Sniper frame samples!

Post by **MovieStuff** » Sun Oct 12, 2003 4:42 am

Been meaning to post some stills from the Sniper unit but have been so busy that I couldn't find time. Now I have! These are some frames from a reallllly creative film maker out of Austin named Jose Mata. I have no idea what the story is about but it looks real cool:

These are some general home movie color frames:

I'll be adding these to my website soon.

http://www.moviestuff.tv

Santo · Post by **Santo** » Sun Oct 12, 2003 4:52 am

Wow! Showed up here at the right time. I saw that insane looking machine on your website and I've been wondering...

Sharp-looking Plus-X! It is plus-x isn't it? Very nice. Sniper is right.

Are you going to be selling that as a unit as well, or is that for in house transfers only?

Post by **MovieStuff** » Sun Oct 12, 2003 4:58 am

Santo wrote:Wow! Showed up here at the right time. I saw that insane looking machine on your website and I've been wondering...

Sharp-looking Plus-X! It is plus-x isn't it? Very nice. Sniper is right.

Are you going to be selling that as a unit as well, or is that for in house transfers only?

Thanks for the kind woids. No I won't be offering the Sniper units for sale. Too much trouble to build.

I should point out that there's some softness in the upper right hand corner of some of the black and white shots that is actually part of the original film image and not a result of the transfer process.

I believe that Jose uses both Plus-X and some Tri-X but I'd have to ask Annette (my wife). She's our colorist and does all the transfers. In fact, we've gotten so swamped with orders that she's gone to a "by appointment only" sort of strategy where incoming orders need to be scheduled. She tries to help out the independents with small jobs, though. Larger jobs take a while to scan.

Roger

Santo · Post by **Santo** » Sun Oct 12, 2003 5:08 am

Well, she's going to probably get busier if you show samples like this around. These really are "rank rivals". I didn't notice the softness in the top right until you pointed it out. The colour shots look great, too!

Post by **paulcotto** » Sun Oct 12, 2003 5:25 am

MMMM Plus-X

I gotta shoot some of that. Looks great, nice job.

Regards,
Paul Cotto

Post by **Steve P.** » Sun Oct 12, 2003 5:43 am

You probably know, but anyway: Thought I'd mention that Kodak has changed the developer for 7276 Plus-X. The film is one stop faster in the new developer.

Post by **Patrick** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 2:33 am

To quote Darth Vader: 'Impressive, most impressive.' With regards to the top two B&W frames, are these in fact super 8 or 16mm? They could easily pass for 16mm.

With one of the colour home movie frames I am intrigued by the sharpness of the killer whales caught in mid air. Most super 8 cameras use relatively slow shutter speeds when filming at 18 or 24fps. Even when running at 54fps, the shutter speed may only be something like 125fps. I would imagine that most times when you extract a single super 8 frame showing fast movement, it will likely be blurred. Then again, these large air-borne mammals appear to be of some distance from the film maker which may explain the sharpness.

Post by **Patrick** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 2:35 am

Woops! I meant 125th sec, not 125 fps.

Post by **MovieStuff** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 2:43 am

Patrick wrote:To quote Darth Vader: 'Impressive, most impressive.' With regards to the top two B&W frames, are these in fact super 8 or 16mm? They could easily pass for 16mm.

They are super 8. We don't transfer 16mm (yet). These are untouched frames directly from the capture. What's REALLY amazing is what they look like when you add just a *touch* of sharpening. Really snappy but they get too contasty fast when you do so we don't sharpen them. Annette (my wife) just does color and density correction to them.

Patrick wrote:With one of the colour home movie frames I am intrigued by the sharpness of the killer whales caught in mid air.

Yes, I was struck by the same thing (which is why I posted them!).

The guy had a very sharp camera. I believe it was a late 60s Minolta or something. All at 18fps. He had so much nice footage that it was hard to choose what to post.

Post by **MovieStuff** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 2:44 am

Patrick wrote:To quote Darth Vader: 'Impressive, most impressive.' With regards to the top two B&W frames, are these in fact super 8 or 16mm? They could easily pass for 16mm.

They are super 8. We don't transfer 16mm (yet). These are untouched frames directly from the capture. What's REALLY amazing is what they look like when you add just a *touch* of sharpening. Really snappy but they get too contasty fast when you do so we don't sharpen them. Annette (my wife) just does color and density correction to them.

Patrick wrote:With one of the colour home movie frames I am intrigued by the sharpness of the killer whales caught in mid air.

Yes, I was struck by the same thing (which is why I posted them!).

The guy had a very sharp camera. I believe it was a late 60s Minolta or something. All at 18fps. He had so much nice footage that it was hard to choose what to post.

Post by **Corey D.** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 2:47 am

Are you going to build a 16mm sniper? I betcha that stuff will look awesome!

Corey

Post by **MovieStuff** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 3:04 am

Yes, I've already started working on a 16mm Sniper unit but, alas, not much time these days. What's the old saying? A cobbler's children have no shoes? Anyway, should have it together across the holidays.

Roger

Post by **Scotness** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 4:31 am

Patrick wrote:With one of the colour home movie frames I am intrigued by the sharpness of the killer whales caught in mid air. Most super 8 cameras use relatively slow shutter speeds when filming at 18 or 24fps. Even when running at 54fps, the shutter speed may only be something like 125fps. I would imagine that most times when you extract a single super 8 frame showing fast movement, it will likely be blurred.

No they actually just got them to jump in slow motion $\:D/$

Scot

Post by **MovieStuff** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 5:05 am

Scotness wrote: No they actually just got them to jump in slow motion $\:D/$

I looked at the footage again and you're sort of right. The frames were from that moment where the whales' "hang time" was at it's longest. I think that's why they're so sharp. Fun stuff.

Roger

Post by **zetetick** » Tue Oct 14, 2003 12:52 am

Would it be possible to see a few of these frames in their original (720x480?) resolution?

The black & white frames are particularly appealing.