Bioskop.Inc

Depicting your mindset whilst drug taking is probably the hardest thing to do on film. There's a film called Human Traffic (1999) which is all about the early rave scene & doing ecstasy - can't remember too much about whether it actually has a tripping scene in it, but it does have people on ecstasy & it is a good film. There's also a film called Schrooms (2007), which is about taking Mushrooms, obviously - it's representation of tripping & how the film blurs the lines between reality/the trip is well handled. But, recently the "Mr Robot" tv series dealt with cold turkey in a unique way (I think its episode 4): where he thinks he's taking a dose of heroin, but is in fact in withdraw - could give you some good pointers of how to film a drug trip/altered state of mind. Any of David Lynch's films are just a trip full stop - loads of inspiration there, the small guy talking backwards etc... (or was that Twin peaks?) There are 2 films by Aronofsky that could be useful: Pi - has some great sound effects/images that really play with your mind (could be good inspiration) & of course "Requim for a Dream" is all about drug taking & will help a lot.

Have you tried with & without the Rangefinder? How about a wider shot with the 85mm, does it still behave like this? Also, try stopping down to T4 - I seem to remember that the Sankor's aren't the sharpest & their optimal T stop is about 4-5.6ish. When doing a close-up, like your examples, I have encountered this with a lens that is soft wide open or close to wide open. The only other thing that I can say is that some lenses just don't pair well with certain anamorphics. If your lens is ok without the Sankor, then they just don't pair well - most of these anamorphic attachments prefer simple lens designs.

no that's normal too

This all looks awesome, but i'm happy to stay as it is - its seems to be less hassle to bung a diopter on the front. However, I do have a question: My Kowa for B&H turns beyond the 5ft mark by a little less than the distance between the 6 & 5ft markings, is this normal? I've never really questioned this & you can focus lower than 5ft, just above 4ft. I've had the lens for over 4yrs now & it was in mint condition when i bought it (got the box, the lens caps, but no leather bag). I was just wondering if anyone elses does this or is mine just a freak of nature.

When you use it with the S8/x2, if it does vignette you can always crop the sides off - I've done it recently to get a more acceptable 2.39:1 ratio & its still a full 2k Anamorphic Cinema sized image.

Leica is just one of those companies that makes no sense to most people, until you own one. I was lucky enough to pick one up at an auction house 10yrs ago for a staggering £200 - camera, leather case & 3 lenses. I was up against 1 other bidder & he thought it was too much - well, cause I won. It was an old screw mount film camera - it was a piece of art & just so easy to use. I kept it for a month or so, messed about with it a little (I had no interest in photography at that point) & sold it for a song. This camera is probably Leica giving their photography crowd a video option, which they'll never use cause you buy a Leica to take pictures with, not video. Panasonic know this & it won't dent their market one little bit because you have to have loads of money to buy one - that's why professionals don't buy or use them. Professionals buy Leica glass, cause its soooooo good. This cam looks the business design-wise.

Yeah, I remember a picture of him on the back of a bike with the Pocket. I read recently, that a lot of "This Is England" is improvised, so not much chance of doing re-takes - catch the moment! Its nice to see Shane hasn't abandoned the UK for America - would be a shame if they stole all our talent, just to make them do shit films!

The price of Lights do just do my head in, always looking for a cheap solution. A combined tip from the DP of the Saint Laurent film & Vic Harris over at BMCUser, was: Ikea - China Balls & all the fixings, along with their own brand LED light bulbs (LEDARE 1000lm 2700kelvin) There are 2 types of bulbs: the small 13w & the bigger 14.2w - both dimmable & the better of the two is the smaller 13w, as it produces pretty much zero colour cast for just £10. I've been testing them out as a good cheap solution for practicals or just as main lights (when you use quite a few in several China Balls). http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/00257482/

Was it a competition to see how many cameras you could fit on one set up? Genius, though - won't miss a thing!

This is in response to Rich's 50mm internal lens glare flare fest a few days ago. Quick & dirty - not the best as I couldn't find my really strong torch, so the iPhone's had to do. Messed a few up, but was multi-tasking or should that be working whilst doing this - so might have to have another go or do a comparison with other non-MC anamorphics. The real surprise was a lens that I only use for photos & have never used before with the 54 - couldn't f**king believe my eyes!

Do check (google) because I do remember that the very widest of those C-mount lenses vignettes on the BMPCC - think 20 should be fine, but double check to be certain.

Whilst looking for something else, I found this thread, on Cinematography.com, that talks about shooting Anamorphic on S16mm film & about half-way down this comment pops up: "the Kowa 16H and Moeller Anamorphics might be appealing. The focal length starts somewhere at 25mm on these lenses. When you have a S16 gate the right squeeze for scope would be 1.33 so you could also try this or similar stuff from Century. The best choice between trashy 50s glass and video adaptors could be a Iscorama 1.5x with a 54 rear diameter. " Here's the link for the thread: http://www.cinematography.com/index.php?showtopic=45187 Now, with an Iscorama 54 you can go wider than nearly all the other anamorphic adaptors. But with this S8/x2 I think its safe to say that 24mm will be the widest on the BMPCC - you could try to find a cheap 20mm & try that.

Waste of time autofocus! Think you're going to have to just test it out yourself - come on buy another lens, you know you want to!

