Search found 918 matches

by tom hardwick
Tue Jan 08, 2008 9:17 am
Forum: Competitions, Festivals and The Art of Film
Topic: Titles - Your Views
Replies: 18
Views: 16677

I'm right with Dave, and I'd go further: films are NEVER too long. If the filmmaker decides on a certain length of film then so be it - it's his film and the judges views on that are immaterial. Of course, PR departments may deem films too long for theatrical release (precluding a second audience si...
by tom hardwick
Sat Jan 05, 2008 1:39 pm
Forum: Competitions, Festivals and The Art of Film
Topic: Titles - Your Views
Replies: 18
Views: 16677

You 'think' it's a grey import, Mike? Shouldn't make any difference as I hear Sony UK are happy to do warranty work on any of their cams that find their way over here. But the low cost could be due to the fact that the FX1 has long since ceased production and the price consequentially took a nose-di...
by tom hardwick
Fri Jan 04, 2008 1:13 pm
Forum: Competitions, Festivals and The Art of Film
Topic: Titles - Your Views
Replies: 18
Views: 16677

I see quite a lot of amateur movies and my biggest complaint is over the staggingly large font most people seem to want to use. Maybe it's because their editing monitor is small, but up on a big screen O U R C A T P I D D L E S is shouted at us at 110 decibels.

tom.
by tom hardwick
Fri Dec 14, 2007 3:25 pm
Forum: Equipment and Technical Issues
Topic: Canon XM2 problem - any ideas?
Replies: 2
Views: 6426

It does sound like a head wear problem to me, or possibly an alignment one. I wonder if the XM2 has has a lot of wear and tear, or if it's been dropped. This may have missaligned guide rollers but I think it would have been damage that the owner would have commeneted on in his post. Sounds like a jo...
by tom hardwick
Mon Dec 03, 2007 5:12 pm
Forum: Competitions, Festivals and The Art of Film
Topic: Time to call a halt to 4:3
Replies: 38
Views: 34828

One of my wedding films shot a few years ago offended the bride, and very much so. My opening scene was of the first guests arriving - unfortunatley this included 'the other woman' (spit) and I had to re-edit her out of the entire movie. I do feel it would have been polite to inform me up front.
by tom hardwick
Mon Dec 03, 2007 3:55 pm
Forum: Competitions, Festivals and The Art of Film
Topic: Time to call a halt to 4:3
Replies: 38
Views: 34828

You're right Billy - make your films to suit the client. Which is why all mine are 16:9 these days. The film you describe marked 'widescreen' was in fact made 4:3 but with 25% of it masked off to make it look 16:9. This is handy for club projectionists as one setting of the projector's aspect ratio ...
by tom hardwick
Mon Dec 03, 2007 11:00 am
Forum: Equipment and Technical Issues
Topic: The Sunday Times votes for the Panasonic HDC-SD5
Replies: 7
Views: 7509

I'm thinking that people who spend £540 on a hi-def camcorder probably aren't too interested in editing anway, and are simply happy to plug it into their wall-mounted plasma / LCD and gasp in amazement at the picture quality. The other 'feature' that will have them snatching this camcorder out of th...
by tom hardwick
Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:49 am
Forum: Equipment and Technical Issues
Topic: The Sunday Times votes for the Panasonic HDC-SD5
Replies: 7
Views: 7509

The Sunday Times votes for the Panasonic HDC-SD5

For £539 (Purelygadgets) you can buy the Sunday Times' best buy in HiDef camcorders, the palm-sized Panasonic HDC-SD5. This camera records full 1920 x 1080 hi-def video onto SD flash memory cards, so no tapes, HDDs, Mini DVD and whatnot. Sounds good, but the downsize is the AVCHD compression that's ...
by tom hardwick
Tue Nov 27, 2007 9:59 pm
Forum: Competitions, Festivals and The Art of Film
Topic: Time to call a halt to 4:3
Replies: 38
Views: 34828

Dave, what's with this, 'force our viewers to suffer the black bars' talk? With the lights down low to see the best CRT picture, my 4:3 Trinitron shows 16:9 just as if it was a 16:9 set, and no 'black bars' are visible simply because that part of the screen is unlit by electrons. Maybe you mean duri...
by tom hardwick
Tue Nov 27, 2007 9:39 am
Forum: Competitions, Festivals and The Art of Film
Topic: Time to call a halt to 4:3
Replies: 38
Views: 34828

But have you noticed Stu that a lot of the digital channels are putting out films in very wide 2.35:1. This of course letterboxes them quite noticeably on 16:9 sets, and lights but a few of the central scan lines acrooss the middle of my 4:3 set. Of course films on DVD have been this way for some ti...
by tom hardwick
Tue Nov 27, 2007 8:13 am
Forum: Competitions, Festivals and The Art of Film
Topic: Time to call a halt to 4:3
Replies: 38
Views: 34828

The good thing is that as amateurs and tinkerers we've been able to take a file our camera and projector gates as I showed in Positive Image a few years ago. Super 16 came about this way, and there have been systems whereby cameras are used at 45 degres to the vertical to use more of the 16 mm films...
by tom hardwick
Mon Nov 26, 2007 8:58 am
Forum: Equipment and Technical Issues
Topic: DVD storage/identification
Replies: 10
Views: 9830

The ZoomH2 is a lovely recorder Ned, as is the Edirol competitor. But the beauty of the MiniDisc is the amazing affordability of the things. Admittedly you have to buy the machines secondhand now, but the discs themselves (less than a pound each) are available everywhere and record in mono at the hi...
by tom hardwick
Thu Nov 22, 2007 8:04 am
Forum: Equipment and Technical Issues
Topic: DVD storage/identification
Replies: 10
Views: 9830

It's for this very reason that I use the standard width CD 'jewel' case for my DVDs, Ned. This way there's room enough on the spine for identification. To save shelf space (as you want to do as well) I use the jewel cases that store two discs.

tom.
by tom hardwick
Thu Nov 22, 2007 7:43 am
Forum: Competitions, Festivals and The Art of Film
Topic: Time to call a halt to 4:3
Replies: 38
Views: 34828

I didn't pose any questions Film Thurso, but maybe others did in this thread. I like your line that says, ''All formats from 4:3 to 3:1 are meant to be screened the same hieght as the idea is only to expand the horizontal view''. That's the way, widescreen, not narrowscreen. You say, ''Our super 8 r...
by tom hardwick
Wed Nov 21, 2007 10:23 pm
Forum: Competitions, Festivals and The Art of Film
Topic: Time to call a halt to 4:3
Replies: 38
Views: 34828

I'm slightly confused Film Thurso because (although you don't say so) it sounds as if you're shooting film, not video. If so then attaching a 1.5:1 anamorphic to the 4:3 film frame gives you a 16:8 image (2:1) as against our 16:9 (1.78:1) video image. That's fine - your films can still be shown on w...