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Hello! Sorry if this isn't the right section of the forum for this type of question. I've been doing some reading on the history of motion picture cameras and something got me curious about the mechanics used in them. It seems some early film cameras used the geneva wheel mechanism for advancing the film for exposure. And a lot of projectors have used the same mechanism for decades more. But apparently it didn't took long for camera designers to move away from the geneva wheel to use pull down claws of various forms. I imagine there is some reason for that. First I assumed it could be that pull down claws are more precise or durable, but it seems that projectors kept being designed with geneva wheels through out the XX century. And I got the impression that projectors need the same precision and probably even more durability than cameras, as they might run for a lot more hours overall. Considering the the geneva drive appears to be a lot easier to design, manufacture, assemble and repair, does anyone has an idea on why that happened? The only reason I can imagine is noise, maybe the claw mechanisms are overall more silent. That would explain why the geneva drive on cameras was more common in the early days before sound for film was developed. Also, if anyone has any recomendation of any book or text regarding the history of development of the mechanics of film cameras I'd love to learn more about that!

I decided to check out the history of film stocks and their different formats, and I realized that there are no actual full-frame movie stocks that were ever developed or used for cinema back in those days. Full-frame as we cinema people interpret it today, from what I understand, came from digital manufacturers making sensors based on the 135mm film stock dimensions made for Photography: -Which are ~35mm wide in its negative and ~24mm tall negative(which is approximately the actual width of negatives on Super35mm film stocks, so basically it's like someone rotated Super35mm stocks 90 degrees) -Pulled along horizontally rather than vertically, which is actually what allows the ~35mm width negative Unless I'm missing something, why was there no Full-Frame( not the full-gate 35mm but the actual negative 36 x 24) ever used? It was quite surprising to see that cinema film stock developers decided to just jump straight into Medium Format from Super35. The only thing that might come close to it is VistaVision, but I'm not 100% sure if that actually qualifies as full frame . Thanks

I was reading the year 2000 edition of the Kodak cinematography field guide and among the essential supplies for a ditty bag it listed orange sticks, which I believe are thin, 4- or 5-inch long sticks used by manicurists. They have tapered ends. Is that what Kodak is talking about? If so, does anyone know how camera operators and cinematographers used them? Do they have any relevance today?

Hi, I'm having a little research. Usually cinematographers or directors (ask) to use blue tone when lighting night scenes and moonlights effects. I believe it's a creative choice but some would make it their standard. Personally, I don't want to use blue in lighting night/moonlight scenes unless it is a creative decision. I'm discussing about this with some of my friends. I want a little help in finding out the background behind it. Where did the idea came from? Who and what film started it? Any links and information about this? Thanks.

I just bought krasnogorsk-3 and while i'm waiting for it to arrive i started to search for some data about it. To be quick here are the two main questions that i can't find any reliable answer to: 1. When did the production of k3 start and when did it end (- i guess with the collaps of ussr)? 2. Are there any movies that were shot with k3 (- i'll have to wait for a week or two until it arrives from Russia to Croatia, so i would like to watch some movie filmed with k3)? Sorry if there's already a post that answers this questions, i went through a lot of posts about k3 but i couldn't find anything.

Hi guys i was wondering if anybody out there could point me in the right direction in finding out about the history of Grips in the film industry ether a book or website or personal knowledge. As i need to find out for my final year university project about grips ( as i would like to pursue a career as a grip when i leave uni) and other crew members who are seen as lower down on the film making hierarchy but are vital to a film set. any help would be appreciated