My first 35mm shoot, need I say more... Going into Day 1 I was a little intimidated being 2nd Assistant Camera on a 35mm production. Basically that means my job is Loading/Downloading the film from the mags, cleaning/readying the lenses, and slating/taking notes. Well, Surprise! I was suddenly made 1st AC without a 2nd AC adding to my duties building the Panavision GII Super 35 camera, pulling focus/giving the actors marks, and everything else that comes along with being the right hand man to the Director of Photography (the wonderful Kate Steinhebel). So after a crash course on building the Panavision GII the night before we roll for an 18 hour day, I was set to go.
Put the first shot of my 35mm production days on a jib at sunrise and BOOM welcome to filmmaking. Our Camera setup was a follows:
Panavision GII Super 35mm Camera with Monitor assist. Three Perf Kodak Vision 3 200T 5217 and Kodak Vision 3 500T 5260 suited for 500' and 1000' magazines respectively. Panavison Primo Primes Set. A ridiculous O'Conner tripod head (weighs around 30 lbs. on its own) fitted for a high hat, short sticks, tall sticks, and a 6' to 10' jib. I'm sure there's more, but that's the gist of it for camera.
The first day went smoothly at a moderate pace that I can't complain about since I was still learning the ins and outs of the camera and working as Kate's AC for the first time. But after day 1 of the shoot I've already learned a lot of pretty cool/new stuff.
Loading the Panavision camera is simple but it's not a walk in the park. For starters, the film magazine has one compartment for both the unexposed and exposed film. This was the first time I've loaded such a mag. All of my other loading experience has been on the CP-16 (16mm camera) and the Arri SR and SRII (16mm cameras) which both have separate compartments for the film. Basically what this means is that all of the loading you have to do in the changing bag is to get the film from the can into the mag and feed it out once - the rest (take up side and threading) can be done in the light. So the Panavision Mags with one compartment make you do double the work blind (in the changing bag) - put the film in the mag, thread it out, thread it in, and attach it to the take up core.
After the loading, threading the Panavision camera is the fun part. It threads much like the CP-16 camera but you have options of attaching the magazine to the top of the camera or the back. The process requires a series of fliping rollers up and down, attaching the film to sprockets, and of course making the right sized loops above and below the pressure plate. Luckily, unlike the CP-16, the 35mm film is much larger and you can use your hands to move the film into place instead of your pinky fingers.
So to wrap up, I think we've all taken the simplicity of building and loading Arri film cameras for granted. I'm not saying I'm not in love with the GII, but the Germans make a damn fine camera. Tomorrow I will go more in depth in the camera discussion and talk about accessories for the Panavision GII Super 35mm Camera. Until then I'll leave you with the Panavision slogan - Panavision, Safety locks and Accessories for Everything.
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