Joe Lotuaco

I have it and use it. But I only use it with my small camcorder, nothing like a DVX and definitely not something like an XL2. The weight that it comes with is only 2 1/2 lbs i think, so a camera heavier than that would throw the thing out of balance even if you were to adjust vertically where you hold it (you basically want to be holding the whole thing at its center of gravity). It works really well and I've done reverse "dolly" type shots where the subject was running towards the camera and I was running backwards and people ask how I did it thinking i used some sort of wheelchair or something. But I wouldn't use it for any kind of serious work with a camera bigger than your average consumer camcorder. And yea, this thread should at least be moved to the general forum ;)

Whenever I do handheld work without any special gadgetry, I always try to maintain a sort of "3 point" system of contact. Meaning, the camera is connected to my body at 3 or more points. For example, if you are using a camera such as a DVX/HVX I would use the eyepiece instead of the flip out screen. The eyepiece held firmly, but not too firmly, onto my face is one point and then I hold the camera with both hands with both elbows in and in constant contact with my body. So between the eyepiece, and my elbows, that's three points of contact. The rest is keeping my body steady, knees bent, and learning how to walk in a "gliding" fashion. I've noticed really shaky handheld stuff comes from when the operator uses a camera such as the DVX with the flip out screen and their arms are held elbows out. By keeping the camera in firm contact with your body, the camera inherently becomes steadier. I love using the XL2 for handheld work since you hold it on your shoulder making handheld work have a smoother, more natural movement in my eyes. But if you are using heavier cameras, it definitely helps keeping takes as short as possible or to have a lower back made of titanium and carbon fiber :) There was a picture I saw awhile back of various positions a still photographer can use to get steady shots. It showed various ways a photographer can use his body as a tripod and support when taking pictures with a longer lens to minimize blur. I wonder if I can find it again. It's come in handy for me on more than one occasion when shooting still and motion pictures.

The camera is a 1/3" sharp and is a c/cs mount according to the specs. The 8mm lens I bought for it is a c-mount as well. Here is the link to the ebay auction. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=270054784307

I completely agree with David. As a fellow film student, I can understand your hesitations, but I'd also jump at any solid chance of getting as much experience as possible. You never know when another opportunity like this might come up, especially at this stage when you can almost fall back on the "well I am a student" excuse when something doesn't go as expected, you can't really say that when you're getting paid. There are a million ways to look at it, but in the end, wouldn't you want to go into your first paid feature as DP knowing that you've had the experience of shooting a feature already? If anything, use the stress and pressure to push yourself, find your limits, and I can almost guarantee you that you'll find something within yourself that will undoubtedly benefit you in the future. The experiences of shooting your first feature is beyond any dollar amount. If the director definitely wants you for the project, just go with it, have fun, and learn by doing. Best of luck.

It did seem to have pretty fast cuts at some points, at least too fast for me. For a DP reel, I would think you'd want to stay with the images as long as possible to "show off" what you can do. Also, I kind of feel the song distracted me too much from what I was watching and the shots of a live band playing made me think I was watching a music video rather than a reel. Now, I've never put together a reel and I don't have one myself and I'm not trying to be the Roger Ebert of reels, but it's just my gut feeling when watching reels. Search for Eric Fletcher, he posts on these boards sometimes, but he is a steadicam operator and I like his reels that he has on his site. Since it's an operator's reel, obviously the shots are much longer, but they're only put to instrumental music that doesn't distract from the visuals at all. Most reels I've seen use music that are without vocals and are just subtle instrumentals. On a side note, we recently had a professional editor come in to talk to our class and when asked about the trends when it comes to the speed of cutting, he said the fast cutting which became so popular in recent years was a result of the influence MTV has had on our culture and that with the advent of youtube, cutting will probably start getting slower.

With millions of songs out there, I'd say check out http://www.billboard.com and go down their singles charts and listen to a sample of the top songs and see which one fits your style the best. I've noticed a few songs from several different genres used over and over in commercials, the ones that I can think of are various versions of Johnny Cash's "Walk the Line" and a Michelle Branch song that I can't think of the name, but the melody sticks out in my head. This is sort of related, but is there any issues using copyrighted songs for demo reels? Since technically a demo reel is a sort of advertisement to get a person work that they might get paid for, would using a song such as a U2 or Johnny Cash song be considered used for commercial purposes?

