Shooting Low light settings (band on stage)

Post by **Dave Bellard** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 10:52 pm

Hi all - this is my first post here and I'm glad to be a new member. I have a technical question that I would like some opinions on. I will be shooting a band this Sunday in a very low light club. I assume that the stage lighting will be nice and multi-colored, however I want to be sure I get the best images I can.

I am shooting with a Canon 1014 on some slightly expired Kodachrome. Has anyone shot in a theatre/low light+spotlights situation before with this camera?

My shutter has 3 open settings, Open, 1/2 and 1/4.

At Open, the angle scale is 150˚ 1/43sec
At 1/2, the angle scale is 75˚ 1/86sec
At 1/4, the angle scale is 37.5˚ 1/172sec

My first instinct is to shoot this at a very fast shutter speed to avoid any blur, but then again I think I need a slower speed to get more exposure. These 3 shutter settings have corresponding exposure adjustments (0, , 4).

Any tips or advice? Thanks!!

Dave[/list]

Post by **downix** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 1:32 am

Yes, don't use that film. I managed to get away with it, but half of my footage was black. With that camera I would shoot it on the widest shutter and with Vision2 500T film, and that's pretty much it.

Post by **Dave Bellard** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 1:42 am

Thanks for the tip - now here is another question - I have just recently gotten back into Super 8 filmmaking after 20 years, so I don't know much about film either. What I've seen of this Vision 2 500T looks really nice. But what about cost? How much do you estimate you spend to purchase and develop this film (not including a digital transfer)?

Post by **downix** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 1:47 am

Dave Bellard wrote:Thanks for the tip - now here is another question - I have just recently gotten back into Super 8 filmmaking after 20 years, so I don't know much about film either. What I've seen of this Vision 2 500T looks really nice. But what about cost? How much do you estimate you spend to purchase and develop this film (not including a digital transfer)?

I shot, developed, and telecined 5 rolls for $200 a few months back.

Post by **Dave Bellard** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 2:30 am

Very nice. Like I said, I'm just now getting back into it. I'm trying to learn how to properly shoot film, so I may start shooting on that film so I get the best results as opposed to shooting on expired Kodachrome bought on ebay.

Post by **Rachel Oliver** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 9:26 am

Hi;

I 2nd the idea of 500T neg film, it's the safest stuff for low light, also if budget is a concern and you like black and white Kodak TriX reversal is great too, (you can have your lab push it a few stops to to squeeze out more image) Also you could lock your cams exposure at about 2.8 or the image will soften (bad with the Canon) In this type of situation you can happily film away locked at that fstop, the huge lattitude of neg film will cope with alot of different levels of light....

Rachel

PS don't forget Neg film requires profesional telecine....

Post by **steve hyde** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 5:31 pm

Dave,

The neg stocks can be had for 13 - 17 bucks a pop depending on how you go about buying your stock. Color negative is what you want under stage lights. When you arrive at a project see what you can negotiate with Kodak. Processing is another 13 bucks.

Depending on how you transfer to digital you are looking at 40. - 50. bucks (stock - processing - transfer ) for every cart you shoot to get it onto your computer.

A good low-budget transfer house is CinePost in Atlanta:
http://www.posthouse.com

For higher end work I use:
http://www.fsft.com

There are also lots of good DIY telecine options. Others know more about that than I do.

I would forget about the Kodachrome stock. IF you want to experiment get some black and white reversal stock..

best,

Steve

"don't wait around for inspiration, you have to go after it with a hammer."
~ Mike Watt

`