[Todd Terry]

It’s a lot more complicated than I can write here, but here it is in a nutshell…

For about a century or so, most all film was shot at 24 frames per second. It still is today.

For most of it’s life, most video (at least in the NTSC world) was shot at 30 frames per second, or 60i. The “i” means it is interlaced, each frame is made up of two fields, basically resulting in 60 pictures per second.

Ergo, video is very smooth, and film is a little more choppy and stuttery. Technically you might say then that as far as motion goes, video is better. But aesthetically, 24fps gives you some inherent drama that 60i misses.

The newer generation of cameras can shoot 24p, meaning rather than 60 interlaced fields per second, the camera shoots 24 progressive frames per second… just like a film camera. That gives the video a more filmic look.

Ok, that’s frame rates. You also asked about shutter speeds.

“Normal” shutter speeds are typically about one-half of the frame rate. In a film camera shooting 24fps if the camera had a 180° shutter (which most don’t, but close), then the shutter speed would be 1/48th of a second. Therefor, a “normal” shutter speed for a 24p video camera is also 1/48th. A normal shutter speed for 60i video would be 1/60th of a second, or one-half of its 30fps.

Motion images look “right” because there is motion blur. If you stop a video or film on a single frame, it is blurry (if there is action in the frame). Your eye and brain interpret this as normal motion. If you shoot with too slow a shutter speed (on either film or video) then the individual frames are too blurry, and things just don’t look right. Conversely, if you shoot with too high a shutter speed, there is no motion blur on individual frames and when viewed at normal speed the images look choppy and stuttery.

Higher-than-normal shutters are often used in movies in action sequences, to make them look more… well… “actiony.” Sometimes too much so. I couldn’t even watch the movie “Gladiator,” as all of the action/fighting scenes were shot with such a high choppy shutter that it was almost unwatchable. The effect was used with much greater success in “Saving Private Ryan.”

Those are the very very basics. Others may have lots more to contribute, and there’s plenty to read about both frame rates and shutter speeds in the ASC manual.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Sure, it can be done, and is done pretty often.

Word of warning, though, it’s pretty darn expensive. I think that typically striking a real film print from a digital master can be upwards of $30,000-$50,000 for a feature length film.

Keep in mind that virtually all festivals now will accept digital masters… some will only accept digital masters (even Sundance had an all-digital-required year a couple of years ago until some entrants balked and insisted on 35mm prints, so they relented the following year). So, are you absolutely sure that a 35mm print is required? Maybe not… but if so, I guess you are stuck.

I don’t have any sources off hand, but there are labs in LA that do that (and one well-known one in Vancouver whose name escapes me).

Most of those labs really like to be in on the pre-production when you know a film print is needed so that you can do everything exactly right to make the right master that will yield the best print. But of course they can do it after-the-fact as well.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

[Mark Suszko] “the networks all hate super-16 now and refuse to haev anything made in it anymore.”

Wow, really. I guess the networks could take that position, but it sure would be surprising.

I’m not sure what current broadcast or cable network shows are shooting s16mm, but those in recent past have included Gilmore Girls, One Tree Hill, Malcolm in the Middle, Tru Calling, The OC, Monk, Dead Zone, Scrubs, My Name is Earl, and the first few seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, to name a few.

Oh, and I do believe the COW’s own Todd McMullen shoots NBC’s “Friday Night Lights” on s16mm.

[Mark Suszko] “if the film still winds up transferred to a DI, isn’t that missing the point and adding that extra bit of expense over a pure digital image chain?”

It might seem that way, but not really. The extra lattitude and gamma/chroma info is preserved on the DI, info that would simply not have been there had the image been originally acquired via a digital camera rather than on film. It’s at the acquisition (camera) point where film really shines… down the rest of the chain the workflow is (or can be) identical whether shooting film or video. That, plus most theatrical (and some broadcast) DIs are made at either 2K or 4K resolution… which is of course much higher resolution than had it been shot as video. That might not make much difference if the end viewing is 1080 max on television rather than theatrical… except the higher-res DI would be of great benefit for compositing, matting, and SFX work.

Just like with video, there is a great deal of difference to be had with which film camera you are shooting with. They both may hold the same Kodak stock in the magazines, but you’re going to see a quality difference if you are shooting with someone’s old beat-up Eclair NPR or Canon Scoopic, as opposed to a million-dollar Panavision Elaine s16mm camera. Same goes for lenses.

s16mm can look really great in the right hands. Case in point… due to all the fashion, glamor, and all that hubbub, the producers of “Sex and the City” were meticulous about the look of the show. Which was shot in s16mm for its entire broadcast run.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

[Matt Dufilho] “I feel much better about spending the extra money on the Arri MFF set now.”

If you are getting an Arri FF unit, no worries. It’s a great follow focus and rock solid, it will make working with SLR lenses a little easier. SLR lenses are so tough because to go from nearest focus to infinity with a real cine lens you have to make almost a full barrel turn of the lens… but with an SLR lens you only have to make a 1/5th or 1/4th turn… so you are turning the focus ring only a tiny tiny amount when trying to track a moving subject… and depending on your lens’ focal length, f-stop setting, and distance to talent… that DoF can literally be as shallow as an inch (if you want), and focusing can be maddening. The Arri will help.

[Matt Dufilho] “Can I use my Nikon camera body as a director’s lens viewer?”

Well… yes and no. You can use it to judge depths-of-field of particular lenses at particular f-stop settings, yes. But no, you can’t use it as a viewfinder for framing… at least not accurately. Remember that a 35mm still frame and a 35mm cine frame are very very different… and the cine frame is much smaller than the still frame (because still cameras shoot a horizontal image on horizontally-traveling film, whereas cine cameras shoot a horizontal image on vertically-traveling film).