I see you are in LA, but Du-All Camera in NYC is one of, if not the best, places to get your K3 repaired. I had my K-3 overhauled by them for about $225 which was then covered by a 90 day warranty. Check out their website for more details of what the overhaul involves. http://www.duallcamera.com/ Their warranty came in handy when my camera stopped working in the middle of a shoot and they covered the diagnosis and repair of a broken take up sprocket under the warranty (a VERY good thing for a film student who has to pay for processing and transferring of film out of pocket). I have nothing but praise for their knowledge, professionalism, and quality of work, on a camera that's probably twice as old as I am. As for the film dipping in and out of focus, a classmate of mine has a K3 that sometimes the pulldown claw misses the sprocket holes and just pushes the film off the film plane on every frame. This would happen after triple checking to make sure the film was loaded properly. He never took his camera in to get looked at, so we still don't know what the cause was. It could also be your lens needs to be collimated, but that would probably cause your footage to be consistently out of focus.

Hello, This is one of my first little short films I shot on 16mm film besides class exercises. I've only started shooting on film and I got much of what I know (or think I know) from reading these forums, so I thought it'd be appropriate to get a critique from this community. It was shot with my K3 on a mix of 7265 (the exteriors) and 7266 (most of the interiors, some exteriors) b/w reversal. Unfortunately I could only afford a one light transfer, but it was a pretty poor transfer. It picked up a ton of contrast on some shots and I actually had to desaturate the transferred footage because it came back with a weird sepia tone and really odd green and red artifacts. Also, the matte from the transfer machine was visible and if it weren't for the widescreen mask I put on the final footage, you'd see the top of the frame at the bottom of the screen. But transfer issues aside, Id like to hear comments about the footage from a technical standpoint. It was an experiment for the most part as we haven't taken our lighting class yet and I lit the interiors with a couple halogen lights bought from home depot. I also realize I need to get my wide angle lens collimated as you'll see the handheld dancing shots are entirely out of focus even though the lens was set to infinity. Anyway, I'd love to hear what you guys have to say as far as what things technically I need to work on for future projects. Thanks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2ghqfwU8MM

I find the Chris Doyle/Wong Kar Wai collaborations to be particularly inspiring.

