Bolex 16mm Basketball Short

I shot this one evening with my cousin Kody on a wind-up Bolex 16mm camera. The shots were made up as we went, as it was mostly to test out different lenses, frame rates, and apertures. When Kody misses the basket, we had planned on him making it, so we improvised a couple new shots (the angry zoom and kick basket). Being a test, I didn't plan on doing any post-editing and did all the cuts except two in camera. When I went to post it up, I decided that there were two cuts that would look a lot better if they were a couple of frames shorter, so I made those changes. It's nothing too fancy, but like I said, was mostly to just explore a little bit.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• 16mm
• bolex
• film
• slow motion
• short
• basketball
• BYU
• cinematography
• camera

[DepthPictures]

I should be renting out a Bolex H16 camera this summer for a shoot and wanted to know what lenses you used and which company you used to process and transfer the footage onto a format you could upload onto YouTube such as DVD or MiniDV? Cheers, quality video btw.

[jabba359]

@DepthPictures The bolex had a rotating turret that takes three C-mount lenses. I used a 16mm F1.4, 25mm F1.4, and a 75mm F1.2 (don't remember the brand). Since I had the film processed and transferred through my class, I can't say who did it. Your best bet is to find a place nearby where you live. It's not cheap to get done, but if you're a student, many places offer student rates. When you get it transferred to video, you can usually have it delivered in a quicktime format for uploading.

[jabba359]

@DepthPictures As for lenses, if you want to have a nice selection, I'd get something close to the following focal lengths:

1) 25mm - a nice "normal" lens. Should work for just about anything.

2) 8mm or 12.5mm - nice wide angle

3) 50mm or 75mm - good for telephoto work

You can also pick up a single zoom lens, such as the Angenieux 12-120mm F2.2, Canon 17-102mm F2, or you could spend some dough and get the Zeiss 18-90mm F2. Do an eBay search for "c mount lens". You'll literally find hundreds.

[TheWorksful]

how much did it cost to buy the film and how did you upload it to youtube?

[jabba359]

@TheWorksful

Since I did this through school, we got discount pricing. If I remember right, it cost a flat rate of $100 for two projects, each consisting of 100' 16mm film, processing, and transfer to MiniDV. The academic rate for the film was about $30/roll, and then the process/transfer was done as a batch for the class, presumably at a discount.

[jabba359]

@LegiTolkien105 I don't have any experience with Croatia, but you might want to contact a local production house. A google search revealed a company that looks like it shoots 16mm and is based in Zagreb. I'd shoot them an email through their website: gralfilm.com

[master777999]

@TheWorksful The Bolex takes a 100' roll of 16mm film, which from Kodak costs about $37. 100' of 16mm will last you 2 minutes and 47 seconds at 24 FPS (standard frame rate), but this video is shorter because he did some slow motion shots, which were shot at a higher frame rate thus using more film. And to upload a film to youtube, you have to put it through a film scanner.

[master777999]

I love this man, this is really great. Can't wait to get an H16.

[jabba359]

@Willtabix

It was shot on the Bolex H16 Reflex. It's been a while and I don't have access to the particular camera anymore, so I don't recall for certain if it was part of the REX-series. I'd wager that since the upgraded H16 REX-series replaced the plain-ol' Reflex after 1959 (which had only 5 years of production), it was more than likely one of the subsequent REX-series iterations. Which one, I can't say, but certainly not the REX-5, as my camera didn't have the 400ft mag saddle adapter.

[Willtabix]

what bolex model is this shot on?