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First of all you probably don't want to try to record sound with a film camera unless you are a retro technology buff; nobody uses optical or magnetic camera sound anymore. That went away with the coming of video. Most modern film productions uses double system sound, where audio is recorded to...

A lot of video shooters have developed this paralysing fear of film, afraid of the complexities of exposure, focus and mechanical movements. It's not that hard. When I exposed my first roll of 16mm I checked my lightmeter, dialed in the f-stop and focus, and shot. Everything came out fine. Not...

Now That's a Silent Film! They've got about 85% of the feel of the old Silver Screen. A few of the actors look too modern, but the sets, lighting, camera movements, and titling work well.

There are gradations of paranoia in officialdom. The cop busting your chops for filming friends skateboarding in the park has less at stake than the man patrolling the perimeter at CIA Langley, and the latter guy will have a lot more backup. Don't do anything foolish or confrontational, and...

Let's revise that definition, since no film cameras record sound on film nowadays except some 40 year old Auricons. "MOS" refers to a scene that is shot without sync sound being recorded. The term comes from Fritz Lang's Hollywood days, when he'd call for a take "Mit Out Sound". The film slate...

Easiest mistakes on a first film? - 1) Loading the camera wrong. 2) Forgetting to set the proper focus/exposure. 3) Not setting aside enough money to finish the job. 4) Forgetting to feed your cast & crew (they're all doing you a favor, after all). 5) Bad sound. 6) Panicking. Thinking this...

Also consider montage effects, piling lots of differing elements together to provide unusual connections between images.

I've sent a lot of Super 8 and 16mm to Cinesound with good results. Their Marconi telecine can zoom in on part of a frame, which can save footage with boom mics intruding. They also have a B&H regular 8mm filmchain which produced stunning results with some old WW2 footage last year.

I recommend you go to your local video house and rent a good tripod like a Sachtler, just to get the feel of what a tripod is supposed to function and feel like before you spend money buying one. Good fluid tripods cost thousands of dollars and when you use one you'll realize why; they make...

Are you shooting film? Consider cross-processing and hand-processing options. I've processed old expired 7293 with C41 chemistry and gotten some wild nonrealistic colors; also you can wack out the colors of any film (even b&w) during the telecine transfer step if your telecine operator is...

Kodak no longer manufactures mag-striped camera film such as was used in news cameras of the 70's and 80's. You can record single-system optical sound on standard 16mm camera film if you are shooting with a camera that incorporates an optical sound head such as an Auricon. Otherwise you must...

As is always the case, get the camera checked out before you start using it on anything that's costing somebody money & time. Jaxshooter's right about the general amount of abuse that news equipment gets; my CP16R and Angenieux lens came from South Africa TV and probably did capture some gritty...

"I'd like to get into driving, and the type of ride I am looking for can only be captured in a Ferrari or other high drawer brand" - Well yeah, me too, but ... Rivet, the camera doesn't really decide the quality of the image, the lenses and the DP do that. You can A/B shots from a Russian K3 or...

Look for some 7240 VNF (video news film), no longer made but there's plenty still around. It has the color spectrum you associate with old news footage because it's the film they used. Finding a VNF processing lab is becoming more problemsome nowadays, but there are a few still running.

The CP16A is very similar to the older Auricon newsreel camera, in fact the CP16 movement is a derivative of the Auricon movement. These non-reflex cameras often use a Som Berthiot or Angenieux "dog leg" zoom lens that works like the optics of a typical super 8 or the Bolex H16 cameras. They use...

Getting back to the economics of film, remember Robert Rodriguez made his first feature, "El Mariachi", for $7000 total. Take a look at his "10 minute film school" http://www.exposure.co.uk/makers/minute.html edit: Oh, yes. Hi, I'm Bob, and I'm a film buff. I saw mention of this board on some...