I own a K-3 and I have used Bolex Rex 5's at school. This past month I have used both side by side on several student projects, so I can give my personal experiences with both... The K-3: I love it. I purchased mine from another member on the forums here and I had it overhauled by Du-All Camera here in NYC. I've already put close to 1500' of film through it and the vast majority of it came out extraordinarily well. In the middle of a shoot, the camera did die on me and was later discovered to be due to a broken take-up sprocket. Du-All covered the repair of the sprocket under their warranty from the overhaul and now the camera runs super smooth. I just got back 500' of footage I shot after the repairs were done and registration and everything was perfect. Except now I think my pressure plate is scratching my film. Anyway, part of the overhaul by Du-All involved removing the loop formers making the camera fully manual loading, meaning I have to form the loops myself and thread the film through manually. I much prefer this method, it's very simple to load and gives me peace of mind that a loop former might not move away from the loops far enough when I close the lid and cause a loop to be lost creating a jam. A classmate of mine also bought a K-3, but the one he got had several bigger problems, something with the pull down claw was causing the film to go out of synch with the drive sprocket and the camera would constantly lose the loops, etc. I have noticed that the spring motors in the K3s tend to be more tempermental when you wind it. If you wind it all the way till the crank stops turning, it can cause the motor to jam up. Also, I recently shot outside this past weekend in 20 degree weather and it seems that after the camera is outside for a half our or so, the motor slows down to the point where it jams. I'm pretty sure this is because the viscosity of the grease increases and just gums up the sprockets and stuff inside. Once the camera warms up, it's fine again. I also love how the K3 feels when operating on a dolly or handheld, it just feels like a real camera in your hands and with the stock zoom lens feels more balanced. The Bolex: Very nice cameras. I like them, but personally I prefer my K3. Loading them is very simple and since the loop forming mechanisms are all metal, they autoload very quickly and easily. However, I have experienced issues with this. Sometimes the film gets pulled through by the drive sprockets, but doesn't get engaged on the pull down claw, so it can seem (to the novice at least) that the film is going through fine, but it's not getting stopped intermitently in front of the gate to get a steady exposure, so all you get back is 100ft of streaked film. It's a more complicated design inside than the K3 so I guess it's just more more to cause a problem, but that's just my paranoia. I don't particularly like the shutter mechanism of the bolex's as it was mentioned it has some prism reflex system, and I'm told you have to compensate for 1/3 of a stop because of the light lost to the viewfinder. The K3 doesn't really have this issue, but it's not that big of an issue anyway. Also, I have read that depending on when the Bolex was made you have to compensate your light readings and rate the film differently (ie. rating 100ASA film as 125ASA to compensate for shutter design changes). I'm sure it's not that big of a deal, but it just seems like it's one more complication involved with the bolex. I do like the motors better on the Bolex than the K3. The Bolex's I've used can go as high as 64fps where as the K3 only does 48fps. Also, they seem to take a beating better. Even with the school's cameras changing hands (inexperienced hands mind you) so often during a semester, the motors wind and run solidly each time. The hand crank is also a hundred times easier on your hands to crank a bolex. It can also be very confusing when trying to pick the right one as there seem to be so many different models and design changes over the years. With the k3 you only have to worry about M42 mount or bayonet mount. As far as synch sound goes, I don't think either camera will be good for it unless your shooting outdoors and your subject is a good distance away from the camera and you have them mic'd. Both sound like sewing machines, but the Bolex is quieter if only by a little bit. I haven't heard either of these cameras with a crystal synch motor, so I don't know if it makes a big difference in how loud the cameras run. The most famous example of the K3 on this forum was done by a member who shot a music video that looked amazing on a pretty standard K3. So music videos at least are possible with a K3. If you run a search you'll be able to find a link to the video. But in the end, if you get creative, you can make either of them work and it's also a matter of how much you are willing to spend.

How much hard drive space does audio take up when recorded through a USB pre-amp such as the Tapco? I'm more familiar with video rates, but I can't recall how much audio takes up. Say you record 24-bit/96Khz audio, 1 minute of audio = X MB of hard drive space?

Actually we filmed in the Great Hall at my school, it's actually in the building that houses the film department. It's basically a large cathedral/ballroom type room built in the early 1900's I think. It was built as a gathering space for the whole school. The school is The City College of New York and most of the buildings are of the same gothic architecture and the buildings were built from the actual rubble from when they first started building the NYC subway system. I haven't been into filmmaking for too long myself, but I'm already in love with film as a medium and prefer it to anything digital. And I too would like to see what other people have done with their K3's or anything else of the "DIY" type.

I'm just a lowly first year film student, but I've always loved seeing pics of other people's DIY setups on the boards here so I thought I'd post mine from my final project's shoot yesterday. I actually got the idea for the video tap from someone else here on the forum who made one for a bolex I think. Anyway here are some pics, it's not the most elegant and probably not the safest setup, but with a 45min window of time to load in, setup, shoot, break down and unload the location with just me and my actress, I was in an extreme rush... I need to get a proper fluid head. I only had a photo ball head on my tripod, luckily I didn't have to do any fancy panning tilting moves. And that's a 90w halogen spot from home depot gaff taped to the top of the camera with a piece of 1/2 white diff on a 660w lamp socket. You can also see the 5in LCD that I gaff taped to the tripod for the monitor. Here you can see my dolly and the nice mess of wires. I did my best to keep everything relatively tidy, but with no one to wrangle as I dollied, I had to get creative. Not pictured is the standard cable release on the front release button that lets me run the camera "remotely". This setup allows me to do some fairly simple and short dolly moves, but so far I haven't been in a situation that a shot was beyond the capabilities of this setup. The band clamp is only on there to keep the camera centered on the viewfinder, but it's not completely tightened down. The piece of gaff tape is actually the main support for the camera. This allows me to very quickly and easily take the camera off when I need to do critical focusing and/or framing. The camera is a very low lux standard color CCTV camera and was $50 off ebay and works wonderfully. I use one of those universal AC adapters that I had lying around and I have a BNC to RCA adapter so I can use a portable DVD player for a monitor (I borrowed the LCD from a production company I work for). I also had to get an 8mm lens so that the image of the viewfinder would fill the entire frame of the CCTV camera. I think I paid $12 off ebay for it. So for about $75 I got video tap that works very well for monitoring framing when on the dolly. Not the greatest, but it works for the kinds of little projects I do.

