Scot McPhie

I want to shoot a music video with a 'film look' visuals.

Why not just shoot Super 8 or 16mm - there's no video that will give you as good a film look as them.

The outdoor shots colour-corect up nicely - good flat contrast and nice shallow DOF to begin with.

Perhaps I've over done the reds - but anyway you've got plenty of room to move in post

Good luck with the project.

Scot McPhie

Hi all I've started a web page for my new short Rebecca's Riot - which we're shooting later in the year with my R16 - we're in pre-production now if you're interested - I'll keep updating the diary entries as it goes along

http://www.mango-a-gogo.com/riot/preprod.htm

Scot McPhie

Thanks Scot.

How do you prevent it from scratching the eyepiece?

The lenses don't actually touch - or at least in mine they don't.

How do you tell if focus is on with nobody operating and with such a terrible quality tap?

Tape measure. I certainly wouldn't rely on the image on the lcd screen! But I don't rely on it in the viewfinder anyway - this does preclude run and gun or doco/off-the-cuff shooting - as it all has to be planned and set up.

I'd love to run the feed into one of those wireless transmitters so we could stick the camera on a jib or something and still watch it.

Scot

Hey everyone, I have a number of questions about anamorphic lenses and the Beaulieu R16 Automatic. I currently own the camera, but to date have only shot in the standard 4:3 ratio. I have been successful with shooting sync-sound, as the one I own runs exceptionally smoothly, and is rock steady at 24 fps. It had been great for creating some beautiful images, and I would like to try something new if possible.

 

My first question, and most important:

 

Does the Beaulieu R16 Automatic accept anamorphic C-Mount lenses?

 

I have been looking into this, and as far as I can tell, the answer is ... undecided. I read a post in a different forum from someone who said they had used an anamorphic lens with their R16, and had good results. But then, in other posts - I read that this is impossible. I am unable to determine the true answer for this question to date.

 

From what I have read, 16mm cameras that can accept anamorphic lenses will squeeze the image so that when projected, it is at a 2:66:1 ratio. Then, with some cropping/masking of the sides, one could end up with 2:35:1 ratio. Am I understanding this correctly? Does this apply to the Beaulieu R16 Automatic?

 

I have read a fair bit about this topic, and from the limited information I can come up with, it does not seem possible to use an anamorphic lens on a Beaulieu R16. Therefore, if you wanted to utilize the 2:35:1 ratio, rather than 4:3, you could frame your shots as such, and then simply mask the top and bottom during projection to come up with a "false" 2:35:1 image. The reason I refer to it as "false" is because it would not really be as wide as if you shot your footage using an anamorphic lens, would it?

 

I have included this diagram, to illustrate what I mean:

 

 

If you shoot with an anamorphic lens, are you getting a 'wider' image?

 

Notice the first diagram. There is far more picture to the left and right of the subject's face, than there is in the bottom diagram.

 

The bottom diagram represents the "false" 2:35:1 that I am talking about. It is really just 4:3, but masked during projection. The major difference of course being that the image is not as wide, and does not include as much picture to the left and right of the subjects face.

 

Is this diagram accurate in terms of how an anamorphic 16mm lens would capture and image, and then be projected versus using a standard lens with framing for 2:35:1 aspect ratio?

 

This is my first [essay] post by the way, I hope to learn from, and contribute to, this forum.

 

Thanks

Hi Aaron - I own an R16 and have looked into this a bit myself - I'm not an expert though - but I'l tell you what I know.

First of all it's definitely possible to use the R16 with an anamorphic lense, however you can't put it straight into the c-mount - it will have to go in front of your prime or zoom via some kind of bracket and support. The anamorphic lense itself won't have a diaghram so can't be used by itself - and I imagine wouldn't focus on the film plane anyway (?)

When properly mounted it still won't be as sharp as Super 16, but done properly it will be acceptable, and anyone who says otherwise is being anal about it.

Anamorphic lenses come in different compression rates - most common is 2x and you can get 1.5x You'd need a 1.7625x lense to make it a nice 2.35:1 - I don't think there's one of them, so you'd have to crop or letterbox as you say.

The method I'm looking at at the moment is using the 16:9 anamorphic lense that Panasonic make for the dvx100 and puting that on the front of my Angeniux 10-120 zoom (72mm thread) - and if desired I could letterbox it a bit more to make it a 2.35:1 ratio.

There are a few things to watch out for using anamorphic lenses though - theres a good description of them here:

http://www.cinematography.net/Pages%20DW/AnamorphicEntry.htm

Good luck and have fun :-)

Scot

I have heard of budget video taps being created from surveillance cameras. Does anyone know how this is accomplished? How do I hook it up to see what is going through the lens? Is there a suggested security camera model?

I am interested in creating one for an Arri SR and a Krasnogorsk.

 

Any advice appreciated.

This has been disccused quite a few times on shooting8mm - see this thread for one

http://www.filmshooting.com/scripts/forum/...opic.php?t=9504

- I've done it myself with my R16 - just butted the security camera up to the eyepiece - and ran it's feed into a minidv camera - worked quite well

Scot

Haven't watched it all yet - but pretty impressed so far - really nice framing and camera movement - well done :-)

Scot

the clips look kind of murky, low on contrast. Was this intentional?

