Jon O'Brien

How is Beaulieu pronounced? I always wondered. Now's the time!

'Hannah' looks great, must try and see it. Charlotte Rampling - great face, very photogenic.

Sorry, I made a mistake there.

I wonder what it is with both those films. They seem to attract cult following. Both 2 perf .... hmm is there a connection.

Ha! Well, to whoever docked me, your attitude, as we Australians are fond of saying where merited, is bloody ridiculous. I say it again - I like Charlotte Bruus Christensen and Linus Sandgren They are current and I love the work of their's I've had the pleasure of seeing and I look up to them as heroes of cinematography!

How does the green/red button thing work? Just curious. I don't really care if someone docks me a point - but if they do I'm curious as to why they felt that way. There was a green point on my comment, and now it's gone. It was a post that didn't particularly deserve a green point, but it was pleasant to see and I didn't mind having it. Now my little green point is gone. If I knew who took it away, I would give them the same rude treatment.

Sony? Green? Is that the sound of lightsabres igniting? I will check it out. I've only got the DVD of that 2 perf classic.

I bought a Sony blu-ray player the other day and now after watching a few discs I'm really glad I did. I can see the film grain in the classic and contemporary movies I've been watching, it's as clear as that. In some ways I think the digital revolution has actually been an improvement for film. A lot of the movies on my screen, image wise, come out looking almost like the Kodachrome and Ektachrome 35mm slides my dad used to project when I was a kid. Very nice to look at.

He who pays the piper calls the tune. But if you're director, assert yourself that this is the way it will be. However ..... a good director looks for good ideas from others, and listens and looks around to see what others are thinking/saying. David Lean used to wander out of his trailer on the morning of an important shoot, look diffident for a while and have a coffee with his lighting cameraman Freddie Young, and sometimes simply ask "How are we going to shoot this scene?" Sometimes, at first, he just didn't know. And he didn't mind his crew seeing that he didn't know. So if in doubt, ask for ideas and input. But if as director you know it won't work, tell 'em. Musicians know music best. They're not always film minded as well.

I'd be interested to see examples of this motion blur in digital camera images.

Charlotte Bruus Christensen and Linus Sandgren are two favourites.

Thank you Dom. I've now got a 12V, 7.2 AH sealed battery, fuse holder with 5A and 10A fuses, and XLR connector etc. Bruce McNaughton advises that this is a good battery for this camera/motor combination, up to 30 fps. The power connection on the motor (Cinema Products) is 7 pin. On the other end of the power cable is a 4 pin Cannon XLR connector. What I need to do now is solder up a short cable with 4 pin female connector at one end, and fuse holder and clips for the battery terminals at the other. Have I got this right? The positive wire coming off the battery solders to pin 4. Between the positive terminal and pin 4 goes the fuse holder. The negative wire off the battery goes to pin 1. Is it correct that no other wires are needed, so ignore pins 2 and 3? I will wrap electrical tape around all the external solder joins. Later I will get a small plastic case to hold the battery and fuse holder. Hope I've got this right. Sounds basic but never done it before.

Can anyone tell me how many amps an Arri 2C motor generally is?

I didn't like the look of the Hobbit films. Perhaps it was the mood I was in when I was at the cinema. But no, there was more to it than that. I disliked the look very much actually. Was it just me or did others find these films somehow looking like tv just enlarged by a huge projector? That, and seeing The Force Awakens shot on film, propelled me back into real film. A force awakened. Real film. The thought occurred to me that I could get something like an Ursa Mini Pro and set myself up as some sort of cameraman with it but I think I'm reliably informed that there is no shortage of people with digital cameras around. I think I will stick with film ... put my pennies into film stock etc.

Well that's put that in it's place. Thanks for the advice!

Plus, what's the future of ENG cameras? Which way is it going? Or is that a separate topic?

Let's say you had some Nikon lenses already and wanted to shoot some digital footage for professional use - maybe what you shoot ends up online for a company website, and gets put on DVDs that they sell. You decide to get hold of a camera body that you can use with your Nikon lenses (the UMP comes with an adapter). What could the Ursa Mini Pro do that, say, the Nikon D500 couldn't? Would there be much difference in the look?

The magazine has arrived for my 2C and I'm getting closer to shooting some short ends. Just have to get some battery connections and do some soldering etc. There is a slight bit of play there at the top, where mag joins camera. Nothing alarming, but there is slight movement. Is it best to tape around not just mag lid but also where mag joins to camera?

Watching commercials on tv I see that the aspect ratio changes in a free way that I actually like. First an ad in 16:9, then letterbox 2.40:1, then something like 2.20:1, no logic to it. At first I think the programmers might have tried to put all widescreen ads together but now it seems to be a free mix. Wouldn't bother me if they started to chuck in 1:1 or whatever though 9:16 wouldn't really suit tv. Variety is the spice of life. I think 2:1, 2.40:1 etc for movies will remain, along with other varieties of aspect ratio. Music survived the rock revolution.

Nice!! Especially liked shots 2 and 4.

It's reality of this world to be a slave to something. Some masters are more cruel though. Looking at history, and not being tempted by utopian dreams, distortions for sake of profit and power, I know which system I would gladly prefer to work under. The one we've got. Beware the greener field dream, the field of political dreamers. It's a field of many sad graves - a fact of history repeated over and over. However we aren't to discuss politics here. There is no utopia in this life. Only better and worse systems that aren't perfect. What scares me is the 'new' social movement that thinks we can make for ourselves a perfect society. Shiver. I feel cold thinking that they actually believe the political hype. My breathe freezes at the incipient evil. I look towards truth instead.

I wouldn't say anymore that film is better than digital. I used to think it though. But all I know is that I prefer the look of film. And I think it's more prestigious (for whatever prestige is worth ... but come to think of it that can equal big profits, if you want to talk dollars coming in). That doesn't mean the majority think or see the way things I do - I'm told here often that, hey Jon, no one in the audience cares. Well, all I can really do is go by what I know, and I know that I really do prefer to sit and look at film, even if scanned and projected digitally. Much prefer it. And I believe you can often see a difference even with scanned film. Actually a huge difference if shot on 2 perf or something similar. I really liked 'Green Book' recently but was sitting there thinking this would have been out of the world amazing if they'd shot it on film. But that's how I see it. For tv, documentaries and so on digital is the way to go, but for feature movies I want film!

Did you get a Canon, Samuel? I think you were interested in the EOS C200?

I did laugh though, when I saw that camera. What a classic. I wondered if it was part of the gag. Very impressive collection of wires and gadgets but if that's standard now then fair enough. Speeds things up/makes it more efficient.

Yep you are right Robin, content is by far the most important thing. The rest is just how do you like your meat pie. Sauce on top? It's all good. Digital has won the day, I'm just putting my good word in for film. It needs every bit of support it can get. Agree about your to-the-point comment about money. Of course - it's really about getting food on the table and keeping up with the bills that hound one until we leave this life. The passion bit is nice though, if you can get it so to speak. That's all I'm on about. Peace to all.