Larry Nielsen

One has to remember that before Arri went Three pin, they used to be four pin. And Panavision has been three pin for longer than I can remember. So its only fair to say Panavision didnt screw it up. The three pin configuration of whats hot and not for Arri also changes from Camera house to Camera house. I know you can't use your personal camera on a Clairmont Camera battery unless you use one of their power cables, or have made a jumper yourself to connect between the battery and the cable. Is this a bad thing? Not really, I don't know to may people stealing Claimont camera batteries for their own personal cameras, And no I own no cameras, just something that happened on a show I did when Clairmont did the support, but the DoP owned the cameras.

Don't trust, and I repeat don't trust hyperfocal on wide lenses, you may look at your worry wheel and see a 10mm with a 4 stop yeilds 3ft to infinite. put that lens at 3 feet and look down the finder, you'll be amazed at whats not in focus.

I know its probably a little late, but the rule of thumb about filters is correct before you difuse. if you think about it, it will help you determin what filters go where in the mattebox, this does not apply to a panaflex, because a behind the lens gel will cover the neg completely.

If it helps, the US film industry took a drastic turn during and after World War II. A great deal of equipment and language came from the military to Hollywood from those who served. Examples include the phonetic alphabet, the camera dolly, which was originally used to raise bombs onto and into planes, geared heads, from the gun turrets on ships. Interesting isn't it.

Ahhh, super 35 2:40, or 2:35 if Arri. A couple things you'll need to know, your mount will need to be spun, of offset in order for you to get the desired exposure area you want, Super 35 instead of academy if that makes sense. you'll have the desired room you seek on the side. Another thing to consider before going this route is do you have the budget for a DI (Digital Intermediate)? Or do you have money in the budget in post for an optical? You'll need access to either in order to get your print set up for the anamorphic squeeze. I'm guessing that since there is no money in the budget for Anamorphic lenses then there is no money for the post process of a DI or an optical. If that being the case then I would start considering 1:85, and letter box. Good luck have a great shoot, communicate well, and most of all....Have fun. Larry

I once had a loader named Mark, and on one particular shot the mixer had the boom operator ask me to hit loud sticks because of the placement of the camera, and the distance within the shot. I yelled Mark loud, and sure enough he walked right in the shot and yelled What back. Since that time I stress the proper terminology of "MARKER". Larry

I once had a loader named Mark, and on one particular shot the mixer had the boom operator ask me to hit loud sticks because of the placement of the camera, and the distance within the shot. I yelled Mark loud, and sure enough he walked right in the shot and yelled What back. Since that time I stress the proper terminology of "MARKER". Larry

I think I'll stick to lurking

Lemme see if I have this right, roll off 100' for a steady test/registration test. Break it, so I can load it into the take up side of a 16sr mag backwards, so I can rewind it on the camera, then transfer it back into the Aaton mag so I can shoot it again?

To answer your questions, it was shot on film, three camera's handheld 1000'mags, and zooms. Five months of shooting on location. No CG car crashes. Larry Nielsen

The WWII sequences were shot 65mm, everything else was 3 perf S35, Panavision, Primo lenses, wide open. Hope this helps some of you. Larry

Hmmm, all of this is very interesting. I know the I/O was controlled heavily as so not to achieve the common head aches of 3D, also as I look at my computer and type this, through my peripheral vision, my TV is out of focus, yet my computer screen is not. Funny how we can trick our eyes and accomplish depth of field. Also if everything on a screen is in focus, then don't we defeat the purpose of drawing attention to what we want our attention drawn to? I believe what it did capture was the ability to show us depth within a scene, different planes. I think if anyone see's this movie again with these thoughts in mind, they may appreciate it even more. Just my two cents. Larry

I was the 1st AC on "Avatar" in New Zealand, convergence was tied to focus, I had an additional 1st ac who pulled Inter Ocular, at times my I/O puller would override convergence based on the directors wants for a particular shot, and also set the I/O. At points during shooting to control the stereo effect my I/O puller would narrow or lengthen the I/O based on dollie moves, what was in the foreground, and just where I was racking focus to. There is a lot more to running a 3D crew than just pulling focus. Larry

I passed this test in 3 seconds, I gave it to the loader. Larry

The "Professional Cameramans Handbook" has a great deal of information in it about the proper way to fill out a camera report. In general a simple"A" or"B" will suffice for Camera. also add the full emulsion number, this will help later if you have to find a negative problem which may be a bad batch of film and not limited to one roll. Also when it comes to your fourth report, the one with the 4 squares with footage, it is much neater to do your math on the side and just write the actual footage in this box. Also, a small box with the number in it is best placed in there to show the continuation of a scene and take on a second report. So for instance, you've just completed take 12 of a scene, and you've run out of room on your first camera report so you're going to page 2. Of course the scene number goes in the scene box, and box 3 gets a little square put in it with the number 13. You'll see this in "The Professional Cameramans Handbook" by Carlson and Carlson. Believe it or not the lab, and the people in post will love you, so will the accountants when they look over your neat and clean report to see if they are actually being charged correctly for the amount of film actually be processed and transferred. Larry