Actually the low contrast is good if you're planning on doing some post production tweaking - have a look at the results I got by doing a minimal amount of tweaking in the images in the other thread.

http://www.cinematography.com/forum2004/in...showtopic=22746

By keeping it flat you're keeping your post production options open - if you weren't planning on doing any tweaking I would reccomend it - unless if the images are like this intentionally for some artistic reason.

Scot

Here's another

Scot

The flat contrast is great for post production options - look at what I did with a minimal amount of tweaking:

This is just by applying an s-shaped curve in the curves function in photoshop:

and this is by doing the same s-curve and then adding a bit of warmth in the colour balance. The shallow DOF adds a nice touch in this shot too.

Each of these adjustments took about a minute each - there's a bit of jpeg artefacting which won't be on the originals of course.

Scot

How did he fix the rust?

On the ad it says "Everything works fine."

I wonder what's going to become of all this?

Scot

The camera and mag are your strong points, the lenses are your weak points. The synch pilot - is that a crystal synch or the pilot tone generator -- I'm thinking it's the latter. I haven't followed the eBay prices lately but I think you would probably get around $500US. Anyone been following the auctions more than me?

Good luck :-)

Scot

You can get the operating manual from my site

http://www.mango-a-gogo.com/show/show.htm

- my film In My Image was shot with a 4008 - there are stills on my page if you want to see

Scot

Thanks guys - if there's a problem I'll change my user name to my actual name (is that policy now? - I haven't posted for a while).

Zamir - you're right - it's only a teaser - an actual trailer should be better (have to get round to that one day!)

Thanks for the compliments Adam.

There are actually a few Super 8 features around - including Sleep Always and Lost Tribes.

Scot

My feature film In My Image is now available in mp4 format for playing on iPod's, PSP's and other portable video devices.

I'm selling it on CDR along with the making of short film - for $10US including postage and packaging to anywhere in the world.

The film runs for 1 hour 32 and was shot on Super 8 K40. The making of is 37 mins long. Both are encoded to 500Kbps at 320x240.

If interested just email me at scotmcphieNOSPAM@yahoo.com.au (remove the capitals of course!)

Scot

Never done it - but thought perhaps this page might help - it's how someone upgraded their Bolex to S16 - the way he over came these issues with his camera may be of some help

http://www.sci.fi/~animato/s16/s16.html

Best of luck

Scot

I've written a free calculator that does alot more than the Kodak one - it's on this pageif you want it - it's called Filmulator

cheers

Scot

I think the thing is unlike a lot of other forums on the net this one actually tries to mainatain a level of decorum and professionalism - mainly due in part to the high number of real pro's who post here - hence the preference for real names and titles.

Take these criticisms on the chin - you can only benefit from them.

One thing to watchout for with HDV is it's appalling colour compression scheme which gives you very little room to move in post.

Best of luck

Scot

I've used it on my Beaulieu 408 ZMII -it worked quite well and got upto synch speed within a few seconds.

the only problem I found was that there is no of switch in the unit - so if you leave the wires plugged up on the unit (not the camera) it will flatten the batteries - so watch out!

There are other ways to sycn sound - but this is probably the best.

Scot

When I get some spare money Matt - that's my first choice!

Scot

As you should know, I'm searching for a 16mm camera, and I saw this camera in the 'historique' photo section of the Beaulieu website, I've searched for things, but can't find anything solid about this camera

can anyone tell me anything about this camera.

It was a newscamera

http://www.beaulieu-images.com/crea70.htm

Scot

I didn't realize that. Apologies.

No problem - it's been a humouress sideline to this - and I've learnt a bit about the lens(e) too!

Scot

Hi guys thank you all for your advice - btw the code is A12x10BRM-88 - which I checked out on that link.

So anyway do you think there would be a demand for it on eBay? I'd either sell the lense by itself, or with the Sony DXC-3000 it came with. The whole camera plus the case is quite heavy so shipping might be a problem for people overseas hence selling just the lense might be more appealing. Any ideas on this?

As far the spelling - that depends entirely where you're from! :)

thanks

Scot

It's from a Sony DXC-3000 - it's a Fuji zoom 10-120 - does anyone know what kind of mount that is?

I'm interested in selling the lense or the whole camera with the lense - any idea what it might be worth - or if anyone would need it - ie what kind of camera could it mount on to apart fromt he dxc 3000

thanks

Scot

I would be interested, mainly because of point 2. But I suppose this reducing will be done real time. While reducing in post would be better, so that one has something left to choose or adjust at ones own will, and does not have to decide everything in real time.

 

As for the price, generally I think this should be a low budget device; since that's what most of us are. I think, if it works, and has a compact size, I don't think I will go over a hundred.

 

Isn't there any good stand alone software available for reducing unwanted noises???

 

P.S.

 

I have seperate devices already for 1 and 3.

 

I respect people generating new ideas though.

 

Paul

Hi Paul thanks for that - I appreciate the desire to be able to experiment/adjust sttings in post rather than on the spot as it were.

Just put of interest what is your device for point 1 - as far as I know this can only be done now in post by software - or do you have another method which adequately gives you synch (eg pilot-tone top tape recorder, or crytal synch camera to begin with?)

Scot