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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Imax Filmout!

a friend of mine has an incredible time lapse rig that is set up and more than capable of doing IMAX blowups. this rig is amazing. he even built his own mechanical shutter to go in front of the DSLR camera, and it has a light meter built in, so that it automatically adjusts the shutter during a sunset. it makes beautiful time lapse images.
 
Your friend's not Ron Fricke, is he?
Harry
 
skipdivils said:
a friend of mine has an incredible time lapse rig that is set up and more than capable of doing IMAX blowups. this rig is amazing. he even built his own mechanical shutter to go in front of the DSLR camera, and it has a light meter built in, so that it automatically adjusts the shutter during a sunset. it makes beautiful time lapse images.
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harryclark said:
Your friend's not Ron Fricke, is he?
Harry
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This is really Fricken' interesting... :)

Thanks for the thread Harry, I am looking forward to your findings.

Good Luck
 
skipdivils said:
a friend of mine has an incredible time lapse rig that is set up and more than capable of doing IMAX blowups. this rig is amazing. he even built his own mechanical shutter to go in front of the DSLR camera, and it has a light meter built in, so that it automatically adjusts the shutter during a sunset. it makes beautiful time lapse images.
Click to expand...

Dude, you can't just say this and leave us hanging. Tell us more! This rig sounds amazing. Who is your friend and how do we learn more about this rig? :)
 
my friend's name is vlad. and his rig is nothing short of spectacular. as i am not nearly technically inclined enough to explain it so as to do it justice, i left the explanation short.

basically, he took the interverlometer out of another camera, built a rig whereby he made his own mechanical shutter to move in front of the lens of the DSLR camera. hook up a light meter to it, control it all via a simple electronic interface, and voila....the most stunning time lapse shots I have ever seen.
 
There is timelapse using digital still cameras in the new 3D IMAX "Wild Ocean" I just saw it in London
I was told they used Nikon's for the timelapse sequences.
The underwater footage was shot in Digital SR. I believe the Underwater DP for that is also working on something using RED's for IMAX.
 
skipdivils said:
oh yeah....he came over and worked on one of my saudi arabian productions. actually, he...and his gorgeous rig....are back in saudi as of last week on another saudi production of mine. he will be there for 4 months, making many beautiful images.
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Any of this stunning work on-line???
Thanks
 
skipdivils said:
my friend's name is vlad. and his rig is nothing short of spectacular. as i am not nearly technically inclined enough to explain it so as to do it justice, i left the explanation short.

basically, he took the interverlometer out of another camera, built a rig whereby he made his own mechanical shutter to move in front of the lens of the DSLR camera. hook up a light meter to it, control it all via a simple electronic interface, and voila....the most stunning time lapse shots I have ever seen.
Click to expand...

Any pictures of the rig or samples of the timelapse we can see?

So what is the advantage of the mechanical shutter? That it can change in very small increments to do a day-to-night transition? That is kind of the holy grail of timelapse.
 
Again, I don't have enough technical info. on it to give you guys all the good dirt on this rig. The mechanical shutter as Vlad explained it prevents some of the flicker found in some DSLR time lapse shots. Actually, the more I think about it, the better it would be for Vlad to explain. I would quickly get in over my head.

But he is currently in the countryside of Saudi. Not even Riyadh. No good internet there. And he just arrived, and will be there for 4 months.

Oh yeah. The other cool part of his rig I just remembered is that he puts it on a slow moving head (used by telescopes) to accomplish planned pans and tilts. It adds a lot to the normally static time lapse shots you see....

Samples online? I don't know of any.

Pictures of the rig? Hmmmm.....don't think I have any. Vlad has all that stuff, as it is his rig.

Pictures of Vlad working on that Saudi job of mine? see attached....
 
The rig is probably a modified capping shutter, typically used on film cameras for long timelapse shots. Since film camera shutters aren't 100% light tight when closed, a capping shutter is typically pluged into your intervalometer to block out all excess light when the camera is in the closed position for long periods.

Norris would be the most common one of these. I honestly can't see the advantage. I have never got flicker on a DSLR if you follow the rules and don't use automatic lenses stopped down.
 
Mike, I don't understand it either, but if he somehow rigged an advanced shutter to his DLSR, controlled by a light meter, he might have figured out how to change the shutter speed in very small increments, which is what would be needed to accomplish shots that transition from day to night, or visa versa, which would be monumental.
 
Tom said:
Mike, I don't understand it either, but if he somehow rigged an advanced shutter to his DLSR, controlled by a light meter, he might have figured out how to change the shutter speed in very small increments, which is what would be needed to accomplish shots that transition from day to night, or visa versa, which would be monumental.
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for sure he can do that...and it's great.
 
Another bump to an old thread. Last night I attended a screening of the project. Pretty awesome. The Red footage held up incredibly well. Unfortunately it was on a dome screen, not a flat screen (Liberty Science Center in New Jersey) Tim Sassoon's CGI looked terrific too!
The only time that the Red footage really struggled was wide shots, where the actors' hair would look a little helmet-ish. But generally the detail was incredible.
The final filmout was done by the IMAX folks at 4K. Fotokem had done the original test filmout. Nice work on the color grading. I think Tim used software other than the Red's to debayer and color.
All in all, very exciting. And the projectionists gave us a nice tour of the machine, which is really incredible.
I guess that means the Red One is OK for 35mm too... ;)
Cheers,
Harry
 
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