Quick advice

[PannyDeters]

My film arrived today. I'm going to shoot a non-edit, 3:20 movie tomorrow.

Any advice would be helpful.

The details are as follows:

I have a:
Canon Auto Zoom 318 (auto zoom doesn't seem to work) with a C-8 10-30mm, 1:1.8 macro lens.

I'm going to shoot the whole role, every shot in one take (screwups or not), no sound.

I'll be shooting mostly outdoors at night. It's downtown and there are lots of street lamps.

I plan on using Tri-X, since it's the faster of the B/W films.

I also want to shoot some in the post office (the lobby is open 24 hours) but I'm worried that the brighter lights will be too much for the film. ???

Any insight to these details would be greatly appreciated.

-Danny

[tfunch24]

Tri-X resembles either an old documentary film circa 1948 or low-budget film noir. Some people really, really hate the excessive grain, but I don't mind it so much.

I don't know how much experience that you have had with S8, but even with Tri-X interior practicals may not be strong enough to light a nighttime scene on their own. My suggestion--take a reading off your light meter before rolling film and then decide.

Good luck.

Tom

[Actor]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">
you can always have the film Pushed at the lab by a stop or two
</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>
Pushing won't do any good after you've shot the film. You have to expose the film as though it were faster, in anticipation of the push. Tri-X is 160Tungsten/200Daylight. If you are going to push the film one stop then you either have to fool the light meter into thinking the film is 320T/400D or else set the exposure manually to underexpose by one stop.

And of course you have to push the whole roll.

I think on a first try you should not fool around with push processing. If things don't work out you can try that later.

[eddie]

hello

Sounds good, however TriX isnt super fast, I hope you arent disapointed with the results.
I shouldnt try messing around with push processing just yet.
Does your camera have auto exposure on it?
If so Id put a TriX cartridge in the camera and take it to your locations beforehand and test that there is enough light to film in them - just to be on the safe side.
You might just need it wide open for the whole shoot.

[seekaee]

Worse comes to Worse, you can always have the film Pushed at the lab by a stop or two. True, it'll be much more grainy but it might come out looking ok, maybe even good. I've seen some blown-out Super8 that's looked pretty cool at times.

[dr.sanchez]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Actor:

Pushing won't do any good after you've shot the film. </font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

That's true, but I recently shot a movie with tri-x, indoors, with all the lights on. The light meter on my fully-auto GAF said there wasn't enough light by a long shot. There is no manual aperture or film speed seeting on this camera so I took a chance and just shot the rolls and had them pushed two stops. The exposure was good. It's all grain but I kinda like it. So, maybe just winging it will turn out fine.

But, ideally one would like to know exactly what exposure to expect.

[mcarter4121]

Shoot lots of close ups to counter the grain. A doorbell button up close would look like it had a slightly rough edge to it but from a distance may look like a grain of film!
Reflect some light into the shadows on faces.
Change all your lamp sockets to 3 way ones and put new 3 way bulbs in them.
Set your camera to 12 fps to get more light and have everyone move in slowmotion.