Re: pinholes

From: Jay Hudson (email suppressed)
Date: Tue Feb 23 2010 - 17:49:13 PST


i have heard of using super 8 by taking a cartridge, placing the pinhole over the film and turning it with a melted pin cap. never did it through. Has anyone on frameworks?

--- On Tue, 2/23/10, Robert Schaller <email suppressed> wrote:

> From: Robert Schaller <email suppressed>
> Subject: Re: pinholes
> To: email suppressed
> Date: Tuesday, February 23, 2010, 7:24 PM
> David,
>
> I work with pinhole 16mm cameras that I build, and have for
> some years now.
> Part of what appeals to me is indeed the "low tech
> process," and seeing what
> I can get with it.  Ironically, perhaps, I find that
> the lower the tech, the
> more demanding the apparatus.  As to how it looks, an
> excerpt of a film "My
> Life as a Bee" from early in my using it is online on my
> website,
> www.robertschaller.org/film
>
> It's not a very good transfer, I'm afraid -- Canyon Cinema
> has a print.
>
> I've been working with it alot recently, but it's not
> on-line yet (seems odd
> to put low-tech things in a high-tech venue...).  I
> have one new print that
> I'll put there within the month, but (and isn't it always
> like this?) the
> more recent things are much more adept!
>
> I don't think putting a pinhole on a "real" camera is
> cheating.  What is
> cheating in art?  In any event, yes, I think quite a
> few filmmakers put
> pinholes on a bolex -- Chris Harris and Thomas Comerford
> come to mind, and
> there are no doubt others.  There are advantages and
> disadvantages to this
> approach on a technical level, but no right answer as an
> artist:  If it's in
> the filter holder, say -- the focal length is about 25mm,
> which has three
> consequences: you lose the ultra wide-angle that you can
> get from a pinhole,
> you can't get ultra-close ups (<25mm) which, given its
> nearly infinite depth
> of field, are possible, and though you can shoot in
> real-time, you basically
> have to use the fastest film you can get and shoot in the
> sun, or close to
> it.
>
> The home-made variety, on the other hand, by using the 16mm
> equivalent of
> the cardboard box (daylight spool boxes) allows any focal
> length, and while
> not having a pull-down mechanism precludes doing anything
> recognizable in
> real time, you can use any film stock.  I've even used
> 3383 color print
> stock, which is VERY slow (though, admittedly, outdoors in
> the sun with a
> long exposure for each frame -- but the footage is in the
> aforementioned
> print).  And, it weighs a lot less than a Bolex, is
> less expensive, and is
> indifferent to getting wet.  And too, there's the
> pleasure of making, and
> having made it, yourself, and thereby gaining a greater
> degree of access to
> and control (if not you, no one!) over some of the more
> basic aspects of the
> medium that you're working with.  You replace part of
> the commodity aspect
> of filmmaking with hard work.
>
> The homemade tool has some serious limitations, and I don't
> use it for
> everything, but I find a great immediacy, wonder, and
> unemcumberd-ness in
> using it that I haven't found elsewhere.
>
> Another great resource, by the way, is Eric Renner's book
> on Pinhole
> Photography -- it also has charts and math and
> explanations, and lots of
> examples.
>
> Robert Schaller
>
> On 2/23/10 2:21 PM, "David Tetzlaff" <email suppressed>
> wrote:
>
> >> Hi there are these laser-pinholes on Ebay:
> >
> >
> > Isn't that 'cheating'? I always thought the low tech
> process was part
> > of the pinhole photo aesthetic. Well at least with the
> one friend I
> > have who does pinhole stillsf, the finished work isn't
> necessarily
> > just the eerie looking print that results mystified by
> having the
> > process that produced it unidentified. Rather some
> acknowledgement:
> > "This came out of a camera made out of nothing more
> than a big
> > cardboard box and a little piece of aluminum foil." is
> usually part of
> > the presentation.
> >
> > I guess once you throw the Bolex in there, the
> mechanical
> > sophistication goes way up, so maybe you might as well
> get a laser
> > formed pinhole....
> >
> > As I actually had no idea people used pinhole
> apertures with movie
> > cameras, I'm curious. What kind of stock do you use?
> Do you have to
> > push it crazy? What's the highest fps that will get
> you a decent
> > exposure on a sunny day? What kinds of work have used
> this technique
> > and is there anywhere online (yes, I know, heresy) to
> view examples
> > approximating what the finished products look like?
> >
> >
> >
> __________________________________________________________________
> > For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>

      

__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.