Karim D. Ghantous

Giray, those stills look great. Dom, thanks for sharing the Spike Lee film. I had not seen it before. It's mostly good, although he too makes the common mistake of a 1960s uncle asking the kids to stand still in front a movie camera. Seems that digital capture can't even compete with Super 8 when it comes to certain subject matter. Maybe next time I go overseas I won't take photos, I'll take footage instead. Super 8, of course...

I find a lot of Super 8 a bit flat - not the image, the style. I think that because the camera is easily held by hand, people just stand and pan. They don't think to put it on a dolly or a gimbal. I don't think that shaky-cam is a good look. And I have seen better exposed footage. But maybe that's what Perry wanted, in which case, it's her call. I absolutely love S8 and S16. I will be shooting more of it down the line. The cameras are cheap but the film and scanning are expensive!

I'm sure that some people watched it precisely because it was shot on Super 8. I'm sure that some people watched it because they like her music. And I'm sure that some people watched it because of the brief moments of nudity. 🙂 https://www.super8.tv/en/video/most-successful-super-8-music-video-ever/

FWIW, Ron Garcia shot the Twin Peaks pilot with Fuji stock. He preferred the reds that it gave. (He also used coral filters). I guess these days it's just a dial away in Resolve? He didn't say which stock it was, and there were two to choose from from that time. I have asked some people but I never got an answer. Here's the interview with The ASC: https://ascmag.com/podcasts/twin-peaks-pilot-1990-ron-garcia-asc I do like the fact that a lot of DPs preferred to do as much as possible before and during shooting. Even for today, and even for digital, I would prefer this approach.

I haven't seen BR 2049 but the trailer looks amazing. So I don't know why anyone would say that Deakins doesn't want to light anymore. I say, let people make their choices. I wouldn't choose the Alexa but so what? I'm not other people.

Perhaps the reason why 200T is sharper than 50D is related to SFX 200T? https://web.archive.org/web/20061105134210/http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/products/negative/h1so214.jhtml

American Cinematographer magazine is very generously making its current issue a free download. You can read it in your browser or download a PDF file. https://ascmag.com/articles/april-2020-ac-issue If you're on social media, I'm sure that they would appreciate either a thank-you, a like or a share. 😉

I have a lot of spare time on my hands, okay?

I was partly joking. Partly. 😉

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-06/kodak-is-having-a-comeback-moment-as-oscars-embrace-film Personally I am looking forward to the Super 8 camera.

Love these discussions! I wonder, would a 'dry' scan look significantly different than a 'wet' scan? David, I get your point about lighting - lots of diffused lighting is used today, but not so much in the '80s IIRC. Although I am thinking of TV shows. However, they did have 500T stocks back then... unless those stocks weren't actually 500 ASA!

From what I have seen of b&w films, at least the good ones, they are all very, very flexible. You can rate Delta or T-Max by EI -3 or -4 and still get really good results without pushing. In fact you'd probably not want to push.

Looks good so far. XX is grainy but it looks to be very sharp.

One standard that is used is S:N=2 for the deepest shadow. That sounds like a very practical metric.

Robert, that looks terrific. Imagine a sharper lens and stabilisation. Super 8 is the new 16mm? 🙂