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Two of these showed up at Community Thrift in San Francisco a few weeks ago, and I picked one up yesterday. American Cinematographer in 1986 says: Seems like this was used in the 80s to print CGI to film! Looking inside, I saw a 2-phase stepper motor with what appears to be a glued-on optical encoder. The magazine feed and takeup are driven by Japan Servo 5000rpm DC motors with 10:1 gear reductions. There do not seem to be an actual computer inside - this is good! With a bit of help and experimentation, I can probably recreate the original controller, which I don't have, with a common MCU. Anyone ever worked with one of these, or have any docs for it? Here is the camera. Is it actually the PC-35 described in ASC mag? What kind of magazine does it take? A standard 400ft Mitchell?

For general use, I understand that the main application of optical printing was for changing the format size from the negative to the print--whether that be from a 35mm negative to a 16mm print or the inverse. I also know that optical printers were used a lot for effects work, title cards, and credits. Contact printers on the other hand were utilized mostly for the color timing process. With all that in mind, I am not too sure of the full extent of one printer's capabilities vs the other. Are you also able to color time on most optical printers? Does one printer generally produce higher "quality"/resolution prints than the other? Which are more commonly found and are still in use? And why would someone exclusively use one over the other?

I have an upcoming project where I've been asked to film floating blue orbs around the talent a la "Starman". My initial thought is to shoot anamorphic, float a battery powered small source on some monofillament, and composite/track over the source with a light aura of sorts (retaining the flare). I think this MIGHT work, but in these examples there are clearly larger sources being used. They also seem to be coming from relatively the same area as the orb itself. Due to the obvious keying/compositing (you can see the black matte lines when watching the film around the actors/windows) I was thinking maybe they keyed out a rod holding the light painted or wrapped in green? That would only really make sense with the shot from behind them. Any attempt to contact the guys who shot these scenes has turned up unsuccessful. Might anyone have a better idea to achieve this effect? Obviously cameras are quite a bit more sensitive now. So, a smaller, dimmer source isn't out of the question. Heres a video link to anyone interested: Camera/lens package has yet to be decided. Thanks!