I just use regular old director’s finder…. or just use the camera. Or, after you do it enough you can look like a pompous old Hollywood director and frame a scene with your hands… which really does work… and after a while you’ll learn pretty closely what focal lengths will cover how much of a scene, and what lens/f-stop combos will yield particular depths-of-field. A couple of companies do make director’s finders that work pretty much like a DoF converter… they have PL mounts in front for a cine prime of your choice, which shoot onto a groundglass… pretty much just like your Letus. They are pretty pricey, though… the one made by Arri comes in at about five grand.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Didn’t see it yet… but as you know film in general has a great deal more contrast lattitude and dynamic color range than does HD… and specifically s16mm has technically a great deal more resolution than HD. So, it should look phenominal. I’m not doubting you, it probably didn’t… but it should.

It would seem that the problem lies somewhere in the production workflow rather than at the acquisition point. The problem is, that it could be almost anywhere that the wheels came off the bus… from the first telecine to your particular TV set, and a few dozen other places in between.

s16mm can look good or bad, it just depends on what you do with it… a look at the present and past s16mm network television shows will show you a huge range… from the terrible looking (“Walker Texas Ranger”), to more recent s16mm fare that really looked great (“My Name is Earl,” “Scrubs”). In fact the first time I saw “Scrubs” on NBC’s HD network feed on a 50″ 1080 monitor I said “Wow… that’s 16mm??” Which it was, and was not only beautifully saturated and with incredible lattitude, but razor sharp as a tack.

I think Mr. Burns’ problems lies someplace other than with the sprocket holes.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

My initial thought is not to lose any… I use all those focal lengths (or near to those) daily.

Rick is right though that the 85mm and the 100mm are very close together. You could probably get away with losing the 85mm. OR, lose the 100mm and get something longer instead. Although I realize that doesn’t drop your lens count.

Although Rick would, I personally would not lose the 50mm. The 50mm is probably my most-used lens, followed by a 35mm and an 80mm. Different strokes, different tastes. It all depends on how you like to shoot.

I’m assuming those Nikkors are SLR still-camera lenses. If so (and even if not), make sure you have budgeted for a darn good follow focus unit, as they are going to be murder to focus, especially on a moving subject. And NOT one of those cheap-on-eBay “Fisher Price” follow focus units… their gearboxes are just way too sloppy even for real cine lenses, and with SLR lenses that will be doubly critical. The units from Arri and Chroisel are great but expensive… on the budget end I can highly recommend the FF unit from RedrockMicro… it’s one of the few sub-$1000 FF’s that I have ever used that was nice and tight, a nice unit and very workable.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

[Alan Lloyd] “Until someone drops one.”

Truth to that. However, mine have been going strong for a dozen+ years. I was unfamiliar with the Peppers until I bought my first ones… I knew my Arri days were over then. I’ve seen Arris “gently” dropped that messed up the focus mechanisms because damage to the surface “skin” resulted in more damage inside which is not a problem with a fully-cast housing. Different strokes for different folks… they are both good instruments. And neither particularly cheap.

Hopefully in a studio/grid setting there wouldn’t be much “dropping” going on like there tends to be on location. If so… HEADS UP!!!

Someone suggested flos, and that’s probably not a bad idea too. KinoFlos were mentioned, and of course they are the kings. However they are usually thought of as location instruments or freestanding studio instruments. For a permanent installed grid situation, might take a look at the Videssence flos… which are more of a studio instrument than the Kinos.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

[Mike Jeffs] “I have heard that Arri is considerd High end, is that correct?”

Yes, definitely. And a lot of pros (probably some in here) swear by them. Personally, I’ve always found them to be just a bit overpriced for what you get.

In fresnels, I personally prefer LTM Pepper instruments to Arri (LTM Lighting). They are extremely robust instruments, and work very well. Whereas Arri (and a lot of other fresnels) are basically constructed out of a number of aluminum sheetmetal panels that are connected by fore and aft housings, the Peppers are made as more or less a single-piece cast housing. They are very sturdy (although slightly heavier than Arris), but they are also typically quite a bit less expensive.

Although I usually use smaller fresnels than the ones you need (I have Pepper 200s, 300s, and 650s), they do make a swapable 500/1K.

They don’t make a 2K in a tungsten fresnel (they make lots of the bigger instruments, but only in fresnel and PAR daylight HMIs… 1K is the biggest tungsten), but for your smaller instruments it might be worth having your vendor give you some pricing at least for comparison.

I’ve never used Desisti tungsten fresnels… but with their other instruments I’ve had good experiences. I’ve rented their 1200w PAR HMIs on a number of occasions, and they worked well and were extremely well built (although huge and heavy, especially compared to the 1200w fresnel HMIs we have that are probably half the size and weight). I would imagine their tungsten fresnels are built equally as well as their HMIs.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

All of mine have two root folders called BDMV and CERTIFICATE.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Hi Jeff…

Thanks… yeah, that is what we planned to do (in fact I had already written it to a file as a backup even before I tried to write it directly to disc)…

It troubles me though that Encore can’t see the recorder in Blu-ray mode (even though it can in DVD mode). I’d definitely like to have all modes able to work the “right” way when we need it to… rather than have to always yield to a work-around.

We kinda already have enough “workarounds” in our shop as it is… I’d really like this brand-new suite to work the way that it’s supposed to.

Thoughts or suggestions, anyone?

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com