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Drawing on Groundglass Arri 435


Karim Hussain

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I'm about to shoot a short film in Argentina next week in 35mm using a 435, which was the only high speed camera Alfa Vision, the rental house, had available with a Super-35 gate. We want to frame for 2:35 using common headroom, but they don't have the proper groundglass markings available, only a bare one simply outlining the frame of the gate.

 

So I believe the best way to do this would be to mark the groundglass ourselves using a 2:35 frame chart as a guide in the testing room and tracing the bottom frame line with a graphite pencil.

 

Any suggestions of the safest and best way to do this without risking damage to the groundglass, in a manner that we can erase our markings when we are done?

 

Thanks for any suggestions,

 

Karim Hussain

Cinematographer

Montreal, Canada

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  • 6 years later...
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Hi,

Found this old thread. Im wondering the same thing. Are you guys taping or drawing your own markings to the GG?

I have used semi-transparent tape for gg markings with bolex, konvas and krasnogorsk cameras. Usually works fine but the small tape strips may be a bit difficult to fit over the gg especially when the mirror shutter is very close to the back corner of the glass. With konvas I have added only the upper frame line for this reason
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As Aapo said, either semi transparent tape or cello tape will work perfectly if you want to draw your lines on it,

Cello tape is usually thinner so it might work better.

 

Make sure the cello tape doesn't cover the interior of the aspect ratio though.

 

Best.

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if using semi-transparent tape, I actually tend to use the tape edge as a frame line so I can get briefly blurred top and bottom "overhead" areas and don't need to draw to the tape. If the tape is too clear one can add another layer so that the blurring is as desired. This may be the easiest way to create line with small formats where the GG is small and drawing may be difficult

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if using semi-transparent tape, I actually tend to use the tape edge as a frame line so I can get briefly blurred top and bottom "overhead" areas and don't need to draw to the tape. If the tape is too clear one can add another layer so that the blurring is as desired. This may be the easiest way to create line with small formats where the GG is small and drawing may be difficult

Like this ( dimmer areas at top and bottom are the tape stripes. demonstrated with a Kinor 16cx-2m )

 

16237213832_7e634d8b64_c.jpg

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  • 4 months later...
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I'm taping the under (mirror shutter) side usually so I can get sharper markings. it can be a bit difficult if the mirror shutter is very close to the GG (for example Konvas 1M), you may not be able to mark the frame bottom (gg other end too close to the shutter/gate corner, tape does not fit to the tiny space available)

Edited by aapo lettinen
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