Elliot Rudmann

It was an SD transfer on a DaVinci machine, not exactly sure what model...don't know too much about that stuff. Interestingly, on the same project, the 7217 200t I shot (1/2 stop overexposed) came out excellent in the transfer. When I get off work, I'll post some grabs.

Hey Frank, that footage looks spectacular! I shot about 800' of 7201 (overexposed 1/2 stop) for a student project recently and it really didn't come out anywhere close to what you got, lots of noise in the sky. I assume it was the telecine. I sent the film to be processed at Cinelab and I got it transfered (supervised to 720x480) at Finish lab in Boston. I had heard good things about Finish, but when comparing my footage to yours, i am very disappointed in hindsight. Was your transfer a 2k? Does anyone have any ideas as to what I should do differently next time? Just to clarify, all of my footage was shot and exposed properly - I'll try to post some full rez screen grabs later so you can see the noise I'm referring to.

Hey Nick, I put the film back up, but I can't keep it up for long. Let me know what you think. Thanks a lot!

Unfortunately, you're going to have to learn to just laugh when you hear the words "profit" and "short film" in the same sentence.

UPDATE: I had to take the link down. We are currently submitting the film to some festivals. I'd like to thank everyone for their comments and feedback, it really helped me learn a lot. I'm taking my last production course this semester and will be shooting a 10 minute film on Super 16, which i will post here upon it's completion. Thanks again!

Hey jon - thank you very much for your critique and feedback. After reading your post I felt that you had actually been on our set! - indeed, we were trying to keep a 1k arri softlight (on the ceiling) out of frame, and yes, we did have a lens that was breathing like crazy with 5' min focus. but it wasn't angenieux, it was a zeiss 10-100 F2 MK1 lens. I wrote a complaint to my school's equipment distribution center informing them of the issue and that perhaps the lens (especially a zeiss -- typically well constructed lenses) should be adjusted/repaired/or replaced. As for the window lighting issue you had, it came down to the director and I asking "how can we add motivated supplemental light" over whether or not we should. The small apartment and time constraints made it difficult, and eventually impractical for us to light from that direction. Thanks again for your feedback!

Hey, glad you enjoyed it. The VFX at the end were done by Matt Chandler (he's on imdb), he really did a great job for us, considering that he lives in a different hemisphere.

someone else told me that too. Interestingly, I have never seen it. While a resemblance may be there, I would appreciate some technical feedback. Thanks.

Hello! I recently DPed (and wrote) a short student film called "Pancakes" for my film class at school. I am a junior at Emerson College in Boston, and given that this forum is filled with professional and knowledgeable individuals, I would love all comments and critiques regarding this film, not only in it's cinematographic aspects (as this is my field of interest), but also in the film as a whole. It was shot on 16mm with an Arri SRI. The apartment scenes were shot with Kodak 7217, and the beach scenes with 7201. You can watch the film here: http://www.enzymefilms.com/pancakesview.html All honest comments are greatly appreciated! Thank you! Elliot

I just finished shooting 1600' of 16mm film for a 5 minute short this past weekend. The director and I are planning to get a supervised transfer at Cinelab in a few days, however, there are some questions I have. What type of specific things do I get control over in the process of manipulating the image and how much is it significantly different (in quality) than trying to do those things in a color correction/image manipulation tools in Final Cut or another program? I've heard you can manipulate colors, crush blacks, increase/decrease contrast, and things like that, but I'd like to have a better understanding of what I can potentially do before I go there so as not to be unprepared. There were some scenes we shot outdoors (with Kodak 7201, where it was sometimes cloudy and sometimes sunny, and because of time constraints, we had to continue shooting, despite the lighting inconsistencies (thanks to the wind making clouds cover/reveal the sun at certain points). I know there's no perfect solution that would fix such inconsistencies, but are there things that a lab can do to try to hide/decrease those mis-matches? I would greatly appreciate any advice/or personal experience you can give on supervised transfers. Thanks! Elliot

In two weeks I will be shooting a short 16mm student film on an Arri SRI w/ a zeiss 10-100mm T2 MK1 seen here: http://www.visualproducts.com/storeProduct...=20&Cat3=27 I am planning on using an 82c cooling filter on it, however, I am absolutely clueless as to which filter size I need for this lens. I almost purchased a 72mm version when I read somewhere that the lens front was 80mm, I'm not sure if it even takes threaded filters, and I don't have access to a matte box because we can't really afford one. Does anybody know or have an idea of what kind of filter this lens takes? Series 9? Thanks! Elliot

I will be shooting a student film in a few weeks and have access to an Arri SRI cam. We were going to rent a follow focus unit + a rod support system for it, however I've been told that an SRI will not support a follow focus, unlike its upgrades, the SRII, and III. I have tried to find links on the internet about this, but have had no luck. Anybody know what the deal is? Thanks.

First of all, thank you for all of your response. I have been informed on the difficulties of compositing on 16mm film because of grain issues. Ultimately, the final output for the film will be on DVD. The final shots in the film (the one with the FX shots) will be filmed on Kodak's low speed 7201 stock, with maybe a 1/3 stop of overexposure (if light permits) in order to reduce grain even further (i've heard good things about the stock so hopefully this will make my VFX artist's job easier). Since this will be a student production, we cannot shoot on S16 because we do not have access to any S16 cameras (I believe my school has two that are reserved for the "advanced" classes). Perhaps getting a 2k scan of just the 7201 footage would be a good idea, but if the final output is DVD, is it really worth it?

