Matty Wakai

thing is, we are still way away from shooting, and we are still working with ideas, the reason why i asked is to see if someone could put me on the right track as we dont wanna test 16mm cameras if alot of people recomend against it, limited budget so dont want to test systems that are known to be unreliable. its not gonna be like everything is slow or everything is fast in the one shot, there's always gonna be an element at normal speed. doing lots of research and lots of talking to experienced people is helping, but testing will come later. we may need a costume maker dude! when is she availble? ;) peace

could the extra switch also be a safety thing? say u've got a lamp operator closer to the lamphead than the ballast if something goes wrong?

the director wrote a story wanting to take advantage of the motion control unit at his school, basically there will be lots of shots where the hero is interacting with an environment going 3/4 faster than he is, and then the other way around where everyone else sees him at 1/4 of their speed. its not so much that we are only budgeted for 16mm, but being a low budget short, any savings (if not compromising image quality too much) are being looked into. but using 35mm just for the motion control sounds like a good alley to go down. thanks everyone so much for help so far! will be checking back regularly for more much needed guidance! peace

i dont know how much i can divulge, but the director is just graduating from the beijing film acadamy (beijing china that is) and they have a motion control unit there, am trying to find out which system, but as he was a star pupil, he has access to it... we are looking around about operators now, but u didnt hear it from me! what if we were to use double perf 16mm film? as a cameraman friend just shot a s16mm anamorphic shoot here in china using the panavision 'elaine', specificaly because of the double registration pins. photosonic would probably be the direction (should we go 16mm) as we'll need to get to at least 150fps with double reg pins. any more thoughts on that? or even better, does anyone know where to get photosonics in china??? thanks guys..

HAHA, it would be two dumb mistakes for the day should i not take your advice (the first one being posting this topic in this forum...). even with DI would grain still be an issue? say one was to use the two regestration pin panavision 'elaine'? though i dont know if budget would allow, but theoriticaly would that be the same stability as 35mm cameras?

hi all, planning for a short film involving alot of motion control with different frame rates composited into the same shot. because of budget, i'm thinking of going S16mm for savings in filmstock, but i'm wondering if there would be any drawbacks to shooting 16 over 35? mostly in regards to the frame rates composited into the same shot, i'm thinking arri srIII, would there be any image stability issues at high speed that may be noticible after being composited into a shot with another speed? plus, is there any issues using the srIII with motion control systems? this is will be my first motion control shoot, so ANY advice on working with motion control in general would be great... peace

sorry guys, pls ignore this post, i put it in the wrong forum... sorry btw, how do u delete posts?

hi all, planning for a short film involving alot of motion control with different frame rates composited into the same shot. because of budget, i'm thinking of going S16mm for savings in filmstock, but i'm wondering if there would be any drawbacks to shooting 16 over 35? mostly in regards to the frame rates composited into the same shot, i'm thinking arri srIII, would there be any image stability issues at high speed that may be noticible after being composited into a shot with another speed? plus, is there any issues using the srIII with motion control systems? this is will be my first motion control shoot, so ANY advice on working with motion control in general would be great... peace

just wondering how much difference in tone i would get if i mixed different colour temperatured lights for b/w (shooting colour 16mm neg, then go b/w in post), as it is a student film shooting outdoors and i just found out the school equipment house has no daylight balanced lights... i know i can add ctb to the lights, but if i dont need to, it would be nice to not lose the stops from my tiny lights available... thanks

so in terms of cost, whats the difference between miniDV and digibeta? director wants to use either finalcut pro or premiere to edit, and then do some compositing in shake. we'll be going 4x3 PAL. also, the compression is all real-time right? compression refers to the colour/image quality only? does a 60min tape hold 60mins of footage? THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP, I'D BE SO LOST OTHERWISE!!! peace hmmm... not having to pay for this all? it'd be nice to be in your shoes mr. Mullen, thanks so much for guidance.. peace

so in terms of cost, whats the difference between miniDV and digibeta? director wants to use either finalcut pro or premiere to edit, and then do some compositing in shake. we'll be going 4x3 PAL. THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP, I'D BE SO LOST OTHERWISE!!! peace

well, i will have to talk to the director properly about presentation, but it will need to be submited for examination. last time we discused it, we decided on 4x3, more than likely PAL. but my confusion comes in at the point after transfer to telecine, when transfering say to miniDV, how much information is lost? and after it is on miniDV tapes, we then take that to edit, then colour correction? what are the different options available (for inbetween and finished product)? peace

hi guys, have been reading for along time now. i like it here! i am shooting my friend's final assignment for film school. i havent shot film as cameraman before, but have been working in lighting and camera for last 3 years, but my main concern is what happens after the film is exposed, after we get it developed, we do the telecine but what is the differences between the formats of tape? and what after that? after it is edited, what normally happens? if someone could condense a normal workflow, and put me in the right direction so i can continue researching, that'd be awesome.. also, we want to do it black and white, but my friend recomended me, as a first time cameraman, to shoot colour, then go B&W in post. any tips for that? hope everyone had a good holiday. peace

hmm, not sure about the test traveling. I will talk to the people at Salon Films and get back to you.

I was fortunate enough to assist Hong Kong DOP, Arthur Wong HKSC (chosen because of his experiences whilst shooting Ultraviolet), doing some Genesis tests in colaboration with Salon Films HK (far east agent for panavision) last month. I must say that the results were very pleasing, we did frame rate tests, mixed light tests, and gain tests, the results were screened at the Hong Kong Film Mart on a 2K projector, the end product was quite pleasing. From an assistants point of view, just take away the phsyical film aspects (loading, threading etc.) and you still have alot of work, depending on setups, if anything, it gives more time to make sure the other essential aspects of cinematography are correct (exposure, focus etc.). there is still need for a first assistant cameraman, as focus still needs to be pulled, and a second assistant still needs to record the timecodes (in place of footage counts) and help organise equipment to ensure smooth setups with the first assist. Sure this still is a HUGE change in procedures, and people will need to adapt to survive, but just think where this new technology could take cinematography. Sure at the moment i love working film jobs, as i still have alot to learn in my job, but i think it is important to remain open minded. I say, if it makes making pretty pictures easier, why not welcome it. I am looking forward to working with the genesis again in the future.