I Need To Achieve These Looks, Dp's Wanted!!

You guys are awsome!! I thak you for your support and professional advice. I see alot of people telling me that shooting film is really dificult, and I really believe you guys, you are the ones with the experience and honestly not me.

It'll will be my first time shooting film. I have more than 10 ten years of experience lighting for video so I kind of know what's going on, BUT I'm not going to DP this feature. I have a friend from Chile, he's a pro DP and have worked on may national and international commercial. He also DP an infomercial that went nationally in the US. It's about a very undestructable ladder(forgot the name) but he shot S16,HD and 35mm. So he is an amazing DP and will DP my feature just for Pizza. He've told me he wants to be part of the project cause he believes in the potential of my story.

this is going to be a labor of love, all the money will go just on the rentals and film. I dont think anyone will be paid, unless is a pro actor.

One movie called PRIMER was shot entirely on S16 for only 7000 and the guy won best movie at sundance and sold his movie to Thinkfilm. So things are possible all you need is a possitive mind and be willing to work like a dog.

This is all for me guys, have a great week.
G.
 
Hmmm For some reason I always thought Primer was shot on Video. I am not saying that as a certainty, I just thought I heard that some where, not that I watched the special features or anything. Great film though, but I still don't fully "get it".

Good luck man, just beware of key crew people getting tired of the project half way through and leaving you with 20k of unfinished movie. Asking people to stick with a feature for no pay and no food and no anything is asking to work with a bunch of saints. Even the guy who just holds the boom is pretty important when he isn't there anymore!
 
Yeah i would say be acreful of the no-bidget films that made it "Primer" "El Mariachi" etc... Rogriguez has shot like 10 short films before going on to shoot his feature and he knew how to do EVERYTHING so he didn't need to relay on other people. He knew how to edit so he didn't waste time on reshoots of scenes that weren't even going to be used in the cut, he didn't record the sound live so he didn'y have to have the actors wait for the sound to clear. He chose a story tht a bit cheesy so it's ok not to get the greatest performances. Etc...etc... In other words he knew how to make a movie efficiently and pull through. This knowledge comes from only shooting a lot and dealing with all thso elittle ****-ups that can slow down a production.
 
And let's not forget that El Mariachi was shot (released) in 1992 in MEXICO for an estimated $7000. What would that cost today in the US? Also the estimated budget after post-production was $220,000 according to IMDb.

http://yoursay.imdb.com/title/tt0104815/business

I'm guessing he fed his cast and crew...
 
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John_Hudson said:
Even the old Bolex's have been converted to S16. I think most cameras can be converted these days.

Edit

Yes. A quick glance and the 16Bl is avilable for S16
Click to expand...

I stand corrected. But just because any camera CAN be converted to S-16, does not neccesarily make it practical. I researched the subject a little and CinemaTechnic had this to say:

Super 16 conversion : Arandafilm in Australia has developed a Super 16 conversion for the 16BL. Also, the factory is rumored to have produced less than 20 "Super 16BL" cameras. We at CinemaTechnic do not believe that the possilibity of converting the 16BL's to Super 16 make up for the obvious drawbacks of this camera design, mentioned above. We have no intention of developing such a conversion ourselves.
 
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Interesting thread....

Primer was indeed shot on 16; Shane Carruth (lead, writer, director, and DP) had no film experience; he loaded a 35mm SLR with the same speed and type of film he'd use in the 16, and took photos of each location, noting the camera settings. He then referred to these settings when he shot 16mm. (The night scene at the fountain is almost unwatchable due to grain).

Ballsy move if you ask me... but, emulating a Wes Anderson (Man, wasn't "Tennenbaums" a pretty movie!) I'd say you need to do a boatload of tests with your planned camera and film (or video) or get a damn good DP. People sepnd entire careers learning the subtleties of film stock...

(And get a heck of a sound engineer, too.)
 
Last fall I DP'd a student short that had a pretty small budget (less than 2 grand, almost entirely spent on film and processing and telecine). I used an Eclair with an Angenieux lens and it looks quite nice. Certainly nobody would mistake it for a professional film, but we were all pleased with the quality. We used a couple different speeds of the Kodak Vision 2. We were extremely conservative in our shooting, and thus were able to stay within schedule and save some film for a later project. Granted, the acting was weak, but for a student film with a relatively inexperienced Director, it was ok.

A few suggestions though,
If you do shoot on film (of which I say that's great and good luck, because it takes balls but it is satisfying), can you possibly get an HD transfer? Ours was transferred to DVCam as well, and while it looks nice, I have always been a little bummed that after spending all of the effort on a 16mm shoot, all we've got to show is a 720x480 cut with subpar color info.

Also...get food donations. Call around to local eateries, grocery stores, etc. and ask for donations. We fed a crew of about 20 for four days straight and didn't pay a dime. It was really good food, too. You might not be quite so lucky, but give it a shot, cause it'll keep people happy and save money.
 
Ok, so here's my take on all of this - (And keep in mind, I'm a D.P. It's all I do)

I agree that production design is your number one priority...

Camera - The BL is one of the most finicky cameras ever made... Arri has dissavowed this camera and no longer services it... they have essentially decided to pretend it never existed. You can however find amazing cameras in this price range. I have a 16BolexPro (insanely rare, it is the precursor to the Arri 35BL... It is kick ass, and I picked mine up for about 3 grand) and this camera can do far more for you than either the Eclair or the BL. You could just rent an SR and save yourself a lot of headache. The BL is dangerous. Do not stake your film on it.

Film Stock - Experiment. You can get 35mm still rolls of cinema emulsion film from Fuji and Kodak. Shoot tests, send the film in, get it transfered to slides, and then make your decision. As far as I'm concerned, Fuji and Kodak stocks are getting so similar, that all you need to base your decision on is this - Kodak Vision2 stocks have such a huge contrast ration that achieving true black is not easy. If you want wide latitude, shoot Kodak. If you don't, shoot Fuji. All of the color **** can be corrected with filtration and... ding ding ding, production design. Oh, and Fuji gives a better student discount than Kodak. If you order 10 rolls, you get 35-40% off. This also goes for non-profit orgs.

Lenses... get as many as you can. These films you mentioned have lots of different lenses used. Anderson is partial to shooting on zooms. From the look of his films, I would take a stab and say he shoots on Cooke lenses, possibly those pre-dating the S4s. The BL has few lens choices because of it's odd lens mount, which is meant to shoot with the large blimped lenses designed for the camera. Once again, I'd avoid it. It severely limits your options. Find out what kind of lenses you have access to around town.

Lastly, think about applying for the Panavision Grant. You are eligible as a student filmmaker. Take some time, put together a serious budget, send it in, and you could get a Panavision Elaine package w/lenses and all of your support equipment for free. I know one of the guys who makes the decisions about who gets the grant over there, and he told me that when he got the script for Napoleon Dynamite, he thought it was terrible. However, they had the most well put together budget, and so he gave the grant to them. Keep this in mind. It doesn't really matter to them how good your idea is, they just want to know that you are going to finish your film.

And, if you can get a solid D.P. on the film, that will help. They will probably want to see the D.P.'s reel and resume before the sign off. I've gone through this before, and it's not easy, but it's not impossible. They get money back from the Government for doing it. If you have any questions, PM or e-mail me. I'm more than happy to help.
 
Oh, and additionally, I agree with Blue... find some way to get a better transfer than DVCam. Why shoot on film if all you're going to end up with is DVCam? If you can't transfer to HDCam or DVCProHD, try for DVCPro50, D-Beta or HDV encoding. Trust me, it's worth it.
 
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