Try using autofocus, it might work. The problem that you'll find with one of these focus through lenses (Iscomorphot S8/x2 or Isco Widescreen 2000) is that you'll have to stop down to be able to focus properly & even then it won't be as sharp as keeping to the adaptors base/optimum/recommended focus point (4m for the S8/x2 & 5m for the WS 2000). So all of this combined, might not be v.easy for your cameras autofocus to function properly & you might find that your camera ends up in a spiral of death constant search for optimum sharpness. Also, its not really recommended to use autofocus, manual gives you proper control. But let us know, it'll be interesting to see some results.

Wow! I'd like to see someone using a 35mm with the Kowa on a FF camera too, cause I can't use a 35mm with the Kowa on my 60D! I guess that enny is using RAW in 4:3 mode on his 5D3. The Bollex Moller is a lovely lens, but is x1.5. Whilst the Kowa is a x2, which is the best stretch for an anamorphic (IMHO).

So, without a RJ focal reducer (just the plain s16-ish sized sensor) the widest lens i've got is a 24mm & no vignette. Sorry, I don't have a wider lens than this but I think that you could go wider than 24mm, but just don't know how wide. With the RJ focal reducer (makes the sensor a crop of about x2), a 35mm has a slight vignette. Also, you must remember that its a S16 sized sensor & not a 16, so you might have a problem with the v.wide lenses - test before you buy, if you can. And yes the Zeiss will be better quality, but the Russains will have more character.

One option that has been suggested is to buy a really cheap old polarizer ring, knock out the glass & use that under the ND Filter to dial in the polarizer & fader effects individually - you dial in the ND & then use the empty polarizer ring to dial out the polarizing contamination. Good to remember that the NDs polarizer effect will be most noticeable on skin tones & also, the stronger you dial in the ND, the stronger the IR pollution effect will be - IR cut filter will help with this. Heliopan & SLR Magic are two makes of Vari ND that don't suffer from this polarizing effect. It is confusing, but try the polarizer ring solution to see if that works (save you money if it works) & put your Hoya IR/UV on at all times.

Is it too wide? Only if you're watching it on a tiny small screen - a phone for example. Try & see if you can find/watch an original version of Ben Hur or How The West Was Won. At a certain point in the history of cinema (1950s), the big screen had to compete with the small screen & the gimmick of widescreen, in all its different flavours, was born - Cinemascope, VistaVision, Todd-AO, Kinopanorama, Cinemiracle, Technirama, Techniscope etc... The widescreen standard first came into being in 1957 (2.35:1) & then updated in 1970 (1.39:1).

I shot one piece without an IR/UV cut filter & the colour cast (a dull Red/Muddy tone) was a real pain to get rid of/reduce - not impossible or anything, but just took quite a while to do it (the results weren't perfect, but acceptable). Not using an IR/UV cut filter is not a good idea with the BMPCC. I use the Hoya IR/UV with the Genustech Eclipse & this combo works just fine. Over at BMCuser, there's a whole thread devoted to this issue (really worth a read) & people have been raving about the SLR Magic Vari ND - but as you've seen its more expensive. Here's a small thread on the SLRMagic VariND (there's a new version out or coming): http://www.bmcuser.com/showthread.php?11193-SLRMagic-Vari-ND-thread&highlight=ir%2Fuv+filter Couldn't find the 50 page thread about IR cut & vari NDs quickly, but worth a search.

Kowa for B&H is hands down the best x2 dual focus. You're never going to be able to use a 50mm with an anamorphic on FF. The good news is, using an 85mm with a x2 anamorphic will give you the FOV of a 42mm & a 100mm will give you same FOV of a 50mm (simple maths - you divide the taking lens by 2).

No, but now you've said it, i will give it a go.

What are you using, cause mine's a clamp for the Kowa for B&H & it looks stupid!

I have used a modern zeiss ZE 50mm f1.4 & that works just fine - in fact it even allows the 54 to flare more easily than other lenses (go figure!). The Contax Zeiss set that you have should be crisp & clear. My experience so far has not limited what taking lens you can use with an Iscorama - mine tends to mimick the taking lens & this can lead to over exagerating any downfalls that they might have. So with some wide-angle lenses you will get that curved distortion at the edges & with others you might not. I really like the tiny Super Takumars coupled with the Iscorama - they're not-MC, warm & actually quite sharp without being nasty. And am seriously considering getting a set of Nikon ai-s lenses - am really impressed with the image that the 24mm f2.8 & Iscorama produces on the BMPCC. The Tokina AT-X Pro 28-70mm f2.6/2.8 (Angenieux design) is an amazing taking lens with the 54, but not sure how it pairs with the 36 (is the rear element too small?) - really worth a pop, as they are cheap & v.good on their own.

Yeah, people don't like big heavy lenses, but for me it just helps so much with stabilisation when going handheld. I'm with you on the MC'ing on Iscoramas - I think by the time they got to the 42 & 54 they had decided on a Red tint (same goes for the widescreen 2000). One thing that i have realised is the colour of the flares is really aligned to the light source temp - so you can get the Blue flares or Orange or Red.

Yeah, Redstan used to do one, but he keeps trying to sell me stuff that probably won't fit/work - got something that works, so the search will go on!