Mat Fleming

Hello, I have an SRII which I've been using a few years but I have a couple of questions about it now which I thougt I'd ask here: 1) The exposure meter on it has never worked, it never bothered me too much but I'm about to shoot a few things in a situation where it would be handy to have that reference. I've never had an Arri Battery for the camera either and I wondered if the meter operated on a different pin on the power supply or something like that so That I could get it running. Any Idea? 2) one of the gate parts of the pressure pates of one of the mag fell off. the bit with the silver part which sits behind the frame being taken and black all around it. It looks like it was just glued on what kind of glue can I safely use to stick it back on again. 3) oh, and it isn't getting any younger - is there a tech I can use in the UK to have it serviced? Many many Thanks Mat

Hello, Thanks for all your responses and the links to interesting reads. I've been away a few days so I have only read them all just now. I love the elegance of the Geneva movement/Maltese cross but it's true they can be really noisy. thanks again Mat

Hello, I am a projectionist and a filmmaker and i was wondering if anyone can answer a question I've been pondering. Why do projectors have maltese cross intermittent mechanisms while cameras tend to have claws? Is it purely a question of size and weight or is there something else? I'm interested because I've always wondered, but also because I'm looking at constructing a camera for a project I'm doing, possibly out of parts of an old projector mechanism. Does anyone know of any resources out there which might help me? Cheers Mat Fleming.

Thanks everyone. I'll bare all this in mind for the shoot. It's tomorrow (oops, today. Time for bed. I'll post the results. cheers Mat

I am shooting a scene of a group of people on a beach. We want to shoot into the sun and whilst I have done a bit of this before I'd be interested in some opinions about what to try or experiencesw. what tools make different changes. We want flare and quite a blown out effect, but also we want to see the peoples' faces. I was going to try the sun behind someone's head and perhaps a reflector to bounce a little light back onto the faces. Does a lens hood make a difference if the sun's already in the shot? Is a polariser a good idea in this kind of shot? how would you go about taking a reading? - My instinct is reflective off their faces. I'm shooting 7201. I dont have any lights at my disposal. Thanks Mat

Hello, I already search for this on the forum but couldn't find anything. Can anyone recommend a gate brush i can buy in the uk? It will be used on a Aaton LTR 16mm camera. Thanks Mat

I thought making a positive would make no difference: Develop high contrast. Bleach Re-expose Develop again Why would that not give a high contrast positive? Thanks for the D19 tip. I'll have a look out, although my initial searches (in the UK) aren't coming up with it. You think this is better than a lith dev or something from a printer's? cheers Mat

Thanks Karl, I'm shooting a test this weekend, just ordered chemicals to make up a reversal bleach and i think i know a printer down the road who can sort me out with some developer. I'm very excited about this. I'll post a still when i can. Thanks again, Mat

Hi, Does anyone know if it's possible to eliminate grey tones altogether from 7363 intermediate film. I have heard you can use a lith process. Is this the same chemistry screen printers use for lithography? The second part of the question is when shooting how do i expose (i'm shooting in camera) for the threshold between black and white? Does this make any sense? Thanks Mat

Edit - [Hope this isn't hijacking the thread, I thought it might be nice to keep these xprocessing examples together for the next person who looks.] I processed my film. If anyone finds it useful you can see some frames scanned here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8425161@N02/2471222577/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/8425161@N02/2471389441/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/8425161@N02/2471924659/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/8425161@N02/2471924957/ I guess scanning them on a flatbed gives an unrealistically high bit depth but I think you get the idea. I dont know why I got such different results re exposure. I think the blix found it difficult to cope with MP lengths it left the base pretty brown. All in all though, I'm pretty pleased with the results so far, can't wait to see the results moving. cheers Mat

The grain in the samples is really contrasty. How does it look when it's moving? is it totally over the top in that it distracts from what's going on or is it acceptable in your opinion? I know these things are completely subjective though. Thanks

Thanks so much for posting these I was searching all over for stills like this last week before I shot a film on Sunday which I intended Xprocessing. IN the end I exposed normal with the idea That I'll test C41 and retreat to E6 if a clip didn't come out alright. looks like I might need to push process too! Anyway thanks. I have high hopes now. Will post stills when I have some. Mat

I have used 7363 high contrast positive stock (usually used by labs for titles and effects) and Agfa ST8 (usually for optical sound recording). They dont have an asa rating but it's probably something like 4asa. I think any print stock would work, and you just adjust the ND filters accordingly. Once we tried shooting Ektachrome camera film, cross processing it and printing back to the same stock and cross processing again. looked alright if your into a grungy look. Mat

Thank you, This is all really helpful advice. I am borrowing the lights on Monday and shooting on Tuesday or Friday so we'll see. The ideas for shooting are turning a little bit Musical lots of variety in shots. I like the depth inside a tree, fruit in front, branches and person in layers. gotta cattch a train now Mat,

Yeah, I see your point about the realism bit. I suppose I mean that It doesn't have to look like a light from a nearby house or a street light or whatever. I'm more interested in it looking great (whatever that means). by reds and greens I mean the leaves and the cherries. Yes they are already red and green but would using red and green gels give them a hyper-real look? Or just cancel each other out? and I don't want red and green actors. It is an interesting thought about lighting it "how you want" because creating an effect you want on film isn't necessarily intuitive when you're positioning lights. I suppose I need to get more decisive! I like the "tungsteny" idea. Walking round last night I thought street light orange is quite great really. cheers Mat