Lav Bodnaruk

thanks for the replies guys! We are favoring s16mm at the moment, but as i had mentioned, i am yet to see what will come from meetings with the post production house and what the costs of DI and blow up will be. As Mike pointed out, that is something I must not over look - the finish of the film. I am also looking forward to seeing the HD vs 16mm compared on excel sheet, once all the quotes come through - although if close (or even if out but not by a huge margin) we will choose film over video. We did initially budget for 35mm, and were just short of making it on the ratio we wanted, so dropping it to 16mm would not be a huge problem and would allow us to possible get a day or two extra out of production (ease up our schedule). Thanks for a detailed reply James. We do have some names attached to the project, mind you, they are Australian names - so the most that can mean is that they would be looked at here and that they will NOT have a problem with going to DVD. Further more, I am certain that a feature film on 16mm in Brisbane will do well, as there are not many films made here... Those few that did do it before us, are perfect case studies and whilst they did not make huge amounts of money, they all did OK and most importantly, they got to do it again. I guess that is what we are aiming for... But I do want to stress that I understand what you mean in your post and that you make a valuable point for me in suggesting that the only way the foreign distributer will get interested is if it is n 35mm... I seem to agree with that and am still trying to make these numbers work and see if we can make it on 35mm. No money of my own is invested in the film :D - I am a producing the film after all, so I know not to do that. (hope no investors are reading this - just kidding). Although I am not investing into it, the scheme that we have it running under will most definitely be profitable for all the private investors attached, guaranteed (but that is a conversation for a whole different thread). It is interesting you bring up the framing ratio, I wonder what is the right way to go. I guess this will be something a DP should have influence on too, and hopefully a valid argument will be put forward for it. I would think we will go for 1.85. Whilst I do own a stretched Ford Econovan hahaha - I think we will have a budget for a bit more then that. More precisely, there shall be grip trucks, gaff trucks, camera trucks on this shoot as we are to do this over the course of 18 days (maybe more if s16mm). Oddly enough there are students on board of the film, but only as runners. The ONLY reason there are students on board of this project (and sometimes I wonder if i will regret it as people might trip over them and they are an extra mouth to feed) is because I had stayed in good touch with my UNI and want to offer the experience on a feature film to 3rd year film students as their work placement. It is hard to do something like that in QLD, so I figure we can make it work for 3-4 lucky students :) Thanks again James.

Hey guys, thanks for the posts! I am definitely budgeting HD next to s16mm, to see the costs that will be between the two - and with my connections as a producer with lab and colour place in question, i doubt that HD will even be cheaper... I should mention I was looking at RED costs wise... The worry with RED is that I am still not sure the recording onto the card, dumping onto the HDD and then getting it through a serious of programs that can handle RED data before we can find it in the Avid is all that worked out and ready for a feature film take - bu then again, maybe this is the perfect time for it, for an indie film that will ask for media exposure and attention from distributors in every which way... The director is all for film, and so am I. I am very much stuck on trying to make numbers work on 35mm, shooting 3 perf, doing less takes, anything... 16mm will give us the 'organic' feel and with the harsh sun we face in Oz, there may be more benefits to shooting on film that are yet to show themselves. It is a though one, and I appreciate your input. I think I will have to do a lot more research, see the samples of RED footage (outside the RED web site downloads I had manged to get) and possibly examin few other HD options - F23, etc... Thanks! regards,

