Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/06/02

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Subject: [Leica] An extraordinary collection of 40's Leica images
From: feli2 at earthlink.net (Feli)
Date: Thu Jun 2 18:19:55 2005
References: <2867578BB7767E45B3C9E3CBA9C5A65F593C75@smskpexmbx3.mskcc.root.mskcc.org> <429695C0.6050007@comcast.net> <0c6850af8724aa5729d008b40b0b9ef4@earthlink.net> <AFFC71E4-5A87-4942-9821-CC5A465A5317@charter.net>

On Jun 2, 2005, at 3:30 PM, Slobodan Dimitrov wrote:
> It's not uncommon now for someone to take over a 1000 exposures in one 
> day with little inhibition for the material cost. I think we've yet to 
> see the really creative wave coming out of this.
> Slobodan Dimitrov

There is something to that. I shot my first short film with a Mitchell 
NC-R 35mm motion picture camera. Fully assembled the camera weighed 
close to 100 lbs. Just raising the camera a foot on the tripod, took 2 
or 3 people. And it was painfully expensive. Shooting 35mm ran about 
+50 cents PER SECOND, which was the cost of the film stock and 
development.

So, not only was simply moving the camera a major undertaking, but 
every time you turned it on you had better be shooting something 
useful; unless you were related to Bill Gates. So, we had to really pay 
attention to the script, rehearse the actors and plan every shot in 
detail; where the camera would be, what lens would we use, the lights, 
nail the exposure etc. It really instilled discipline and forced you to 
visualize what you were actually trying to put on film.

Nowadays students or independent film makers shoot digital tape. $8 
buys you a 60 minute tape and if you don't like the days results you 
just erase it and start over again. It's a double edged sword. Besides 
turning out a piece of crap, there are no serious consequences, like 
blowing your credit card or next months rent if you screw up. On the 
other hand if you have your act together it is a liberating advantage, 
because you suddenly don't have to go hungry to shoot. The only problem 
is most people don't approach things that way.


Feli



________________________________________________________
feli2@earthlink.net                     2 + 2 = 4                      
www.elanphotos.com


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In reply to: Message from saganicc at mskcc.org (Saganich, Christopher/Medical Physics) ([Leica] An extraordinary collection of 40's Leica images)
Message from drodgers7798 at comcast.net (David Rodgers) ([Leica] An extraordinary collection of 40's Leica images)
Message from feli2 at earthlink.net (Feli) ([Leica] An extraordinary collection of 40's Leica images)
Message from s.dimitrov at charter.net (Slobodan Dimitrov) ([Leica] An extraordinary collection of 40's Leica images)