Also, depends on what NLE you will be editing in. If Avid, PC or MAC will work since Avid works on both. If Final Cut Pro, then Mac is your only choice. If Premiere, then PC. Personally, I'd take a look at the new Mac Pro and max out the graphics card, RAM, CPU, and HD space as far as my wallet would allow.

Wow...just wow... I attended the screening of Cinematographer Style today at the Hamptons Film Festival and I still have chills and my hand is still shaking a bit from it. Maybe because I'm only a film student, but seeing how this film was put together and finally hearing and seeing these great cinematographers talking so passionately about what they do, was just so incredibly inspiring. Gordon Willis was such a character and ever time they cut to him, I was so engaged in what he was saying. During the Q & A, John Fauer told quite a funny story about how shooting his interview went. How they got this huge grip truck and generator to his brand new house in Cape Cod expecting to need all the lights because they had to light his interview from the outside so as not to damage his brand new house by bringing everything in. Gordon wakes up to hear the trucks backing up into his driveway and says something like "What the heck is all this?! Just grab a damn kino and let's go!" Some people were worried that these great cinematographic minds wouldn't get enough screen time, but the way it was put together and the way it moved from one topic to another was so seamless to me, that it made what each person said that much more poignant. The fact that they made a point not to cut away to clips of movies really did make the audience feel more connected and aware of what each person was saying. Also, it was great that you got a good sense of the personalities of each individual cinematographer and what drives them which is something I've personally never seen before, even in Visions of Light. It was incredibly refreshing to hear two people completely contradict each other on a certain point, but both be completely correct. It has really given me an all new respect for cinematography and the work that everyone in the film and cinematographers everywhere do. That being said, when David came on, I nearly jumped out of my seat! I thought to myself "Hey it's David!!" You do look much younger than I thought you were :) After reading a lot of your posts on here about everything digital, I was expecting to hear more of your thoughts on this whole digital era when the topic got into digital technologies and how it is being utilized in cinematography. Also, they had mentioned that there were 3 ASC members that were attending the screening and I was wondering if you were one of them, but I unfortunately had to leave before the Q&A finished to get to the Aronofsky panel discussion so I didn't get to find out who was there. I thought maybe since The Astronaut Farmer was screening there you might have been one of the 3 members there. Speaking of which, I wish I could go back on Sunday to catch the screening of The Astronaut Farmer, unfortunately I can't due to a previous commitment to shoot a class project. Do you know if the film will be released either on DVD or theatrically nationwide? I've followed your production diaries on here and I almost feel like I was a part of the production. Needless to say I'm very excited to see it. Again, David, congratulations on the screening and thanks for all the insight and guidance you've so generously given everyone here on these forums. Seeing this film really showed how lucky we are to have you around here.

They don't list the price for the S16 conversion. Their website is also a little wonky and the links keep going to the Arri 16S S16 upgrade page. It does list the K3 overhaul price on the services homepage. I did bring my K3 to them a few weeks ago for the overhaul and got it back. They did an excellent job and collimated both my lenses. What mask are you referring to? Everything through the viewfinder looks as it did prior to the overhaul. I know Jeff cleaned it out, collimated my lenses, and checked my speeds. He also did the Pro Upgrade. What they don't say on their website is that the $225 includes the pro upgrade. Just an overhaul was $175 and the pro upgrade was $50. He did a very nice clean job of removing the loop formers and sealing the two holes left by the plastic loop formers. Now the camera runs smoother and is actually pretty easy to load manually after practicing with some white leader film. I've only invested about $350 into this camera which includes the cost of the camera and I've got a pretty mechanically sound K3, perfect for all my school projects (especially since my school only has 4 Bolex H16s for about 75 students).

How much did it cost you to have your K3 modified by Duall? Did they just switch the gate or did they modify the viewfinder, realign the lens, etc?

