Matt Wells

I'm really interested to see this film - when I saw the ads around for it I was wondering if they woudl have gone digitally again or gone for film - I'm can't wait to see it. By the way - is the film any good?

My first experience not that thrilling - I was already into super8 and about 3 years ago I bought a mint Beaulieu R16. I bought a selection of Fuji film and experimented with the various stocks.

Excellent - thanks for the advice - Iwilldefinitely be examining the possibilities of 110D too. thanks, Matt

Does anyone have any experiences to share regarding this emulsion in Super8? I want to shoot some reversal (will make a change having only shot neg in super8 now for some time) and I love this emulsion in stills. I would also be keen to buy from the US as there is a rather attractive exchange rate situation at present! ($1.90 to £1GBP) - if anyone can recommend. Thanks, Matt

The Camera, THe Negative and The Print, by Ansel Adams, are absolutely superb and I would not call them out of date. The whole thrust of the trilogy is about how to get your visualisation of a photograph into a print. Whilst it is all focused on traditional monochrome phtography, I find that the critical thing is that it is analagous to other areas of photography. However I would not recommend them to anyone who does not already have a good basic knowledge of photography.

Interesting Auction at Christies, South Kensington, London, to include a huge collection of motion picture cameras - eg the Mitchell No.66 from King Kong http://www.christies.co.uk/promos/nov06/4918/overview.asp

Recently a friend mentioned that the Electric Cinema in Birmingham (the oldest cinema in the UK) was screening Indiana Jones and The raiders of the Lost Ark - just once on a Sunday afternoon. I couldn't believe my luck as I am always moaning about the lack of older films showing on the big screen We got there and we could not get in!! Who would have believed a 20 odd year old film which everyone has seen would be completely sold out!! To rub salt into the wound we picked up a leaflet which revealed they had screened "The Lost Boys" last month! This just confirms my view that older cult and classic films should be screened more in the cinema. Matt

Vision 2 50D? :) thanks for your continued input John. Matt

Remember that Boles only made Standard 8 and 16mm cameras - no super8. Thus I would avoid for 8mm, but recommend for 16mm. I have shot a wedding on super 8 and one on 16mm. My own wedding was shot last year on 16mm - by two people from this forum! My advice is: If you know a lot of people at the event shoot super8 because this is easier to shoot and run kind of operation, and if you know people you will probably keep getting involved in converations etc. For film I personally would always use colour negative. This is because you are going to have a transfer anyway, so you may aswell shoot neg and enjoy all the benefits such as the vast latitude - which will be very useful to you underpressure when you are haveing to operate quickly to capture important shots. Also when transferring neg you can make huge adjustments in colour / exposure to correct for errors. Matt

Hi there, see my post on to your thread in the super8 forum. Also, I have filmed one wedding on super8 and one on 16mm before - looked excellent. Plus my own wedding last year was shot on 16mm - by two people from this forum! Matt

I would have thought it was obvious..... cost of equipment - you can buy a really good super8 camera for the cost of 1 day hire of an average S16 camera. Then there is the ancillary things that have to go with S16 cameras Also - mabey the super8 look is what is desired? Third - ease of set up, critical for low budget mabey one man operations. Add to this ease of loading. Matt

I haven't ever suffered that problem with the Nizo - but I would say it would be probably repairable in Germany if that happened (there are some specailsts there) although I personally would take the risk - I recently bought a 4080 - used to own a 6080 but sold it - foolishly! Matt

Hi there Angelina. First, the Bolex is not a super8 camera - they only made standar8 and 16mm cameras. Standard8 film (also called double 8) is available but very limited choice of emulsions and frankly, whilst the bolex cameras a beautiful to behold (and you can get service on them at the factory in Switzerland still) you will be better off with a super8 camera. You mention the Nizo 4080. This, and the 6080, are very good cameras and identical for modern purposes (the 6080 can take a 200ft mag but these have not been available for years) I would say for a surf film you want a camera with as high a frame fate you can afford so as to give you the possibility of great fluid slow motion. The Nizos above have up to 54 frames per second (fps) and I have shot sking with a 6080 - you gen a nice effect, beautiful and smooth. The only camera to go faster is the Beaulieu 4008 (and some of its younder siblings such as the 6008pro and 7008pro) They run to 70fps and with the 4008ZM IV up to 80fps. If your budget can run to it I would suggest tje Beaulieu as this also has the possibility of interchangeable lenses - you can get adaptors to use 35mm stills lenses and the increased focal length means you can get in very close indeed if need be! (50mm lens in 35mm is standard angle of view, 10mm is about standard in super8 so a 50mm lens becomes telephoto if stuck on a super8 camera) Of course the lenses on the Nizos, whilst fixed, are beautiful and excellent with a focal length up to 80mm, which, for me, has always been plenty. So basically hunt around for a Beaulieu or Nizo. The film you use will give different looks. Are you going to be finishing (editing and presenting) on video? if so I would definitely try one of the Vision negative films. If you have bright light (which I presume you will on a beach) you could also try the Ektachrome 64T, which as a reversal (positive) film is sometime cheaper to transfer to tape. Hope this helps! Matt

