Between the cuts

Several months ago I received a dvd copy of some 8mm footage shot in Oman. It had been cut together into a documentary illustrating the Artillery positions in Sarfait during the Dhofar campaign. It was wonderful to see new footage and I immediately pursued trying to get the original reels. The dvd I had seen was heavily compressed and had subtitles baked in. To my utter delight, not only were they still available, but the owner who didn't know me from Adam kindly put their trust in me and allowed me to borrow them. 

Three 8mm cine reels 400ft of film on each.

Research had to follow immediately. I'm digital boy. I know nothing about film as a format. There are 100's of places offering cine film conversions to all sorts of formats. As soon as I stumbled across Images4Life I knew they were different. Their approach was unique. Unquestionably. 

What ever resolution you wanted your conversion delivered at they always scanned at the highest possible resolution available and then scaled the image down from there. This ensures all the colour, saturation and grain is obtained from every frame. AS this is the way they do all their conversions it was no extra cost to have the highest resolution scan. 

Academy 2K.

What does that mean? Well it means that you effectively get a digital negative. 2048 px wide, 1556 px high and an awful lot of colour latitude for post colour correction. 

In the studio I was taken through the conversion process. To prevent any damage to possibly brittle film no teeth come into contact with the spools at anytime. Film is guided through the machine on soft rollers and twin lasers fire through the spools to ensure the film is being guided at a constant speed. A statically charged roller removes any dust or hairs that may have collected over the years. This prevents the film having to be chemically washed, which however good, always leaves a chemical layer on the print. After this the 8mm is ready to be scanned by the sensor and the whole operation takes place in real time. Mind blown! 

Images4Life do a lot of restoration and archival work for major museums all over the world. 

Viewing the unedited reels is a treat. It was better than I could have hoped for. when you see unedited footage you hope that the previous editors were cutting with a different intent. That way all the bits they removed will be the pieces you want. Im happy to say this was the case. 

   

Anatomy of a Shot

I've been shooting a few extra cutaways to help chapter the various sections of the documentary.


The desert holds many secrets. Entire cities have been engulfed by sand. There are story's of brave crossings an survival. Moving dunes can snake through the desert almost alive.
Throughout the doc is a theme of discovery. For this shot I've decided to choose sun light, an AK47 round, and sand. The aim is to create a quick mysterious shot that will eventually become one of a series of shots.

Here is a quick run down of the kit I'm going to use

Dedo 300watt light with dimmer. This is a simple tungsten light whose brightness can be controlled from around 3000kelvin to 4200k. Gives off a nice warm light. The light can also be adjusted closer to the lens to control the spread of the light cast.

Two containers of beach sand gathered a few days ago while on assignment down in Bournemouth.

Two orange gels (half cto and full cto). To warm up the light in case the Dedo doesn't quite cut it.

Cheapo can of compressed air. Picked this up for about £2. Very handy for a quick blast to clean your lens or in this case to simulate a breeze.

Smoke machine. Gonna use this subtly to accent the breeze from the compressed air.

Painters tray this is where I'm going to create the scene. Using the time honoured principle that the audience never knows what is just outside the frame. In this case my desert will be less than half a meter, but the camera doesn't know that.

So here we are. Took about 30 mins.

The round positioned pointing slightly towards the lens give the shot a sense of perspective. Not sure if I'm too keen on the negative space on the right of the frame. Maybe could add some machine gun links or pieces of shrapnel trailing off into the distance. That might give the shot more depth and a sense of continuation - like the scene is bigger than it actually is. The light should extend all the way to the top of the frame. It looks quite moody, which is okay but I'd like to see it washed out. Some slow dolly movement would help keep the shot interesting for longer too. But for a first attempt it's not too bad.

            

Day 02

The first part of filming has been a f***ing disaster. My fault - should have laid down the ground rules. Not having a 4x4 is beginning to cause problems. Tight conditions are making it difficult to get to kit and off roading is near impossible. Wouldn't be such a problem if we didn't have so much kit and everywhere we need to get to is off road. 

Worries about Dad talking to camera have totally gone. Shame it's so bloody windy - recording sound is difficult. We had a brief walk to find Dad’s old bunker. Will go to it again when I have found a way to combat the wind. Bizarre feeling of being cold from the wind but knowing that the sun is cooking you.

A man called Yassa came to sit with us. Offered us everything from a warm bed to baby tomatoes. Talked about the war when he was 8... Wasn't recording! Missed some great stuff about the old Sultan who wouldn’t even let the people wear shoes. Apparently there is an old Firqa Captain (the locals who fought with the British during the war)living somewhere near. Would be amazing if its somebody Dad knows. 

Yassa had never seen sugar cubes before. He can’t believe (and neither can anybody else for that matter) that we have driven all the way from Salalah to sleep at the base of a water tank. Very windy and cold night. P.S. Donkeys sound like Tusken Raiders. 

                                        1972                                  2011