Hey guys, I am not sure how to approach this post, without offending anyone or starting up a huge argument, especially since this question, if viewed from different POVs (i.e. DOP, Producer, Distributer) will have a different meaning, relevance and obviously, answers. Maybe you can tell me your thoughts, and why you feel that way, and hopefully everyone excepts that as such. I have been given a low-no-budget film to produce. It is a character driven drama, no explosions, no car chases, no stunts of any kind - not even a gun! Most of the film is set in daylight, with half INT and half EXT. Having produced/directed and shot a lot of stuff on film myself, and pairing with a director that never did anything other then 35mm shorts and big $car$ TVCs, we wanted to shoot this indie film on 35mm too. I am sure, if we were able to make the numbers work, that 'selling' the film as such would be the easiest if it originated on this format. More and more, it is becoming clear that our funds will not be enough to make this film on 35mm (or could be, but JUST, with limited ratio and limited coverage). So the question is, where to, if not 35mm film? What would you, as cinematographers or ACs suggest (please do mention why too, and maybe what you do, so that the answer makes more sense)? Looking at it from a producers POV, I want the film to be marketable. 35mm would be the best for that, no doubt. HD is interesting but more and more indie films are originating on this format and we would have a tougher competition to face. RED is so new, seems scary and unstable, but would that make it interesting? Would working out the workflow for RED be worth it, so that we have an indie feature on RED? For some reason, just because this is a comedy, character driven drama, it seems OK to shoot on HD (lol) not sure why everyone thinks that... but yeah, maybe cause it isn't meant to be super stylized but rather 'commercial'. The following article was interesting: http://www.studiodaily.com/main/topstory/9097.html We are in Brisbane Australia. I am not sure how HIGH up HD scale we can go either, financially. I guess if we cannot afford 35mm, we won't be going Genisis either. We can do s16mm... couple of indie features came out of this city in the last year or two, on s16mm, which went through DI and had theatrical release - sort of relevant for us since much of the same crew would be used and we would aim for theatrical release too (not just to DVD). Perhaps the question is too broad... Perhaps it is impossible to suggest one is better then the other, especially with limited info, but I am hoping you can let me know your thoughts on format that you feel would best suit and why. No cinematographer is attached yet. We will of course have these chats with our DP once we decide on someone, but I just thought I get your 2 cents worth... Thanks guys

Hi David, In all honestly, it is hard to put the finger on just ONE reason behind which we choose 16mm on the other 4 productions. Yes, the budget had to do with it, but not overly, because we could have pushed it to 35mm. Yes, we were able to use that budget money in other departments more effectively - from better gripping gear to bigger lighting truck. Yes, we could afford to pay our actors - which is always nice if you can afford it :) But none of this mattered too much in the early pre-production stages, when we decided to go with 16mm. Simply put, nothing in the script demanded 35mm look. Now, don't get me wrong, every film can benefit from a higher production value, but here, in these 4 instances, we didn't feel that the story would be helped by going 35mm over 16mm. One of the 4 mentioned here was shot completely outside, in a sunshine. the look we wanted to achieve was very high in contrast, with green and browns as primary colors of the pallet. Whilst we DID want an incredibly shallow Depth Of Filed (something you usually turn to 35mm for) we manged to achieve it by using long lens on 16mm, with a LOT of ND glass in front of it. It took time to research this look and we were certain 16mm would do... Just for you to note (although not a good information to give out) this film cost 1/3 of the cheapest 5min 35mm I ever produced. - Almost Aussie - 16mm - 7min - The other 16mm we did was done in complete darkness. The entire film was lit with a match light. Of course, we faked that, but that is the impression you were meant to get: http://www.adifferenceinshadow.com/ We wanted GRAIN in this film, so 16mm was an obvious choice. The budget was then shifted to set design and boy did they make it count! The other two had similar reasons for going 16mm too - nothing really sold it to us to go 35mm whilst in the script stages. This is why I think you need a producer, because once they read it, they will tell you which way to go. A good producer is also aware of what festivals are out there, it is not as easy as being a member of http://www.withoutabox.com to call yourself a producer. Some of these guys are familiar with the judges on festivals, their styles, what they like and do not like... you find yourself someone like that, they will read your story and tell you bluntly if you should do it on 35mm or HD. I would not go pass HD either, because to me, usually this is a format for a comedy (not all of them of course). I reserve 35mm for hard drama - again this is just me. Yes, we pay our crew members where we can, weather that is in CASH or because i called them on 4 paid TVCs this month, it doesn't matter. Mind you, when you get a grip, you pay for the gear, when you get a gaffer, you pay for the lighting truck.. their fees can be made to fit within that. You can get a collage work experience focus puller for free - and have 2/3 of your shots come back soft, or you can get a guy from the industry for some money (usually beer money) who will nail every single one of the shots, regardless of weather the actors hit their marks... so much so, you forget to think focus can be missed. Start with a good producer. Interview them.. get them to read the script and make sure they like it before they take it on! Then decide where to put your money - investing into professional industry crew will make your short run smoothly and quickly and you will (and this is the most important) walk away with INDUSTRY experience, regardless of the format you shoot on. I often think that to 1st and 2nd time directors, this should play more of a role. Good luck Keep us posted! Lav

