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Will Montgomery

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Posts posted by Will Montgomery

  1. I whole-heartedly agree. Many people have been burned like this. To be safe, I'd ask the seller to put it back on eBay with a Buy-it-Now. Otherwise, you have no protection or recourse if it's scam. Good luck.

    EEEEEEKKKKK!!!

     

    Be EXTREMELY CAREFUL. People have been doing these "2nd Chance" offers to scam you big time. I've had this happen THREE TIMES and they were all NOT LEGIT. I don't know why movie camera equipment seems to be a big target of scam artists but it is.

  2. Kransogrosk-3 born with mechanical spring motor, and 30 m of film rolls.

    The elephant not be a flying elephant, if you add of wings,

    The elephant born to be of elephant, not to be of bird.

     

    I laughed for about 5 minutes when I read this. :D

     

    I do agree though. As an intellectual challenge, do it by all means, but there are other cameras out there what will acomplish what you want for the same amount of money once you consider all the time you'd put into it.

  3. Extremely grainy stock in comparison to even 500T. Colors kind of bland. That may have something to do with use in low light which is how I used it since if I had decent lighting I would have used 500T or 200T. The colorist I worked with said 800T was an "ugly" stock and was glad it was discontinued.

     

    Plus if you find it now it will be old and proper storage is more important with higher speed stocks.

  4. Speaking of candlelight, has anyone ever seen this sort of thing before? This a framegrab from an online behind-the-scenes video of Rome, so apologies for the poor quality.

    I was watching that show last night in HD and was impressed with the photography. Very rich tones.

     

    Looks like those are some sort of flare maybe to simulate real torches.

  5. I would love to order from Kodak Direct again, unfortunately they have headquarters here in NY, which means anything I buy is taxed 8.75 :-|. Plus UPS shipping makes it come out to about $50.00 for 100ft color.

     

    Ah, tax.

     

    I think my last order cost $12 for 2-day shipping about (8) 100' rolls (plus some super 8)... so I guess if you want just one roll it doesn't make sense but then doesn't everyone charge shipping?

  6. Does it look like this? :)

     

    32351.jpg

     

    At least you'll have the advantage of modern film stock over Stanley's famous scene from Barry Lyndon.

     

    Sounds like a fun shoot.

     

    There are many more experienced DP's here that can give you specifics, but I think more information would be needed. Like how wide or close you'll be going, what the set is like and if you'll want the background lit as well.

  7. You can always find film a dollar or two cheaper than Kodak, but why bother? You know stock directly from the source will be stored properly.

     

    If you're comfortable with short-ends and recans go for it. They can be fine. Maybe even 9.5 times out of 10. But if this is a paying gig I'd suck it up and just get stock direct.

     

    1-800-621-FILM(3456)

     

    Kodak 16mm Film Prices (100' reels)

     

    Vision2 50D 7201 $36.48

    Vision2 250D 7205 $36.48

    Vision2 100T 7212 $36.48

    Vision2 200T 7217 $36.48

    Vision2 500T 7218 $36.48

    Vision2 500T Expression 7229 $36.48

    Double-X B&W Neg 7222 $18.56

    Plus-X Negative 7231 $18.56

    Plus-X Reversal 7265 $20.59

    Tri-X Reversal 7266 $20.59

    Ectachrome 100D 7285 $36.93

  8. Q: "I have an Auricon Pro 600 Optical SOF and want to shoot Fomapan in it. Do you process that film? 16mm Fomapan 1R 100asa B&W. Thanks" Michael Carter

     

    A: We sure do, we run B+W reversal every day and Fomapan runs in the same chems as Kodak reversal.

     

    Brad Chandler

    Cinelab Inc

     

    ...

    Remember it (I had to say, forget it, earlier). Well now, it may indeed be worth a try at that.

     

    Ummm, no.

     

    Fomapan works in the older Kodak process appearently but not the newer one.

     

    I've had labs do the newer one with Fomapan and you get an interesting bizzare "flame" effect on the highlights that looks like a really old 80's video or something.

  9. I've achieved that look many times... when I forget to move the aperture back to the correct setting after opening it wide for critical focusing. In other words, massively overexpose your film.

     

    Now, the real question is less about film stock but more about your colorist in post I would think. You probably don't even want to overexpose in the camera too much (well, maybe 2 stops) but rely on your colorist to get what you want.

     

    If you blow out the exposure too much there might not be enough info to work with, but I've been amazed at what a good telecine machine can get out of poorly exposed film.

  10. Flying Spot in Seattle told me the transfer to MiniDv was

    comparable to 16...

    It's only really comparable to 16 when they do the transfer... they are the only company I know with a Shadow Super 8 telecine. That with their noise reduction produces an amazing image on Super 8. Pro8mm, Spectra and other houses that promote Super 8 Rank transfers do a good job, but FSFT is about the best I've ever seen on Super 8.

  11. What "pan and scan"? You shot in 4x3! You'd be cropping vertically to get 16x9 full-frame, not panning and scanning your 4x3 image horizontally. And you'd have the same number of lines to work with to do your crop whether you transferred 4x3 pillorboxed or 4x3 stretched to fill 16x9 horizontally. I guess you gain a little in that your horizontal is already 1920 across...

