Happy Place

November has been kind of a rough month, so, today, I did what any sane person would do: I went to Panavision and took cameras apart and put them back together. Then I loaded them with film and unloaded them.  I am officially back in my happy place.

People, please be kind.  All the pushiness and junior high-level meanness makes me nervous.  We are living in a world that is changing really quickly, let's concentrate on being an integral part of it, rather than fighting for scraps of the old world.

2K, 4K, Pixels and Resolution

This article in the Creative Cow magazine is essential reading. John Galt, of Panavision, speaks in plain language about pixels, resolution, 2K, 4K, Imax, frame rates v. pixel resolution and dynamic range. My eyes usually glaze over during these kinds of discussions but this is quite engaging (and comprehensible). Isn't it time to actually understand what a Bayer pattern is and what it means for image acquisition? Or, that you should be spending as much, or more, time thinking about your lenses as you do about the sensors?

Combine it with this blog post by Stu Maschwitz on lin, log and clipping and you'll be the smartest HD kid on your block. And it will make you more impervious to the marketing of camera companies. Seriously, it's important to demystify all of this stuff so you can use the tools to achieve what you want creatively, as opposed to being treated like a tool.

As an aside, last week I saw my first camera rental request posting on Craigslist that specifically asked for RED owners to not contact the poster anymore (my recollection is that they didn't want to deal with the workflow). It does makes me wonder what kind of ROI the average RED owner is getting. Maybe there are just a lot of them here in Los Angeles? I'd love to here some owner-operator stories (or secondhand anecdotes) about how they're doing financially with their cameras.

Trip to Panavision

Today was a fantastic day because I got to go to Panavision. It's hard to explain what it's like to be there. I love almost all cameras but Panavision is a special place. A legendary cinematographer could be in the stall next to you, doing camera tests for their next feature. Plus, they treat you well there, even if you aren't a famous cinematographer. A couple of weeks ago I was there for an event and Joe Dunton gave a talk. He provided lenses and cameras for Stanley Kubrick (and many others) for much of his career. What I really appreciated was that his presentation focused entirely on motion picture artistry, not technical details. He also pulled out an f/0.7 prime lens. Geeks and Kubrick fans will know of what I speak.

I practiced loading film mags and operating the Panahead geared camera heads. Unfortunately, I still have a way to go, as far as operating the heads. For the non-film people, the magazine is on top of the camera (the part that says Panavision) and holds the film. The head is a geared support device for moving the camera smoothly. You can see them both here.



You know that you're crazy enough to work in film when you're happy to spend 4 hours moving a laser pointer on a camera head, trying to keep it in a series of thin white lines on a chart. You spin the wheels on the head and it turns the gears that move the head and the camera. It's kind of like rubbing your head and stomach at the same time with your hands moving in opposite directions.

There was a 5.4 earthquake while I was there. Everyone looked up for a second and then went back to work.