Reflections on the Saturday Shoot

This past Saturday our 6x1 class shot and developed 56 second shorts on 16mm Bolex cameras. Working with the cameras was an absolute blast for me. I am very interested in cinematography and have always wanted to work with real film. It feels like such a rarity to get to work on actual film as a student these days with the perpetual flux of modern technologies. Truthfully I wish I could have worked with the Bolex camera a lot more because I didn't get much hands on time with it but I got some good time with the 8mm camera. I have always been interested in the different sub-mediums of film (i.e. 8mm, 16mm, video, etc) and each formats appearance and limitations. Now I want to learn everything I can about operating cameras as I can so I can explore the limitations of each format/technology. I want to be able to know cameras like the back of my hand - just be able to pick any camera up and know exactly how to use it. Once I can comfortable with cameras and really get to know them and what no,t then I can truly start to use my full creative potential. This weekend was awesome because I feel like it was a good step in the right direction and has only caused me to become more interested in different film/video formats. I am really interested in finding an old Bolex or 8mm camera and start making my own experimental or short films with them. It's so awesome that I can shoot with an old film camera and edit it on my computer - although this does lose some of the film quality. I need to start taking advantage of this and hipefully I'll have my hands on an 8mm or a Bolex of my own by next fall.

As for more on the Saturday shoot - it was fun dressing up and rehearsing in order to get the time down. It worked out a lot better than I thought it was going to so I was very happy with that. I didn't realize that it would be in negatives but it looks really cool that way. I am interested in seeing what it will look like not in negatives and look forward to using some of this footage in other experimental projects in the future.