james smyth

My school has a bunch of bolexs and an intervelometer I use frequently. At 1/3 of a second at its fastest, it's not always easy to stop down as far is needed for a proper exposure. I was just thinking, I wonder if I could make a pinhole lens for the camera, has anyone ever tried to do this? I like pinhole photography and I think it would be interesting to bring this concept the moving world.

http://cgi.ebay.com/PRO-VIDEO-12-AMP-12V-B...1QQcmdZViewItem This is what I bought and used it just fine on an Eclair NPR. I able to run both the camera and the video tap off the same battery without any adverse affect on the motor. Though I'm not sure if it's the most healthy thing to do.

http://www.colorlab.com/ Color Lab will do 9.5mm transfers. Just be aware they use a tube sensor and have massive grain issues.

It would be nice if the camera could do interval timing in sync with the projector and output over USB so you don't have to keep swapping cards. Turning a series of images into a video is quite simple. I'm sure final cut has a solution, but I just use Blender for it since it lets me use arbitrary sizes/aspects and a wider variety of codecs.

Yeah, they're still on the Cineglyph, no Spirit. I guess the search continues. Anyway, thanks for helping me understand the whole PsF thing!

http://www.cinematography.net/digitk/digitk.htm When looking for info on Bono, I came across this, and I must say, it looks pretty scary. I've seen someone post here once before that they had a green tint on the left side of their frame when using Bono, and you can see it here. The images seem way too blurry to be usable. There's no date on the article (unless it really was posted just today), I'm hoping it's old when the process was new and they've worked out this mess.

I'm looking for an HD telecine, and one place says they output to 10-bit uncompressed 1080/24p (23.98sF). What does that really mean? When I see 1080/24p, I think 1080i w/ 3:2 pulldown. Is that what this is? Or is this honest-to-God 24p, as in 24 progressive frames a second? That would certainly cut down on drive space waste. Also, by uncompressed, do they really mean uncompressed? Or merely lossless? The place I'm looking at now is Bonolabs. It seems for a one-light transfer for 15 minutes of 16mm will cost me US$288.65 total. In case anyone was curious.

Is there something about a recan that complicates things? I work at an advertising agency and we just finished a six day high-speed shoot and finished with over a dozen recans left in varying stocks. It can be frustrating to load magazines that don't get used, but it's best to have loaded mags and not need them than to need them and not have them.

I have film that I want to get telecined in HD, but I can't find telecine houses in the US that publish prices. Does anyone know of any telecine houses that publish prices? I found one place that a 1-hour session minimum for $1900. Is that really a reasonable price?

Hey, I have aquired some recans and short ends of various Kodak stocks for use in my 35mm SLR. The local film processing lab requires at least 400' rolls. My 1.5' rolls aren't going to be enough. So I'm going to have to develop it myself. The problem being mostly that I don't the resources to purchase the ~100 liters of various chemicals included in the minimum order for an ECN-2 kit. Do you think I could offer a sort of 'waste disposal' where I'll take the chemistry off the hands of a film lab trusting that I can get at least one more load of stills spools through each batch before discarding it the waste? I've read in various places that a regular C-41 process would work just fine as long as I remove the remjet backing myself. My question is, how do you do that? I've read that it can be removed with cotton wool, but I would imagine there would need to be a step before that to make the remjet weak enough to removed by wool. Does it just need a good soaking? People also can't seem to agree if it's best to remove the remjet before processing or after. Also, it is easy to filter out? If I'm going to the C-41 route, I'll be using my school's supplies, and I don't want to contaminate our supplies with loads of black silt. Thanks guys, - Jim

Kevin: That sounds like a pretty interesting experience. Could you guess about how much time you spent in each position? It sounds like an excellent way to hit the ground running, so to speak.

I kinoflows are nice and easy to work with and much safer to handle, but aren't they fairly expensive compared to other lights?

Well, the XL-1 is certainly a more upper-class prosumer camera. The VX1000 I always thought of as being more on the level of a GL1 (but has closer specs to a GL2). The XL series is a jump up that I think is unfair to compare with. At it's price range, the VX1000 is still an excellent contender (much better image than the GL-1).

I guess in some people's minds independent = grainy.