David pretty much answered all that I was going to put in my replies :D Shorter the short, the better. The plot needs to be original and executed well - directing/acting wise. when you got this covered, you concentrate on getting the production value to be as high as you can afford - and as some have mentioned here, that does not mean you go 35mm always... I would suggest you get a producer/production manager on board. Last year I produced 6 short films, two of which were shot on 35mm. Being deferred payments on most of these, 35mm productions were much easier to crew-up (if that makes sense). With this in mind, we had DPs that are a lot more experienced then those that shot my 16mm productions. With them came focus pullers and loaders, that are also much more experienced in what they do... It is no surprise then, that we won GOLD and SILVER at the annual ACS state awards ;) (2 out of 3) I'd like to say (and I do believe this) that it had nothing to do with being on 35mm, but rather, it was shoot by great, talented DPs. BUT here is the catch 22 - it was easier to pitch to these talented DPs, since it was going to be shot on 35mm. Hope I am not confusing you with this. Getting a producer would be the best thing for you, nutting out a budget, etc... Getting a DP should be a careful process too. They have to like the script and agree on ideas with the director. Good luck! The shorts I spoke of you can see here (well, not the whole films just a trailer of one and some stills from the other - sorry, they are hitting the festival scene, so no putting it on a net for a year/two yet): http://www.painofthemacho.com http://www.thesoundofcry.com

i was told to check this film out by a friend who works in post production - who saw it twice at that stage? (crazy!) this is just personal take on the film, so don't get upset if you don't agree, please. 1.)The film had no plot, no character depth and no drive (very bad dialog!), bad casting and performances. 2.) The shaky camera didn't bother me in a sense that it got me sick... it didn't. I was upset at it, because it was 'constant' and i felt it was not necessary. I could notice people around me turning their heads away on the shaky bits etc... I understood why they used this particular technique and what they tried to achieve with it - but I felt (like many other posters here) that they could have slowed it down after establishing it is being filmed by a nob (no seriously, the character filming is a NOB, with cliche dialog). Using this type of camera movement to disguise shots is logical - they had a bad animation for godzilla in many shots but good sound design made it work for most in the theater i was in. acting was covered a lot too - you could be crap at directing/acting and still manage to get 'something' on screen with this technique since you are filming people's feet! (again, this didn't appeal to me) 3.) Pick up a batt, a stick, ANYTHING - and hit them little monsters instead of walking around trying to look pretty for teenage audience in midst of a panic and Godzilla chase! I've been in many crazy situations, war, panics, gang fights, protests, cop bashings... first thing anyone does is pick up a stick. this is only my 2 cents. Never again will I watch a film suggested by this same friend :P .

Now that is a thorough answer! Appreciate you taking the time Matt - check out the rest of the forum too mate, I reckon you will like it ;) http://www.lavproductions.com/projects.htm#Shadow -- not an actual still from the film / just behind the scenes stuff...

Hi jeF, I will try and get the DP from the short film that I worked on to answer your question - just email him on the address I had provided in the PM. Best, Lav

Hey Nash, we are doing a TEST shoot tomorrow, with the exact set-up you just mentioned :) Will post on how it all goes; shooting SR2 s16mm 500T MK2 Super Speed prime kit.

