Dirk DeJonghe
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Everything posted by Dirk DeJonghe
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'Printer lights' system for dummies please....
Dirk DeJonghe replied to Stephen Perera's topic in Film Stocks & Processing
Printer lights are used in additive colour systems. The white light of a halogen lamp is split into red, green and blue channels, using mirrors and dichroic filters. In each channel there is a light valve, which is nothing more than a mechanically actuated diaphragm controlling the light output of each colour channel. here is a drawing by Brian Pritchard. The lights go from 0 to 50 with 0 being completely closed. During colour timing, the best value for each channel is determined. 25-25-25 is the middle setting, 31-31-31 would be printed one stop darker, 20-30-30 would be more red, etc. -
I am sure there are a couple of A-Minima owners in the US who would want to test your prototype.
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"Fallen Leaves"
Dirk DeJonghe replied to David Mullen ASC's topic in On Screen / Reviews & Observations
Hello Santi, It was agreed from the beginning that both direct contact prints and digital scans to DCP were needed. On his previous film 'Other Side of Hope', the negative cutting and film grading was done first and then the scanning and digital grading trying to match the film grading as closely as possible. There were about 25 direct contact prints made of 'Other Side of Hope', mainly shown at premieres in many different languages (subtitled). For 'Fallen Leaves', we did the 4K scan first and remote digital grading, sending over a preview every couple of days. Negative conforming and film grading was done after the approval of the digital version. Since in both films there was a digital and an analog version planned, I had to grade the digital version respecting the negative as much as possible and trying not to introduce any digital-only tricks. Aki commented that in only a couple of years since the previous film, digital laser projection of 4K DCPs has made tremendous progress, certainly in high-end festivals such as Cannes. We finished the DCP preview for Cannes selection minutes before the train from Kortrijk Belgium to Lille, France left. The trains in France were on strike but the producer Mark was lucky to be allowed on the single train to Paris that ran that night because the train crew needed to get home, no payment was allowed. Over all, my guideline for film and digital grading is to respect the negative as much as possible. -
The A-Minima has very specific spools, unlike any other camera. You only need two parts, the center core and the flange, identical left or right. I had about 50 spools in stock, they were all sold by us with fresh filmstock and processing and scanning included. Not one has been returned for processing since several years, the empty spools are apparently worth more than the filmstock, processing and scanning (roughly 150€ each). This is a pity for the A-Minima owners who want to use their nice camera and can't find the spools anymore;
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Have you thought about making Aaton Minima 200ft reels? They are plastic, left and right sides are identical, with a core in the middle. They are nearly impossible to find. I can supply one if you want, or someone in the US. This would be a very useful and fun project that would make you many friends around the world.
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Since we began scanning with our Scanstation two years ago, we noticed the same lateral unsteadiness on Super 8 scans while Standard 8, 16 and 35mm were rock steady. It turns out there is a 5 frame repetition of the lateral movement. After talking to Kodak and Lasergraphics, this is what we found: 1. Kodak perforates the S8 film cutting 5 perfs at a time and the 'knife' cutting the perforations is slightly skewed, not perfectly straight to the edge of the film. When asked why this is not yet fixed, Kodak replied 'it is the consumer division'. 2. The Scanstation adjusts each frame by looking at the perforations and adjusting both horizontal and vertical position of the frame. Because of previous complaints, the scanning software now has an option to only do the vertical positionining of the frame, improving the unsteadiness introduced by the skewed perforations. 3.Using the Resolve Stabilize function, most shots can be easily stabilized. You need to do it shot by shot.
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"Fallen Leaves"
Dirk DeJonghe replied to David Mullen ASC's topic in On Screen / Reviews & Observations
Thanks for all the attention. The film was shot entirely on 5219, processed normal. Timo Salminen is the DOP; I have worked on the previous Kaurismaki film 'The Other Side of Hope' as well. What do you want to know about the technical parts of this film? -
Cine-Mitchell recorder question
Dirk DeJonghe replied to Chris Van Horn's topic in Film Stocks & Processing
We do this workflow several times per week, mostly to 35mm camera negative, but several times per month to 16mm. We also make 16mm optical sound negatives and contact prints with optical soundtrack; Most of our work in this area is digital-film-digital to add analog feel to digital images. We accept any resolution from HD to UHD and higher. -
I got CH-DTPQ-01 and happy with quality and service, I asked a couple questions and they were promptly answered. If you order via their website, you can get 10% off, the code is PROAIM10 (don't know if it still works).
