600ft - a s16mm camera test

beautiful images Hunter! :)

If it's not asking too much, can you post just a few seconds as a 1080 ProRes QT file? I would love to see the full resolution of this material.
 
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It looks really nice, well done!
The way film-look kind of deceives is incredible, the saying nails it :)

I've been experimenting with Super8 and analog film for some time now and recently bought a Bolex H16 and happened to meet a retired cameraengineer, who did S16 conversions of the Bolex. An old S16 Bolex H16 will be more affordable for the beginning, I guess...

Thanks for sharing, I really enjoyed it, analog is still the nicer way :)
 
; )

Thanks for watching. I think there is going to be a new surge of people from "my generation" moving from primarily shooting digital over to primarily shooting film. Its an "ah-ha!" moment when it clicks that you can work faster and get the better images for about the same price as shooting with HAL9000 computer cameras.
 
hunter richards said:
Thanks guys. Funny thing- If I would have shot the same thing in HD, it would have looked like a cheap home video- reminds me of the saying "Shoot a love scene with a video camera and its called a porno, shoot a love scene on film and its called art".

I'm shooting some ad's in few weeks on s16mm for theater projection, so it will be interesting how it looks on a big screen. As long as the budget will allow it, I will choose film every time over digital- It just looks good out of the box.
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Just watched Old Joy www.kino.com/oldjoy/pages/trailer/index.html

Shot on your camera in 05 and it looks great.

So based on the prices you quoted a 80 minute feature with a shooting ratio of 6:1 would cost $15000 to shoot on S16?

Your footage looked great, made me fall in love with film again. For docs digital is great, for films use film. I like the look of the Red Camera in Che and Viper in Zodiac but how much do they do in post...As you said it looks great straight out of the box. Adam over on the Corrado thread said he has spent $25,000 getting his footage to look like film..
 


"FYI"


I know perfection is subjective, but the Aaton A-Minima is a brilliant little movie making device. It weighs a mere 5lbs, somehow appears classic and bleeding-edge at the same time, and shoots top-notch Super 16 images. Of course, perfection has it's price -- a basic A-Minima costs around $15,000. If you find the price tag shocking, consider that most other professional motion picture cameras run $50,000 plus. Very few indie filmmakers actually own equipment like this; it would be financial suicide. Instead, they rent the best gear they can afford and shoot quickly.

The A-Minima accepts 200 ft (60 m) spools, giving just over 5 and a half minutes of shooting time per roll. It's quiet enough to capture synchronized sound, and light enough for a lone cinematographer to handle without a crew. This makes it a popular choice for documentaries and hand-held shorts.

Just in case you're wondering why you'd go to the trouble of shooting film instead of HD video: It looks absolutely stunning in comparison. Super 16 transfers extremely well to digital (for editing), and it offers considerably wider exposure latitude than video. Besides, it already has the "film look" that videographers are always trying to imitate. By the way, if you're feeling generous, I'd love one for Christmas.
 
Wow. That was beautiful! I've watched it three times. I was considering saving for an HVX or something like that but after seeing all these S16 clips it's making me change my mind, spend lots of time on preproduction and shoot film if I can. This looks amazing. Thanks for sharing this.
 
jenningsp said:
hey hunter. these some of my ideas about home telecine... i've run into a few problems... maybe you'll be interested :)

basically it's this

pitch black room > 5blade 16mm projector > nice small white screen > hv30 @ 24p - HDMI > black magic intensity - PC > 1080p24 4:2:2 (700 lines of resolution coz of HV30)

the problems...

there are no s16mm projectors... at least no cheap readily available ones that i've found. maybe you could file out the gate? maybe.

this guy mods 16mm projectors to have a 5blade shutter (stops flicker)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ELMO-16mm-TELEC...5|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50


and he has a demo of one without and with diffusion glass here - http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=iBqA__qh-dw



the other thing is adjusting exposure on the camera for each shot/scene. coz this could be a pain. i'm not sure how much adjusting you'd need to do... but it could be quite crap pausing the film adjusting rewinding pausing adjusting rewinding...

one idea around the adjusting is to set the camera so the whites are just touching the roof of the exposure on pass one. then doing a second pass but under exposed a few stops. then doing a sync and HDR type thing with the two video files. then adjusting brightness in post.

this could work for most things. the sync of the two video files could go off after a few minutes though...

also i have no idea how the pull down works for 60i and 24p with the hv30/intensity card. i'm in PAL land myself.

another issue could be the resolution of the 16mm projectors lens. who knows if it retains more than 700 lines let alone 1080.

these are all just ideas at the moment. what do ya think? too much hassle? too much money? or a crazy adventure that would waste some time and be kinda cool? :)
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You don't think a high quality negative scanner or a custom made one using a DSLR would do the trick?
 
Awesome stuff Hunter.

What stock where you shooting?

I'd love to have the scratch for an A-minima setup with the associated stock and telecine costs. I'm a digital baby and love shooting it whether it be DVX or RED but I have thought seriously about doing my finals this year in S16.

Nice stuff.
 
ESTEBEVERDE said:
You don't think a high quality negative scanner or a custom made one using a DSLR would do the trick?
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THis is actually pretty interesting. How would you use a DSLR to accomplish such a thing?

I mean, 1080p is really enough for projection ANYWAY.
 
A lot of people try to make diy telecine machines, I dont think scanning resolution would be the issue so much as getting a clean and adjustable RGB light source behind the film.

If you really wanted something good and "cheap", P+S technik just came out with a new affordable 2K scanner for everything from 35mm (all perfs) to 8mm with perf-less operation, its called the "Steady Frame" and is only like $125k I think. That may sound expensive, but when you compare that to a spirit at more than $1,000,000, its a steal for a real 2K telecine.
 
excellent stuff...

the movement/motion of film will never be replicated by digital capture, so fluid/organic/dream-like.... it really does feel more like real memories, like how the mind remembers things.

colors look amazing... props all the way around.
 
Drew-

I used a Cardellini clamp with a magic arm fully extended out- It was kinda scary! I just prayed the lady didn't crash as it made the bike somewhat off-balance.

Hoofandmouf-

Thats exactly how I feel about it, it took a few days until I saw the film go through the telecine but when I saw the picture up, it was exactly like my memory was of that day.

Zak-

It is magic! ; )
 
That would scare the hell out of me.

Do you find that you're getting more work with the 16mm? Less?

I really love how your tests look.
 
I just shot a spot with the aminima camera last week, It worked out great. Super 16 has its own look that is wonderful, not for everything but perfect for somethings. I also may have some more work with it later this month.

Im actually about to buy an Arriflex 35mm sync package though to try out for a while, dont know if i will keep it for very long and I will still have my 16mm package but Im hoping to maybe use the 35mm package on a few lower budget projects I have coming up.
 
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