Hey Kim, thanks for that! Will definitely check it out! Just did some tests with the light meter, basic stuff. Lit an incredibly large match (which wasn't any brighter then the normal stuff - the tip [not sure what it is called in English] is still the same as on normal matches) and got a reading of F2.8 somewhat 25cm away from the light, for the initial burst of light. Then the reading went down to underexposed and finally (as the flame built up) it was giving me F1; (kind of difficult holding the match, the box, the meter all in pitch black :)) The meter was rated at 500 ISO, 25fps. Would it be weird if the actor was walking around with the match 25cm (or less) away from his face? I guess that is up to a director to decide :blink: Cheers guys,

Hey Guys, thanks for the posts! Sorry on my delayed reply, hard to find time to jump on the net these days :) We will definitely do some tests with the matches and light meter and see what we can come up with. I will be very interested to see the reading we get from the match lighting up and then when it is just 'lit'. I do know that the initial blast is rather bright and will measure it up soon to see exactly how bright. The option of using some other 'natural' light, weather it be burning fire in the corner or the moonlight is not an option... the director is pretty set on the film being pitch black until that one match is struck by the lead actor. With the proper sound design i trust this will look rather amazing, just got to manage to keep that face of the actor, that is holding that match somewhat 45cm away from his face, lit. :) The camera will obviously have super speed lenses on there, in case of 35mm set-up, we will go for Mk2 full super speed prime kit. In case we decide to shoot on super 16mm (we not going to mix formats, its one or the other) it will probably be another super speed prime kit; Sorry Karl didn't understand what i needed to translate into US terms - the distance of the subject from the camera? The shot of the actor lighting up the match is always a MCU or a CU, since nothing more would be lit, no point in trying for wider shots. So i figure, we can get him to hold the match closer to his face if necessary - it does sort of have to look realistic that he is finding his way around the location with the match, so can't really have him hold it 10cm away from his eye hehe If you think of any other ways to do this (bundled matches is a great suggestion) let me know. I will post down some results from tests we do, that is measuring light of the match when struck and when merely lit; PS. I am wondering weather the director will be cool to use larger matches (the big once used to light fire places) as apposed to normal/standard once. Will find out soon... PS2. Hoping it will be 35mm, super speed primes, 500T - wide open. Would not really want to push a stop in development so hope this set-up passes the test; Thanks again!

Hey guys, a friend is shooting a short that is set in a dark basement WWII, with a man hiding from the army in the pitch black and lighting a match every now and then to reveal only his face and a face of another person (as he puts the match closer to them - need a radius of about 1 meter from the match to be lit) before it goes out again... the film is really structured strongly on its sound design and needs the suspense to work; ok, so as we are now discussing the budget we are starting to wonder what to shoot on. Obviously we are aiming at getting it down on 35mm, and being that it is short film (short short, as 40% of it is pitch black sound design) we might be able to afford it. Any particular tips in how to light it? Use fast stock and a real match? What if we shoot s16mm? would 500T would be enough for something like that? We will do tests on this no matter which way we go, but I figure I ask you guys since someone out there must have done something along these lines. For those in Australia, have you seen that KODAK 800T (I think it was 800T) advert, when the guy is on the toilet (an outside toilet) and lights a candle or match to expose stuff around him... the light goes out and he is pitch black... then it comes back, etc... it was a 30sec or so ad shown on ACS award night 2-3y ago... would love to get my hands on that or chat to someone that has seen it and can perhaps pass on their opinion on how they did it. I think 800T is discontinued now tho? Not sure... Thanks! http://www.lavproductions.com/macho.html

back to the subject of BL for a sec, how much are you renting it for for a day $$$? just curious :) Thanks

Hello STRANGER ... For the first flick on 16mm I reckon you will be more then OK with the BL. The BL is good as long as you got all the accessories to go with it (for instance the SYNC add on [make sure it has that and that it runs either 25fps or 24fps crystal, if it has Tobin installed or is BLEQ dont worry about this] and as David mentions blimped lenses - you will probably get a ZOOM lens with the KIT and will be fine using that). Remember to get a light meter out too :) For hand held work getting a swan neck viewfinder out helps too.... Have fun

LOL maybe she shot her film in 4 days and has no need for it any longer how about those SRs on eBay, are they fake Tim? I know you are pretty good at figuring fakes out ;) http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Arri-SR-Super-16-mm...QQcmdZViewItemv and http://cgi.ebay.com.au/2-Arri-S16mm-Camera...1QQcmdZViewItem

