shooting-film My super 8 short.

[Animal Orchestra]

This is the first super 8 I've shot, it was about a
month ago and it took forever to process/telecine.
I used Kodak Ektachrome 64t with a Bolex 155
Macrozoom and it was processed and telecined at
Nanolab. It sorta has no story whatsoever, and
the music pretty much makes it a film clip for Beirut.
I didn't get the lighting and exposure right on a lot
of shots and had to can quite a few, but I'm fairly
happy with it.

http://vimeo.com/1041115

Crits welcomed,

 

[oakstreetphotovideo]

I found that entertaining. However, I did keep screaming "lights"!!! I shot a lame tutorial a few days ago and I used 6 lights. One or two, daylight balanced lights would have made a huge difference on your back lighted indoor shots. I liked the soft, grainy look of the footage. The editing was interesting. It held my attention and didn't seem to drag. Given what you had to work with, I think you did good. Next time, find some lights. If you have no electricity, setup some reflectors!

 

[Animal Orchestra]

Thank you, that means a lot to me.
I agree! The lighting is mostly terrible, I don't
know why because I had both room lights on and
there must've been some sunlight coming through.
I like the soft grain too, that's the reason I chose
super 8 to work with and when there was enough
light I wasn't let down with the quality. The only
problem is that the cost has just gone up by about
a quarter and it seems too out of my price range to
work with for now.
Thanks though,

 

[oakstreetphotovideo]

You do realize that ASA 64 film is for bright daylight, don't you? You simply can't shoot with "room lights" using ASA 64 film. If you had a super fast lens and a really slow shutter speed, which would limit your frame rate, you could shoot with a few hundred watts of light, but otherwise you'd need some serious light for ASA 64. That's just the nature of the beast. You'd want ASA 400 for shooting indoors by room light and even that would be on the dark side.

 

[Animal Orchestra]

Touche.
Well I made the (wrong) assumption that the 't' in 64t was tungsten and that meant you could use artificial light?

 

[VPTurner]

Touche.
Well I made the (wrong) assumption that the 't' in 64t was tungsten and that meant you could use artificial light?

You can, but you need a lot of it. One of your best investments shooting on film stock would be a cine light meter. And were you using tungsten lights, or relying on the household incandescents? There's a reason film sets use thousands of watts.

Go rent "Rocky Balboa" and compare the film footage with the deleted scenes (probably taken from the video tap). Notice how bright the set actually is.

 

[oakstreetphotovideo]

Household incandescents are tungsten and they are close to 3200K. They would have been closer to correct than the daylight, but they were no where near bright enough.

I thought you were going for the blue cast, so you used tungsten film outdoors intentionally. That's why I said to use daylight balanced lighting; to match the daylight. If you use tungsten balanced film outdoors, you need an 85 or 85b [Tiffen] filter to get natural color.

I would have been Ok with the blue cast, if there had been more light!

 

[VPTurner]

Household incandescents are tungsten and they are close to 3200K. They would have been closer to correct than the daylight, but they were no where near bright enough.

...

A tungsten filament, yes, but not all household incandescent bulbs are created equal. You can buy various color temperatures and they range from 2000K to 3300K depending on the filament. I have some incandescent bulbs that are daylight balanced (blue coating). And fixtures that dim (e.g. 3-way) will change the color temperature. With my dimmer installed and set at full it is still not as bright (because it has to travel through additional resistance) as direct connect.

I know you know this; I'm just musing out loud for the Peanut Gallery as usual.

EDIT: Yes, I get what you're saying because even Halogen lights use tungsten filaments. I guess I should not use "tungsten" as a descriptor since most of them fall in that category nowadays.

 

[oakstreetphotovideo]

I use Photogenic 3200K bulbs for my studio lighting, but I've found that most, common household bulbs come very close in color temperature. It really comes down to degree of variation. Since sunlight is around 5600K during the day (and as blue as 6500K in shadow), the difference between 3000K and 3400K is not that big of a deal.

Case in point: I was shooting a green screen shot with my studio (3200K) lighting and I color balanced accordingly. I had an open door letting sunlight into the studio. I was just being careless I guess. I surely wasn't thinking clearly. My green screen was closer to blue-green and the key was very difficult to pull as a result.

At the risk of inciting sloppiness, you could probably use just about any incandescent tungsten bulb (for those of you who are non technical, these are the common, "bulb shaped" light bulbs that screw into light sockets), and not have to worry about them drifting too far out of the "tungsten" range. I still prefer to buy 3200K bulbs to be safe, and the price is about the same, anyway.

I guess this has turned into the color temperature thread, but one last note (you hit on this, VP) is to beware of dimmers, because they alter color temperature on most lights.

(VP, I didn't post this as an argument, just as additional clarification, since this thread may be useful for someone trying to select lights)

 

[VPTurner]

...

(VP, I didn't post this as an argument, just as additional clarification, since this thread may be useful for someone trying to select lights)

I most certainly was not trying to argue. Just thinking out loud. And that was my thought exactly, to get all clarification and variables on the table for the benefit of all (including me ).

Now I will play opposite sides of a debate on occasion just to bring out more details, but I won't argue with someone of your caliber of knowledge and experience when I am barely scratching the surface of this endeavor.

 

[oakstreetphotovideo]

Don't give me too much credit, VP. I've learned everything I know the hard way, and most of what I have learned is obsolete. Given how fast things are changing, I feel more like a newbie than a guru most of the time.

Doug