I will be shooting a short (standard 16mm) film in early November which requires some visual effects compositing (bombs going off in background). Right now, I plan to get the film telecined at Cinelab and put on a hard drive as uncompressed quick time files. However, Cinelab only creates files that are 720x480. Would I be better off going with a 2k transfer? Would that make the compositing easier? Please let me know. Thank you!

Frank - I appreciate your advice, and yes I may end up shooting 7218 if the lighting tests for 200 ISO don't go so well. 200T wasn't simply a fallback or a rejection of the popular 7218 (although virtually everyone at my school uses it so maybe I am partly rejecting it to be different) - but it was a compromise because initially, i wanted to shoot 7212 but I knew I wouldn't have sufficient light for it. I've heard good things about Vision 2 Expression, however, the low contrast is the last thing I want for this film. The cold-morning/blue look i am looking for is also something similar to Soderbergh's Traffic - certain scenes with Topher Grace and Erica Christenson in the house doing drugs have a very distinct blue look. Does anyone know if filters were used for this? Or shooting uncorrected tungsten film? If there's an ASC article I'd greatly appreciate a link. Thanks! Elliot

I haven't been very impressed with the grain from the 7218 stock. Additionally, it's not something I'm aiming for aesthetically either.

Hey guys, thanks for your suggestions - and no, I didn't shoot anything this weekend, principal photography starts on the last weekend of October so I still have some time to figure stuff out. I was being silent because I thought this post had died. but thankfully it's not. In terms of exposure, yeah, 200T is cutting it a little close, however, I do have 250w daylight balanced Chinaballs (4800 K, not exactly daylight, but close) that I can use, which I've thought about using because the apartment we're shooting in is pretty small. Otherwise, I've got an Arri 1000w softlight, and 2 650w Arri fresnels (all tungsten) to work with, plus a 500w tungsten balanced chinaball which will most likely be the motivated key (kitchen light) for the protagonist. I plan on shooting at T2.8 (maybe a T4 if I can boost the light)

Frank - In terms of post, we aren't doing a supervised transfer or any ENR type manipulation to the film (it's a student production and we only have about $600 to spend on this film), but we are getting a scene-by-scene color corrected telecine transfer to hard drive from Cinelab. What type of suggestions did you have in mind? Thanks Elliot

Hey thanks Chris, looks like the one I'm looking for!

I'll be shooting interiors with 200T stock and I'm trying to obtain a cold blue-ish hue that defines early morning. Something like the scene in Crash when Matt Dillon gets out of bed to help his father in the bathroom. Would greatly appreciate any suggestions as to what gels I could use to obtain this look. Thanks! Elliot

Hi, in a few weeks I will be shooting a short 16mm film on Kodak's 7205 stock and since our budget is very small, I am using some of my gaffer's chinaballs. He has 4800k bulbs for them which are labeled as daylight bulbs, but are obviously much lower than standard (HMI bulbs) at 5600k. If I am to render white light on the film, should I gel the bulbs (1/4, 1/2 CTB?) to boost the color temp closer to 5600K or will I be ok without? I know typical fluorescents are rated at 4000-4800 kelvins and the last thing I want is to make this film look green. All suggestions are very appreciated. Thanks!

I will soon be purchasing some chinaballs for an upcomming 16mm short, and I've been told that 18 inches (diameter) for a chinaball is a good size. However, will it be able to support (or not get incinerated by) 250watt daylight/tungsten bulbs, 500watt bulbs? Either way, I wont plan on leaving them on for long periods of time, but I would like to know how much wattage these things can support without burning fast. Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks! Elliot

Mr. Mullen and Mr. Nash - I cannot thank you enough for your detailed and clear responses. My primary experience with 16mm has been in shooting color and b&w REVERSAL, not negative film, so I was blurring the distinction between processing (developing the negative) and then actually printing that negative to a positive....oh how I'm going to miss the simplicity and cost of shooting reversal. As for the lighting question, I'm going to test the look with different CTB gels with my 35mm SLR - hopefully that will give me an idea of what it will turn out like. Thanks again!

In about three weeks I will be shooting a short film on a bolex with Kodak's 7205 stock. Certain indoor scenes call for a warm look, and I was thinking about using uncorrected tungsten lights in some interior scenes, but I'm afraid that doing so will result in too much of an orange-ish look. Would gelling the lights 1/4 CTB be helpful or should I just go ahead and let the tungsten be tungsten? If anyone has any screenshots of the 7205 stock I would appreciate it. My last question concerns my confusion with overexposing the negative and then "printing down." If I'm correct, would I shoot the color chips rating 7205 at 125 ISO (overexposing 1 stop) and then does the lab (using the chips) compensate for the overexposure by printing the negative down while developing? Is this the same as pull processing? Or is it something done in telecine? I know this has probably been asked a lot, so I apologize and, as always, appreciate your knowledge and feedback. Thanks! elliot

Hey Ian, thanks for letting me know about that. If you don't mind me asking, where did you purchase your adapter? I've been looking around and so far the only one I've seen is this at B&H http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller...list&sku=116732 is this the type of adapter you're referring to? with the Open - Lock diaphragm actuating ring? Please let me know. I appreciate your input!