Hey G, thanks for the reply! I am contemplating keeping the camera as static as possible and doing minimal amount of moves. I also might steer from using too many CUs which I am a big fan off, and keep it most in MCU (although we are making this for DVD). The shot list reads weird at the moment, with the amount of MCUs in there; Regarding your lighting point, that the latter films had softer fills with some hard sources, I might try and aim for that myself, studying certain scenes from JB films that I am doing too (restaurant/bar/bedroom) keeping the style consistent I am a director, but wish to DP this too. That is to say, the main reason I got involved with this short is so that I can do dp/dir. I did that on my last s16mm short and really enjoyed it (although it was all exterior shoot - CSI Miami meets Traffic's Mexican scene) My actors are polished off, actions are ready, dialog is memorized... basically I will only be worrying about the shots on the day. No doubt this is to be my biggest learning curve to date in regards to dp-ing. A good friend will operate, who DPs often, and even more often focus pulls on TVCs etc... so I should have some good advice from him (i.e. "dude, that's under exposed") I am still chasing down a good gaffer that wont mind me being such a noob and will have advice to pass on... Interested? :) I am yet to put the lighting package together but want to still wait for that ultimate location (that has us waiting) to confirm or deny us using their space. Like you said, a lot will be up to location and art department! Oh and re: the silhouette shot, you are right, that is what I was going to do... not light the FG at all and expose to the city lights in the BG. The practical lights that I place in the room should make the silhouette shape stand out a bit. On the off chance that the practical lights may not be enough to give me nice edge lighting I was considering placing a keno tube between the actors and the window... the scene is not just that master shot of them in silhouette but few MCUs of body bits as well... which have to match; Thanks again for the great post G. cheers Lav lav (at) translation the movie (dot) com

Ok, hope this works: http://www.translationthemovie.com/Bond%20WEB/index.htm Pictures (from the top down): 2, 4 & last 4; Also, 12 & 13 - hale berry - in case we shoot at the ice bar;

wow that sucks. all that work of hunting through images to show you the style and no one can even open them... darn! I might have to copy some of the images onto my server and link them up from there; here is a direct question mean time. the two figures making 'love' in the bed with the CBD view through the window. I would like to silhouette them and have the lights soft in background stand out. I presume that I would have to light the bed and the two figures rather 'dark'. Any tips on which lights would be the right tool for the job? Ill get onto the stills for explaining the style of bond :) cheers,

Hey bud, thats a tough question... one that can set of a two hour discussion between my DP and myself :) To best answer, I have posted some pictures - shots I think would work for this short; http://www.jamesbondmm.co.uk/images/bond-girls/ltk/cl007.jpg http://www.jamesbondmm.co.uk/images/james-...nnery/sc001.jpg http://www.jamesbondmm.co.uk/images/bond-girls/tnd/th010.jpg http://www.jamesbondmm.co.uk/images/bond-girls/tnd/th008.jpg Thanks mate! PS. we might shoot at Chill on Queen (ICE BAR) as one of the Venues in question in which case Die Another Day might be what we try and do (only in the case of this venue tho): http://www.jamesbondmm.co.uk/images/bond-girls/dad/hb013.jpg http://www.jamesbondmm.co.uk/images/bond-girls/dad/hb010.jpg

Lol when did this forum turn into a dating site >! LOL Yo G, we can definitely meet up mate. What do you and who do you work for in Brissy? Just trying to see why I haven't run into you before... (I don't do too many TVCs). Which Gaffer do you work with? DPs? You can email me at lav @ translation the movie . com (all 1 word) and we can arrange to meet up. At the moment I am flat out with locking in locations and then auditioning these fine woman, then of course rehearsals and then the shoot (10th and 11th of March). If anyone sees pass the 'woman in bed' line can you post any tips on how to make this film look more James Bond-ish?! :D (somehow i am starting to doubt this thread will work out) Cheers,