How do you get them on your ipod? Do you rip the audio from the dvds? Anyway, I particularly like Edward Burns' commentary on Sidewalks of New York. For one reason or another it always makes me think "you know what, you don't need $20million to make a good movie." I like how he talks about all his "low budg" techniques to save money. Granted he is Edward Burns and has friends in all the right places, but most of what he talks about, I have tried to translate into my own projects with positive results.

On my K3, the cover plate did push down on the button which opened the loop formers when I put the lid on. The Bolex's loop formers are opened with a system of mechanical levers while the K3 uses strings and pulleys, so that's why I referred to the Bolex being more "mechanical".

I would think that would be at least a major factor in it. If the film is pulling the pressur plate back, then the pressure plate isn't holding the film up to the gate properly and the frame is off the film plain ever so slightly and probably just enough to still give you an image but blurry.

Well, you can have a little more faith in these cameras than just "hope for the best". I may not have nearly as much experience with this camera as some, but since I'm so inexperienced with it, I say "if i can do it, anyone can". I just picked up my first couple rolls of film that I shot tests on from the lab today and my K3 has rock solid registration (camera was on locked on tripod and the image was rock solid). I think what Bernie might be referring to is the loop formers that are located above and below the gate. Most people have them removed which makes the camera a "manual load" camera since you now have to form the loops yourself. You form the top loop, run the film through the gate, form the bottom loop and back through the main drive sprocket rather than letting the the loop formers control the path of the film as you run it through. I'm not sure what Bernie is referring to by "feed and take up rollers" since there is only the one drive sprocket with the "keepers" on the feed and take up sides of it. If he's referring to the the loop formers (which I think he might be, since he mentioned the string system), when you close the lid the loop formers are pulled away from the loops that were formed. You can see this happen when you push the little button thing located below the lower loop former. I would assume on some K3's the strings that are used to pull the loop formers away from the loops when the lid is closed, get worn or stretched over time and lose their ability to pull the formers away thus interfering with the film loops once the camera is running. I'm in no way an expert on this camera, I'm just making my most logical assumption of why the removal of the loop formers is usually the first thing recommended to do to a K3. I know on the Bolex's the loop formers are moved away from the loops mechancally so it doesn't have the same problem. Soooo, perhaps that might be what's causing your problem. If a loop former isn't getting pulled away from the loop, it might interfere in some way causing the film to get moved off the pull down claw making the film move around in the gate. Just a guess. But these cameras are built like tanks...except for the string system used to move the loop formers.

Very, very interesting information. How do you keep track of such a complex post workflow? Or maybe the better question is what goes into your decisions in choosing your post workflow? With this whole digital revolution that seems to be going on, it seems like there are an infinite number of options available to you. Also, with all the experiences you've had working with DI, do you think this will affect your decisions on future projects? Do you think you'll be finding yourself saying "we'll fix it in post" more?

How do these production companies work exactly? What do they typically expect in return for partnering up with a lo-no budget production since they don't try to own/brand the film? Are there companies like this in NYC? I'm sure there would have to be since NYC has a pretty significant indie community, right?

I am the current new owner of one of Kirk's K3's and the auto load wasn't perfect, it worked great up until the film would get to the bottom side of the drive sprocket. I did run it through at 8 fps and what I did was I "caught" the film after it came out of the bottom of the pressure plate and before it entered the bottom of drive sprocket. Then I would run it a little bit more, but NOT letting it go through the drive sprocket. Then I would open up the lower keeper and then set the film in between the keeper and the sprocket making sure the sprocket holes caught the teeth of the drive sprocket, then I'd close the keeper and run it through like normal. Seems like alot , but I managed to load the camera pretty quickly and smoothly. However, the camera is currently in Du All Camera's hands getting an overhaul and the mentioned pro upgrade. I'll post the results when I get the camera back.

Hey Dan, Looking at your price list...I think I got ripped off. I dropped off my first rolls of film to Pac Lab this morning to be processed and transferred. I had two 100' rolls, one 7222 b&w neg and one 7266 b&w reversal. The 7222 got split into two rolls because I had a jam in the camera. So they treated it as two rolls, which I guess is understandable. It cost me $170+ to process and rank telecine transfer 200ft of 16mm film to minidv. According to your pricelist, you guys would've cost me less than half that. Does what I got charged sound a bit high to anyone else?