Demo of Bolex H16 being loaded with film.

 Demo - Loading Bolex H16 with Film. from Gavin Murphy on Vimeo.

Here is the demo video of the Bolex H16 camera being loaded with film as promised during my creative project. I had planned to narrate over it but there isn’t much to tell. Swiss precision engineered, the camera virtually loads itself.
Have a look!

Here’s a link to the original post

For the purposes of the video I used old film stock and manipulated the camera to keep the process visible. In practice when loading unexposed stock I draw off a manageable length of film for the leader and hold the remaining film coil tight to the spool, whilst manipulating the leader into the loading mechanism.
100ft rolls of 16mm film (used in the H16) come on Daylight spools which act to block any light leakage to lower levels of the film roll, the film has an anti-halation backing layer to do the same. Because of this, film can be loaded into and unloaded from the camera in subdued light without the worry of fogging shots.

To load a film set the camera to run at a slow frame rate.

 

Check list to load Bolex H16 with film.

1             Check that the film pressure plate is in the closed position, it should click into place.

2             Turn the small lever to close the film loop-former.

3             Remove the empty daylight spool (if necessary) using the eject lever.

4             Place the loaded film spool on the upper spindle (with drive mechanism to left) feeding off in the direction of the arrow printed on the base plate (clockwise with the film sprocket holes at the bottom, when holding it).

5             Clip the end of the film using the built in guillotine or scissors.

6             Insert the film into the top drive sprocket and and press the trigger, the film feeds through the loading mechanism automatically, 

7             Allow 12” or so to run through the mechanism, attach and wind the film onto an empty daylight spool and place onto the empty pickup reel spindle (winding in the direction of the arrow printed on the camera). Take up any film slack onto the spool.

8             Press the button to reopen the film loop-former.

9             Run the camera again for several seconds paying attention to the sound of the film running and ensuring that the film loop does not scrape or rub against the cameras mechanism.

10           Replace the lid, the film counter will be reset automatically. Run the camera until the counter indicator says zero.

Should you forget to open the loop-former before using the camera, it does open automatically once the lid is replaced. It may be tempting to omit the visual check to maximise on film footage/shots, but this is bad practice (as you don't want all your shots ruined as due consequence).
Remember to adjust the viewfinder diopter to your eye (remove the lens, aim the camera at a light source and focus the eyepiece on the ground glass), and to set the camera to your required frame rate.

Now shoot something fantastic!

Film Run Times

Lifetime Test Shots - Scene 01.

John playing Adam - The second days lighting worked so much better

A small crew got together to shoot some test shots for lifetime last weekend. It was a really usefull experience. Not only did we get to test ideas like lighting and camera but with a little time on the edit, it was like the ultimate full rehearsal which highlighted a number of points worthy of consideration.

Although only test shots, I felt that in order to give some sort of authenticity to the agent character something more than a cotton boiler suit was required for his time travel suit and helmet.
 I wanted to try some experiments with glass beads that are used in road markings to reflect light for the production suit. I wondered if highly reflective tape might work for a mock-up suit. Actually acquiring this tape proved more difficult than expected and in the end I purchased a couple of large high-vis vests purely for the reflective ribbon from Arco. The ribbon was removed and bonded to a white disposable suit with double sided tape. This proved quite effective once tested with a still camera using a flash but under redhead light (used inside the room on day one) did not work quite the same.

Reflective ribbon screenshot of Adam and the Agent.

I will still look to conducting experiments with the glass beads and get a couple more high-vis vests whilst they remain reduced at Arco to create the final production suit.
Some sort of padding is required to make a suit more substantive. 

The lights looked nice but quickly ran out.

I had already decided that I wanted the agents helmet to include a visor that enabled the whole of his face to be visible and illuminated similar to the diving masks developed in the production of The Abyss. For the mock-up I purchased a full face visor from Arco and topped it with a hard hat worn backwards, this assembly was covered with a slit cloth bag which was bonded in place with the highly reflective ribbon bonded with double sided tape. I used a cheap solar LED rope light around the extremities of the visor. This didn’t illuminate his face too much but was effective initially. Unfortunately the battery for this ran down quite quickly and recharging was slow resulting in it not really being visible in the footage, but it can be seen in the production stills. In practice during shooting the mask steamed up frequently and this can be seen during some of the shots. I may try to run a line from my compressor to the visor for the final mask to prevent this in-between takes and shall look to removing the solar battery and running the lights from a conventional source.