Hey all, currently working on a short film which we are to shoot mid March on 35mm. I am still locking of the locations, should be done in the next two days, and will post pics as soon as I can. Meantime, I know we are using Aaton 35III, MK2 full kit and pretty much I should be able to get any light. The budget for this is not great, but we can definitely squeeze a lights package that is decent. The stock has not yet been decided on either as we are waiting till those locations are locked off. Its not a James Bond rip off or parody, actually it has nothing to do with JB, but the world it is set in reminds me of Jame's world. The lead male is wearing a taxido and all the pretty girls (and I mean, pretty!) are wearing fancy evening dresses. One of the venue in mind is a Jazz bar, with mahogany colours, rather dark and the other is Ice bar, completely opposite... white ICE bar, with the actual bar that glows and looks like water is flowing through it?! Two very different locations but both could do that whole James Bond thing... Either way blues will be pumped up in the background (along the lines of Mr Tom Waits - we got an artists that just is amazing and very similar style) 2nd scene is the bedroom scene. It could end up being a normal every day bedroom or maybe (just maybe) a nice hotel room with a view of the CBD through the window. Our lead makes love to an attractive woman here. Ok, so with this limited info before you, any tips in how to best get the James Bond feel out of it? I am particularly interested in lighting suggestions? If we do the hotel bedroom scene and we are on 10th floor, it might be difficult on our limited budget to do anything else then place small lights around the room.. hidden. Ultimately i wanted that scene to have them silhouetted but that might be difficult if there is no balcony outside and only 10 stories high drop. The CBD lights may not be strong enough to do that? If we however shoot in a suburban home on ground level, we can get lights shining in through the windows... the bar scene, any tips on lighting the MCU. Most of the stuff is the lead talking to the camera (guy off camera actually) with folks mingling behind him in suits and fancy dresses.... Any tips on female CUs? Want to make sure they stay pretty :) Soon I should have venue locked off... and that will allow for pics to be posted; thanks!

Cheers Tim, I really appreciate that! Off to write a small bit about my last short film for ACS newsletter... I'll try and mention the forum as well, since much input was given to me by its members :D

Hey Tim, Wasn't me that bought it, unfortunately! I was inquiring heaps and watching it, that is for sure, but missed it near the end! I'll have to keep my eyes open for that perfect s16 kit, although my local rental company is making it difficult for me, reducing their rental prices to insignificant amounts :) Perhaps that is normal when one rents from the same place a lot ? None the less I would love to own a s16 kit... Re: 16BL looking like a real 'film' camera... difficult to admit, but when i first laid my eyes on the BL, that is exactly what i thought! I remember getting it out from a store (collage store) even though I wasn't mean to, as we were only just learning reversal film and they only let us touch STs (whilst supervised)... and here I was handling sound camera, that looked like a 'real' film camera... so trivial and so long ago now, but oddly fresh in my mind; Cheers, Lav 'sucker for 16BL'

Hey Sam, that was a great comment mate. The 16BL is a tank :) I think I like the fact that it is really steady on my shoulder, most likely due to the weight. The finder fits me perfect and the camera never separates from my head. The blimped lens makes it somewhat easy to pull focus if done by an operator at the same time... but no, it is not just you who thinks its too heavy and who would rather use a different camera or do 50 other things :) I am surprised no one attacked 'loading' of BL. I used to hear loaders complain that it was hard/impossible/annoying to load... none of which bothered me, I owned it, of course I could load it fast with no errors. anyways, thanks for the post Sam. It made me laugh. I'm off to a physio, got to work out with her daily since my shoulder re-construction :D

I'd say it is fake only because the seller has 0 (zero) feedback and is selling a camera with nice pics. I mean, he/she bothered to take the nice pics and list it rather well, with a PayPal account and yet has had no previous experience with eBay? In these kind of cases all you got to do is ask if Local Pick-up is ok? Ask to check the camera out before the auction... I would be 99% sure it is fake auction, but not because of the $1 start. I am a fan of those $1 auctions. I get sucked in, end up watching it for a week cause it keeps floating around $500 mark and then on the last day it reaches hights of $10K and I am right there with them, bidding like an idiot, merely because by now i think i earned to win it no matter what (having spent a week watching it). $1 bid also reduced listing fees from eBay.... not that it matters much; Oh and lastly, if you ever think its fake, report report report...