Definitely go with Mattias on this one - shoot a non-sync sound first as this is a lot easier. Think about it - when you watch TV how much stuff actually needs perfect syncronisation of picture and sound? only dialogue spoken on screen really. There have been many non-sync shorts that are superb. If you must have a quiet camera, the quietest are the Nizo 2056; 3056; 4056; 4080; 6080 models, and they also have superb Schneider lenses. Also if you are in a PAL region just shoot and work in 25fps. You can have these cameras modified to crystal control which means the camera runs at EXACTLY the chosen frame rate. By choosing 25fps you can then transfer the film to tape at 25fps and then match your sound in post, provided of course the sound has been recorded at an exact speed. The Nizo models mentioned above offer 24 and 25 fps, although they are not crystal controlled as standard so I have never been too sure how much of a gimic this is - but nice anyway. The 6080 (and the 4056 and 4080 I believe, the others up to 36fps) offer speed up to 54fps which is nice for some beautiful smooth slow motion. Hope this is of help, Matt

I second Bjorn - very experienced with all parts available if needed. He quotes first. I too am based in the UK - there used to be a UK service agent until about 4 years ago, but he retired and sold all stock of parts to Bjorn. Bjorn has services both my 4008 and R16. Just post them out to him. Matt I didn't think Bjorn liked doing this? Or did you persuade him? ;)

I used to own a Nizo 6080 and also a 2056 - Very quiet cameras indeed, easy for sound shoot. I think that the 2056 is really good value, they often only make about £30 on EBay. Ok you dont have the 80mm lens like on the 6080, but 56 is pretty handy and it is still a high quality Schneider lens. Matt

Thanks everyone - this is VERY VERY VERY helpful indeed! Love the idea of lots of cam movement, and totally agree. Planning it right now.......... Matt

I have to say though that the cost is not all that much to add. The average cost charged for wedding videos in the UK, with a copy supplied edited on DVD or vhs, is £1000 - £1,500. This is for something shot on mini DV or DV cam, or dare I say it, something like Hi8, and with minimal time taken editing, and some cheesy titles etc. For my own wedding we shot a running time of 35mins in 16mm, which cost around £500 to buy, process and transfer. I think that this is not bad to make the film really nice and unique amongst wedding videos.

HI there, I have to light inside a self storage facility for a corporate video (which I am shooting on 16mm). The floor is painted grey, the walls are white as is the ceiling. Currently lit with flourescents. Have a look at this webpage - there is a photograph of the inside: http://www.extraspace-storage.com The shots required include people walking around the facility etc and generally using the place. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks Matt

I dont agree about loading the daylight spools above. These can be loaded in full daylight if you like, but you may risk slight edge fogging, although this is normally not visible and outside the safe margins of the frame As a rule load in subdued light - if it is a sunny day, go in the shade or something. This is how I have loaded loads of Kodak and Fuji 100ft spools. This is the route to your mac. Buy film Shoot film process film transfer film to tape via "telecine" capture the footage onto your hardrive with the use of a tape deck. If you have the film transferred to mini DV this is the mose economical way of getting it onto your hard drive beacuse you can use any miniDV camera with a DV in/out firewire socket as a tape deck. You can then use any software you have to edit, add music etc etc. You need to understand how to expose film too. This is another story, but if you do not already have experience I would recomend a cheap manual SLR 35mm stills camera like a Pentax K1000 and go shoot some slide film. Why Slide? because it only needs processing for you to view it - no printing - so you get to see exactly what you shot with the exposure you used (when labs make prints from negative they often get tweaked etc for the best print). This is a very cheap way to learn film exposure, and a lot cheaper than messing up with 16mm!! A few rolls of slide and you will learn a lot. Once you get onto Motion picture cameras, in some ways the exposure becomes simpler - this is because the exposure time of each frame - the shutter speed - is fixed and you can not change it as the camera is shooting a number of frames per second (eg 24), hence the exposure time of each frame has to fit into that. With stills you have to decide on your shutter speed as well as the aperture of the lens. Anyway this is my advice. If possible write down the exposures you use with each still. (of course you would need a slide projector too but these are so cheap and loads of people have them sitting in their attics which can be begged or borrowed.) Matt PS - dont confuse super8mm film with 8mm video - Very very different formats!! Super8 is film so it looks like film, but because of the small frame it has a more griany look. It is capable of very high quality results.

Really depends on what you are shooting. Matt

16mm is a superb choice for a wedding - video is really very unflattering indeed, especially to skin tones and especially if the kit is anything but high end, and even then people can look ill. The 16mm/DV combi is something I have been doing for a while and have shot Sking trips and other things this way. It gives the finished product a lot more impact to be able to cut between the two formats. As for the R16 - this has recently been serviced which quietened it down a lot, but it is still noisy. However it is not too itrusive, and the actual church ceremony was captured on DV. It is a pain having to reload all the time, however you can happily reload in daylight with the 100ft spools and they usuallly last longer than you think - key is to PLAN! decide which keyt shots are going to be captured on 16mm. In my film these were the key shots (amongst others) we used 16mm for: Groom and Best man leave for the church Bride walks from house (just happened to be 100 yds from the Church) to the Church Bride and Groom leave Church Guests socialising at reception venue First Dance Other Dancing Once you know this you get prepared and ensure that, at the beining of the first dance, you have a fresh spool of film in the camera. Also once you are practiced the R16 can be loaded very quickly Would love something with a 400ft mag though, even another MOS camera. I have all the footage on my computer and have just started to piece it together so I will try and post a clip if I can work out how to do it! Matt

For anyone in the UK this looks like an excellent new set up!! http://www.nowhere-lab.org/gridframe.html sounds excellent! Matt

Mabey the best route for you would be a digital intermediate? If you are able to get to London, Soho Images would be one of the places to approach. Matt

One of the advantages of the negative stocks is the massive latitude - miles ahead of any video format and what any TV can handle. Because of this it is very easy to obtain a high quality result from these emulsions with very basic lighting. If it is your first time you should definitely attend the transfer to video and then you can grade each shot wn get the look you want - and correct any mistakes! Matt