I think it a great camera for the price. It produces a beautiful picture and has a full list of manual controls. Only drawback is the lack of an LCD monitor.

I have heard tales of such drastically territorial people, seems to me they'd be pretty easy to spot and easy to block out of mind. I guess if they're going to be mean about it, there's no point in helping. Who would want to work with those kinds of people in the future?

As a PA, here's what I've learned is most important for me: 1. Never complain. There are enough other college students out wanting their shot that you can be dropped quite easily and replaced with someone who can keep quiet. Noone wants to stay a PA, but it's your turn to pay your dues. So shut up. 2. Remember names. It shows you're paying attention (I'm horrible with names, so I work really hard at memorizing who is who). Also, remember traits that might be important. When the director asks you to grab him a bottle of water, it's important to know that he only drinks 'Fiji' brand water. 3. Offer coffee runs frequently. Heck, it's not your money, and production personnel are quite grateful to the guy who brings coffee. Bonus: They might just remember your name. They DO appreciate you being there. 4. Never jump into doing someone you don't know anything about, there are too many expensive things around you that are easy to break. Always ask first. And DO ask frequently! The camera assistant loading boxes into the camera truck you're chewing gum next to? Yeah, they notice that. Offer to lend a hand and collect bonus points. Don't offer to lend a hand and they'll be less likely to let you know about upcoming job possibilities. 5. Read read read! There is very little literature out there on PAing, but enough time with Google will teach you most everything you need. 6. (this seems to apply for all departments in the industry) Admit mistakes. PAing isn't much fun, but it is fun to just be a part of a production. To see the moving gears of a production you've only read about in books. Above all else it's important to just be a good guy, An honest worker who is reliable and fun to work with is a great combination. I've been interning for only a month and have been on three shooting days, but I've managed to get a good relationship with our camera assistant and gaffer. They introduce me to people and offer up explanations whenever I have questions. The camera assistant even agreed to let me give him a hand during his next camera check out. They're baby steps, but they bring me closer to my goal. I really don't understand how people can keep their jobs doing things like David described, going fishing, or deciding not to show up for work. I can understand the complications of firing them for that particular production, but how do they hope to get jobs in the future? I know people who fight tooth and nail for the opportunity to work on a feature film. I can only hope to be so lucky someday. I work my ass off working for free and live entirely off bank loans. It's infuriating to know people like that are out there who squander their opportunities and create such inconvenience for others. I've met so many great people in my short time PAing, it's hard to believe people like that can make it in the business.

If you shoot on busy city streets or with a long enough lens in a semi-noisy area, you won't hear the bolex. You could also layer on blankets and barney the sound a bit. Crystal sync isn't really something you need unless you plan on long takes. Even if you do long takes, some patience adjusting film speed in FCP/Premiere/etc and a willingness to slightly compromise quality will get you the results you desire. These are by no means graceful solutions, but they are options that will let you get what you need for cheap.

I was wondering how much of the film was recreated and how much was filmed on the go? There were certainly a number of dangerous circumstances on film.

Good job with the retro look, especially the lighting in certain takes. For some reason the design and composition of some shots made me think of Blue Velvet.

Which someone will take to mean "DO NOT X-RAY! TERRORIST STUFF INSIDE!" and decide to open it up.

I keep my eye on the local craig's list crew listing for camera related opportunities. It seems to me that the vast majority of super-low-budget independent films seem to be horror films. Why is this? Maybe it's just that I'm not much for horror, but why do I rarely ever see a drama, or comedy, or anything else?

Whoa boy, kill me for saying this. But in the end, doesn't this mean digital would be the best projection method? No generational decay and the ability to have an unobstructed lens with no concern for noise (Beyond the fan cooling the bulb). edit: Unless you expose multiple frames a time with a large enough glass window and bright/even enough light (like on paper in a photolab). Perhaps this method would eliminate the possiblity of a dirt 'on every frame' and speed up the process of making the print itself? Of course I'm just talking out my ass, I don't have any real experience to say for sure on this. It's just what came to mind.

The rest steal short ends and sell them on eBay.

How much do people in the camera dept generally make each year? I can live out of a van if need be, it's lawyers knocking at my door after not paying student loans for 6 months that scares me.