclair ACL (400ft with better motor, 200ft with the first version) Arriflex SR, 2 Aaton LTR Cameras with super16 Arriflex SR3 Aaton XTR Arriflex 416 Black and white or color? If color, buy Vision3 negative film (available in both 100 and 400 ft lengths). There are daylight and tungsten balanced films available. The faster the stock usually more grainy it is. So if you have lots of light and shoot outside, use 50D. If you shoot inside with little light, use 500T. Or, if black and white is your thing, you can shoot either neg or reversal. Kodak and ORWO both supply these films. To question number one, yes. To the second question, depends on the camera. According to some people Krasnogorsk-3 can be quite easily modified to Super16. (Just for the record: there is regular 4:3 16mm, then there is super16 (1.66) and then there is ultra16 which is set somewhere between those two (it is usually easier to modify to this format than to super16 which is the professional format). Or you could also just crop the 16:9 from the 4:3 when doing telecine. Yes. Buy some spot meter, it'll make things easier for you. Unless you wish to use your time building equipment instead of shooting, I'd suggest you to just buy the telecine service from some company. The end result will be much better and the cost won't be too bad. There are many post production companies in the US who offer discounts to students for telecine and might make quite good offers. I have only experience of Cinelicious (I live in Finland, Europe) but there are also others such as Cinelab and Alphacine and many others I just don't know about. Depends. What kind of mood do you want to have? Use fast film and have some lights at your disposal (And if you don't have the latter, get creative and shoot with a lower frame rate and have your actors move half the speed.) Hopefully these help a bit! :)

There is now pricing of the first Wittnerchrome 200D films (vat included): 16mm 1R 100 ft: 49.90 EUR 1R 400 ft: 169.90 EUR 2R 100 ft: 56.90 EUR 2R 200 ft: 99.90 EUR super-8 on core 238 ft: 49.90 EUR