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I bought a new dovetail and bridgeplate for my Aatons from ProAim recently. The price was very reasonable and the quality is good. Not more than 150€ for both, brand new. Proaim is an Indian company making tons of grip equipment, tripods etc.
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There is one aging effect that you cannot stop by freezing and that is cosmic ray fogging; it is a bit like X-rays but much lower dose over a very long time. It affects high speed stock a lot more than say 50D, but even then 15 years is a lot. I recommend shooting a minute of so in various conditions, overexposing already one stop to start and ask your filmlab their opinion.
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AGFA-GEVAERT, Agfa Gevapan 36, Reversal Film 880
Dirk DeJonghe replied to Benjamin Bosko's topic in Film Stocks & Processing
Gevapan is B&W film, not suitable at all for E6. -
Kodak 7207 & 7219 - Rich Blacks - Grain
Dirk DeJonghe replied to Boris Kalaidjiev's topic in Film Stocks & Processing
First, start with viewning through the proper input LUT in Resolve, see my document below (previously uploaded). I attach it again because many people found it helpful. Cineon Log to Rec709 needs a LUT before anything else to compensate for the 'curve'. The general rule is to keep 'blacks with detail' at -4 stops, but this is a matter of personal preference. Underexposing will NOT give you deeper blacks, overexposing slightly and printing down will. I suggest you start with 2/3 of a stop overexposing. Using the Input LUT as described in the document, you will see if you need to bring down the overal exposure with offset or increase exposure. This is before doing any 'real' colorgrading. CineonLog_DaVinci.pdf -
We are glad to have been involved for the lab work for two major films shot on 35mm: "Fallen Leaves" (Prix du Jury, 2023 Official Competition) and "Occupied City" (Steve McQueen).
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It helps to understand how film densities of a negative are converted into Cineon Values. Have a look at the sensitometric curve. The Y-axis is the film density, increasing with exposure (X-axis). The Cineon Log file is created by scanning (linearly) the density of the film and writing them in Cineon Values ranging from 0 to 1023 (for 10 bit). Why is it called LOG since it is a linear transpose of film densities? Very simple, the X-axis is LOG Exposure, so the relationship of Exposure to Film Densities to Cineon Values is Log. During scanning from negative, the scanner will calibrate itself to the base density of the unexposed film (orange mask) in order to shift the RGB curves so that the black level falls at about 95CV.
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16 mm Gevaert expired/unopened film
Dirk DeJonghe replied to Istvan Ordog's topic in Cine Marketplace
Gevaert Photo Producten (Mortsel, Antwerp Belgium) merged with AGFA (Leverkusen, Germany) in 1964. So by deduction, this film must date from before 1964. Probably very heavily fogged by cosmic rays. -
A hair in the gate of the scanner would show up as white if scanning negative.
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To me it looks like a hair in the camera gate.
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Colour film conversion to BW in post
Dirk DeJonghe replied to Jonathan Martin's topic in Film Stocks & Processing
Kodak did not discontinue the sound recording stock, but it needs to be ordered specially without edgenumbering. The edgenumbers are smack in the middle of the picture otherwise. -
Traveling overseas with film: carry on luggage or postage?
Dirk DeJonghe replied to Maxim Lequeux's topic in 16mm
We do many shipments of both exposed (inbound) and unexposed films (outbound) all over the world. Probably over a thousand per year; never had any problems with DHL/Fedex/TNT. We tested the X-ray machines at the local Fedex facility and sent different boxes with 500T stock through the machine (1x, 4x, 8x). Even at 8x there was no visible or measurable fogging. Measured by densitometer and confirmed by scanning the negatives. All the X-ray problems we have seen are always when the customer brings the stock as checked luggage, but hand luggage is not much safer. Also, x-ray exposure is cumulative, a low dose multiplied by 6 or 10 may become visible. Remember, each time you change passenger flights, a new security scan is done. On the Fedex/DHL type of shipping only one scan is done at the beginning of the journey. You want to limit the number of sectors and shipping. In the last two weeks and next two weeks, I have shipments of rawstock to Chile, Japan, Greece, Kosovo, and most of the EU. Contact me if you want more info. -
Postproduction guidance - beginner
Dirk DeJonghe replied to Patricia Dauder's topic in Post Production
Patricia, I would advise to spend some time to get familiar with Resolve, I recommend the Ripple training available on their website. You will learn ten times faster than just reading the Resolve manual (over 4000 pages). DaVinci Resolve 18 Core training is a good starting point.