Ryq Peden

Footage looks great! Yeah, I was planning on going to Gamma Ray for scanning. Any suggestions on where to get processing? I'm not willing to work with pro8mm due to a previous issue with them, not being a hater just figured that suggestion might come up, and I'm definitely looking for other labs.

Hey folks! I had someone shoot some footage of my band rehearsing in a fairly dark space. Metered with an iPhone app 1/50 f1.4 500. I'm not totally familiar with this camera, but know the internal metering might be off (not calibrated since purchase, AND vision 3 stock instead of whatever this camera was built to see, Kodachrome???). so wondering if I should push by a stop or two in processing? Sorry if this has been answered before, but I thought someone might be familiar with this camera and stock since both are fairly common, and could give me some specific advice. Thanks! P.S. shot with the internal filter bypassed (or, at least, I put the little screw thing in place, not sure if cartridge slots override that???).

Adding anything to the workflow during stop motion is adding a lot of extra time. If you've done any stop motion, then I'm sure you know waiting 5 seconds on each frame, when a fraction of a second will do, is adding hours or days of work to each scene.

Yeah, I definitely understand water is part of processing. This water got in during filming (so some wet before and some wet after exposure) and I can't exactly dry it out effectively. Dropping it in a bag of rice seemed like a bad idea since rice has lots of powdery residue on it. I also know that one should keep exposed film away from moisture during storage, so that is why I thought there might be issues. I had wanted to wait until I had a large batch of film to send in for processing and scanning, but I suppose I'll send this one in right away due to the water. Thanks for your responses!

I plan on developing it, so long as the lab has no issue with that. Any known damage that I might expect though? Let me put it another way, any known effects achieved by exposing film to water?

Rains came through today, a prism arc in the wake. I grabbed the trusty s8 and ran out to get the best footage possible. Unfortunately, the roads were flooded. I was on the sidewalk of a four-lane highway, the cars were driving in the middle lanes to avoid the water. A truck swerved to splash me. It completely soaked me and the camera. So much so that water got into the film. Never had this issue, so just wondering, would a lab touch this film? What type of damage should I expect? I'll let the lab know ahead of time and already marked it on the label. Hopefully it's salvageable,

A sound guy arguing about your cinematography tools is much lulz. I'd tell them I want the sound captured on wax.

Suspiciously similar: http://www.cinematography.com/index.php?showtopic=26182 Did you take care to load in complete darkness?

Any other labs besides Spectra offer ultrasonic cleaning after prep?

I would think they should have a deep and wide knowledge of lights. Or, at least, they will acquire it working. Maybe not in the sense of knowing every brands' lineup by model number, but should effectively know what types of lights and modifiers will offer them what they are looking for visually. That's really part of the job. If they've ever worked on low-budget films with skeleton crews they've probably had to do a bit of grip work along with Cinematography. Though, perhaps some folks just enjoy or respect the division of labor a bit too much and never learn the ins-and-outs of their companion departments. Makes sense to be able to communicate as effectively and efficiently as possible though.

How worthwhile is the ultrasonic cleaning that Spectra touts compared to how other labs process film? Sorry, off topic I know, but the previous comment made me curious if anyone has insight into this.

The Walking Dead is shot on Super 16, I believe. As was Moonrise Kingdom.

How old?

The issue is that go-motion, done practically, is a lot of work, requires specialty tools, and will increase time and budget. Most people just add blur using software nowadays. It's a breeze compared to doing it practically.

I'm not totally sure what you mean by technically effective. But, 35mm and 50mm are the focal lengths I use most.

Well, I suppose you might use them in many different ways. However, longer lenses will allow you to get close-shots and into the action without having to move the camera into the animator's work space. They also offer a shallow depth of field that helps emphasize the puppet's facial reaction shots or other details by isolating the subject from the background. One possible down-side is that long lenses compress distance, and since you are working in a miniature world, and depending on how you are using it, this can sometimes break the illusion. Macros can be used for close-up shots too, but require you to actually get up close. They can reveal amazing amounts of detail, and, for instance, you can put the camera on a slider on the stage itself and move through a scene. You are going to be up in the space of the animators though. You might want to avoid zoom lenses, as they can be disturbed and cause issue. Of course, you could always tape it down to one place, or just be really careful. You could even rely on onion-skinning from a software program to fix the issue, if it gets accidentally turned when trying to manually focus or whatnot. It is often best to pull focus manually, and take care to follow the action with the focus every 6th or 12th frame. If you use autofocus, it is best to do this remotely and don't pull-focus this way on every single frame (some will likely disagree with me on this point, but I think it seems unrealistic). Software like Dragon Frame will help you immensely with many of these issues (it offers onion-skinning, remote trigger, and punch-in focusing). Wider lenses that are stopped down will offer more area in-focus and require less focus pulling. They also offer less compression of distance so they help to maintain the illusion of a larger world.

Hi folks, in the market for a nice example of a s16 camera package. Particularly interested in a well-maintained Aaton XTR or similar, with production-ready accessories. PL-mount preferred. Would consider packages that include lenses, but my budget is not unlimited.

Remotely trigger the camera. Don't stand near the camera unless on concrete- as even hardwood floors will dip with your weight and introduce shake. Go out of your way to avoid bumping the lights. Set them up where the animators won't need to walk-by them (if possible), or lean on anything that might shift into the light stands. Design your lighting setup with the physical needs of the animators in mind. Everyone should wear black. The reflected light from clothing will show up and create inconsistencies. The Chiodo Bros mention that they prefer wide-to-normal lenses for proscenium type framing. Longer lenses and macros have their places as well. If you run into an issue where you get 50% through a take and a light gets bumped, or a puppet breaks, or some other disaster happens, but you can't get back on track 100%, just plan to shoot a cutaway or whatever. The distraction of the cut really helps to smooth things out when you aren't able to get back on track perfectly. I'm sure a lot of this is obvious and applies to more than just stop-motion, but maybe some of it will be helpful. Cheers!