    Sorry if I used the wrong terminology, I meant paning up and down (vertically) to frame for 16:9 after the fact, not a good way to shoot obviously, but the low budget no setup shots I'm talking about benefit from fix in post (I know, the wrong why to think about it, but sometimes necessary.)

  12. While Spectra will treat you right and you should see a noticible improvement, the best Super 8 transfers I've ever seen came from Flying Spot Film Transfer in Seattle. They use a new Thompson Shadow telecine unit and have noise reduction and colorists that are amazing. Its the only time I've transfered Super 8 and thought it looked almost as good as 16mm.

     

    Yes, it costs money but save up and do it once for 200' or so of film just so you know the difference.

     

    http://www.fsft.com/

     

    Spectra has good folks who care and will give great advice, I just think they're a little limited by their machines.

  13. You want to look for M42 mount lenses that have an "Auto" & "Manual" aperture switch like the Pentax Super Takumar lenses. That will allow you to set it to manual and move the aperture ring as needed.

     

    The other way around it is to take a paperclip and jam in the little pin that allows control of the iris by a camera. Once you do this however, the auto function won't work on a 35mm camera if you care. I did this on my 8mm Peleng I think.

  14. Would it work that sound wave produced by the K3 would be digitally deleted? And then have clear sound?

     

    Thank you.

     

    If you are refering to the feature on Final Cut Studio's Soundtrack that will sample a sound and notch it out of an audio track, it can work amazingly well but keep in mind that it does remove those frequencies from the audio and might make the remaining audio a little thin. Also, you should record a clear few seconds of the sound alone IN THE ENVIRONMENT you are filming with the same mic placement for it to work properly.

  15. I have no practical experience with these cameras, but the A-Minima does require special 200' loads that are easy to get from Kodak USA, but not sure about in London or India. Just something to keep in mind.

     

    I believe the Xtera can handle larger loads which could be helpful in some situations.

  16. If I plan to take a standard 16mm frame and transfer it to HD, should I consider a horizontal anamorphic so I can get the most pixels out of the transfer and have the option of doing the "pan & scan" myself in my NLE?

     

    In otherwords, zoom in to fill the frame left & right then squish the vertical down so I get the entire film frame in, then expand it in Final Cut and move the frame up & down as needed?

     

    Does this make sense if I can't be present at the transfer to guide the framing or don't want to take the time during the session?

     

    Seems like this would give me more pixel info to work with rather than transfering will pillar boxes and zooming in with my NLE.

  17. As Walter points out more students will be going into digital "film" making and we will probably see a slow decline in traditional film usage.

     

    However, another interesting trend is the explosion of consumers editing their miniDV footage on their computer and some considering film for that use. I know about 4 or 5 people that went out and bought Super 8 cameras then some bought 16mm after editing miniDV for a while. One person told me after transfering their parent's Super 8 footage from childhood it made them yearn for that look which led them back to film.

     

    As more people get into video editing, even at the most basic level, a small percentage (very small) might consider film again. I think a few strategic ads by Kodak in consider video magazines could propel this. But as has been discussed already, Kodak doesn't want to be seen as pushing yesterday's technology.

  18. I am very interested in what Du-All did with your camera. I just dismantled mine due to collimation issues. I think the previous owner "played" with it as I saw screwdriver marks on many screws. :-(.

     

    Du-All worked on it about a year and a half ago. What he told me was he just widened the mask to reveal the S-16 area. It IS wider, but perhaps it doesn't fully cover the S-16 area... can't say for sure. It was only $75 so a can't imagine anything major was done.

     

    It does look "off center" if that helps... in other words it does wide into the right (as you look at the viewfinder) and I see it slightly curved on the far right edge.

     

    I don't consider this a pro camera, just something for weekend fun. All said I probably have about $700 invested in it so I probably should have just gotten a better camera from the begining but I like the ease of use and smallness of it for handheld work.

  19. I've heard good things about Pro8mm and Bonolabs. I was wondering if anyone could back this up or refute it, or if there isn't some other place I might look into.

    Thanks.

     

    Pro8mm has a spotty rep. While I haven't had problems with their processing, their telecine in both 16mm and Super 8 was flat, had hairs and dust bunnies (I verified not on the film, in the transfer) and ghosting images. They may have a good colorist and machine somewhere over there, but he hasn't worked on my film.

     

    Bonolabs - Their philosophy is to give a completely neutral transfer and let you adjust the color which is smart if you have experience doing that. I personally like working with a good colorist who can match the mood of the story and add a little something to the film. They do alot of government work transfering archival footage.

     

    I'd recommend talking to Flying Spot Film Transfer in Seattle. A smaller shop, but they have excellent newer equipment and talented colorists and decent standby rates.

    http://www.fsft.com/

     

    A company I work with here in Dallas, TX is called Video Post and Transfer. They do excellent work and have three suites, the low-end equipment being Pro8mm's highest end.

     

    http://www.videopost.com/

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