Mark Dunn

For high-speed 16mm I always used an ordinary 1/2" paintbrush- the bristles are big enough to see if one is shed, but it never happened to me. Mind you, our main cleaning tool was a vacuum cleaner, to remove all the film chips produced when a roll running at 80mph. ran out.

A silly question, maybe- but why don't you finish film on FILM, for heaven's sake?

That 8-plate KEM is a sight for sore eyes. Academy, 'Scope and VV on one bed. Wow. If I had 5000 bucks and a container, I'd buy it just to look at. It makes my Steenbeck look like a toy.

Where is it? Your sig doesn't say.

Mag stands for magnetic. It's not camera film, it's for sound recording.

I'd be wary of applying the zone system to anything other than black-and-white negative to be printed on paper. Don't confuse yourself. A white face is indeed about zone 6, but you can't just expose for that and ignore the rest of the scene- you'd then have blown highlights and overexposed shadows. You've got to control the brightness range of the scene- the movie equivalent of burning and dodging a print.

Stanley Productions are still listing Zonal mag film- I thought it was still being made.

Thanks for the tips. I was wondering how I was going to get my Steenbeck in a changing bag.

6 Steenbecks rehomed in 2 days- that's going some. Who says 16mm is dead? Well done for saving them. I collected mine a year or two ago from Pinewood for £75- no problem getting spare belts, the dealer is still here in west London, with two or three brand new £20,000 models on show. I love just looking at mine.

It was rather annoying to see 'GWTW' in the 90s in widescreen, but having to watch 'Kane' in 1.85- horrible. Fortunately we have the NFT, which always shows in the right ratio. At the Kubrick retrospective in '99, they even re-started 'Barry Lyndon' because so many people came in late. They then muffed a reel change, but it's the thought that counts.

For 20 years everyone wondered why GL didn't direct again after 'A New Hope'. Then 'Phantom Menace' came out and we had our answer.

Wrong maybe, but there is bad vignetting on the transfer, or rather a hotspot in the centre, so my money is on a bad telecine line-up. E64 isn't that bad.

John Alcott Gil Taylor Jack Cardiff Freddie Young Geoffrey Unsworth.

Fixer doesn't oxidise like dev so it lasts much longer. I've kept fixer for 5 years. Basically, you can use it until it stops smelling acidic. But do bear in mind that 50' of Super-8 has as much emulsion area as two and a half 36-exposure 35mm. films, and 100' of 16mm. is equivalent to almost 10. So you do burn a lot of chemicals- I think it's a one-shot deal as far as dev is concerned.

Oh dear, I've been auto-censored. This recently happened to my OH when she tried to list a recipe for cock-a-leekie soup on a diet board. (If it gets censored, the word is a four-letter one describing a male chicken).

The crazy thing about that was that he fired Anthony Mann! He later referred to Kubrick as 'a talented poop' which tells us something else about his artistic sense. Kubrick also lit most of 'Spartacus' after objecting to Russell Metty's bland style. Apparently.

Since you say you have no budget, and since daylight is just about the only thing you don't have to pay for as a film-maker, I think you've answered your own question.

The cable carries power to the timing lights as well as the motor; you'll note that AGE have removed the timing lights and done a re-wiring job. They might supply one of the old cables. The timing lights are for accurate measurement of the running speed- you probably won't need them anyway, so would just need to know which are the power and switch pins. You'll need 28V, at about 10A. Ordinary daylight spools will do but the film will need to be double-perf.

In fact we do select our head of state by a form of lottery; it's called the accident of birth and it works quite well. The House of Lords is there as a check on an overbearing government and has come in very handy over the last decade, so much so that said government is doing its best to emasculate it.

Many CCTV lenses don't have a focusing rack, so watch out for that too.

There WAS no post in the modern sense in 1981. No DI, no grain reduction (or 'smearovision' as some call it), no contrast adjustment, just colour and density grading. Apart from the special effects, which I assume were shot in Vistavision and reduced. What you saw on the screen was put there by my countryman, Douglas Slocombe. As to what you say about his work, you're dead right. Here's his filmography: fifty years of great pictures. 'Last Crusade' was his swansong but he is still with us at 94, one of the last of his generation, a year older even than the great Jack Cardiff. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005878/

It might help if you explain in more detail what they sell. Otherwise, it's a bit like me asking someone in Times Square, 'Where can I buy the sort of stuff I get at Majestic?' I know it's a wine warehouse, but the folks in New York may not. Off the top of my head, Stanley Productions, PEC or Calumet in London might cover it.

I can recommend the Polish restaurant in West Street, though.

Your business plan- and your outlook- needs some work if you regard your client base as 'idiots.'

The print stock goes on the outside of the printer sprocket, so has a slightly longer pitch than MP negative (0.187" as against 0.1866"). Still film has the same long pitch, so it would slip and your print wouldn't be sharp. The camera might not be too keen on the longer pitch either.