The Agent arrives in a puff of smoke

 We wanted to try to create a practical effect to enhance in post for the time umbilical. Due to problems acquiring reflective tape to create an umbilical we decided to try to use the remaining light rope from the helmet visor. This seemed a good idea at the time as it was already connected to the suit. The plastic rope was drawn up to and over the mic boom pole which was held to the ceiling. In practice this was not very successful as it draped from the pole and it was not possible to maintain any form of tension. This may have been more successful if connected to a body harness and strung over a studio lighting rig on which the tension to keep it straight would be able to be applied. The reflective tape is very effective when the light hits it just right, but another solution for the umbilical material would probably be more appropriate.

A shot gun was required for the final shot. Whilst it was always planned to have a genuine prop for actual production, for the purposes of the test shots a simple prop was constructed from 22mm copper pipe utilising two 'barrels’ gaffer taped together to a third support to hold the construction together and act as a handle/stock which was then sprayed black. This was effective enough for the tests as a representation and maybe something for the actor of the final piece to practice with in order to make using a genuine prop more effective in the final production. I once saw a programme about how assailants using knifes improve a threatening ‘technique’ to induce fear as they commit more crimes without the need to shed blood. How the gun will be held and performed with in a threatening manner is equally/more important than how good the final prop will look.

Bad Mad Dad - Kyle with the shotgun 10 min prop

  I wanted to create a dark and dingy intro to the film with a noir venetian blind effect with shards of light entering the room that Adam then sat in. To this end I had planned to place redheads on the flat roof outside the window to shine through. However on day one we were unable to do this due to rain. To counter this we postponed these shots hoping that day 2 would have better weather and proceeded with other shots with the room illuminated from the inside. The resulting shots look too bright and stand out from the nicer shots achieved the following day when we could use the lights on the roof. Whilst some colour grading could have reduced it, this and failing to create the required blinds shards effect due to all our smoke being lost through the window (our power cables fed through) prompted a conversation about a studio build to control this situation which we could then hotbox as more lighting may also have helped. 

This experience has been so useful highlighting development necessary for production and direction it would be good to attempt the same for all the other Lifetime scenes before committing them to film.

Wilton works shoot/hillside reccy

Wilton works and the wind turbines out to sea at Redcar.

Following day one’s test shots for lifetime we took a drive up to Lackenby  to take shots from the footbridge spanning the A174 of the Wilton chemical works for the final composite shot reveal.
Following the rain earlier in the day which prevented us from placing lights outside, the day had really brightened up.

The bridge has a cage all the way round but the camera on full zoom easily shot through the mesh keeping it out of shot.
Unfortunately it was too early for shots of them illuminated and there was too much haze to get good daytime shots. Due to this we decided to carry on up the hills following the path that the bridge connects Lackenby to.

The view over the chemical works and out to sea from the hill side is fantastic but the actual shot needs to be from a much lower angle, more as when approaching Wilton from on the road, a lower location than the bridge ideally.

We also looked to performing some test shots for the ‘flying cars’ part of the composite, but there was simply not enough traffic needed to make it effective.

The guys take a breather walking up the hillside.

As consolation about three quarters of the way up the slippy muddy hill side we found the remains of brick and concrete constructions from the old mine workings, including a large tunnel entrance running directly into the side of the hill.
Whilst it automatically suggested itself as a shot location, you would be left with one hell of a lugg to get production equipment up to the site (ripe for a horror though!). 

Criminology Additional shoot 29th April

More blood, More Blood!

 Kyle, Matty and myself went back out into the abandoned streets to shoot a couple of cutaway extra shots for Criminology. Whilst not essential to the finished production, it was decided to shoot them to give Jodie more options whilst editing the street assault scene.

Matty dressed as the security guard again and sported a face full of fake blood that he had made whilst he lay on the floor blood spattered. Kyle donned a red boiler suit whilst standing over him with the baseball bat. As only his legs would be in shot, it was unnecessary to call out the actors again.
We also took a couple of close-ups of the bat dripping blood into a small pool of the fake blood. The final cutaway shot that we took here was of the remaining pot of blood being splashed against the wall for the initial attack, however the gooey blood was quite difficult to control and unfortunately missed the intended camera framing. With no more blood to replace it we left the location to get Matty cleaned up who was a right bloody mess.

The streets just aint safe any more.

Once Matty was scrubbed we proceeded on to the Grand Hotel who had given us permission to film at the rear of the building (as establishing shots to represent the Penopticon). There is a large lovely bay window with stained glass and fire escapes in the court yard. We set about dressing the walls with posters but the area was very busy with staff and deliveries and we abandoned the location once we realised that we were not going to get the shots that we wanted. So we headed out to the Headland and back to the old council buildings as an alternative. We took shots of the exterior and a couple shots of old walls with Criminology posters on them to finish the day.