"Things..." episode 003.

003: Film and where to buy it.

A reader recently asked about a good place to order motion picture film stock. As I mentioned back in February, it can be difficult to find these days (especially 16mm, even though it seems like plenty of people are using it).

For Interplanetary, I've been ordering Fuji color stock (plus a little Kodak black and white) from the good folks at Film Emporium. They always seem to have whatever I need on hand, their prices are good, and the customer service is excellent. I expect all their salespeople are solid, but I can vouch for Darren in particular.

As for whether to use Fuji or Kodak color stock, the Fuji is a much better deal -- $112 for 400 feet of Fuji vs. $136 for a comparable Kodak roll. I've used both (we shot Hide and Creep on Kodak), and I like the look of both. There are subtle differences between comparable stocks (say Kodak's Vision2 500T vs. Fuji's Eterna 500T), but I can't see that Kodak's is any better than Fuji's, much less $24 a roll better.

Maybe I'll just write one movie review.

A few weeks ago, I said I wouldn't be writing any movie reviews. Then Wade Kwon asked me to write a review of The Ten for his web site, since Wade is on top of all things Birmingham, and The Ten will be opening Birmingham's Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival next weekend.

So I wrote a movie review. But just for Wade. For this blog, I'll keep to the practice of linking to other reviews.

Speaking of, Death Proof came out on DVD Tuesday. It's not a perfect movie, but it's worth watching just for the awesomeness that is Kurt Russell.

Here's Vern's brilliant (and profane) Ain't It Cool News review.

I love my mom.

Mom just called to let me know that she's put together a new space suit for us, plus several space suit accessories, two days ahead of schedule. Even though I didn't ask for any of it 'til the last minute.

My mom rocks.

(And my dad does, too. He delivered all the raw materials to Mom for me on Monday, plus he bought me lunch!)

"Other Worlds Than These" episode 002.

002: American Cinematographer magazine, www.TheAsc.com.

Are you a camera nerd? Have you ever consulted a dept-of-field table? Do you own a light meter? Heck, do you even know what a light meter is? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, American Cinematographer might be the magazine for you. Through interviews with directors of photography and other camera crew members, AC covers everything involved in getting an image from the real world to the silver screen, from the lights, lenses, cameras, and film stock used on the set to the processing and color timing in post-production.

American Cinematographer isn't the cheapest magazine around, but I think it's well worth the subscription price. If you want a free, in-depth sample, you can read many past magazine articles in their entirety at www.TheASC.com. For starters, check out these stories about Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut and the original 1977 Star Wars.

Appearing at Sidewalk.

Birmingham's original film fest is coming up soon. If you happen to attend, you might see me there. One of my bands, the Exhibit(s), will be performing at Sidewalk on Sunday afternoon.

And I'm especially excited about my first film fest panel gig. I'll be moderating the "Blood and Guts of Comedy" panel at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday. The panel will feature the directors of Blood Car and Murder Party, two excellent horror comedies screening at the festival on Saturday night.

The festival's lineup of films for this year is looking good. I'll try to post some more Sidewalk notes next week.

"Things..." episode 002.

002: Audible.

David recently asked about Interplanetary sound on the blog comments, so I thought it'd be a good time for a movie audio primer.

One of the first things people ask about my 16mm camera is "does it record sound?" Though there have been a few 16mm cameras that record sound, most 16mm shooters (and 35mm shooters, for that matter) resort to double-system sound. The camera captures only images, and audio is recorded on a separate machine. These days, the ideal sound machine would be something like this recorder from Sound Devices. Sound Devices stuff is expensive, though, so I use an old Tascam DA-P1 portable DAT machine.

Video shooters who are particular about their audio might also want to consider double-system sound. Even though most video cameras are capable of recording audio, the quality of said audio probably isn't as high as that of a dedicated sound recorder.

So you have your film or video footage captured from one machine and audio captured from another. How do you join them together? Well, that's what the slate is for.



The slate includes two small sticks connected by a hinge. At the start of the scene, at some point after both the camera and audio recorder are rolling, someone slaps the two slate sticks together. During editing, you can look through the camera footage frame by frame until you see the point at which the sticks meet. Listening to the audio, you can find the moment where the sticks meet and make a loud clicking sound. In your editing software, you set the "click" on the audio track to occur at the moment the camera recorded the sticks making contact, and your sound and picture will be synchronized for that take.

This probably sounds tedious, but sync work goes pretty quick after you get used to it. Modern technology has brought us "smart" slates and camera systems that can automate this sync process, but modern technology demands modern prices. Doing it the old-fashioned way is much cheaper and just as efficient, if a bit slower.

Already?

It seems like we just got through at Atrox, and it's already time to go to DeSoto Caverns. We're booked to shoot there Saturday afternoon, and I'm mostly unprepared. Thank goodness my Mom is taking up the slack -- she's putting together a new space suit for us, one I should have had somebody working on weeks ago.

Assuming I can get my stuff together, I think it'll be a fun shoot. It'll be nice to shoot somewhere that's a real place and not a set. If we can figure out how to light it, that is...