Monday, March 30, 2009

Optical Sounds

Mark A. Cella is a well known film, restaurant, and lifestyle columnist for the San Jose Mercury newspaper. His column, first published in 1992 is considered a must- read in the area, with dozens of known collectors and online traders of his fine insights into movies.

Optical Sound - Optical Sound is the system used by a projector to play back sound from a film print. The sound is exposed onto the film as a clear modulating line against black. It corresponds to the moduations of the sound. The projector reads the track by passing it between the exciter lamp a light-sensitive photo-electric cell which generates a voltage that is amplified and fed into a speaker

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Mark Cella, Marley & Me

Mark A. Cella is a distinguished fellow of film studies at California State University in Los Angeles. He’s a published writer on Cinema History and Film Theory. He has directed over 35 shorts and documentaries, including the award winning “Marlboro House”, which took top prize at the 2006 Slamdance short competition.

John churns out columns for a Florida daily but always aimed for a high-profile journalism career like that of his globetrotting buddy, Sebastian (Dane), who lands at The New York Times. Restless, the couple moves to Philly in search of more satisfying reportage for John, but, shucks, the guy's a born columnist: He's no muckraker, although he's pretty dang handy with a pooper-scooper. Marley & Me is less about dreams deferred than new, unexpected dreams emerging. And Marley, the dog from hell, (wouldn't you know it) turns out to be nothing shy of a gift from heaven. Sweet and wise and often laugh-out-loud funny (just like Grogan's book), Marley & Me isn't just for dog people.

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Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Main Frame

Mark A. Cella is a distinguished fellow of film studies at California State University in Los Angeles. He’s a published writer on Cinema History and Film Theory. He has directed over 35 shorts and documentaries, including the award winning “Marlboro House”, which took top prize at the 2006 Slamdance short competition.

Flash Frame - 1.: A flash frame is a single frame that is completely clear between two shots. It occurs when the camera is stopped with the gate open, allowing for a very long exposure on that single frame. Rather than a problem, a flash frame can actually be a very helpful thing in the editing room, making it very easy to see where one shot ends and another begins. This type of flash frame usually does not occur with spring wound cameras, like the Bolex, except when the spring winds all the way down, but the second type is something with which to be more concerned.

2.: A flash frame is also used to describe the first few overexposed, brighter frames at the beginning or the end of a shot, due to the camera needing time to reach speed. These can often be hard to see while editing, but are much more noticeable in a final print.Learn more at Mark Cella film theory , Mark Cella film studies

Thursday, March 19, 2009

The Fraame What??

Mark A. Cella is a distinguished fellow of film studies at California State University in Los Angeles. He’s a published writer on Cinema History and Film Theory. He has directed over 35 shorts and documentaries, including the award winning “Marlboro House”, which took top prize at the 2006 Slamdance short competition.

Frame Handles - Frame handles are extra frames at the beginning and the end of every shot, the exact number will vary from one application to the next, which are used primarily when preparing original material for optical printing, such as the Zero Cut method of blow up, or the creation of a superimposed title, etc. The purpose they serve, in the case of zero cut, is to make sure the registration pin of the printer is not grabbing a splice, which can cause the image to wobble. With opticals they are often used merely to avoid printed-in dirt, which is much more prevalent close to a splice where bits of film cement can flake off.

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Wednesday, March 11, 2009

The Fade Away Shot

Mark A. Cella is a distinguished fellow of film studies at California State University in Los Angeles. He’s a published writer on Cinema History and Film Theory. He has directed over 35 shorts and documentaries, including the award winning “Marlboro House”, which took top prize at the 2006 Slamdance short competition.
Fade
A transition from a shot to black where the image gradually becomes darker is a Fade Out; or from black where the image gradually becomes brighter is a Fade In. Fades are done at the lab in the printing phase, but prepared by the negative cutter, who cuts in an overlap of black into the A&B rolls. Labs will only do fades in fixed amounts, such as 24 frames, 48 frames, etc.

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Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Foot Lights?

Mark A. Cella is a distinguished fellow of film studies at California State University in Los Angeles. He’s a published writer on Cinema History and Film Theory. He has directed over 35 shorts and documentaries, including the award winning “Marlboro House”, which took top prize at the 2006 Slamdance short competition.

Today: – Foot Candle - Measurement of light. One foot candle is the light of one candle, one foot away. Many light meters will use foot candles as a starting number, which then must be converted into an f-stop based on the sensitivity of the film you are using. (Because of the great variety of different film speeds it is sometimes ambiguous to talk too much about foot candles, since a given number of foot candles will not yield the same f-stop from one film speed to another.)

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Wednesday, March 4, 2009

A Batch Of Emulsion

Mark A. Cella is a distinguished fellow of film studies at California State University in Los Angeles. He’s a published writer on Cinema History and Film Theory. He has directed over 35 shorts and documentaries, including the award winning “Marlboro House”, which took top prize at the 2006 Slamdance short competition.

Today :Emulsion Batch –

The emulsion batch is the series of numbers on the film can the come after the Emulsion Type. When the film is made, each batch is given a number so that you can shoot a single sequence with one particular batch. Just as a suit where the pants and jacket were cut from different bolts of fabric might be a little off, a sequence shot with different emulsion batches might also be a little off. From one sequence to the next, of course, this doesn’t matter. (And the batches themselves have become more consistent in recent years, so mixing them is less of a sin nowadays.)
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Sunday, March 1, 2009

New System Info

Mark A. Cella is a distinguished fellow of film studies at California State University in Los Angeles. He’s a published writer on Cinema History and Film Theory. He has directed over 35 shorts and documentaries, including the award winning “Marlboro House”, which took top prize at the 2006 Slamdance short competition.

Double System - The term double system refers to sound and picture as two separate elements, recorded, edited or projected in sync. 16mm and 35mm use the double system format. A camera photographs the picture and a tape recorder records the sound. In the end, the final print is Single System, combining sound and picture onto the same piece of print stock.

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