American Cinematographer - September 2004 - 120

camera," says Johnson. "For her, it was

the DVCam

very basic class. In fact, we didn't even
shoot anything until the last half-hour.

Pro, edited, and output to a DVD. Even

a

We spent 90 minutes

going

over ques¬

tions, explaining the camera and how it
works." At South

by Southwest in
Austin, Texas, Johnson had provided a
special session to a 15-year-old aspiring
filmmaker. "He'd gotten a Bolex for
Christmas and hadn't used it yet because
he didn't know how to begin," says
Johnson. "So he came by, and I gave him
two days of instruction on it. By the end
of those two days, he was out doing it all
himself, which was absolutely wonder¬
ful. He actually lived in Dallas and drove
up with his dad just to do that."
During the week at Tribeca,
participants prowled the old brick streets
of lower Manhattan, shooting a variety
of exteriors. They filmed the red-carpet
entrances at the premiere of New York
Minute; police patrolling the Hudson
River's waterfront park; yellow cabs
trolling for customers; and assorted New
York characters

on

the street. One

happened upon a welding
their hand at capturing
action and

crew

shop and tried
the low-light

flying sparks.

To view their handiwork, the

program's participants must wait
weeks until

a

a few
DVD arrives in the mail.

This contains the 16mm

footage

as

well

was

*

measuring the success
of "Stop by, Shoot Film" in two ways.
One is through sales; a production that
recently came to them was from a film¬
maker who had participated in the
program. "It was a small project, but
nonetheless a production that he's
shooting on film," says Del Vecchio. The
second method is a follow-up survey or
event. "We

about film

a

good

superior resolution of film,

says Johnson. "It's transferred in
and you still have that film look,

hi-def,
which

much greater latitude than video,"
he observes. To make the final product,

has

a

Johnson had the 2,000' shot

during
Tribeca processed at Manhattan's
Moving Images. It was then transferred
on an HD Spirit DataCine. "Then we
went to a D-5 tape, and the D-5 images
were

down-converted to DVCam. Then

a

you can get

HydroFlex

ofliiinmont and arroccnrioc

result? Are you thinking
option?'" she says.

Kodak also solicits feedback in
that

a

letter

accompanies the DVD. "[Filmmak¬

ers] are sending e-mails expressing a lot
of excitement and interest, and they
want

to

know

about

additional

programs," notes Del Vecchio.
For those who are ready to go
beyond the appetite-whetting stage,
Kodak offers weeklong cinematography
workshops, as well as another new
program called Cine Start, which
presents five 90- to 120-minute modular
units offered several times a day at a
festival. "Word is getting out, and we're
starting to get a lot of interest," says Del

val in

idea of the

Call us or visit our web site to see our

^speciSIty H2O products and to find out where

as an

included

projected, the DVD gives them

s«

Splash bags
j * HydroHead® * Light meter housings*,.
Underwater lighting * Ground Fault Protection

ask, 'Are you doing anything

differently as

appear at the

clips shot at
fps and transferred at 8 fps, and
others shot at 64 fps and transferred at 8
fps vs. 64 fps.
Even though participants don't
get the benefit of seeing their footage

Underwater camera housings *

conversation four to six months after the

white reversal stock. The Tribeca DVD

24

Academy of Motion Picture ArTs & Sciences
H0900 and HD950 Remote AQuaCam"

Kodak is

Vecchio.

section dedicated to variable

jof the indulfllJIhaf'sfylrat wins awards.

435 and 35-3 Remote AquaCam"-2001 winner
off a Technical Achievement Award from The

film look."

behind-the-scenes Super 8mm mate¬
rial that Johnson shot using black-anda

sojlutiQns tfljiieet the evef-changing challenges

though the participants aren't watching
a high-resolution medium, it has that

as

frame rates, which shows

HydroFlex constantly.screates customized

brought into Final Cut

www.movieteth.de

"Stop by, Shoot Film" will next
Fort Lauderdale Film Festi¬
Florida, the Hot Springs Festival in

Arkansas, the Sidewalk Film Festival in
Alabama, Wild Screen in England, and
various MCAI

chapter meetings.
perspective, the
success of "Stop by, Shoot Film" can be
measured "by how good a time the
participants had and what they learned.
What I hope is that some of these video
guys [will look at] their film and be really
impressed by how much better it looks
than it would if they had shot video.
"We haven't had a negative
comment yet," he adds. "Everyone who
has participated has had an absolutely
wonderful time and thanks us profusely.
As far as I can judge, it's an overwhelm¬
ing success."
■
at

From Johnson's

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know...

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Movie Tech
107
American Cinematographer - September 2004

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - September 2004
