Dickson Sorensen

I run Adobe Preimer Pro with a Matrox extreme 100 on a Dell workstation 650. Although this is a little out of your price range consider putting togeather a system with last years model bought used. There is so much out there you can cobble togeather a hot system for next to nothing. I have used Preimer pro as well as many other nle's (Avid FCP Leitch Velocity)and will argue with anyone who puts it down. One very important bit of advice. Go to the websight of every manufacture for the componets you are considering for your system and check for recomended compatability for the elements you are putting togeather. When you get your software go to the websites an get all the latest downloads and fixes. Also your system will be a lot happier if you don't have a lot of other programs intalled on it.

I reciently saw a demo in New York of the Kodak Look Manager System and it seem like a great tool. However I would like to hear some experiences how it can be applied on the set. As I undersand you will need a good digital camera and a calibrated monitor. Maybe on the "time is no matter" big budget feature (as if that really exists) one could set up a station in the corner and run tests but at that stage haven't you figured out what your stock and filterpacks are? On the run and gun shoot it would seem that you wouldn't have time to use it. That's when it would come in most handy. Matching looks in different weather and lighting conditions etc. Is the main use then just setting up your process in pre production? Any real life experience on how to impliment this in a meaningful way would be appreciated.

As I understand it here are the physics: Air contains moisture, warm air contains more moisture than cool air, as the air cools it will reach the dewpoint. The dewpoint is the temperature at which the air is saturated with water and can not hold any more. If the temperature lowers any further the water will be condense onto the nearest surface. In your case it was your lens. It was also collecting on any surfaces, the legs of your tripod, rocks nearby etc. If you can keep your lens surface temperature above the dew point water will not condense on it. Near a lake you can be sure the humidity was high therefore a higher dew point. If you warm your lens once it is outside this will help though don't do it with anything that puts more moisture into the air as example a propane heater which is producing more moisture as it burns. Use an electric sorce if possible. There are products which are applied to a lens to reduce fogging. I do not reccomend putting them on a camera lens as the may be harmfull to the coatings and difficult to clean off. I have used them however on the eyepiece as an extreme measure and found that they can be helpful.

Funny thing, I can remember seeing Barry Lyndon in the theatre when it was first released. Everyone was floored at the time as no one had ever seen candle lit secnes in a major motion picture. There was so much going on in the scene, the mother, the baby, the intimate feeling that the cinimatography brought to the screen for the first time. Kubrick and Alcott truely broke new ground. I wish it was so easy to just go out and buy the lens. Today we have film stocks and lenses far superior to what was available then. If these tools were available then rest assured they would have used them and not the f.7 lens they used to shoot by candle. In order to shoot in 16 or super8 and have similar depth of field one would have to find a lens of f.3 or f.15 apx The f stop is a ratio of the focal length to the aperature. The smaller the format the wider the aperature must be for a similar depth of field. A lens like that might exist however it certainly would have been manufactured for a special purpose and would have to be adapted for film use. If your plan is to shoot in candle light I had very good results making candles with two wicks and lining them up so that from the lens we could see only one. This doubled the available light from the candle. With 500t stock and a 1.3 lens your exposing better than Kubrick could at the time. Experiment and Good Luck

Choosing a lens to a dp is like an artist choosing a paint brush. It really afects the way you want it to look. You are wise to avoid shooting on the wide end of the aperature 2.8 of wider on anything but the best of lenses especially in as 16mm tolerances are critical. When you are shooting closeups look at the actors ears and nose. Long lenses make the ears look big and the nose look small. Wide lenses make the ears small and the nose big. Something around 50 for 16mm and 75 to 85 for 35mm seems to be least distorting. For a comic effect you can't beat shoving a wide lens close to an actor, however that effect could destroy a more serious shot.

Bolex used to offer a service to winterize their cameras. Basicly they replaced the greese in the movement with thinner oil. Years ago I had a Bolex and shot a lot of material in the mountains in Colorado much of it time lapse. I didn't have my camera winterized and never had a problem. this was at temperatures above 0 deg f. Condensation on the lens is another problem. If there is warm moist air from inside trapped between the lens elements and you take the lens outside thereby cooling the glass you can get condensation. When you bring the camera back inside you will get more but generally then it is on the outside elements. Keep the camera cool for many hours before using it outside. If you get some condensation shine a bright light (like 1000 watts)into the lens and often you can get rid of the condensation. Do this outside where the air is dryer. I worked on a film in Canada and we kept our lenses in the truck all night long to avoid having problems in the morning. Batteries are the opposite keep them warm always.

Super 16 to 35mm My advice: Use medium to fine grain film. Top quality optics. Camera gate properly seating & regestered. the f stop wider in 16 than 35 after transfer its hard to tell the difference I saw tests that Kodak did transfered to HD and it was amazing. In fact at one point when we rewound the tape and lost track of which take we we looking at we couldn't identify visually the 16 from 35 takes. The secret is that in 16 you have no room for error. Any mistake may be unforgiving. In 35 you have a lot more lattitude for error and the ability to re frame in transfer. If going to interneg for film prints it is a whole different matter then 35 really stands out.