Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Alonso is a Latino photographer with a Mexican mustache. He is less than fifty years old, has a calm face, and speaks with a Spanish accent. After greeting Ronald and others, he started working.

He turned on the camera, loaded the waste film, and then started and stopped repeatedly.

The noise of ultraca is louder than that of Panavision, Arri and other brands. In the indoor environment of the office, there is a buzzing echo. Alonso picked up the camera and ran to the corner to experiment.

Ronald went to watch for a while, but Alonso didn't like to talk much. He just started and stopped repeatedly. When the motor ran out of waste film, Alonso took it off and installed it in reverse, and then started it again.

Ronald was depressed and returned to the chair to close his eyes and rest. During the shooting time, rest is a luxury for the director, and he must seize the free time.

After waiting for a long time, the technical support staff of ultraca finally arrived. He asked about the symptoms of the camera, but he didn't go over to see Alonso debugging the machine. He just took out a maintenance application form and asked the director of photography to fill it out.

"What's the problem?" Ronald stood up and watched.

"It's an old problem. The motor of the machine overheated for unknown reasons. When using certain types of Kodak film, the film will fog randomly. Fortunately, it is not very serious. Only about 20% of the time, the positive film will be slightly blurred when projected on the screen."

"Only?" Ronald was so angry that he didn't want to argue.

This is not a regular problem. You don't know which of the 10 shots will have a problem. It will definitely have a great impact on the shooting of "Fast-paced Richmond High School".

"Is there any solution?" Director of photography Matthew heard Ronald's tone and knew that the director was going to be angry, so he hurriedly asked the ultraca expert.

"We can provide a spare camera and go back to repair it. But you know, we can't guarantee that the spare camera will work well in your shooting environment. This fogging problem occurs randomly, and we have not been able to find a pattern."

"What about the problem of the motor jamming the film?"

"That is a problem of the motor and the film magazine shell matching. In order to pursue a short flange distance and a compact overall size, the reflex lens of this camera is also designed to be relatively compact. The film box and the lens group are very close. We suspect that sometimes the slight deformation of the shell causes the jam."

"Click", the sound of the film winding motor stopped abruptly, Alonso pressed the stop switch, and said in English with a slight Spanish accent, "I I think I found the reason. "

"What is the reason?"

Alonso did not explain, but said to the camera assistant, "Go get a Panasonic camera battery made in Japan."

Then he said to Ronald and Matthew, "I think you can solve the problem of film jam in the winder by replacing the Panasonic battery.

Ronald and producer Lin Sen and others looked at each other, half believing and half doubting what Alonso said.

The technical support staff of Ultraca also spoke, "This is not a battery problem, but the motor of the winder cannot drive the film forward. We have reproduced this fault. When the problem occurs, the battery indicator light is on."

Alonso did not distinguish, but just picked up the Panasonic compatible battery that the assistant had just brought and installed it on the camera.

"That's it, I promise that there will be no more film jam. As for some films fogging, it is a design problem. I can only reduce the fogging phenomenon, but cannot eliminate it. "

Listening to Alonso's Spanish-accented English, producer Lin Sen felt uneasy, "Let's get a new Arri or Panavision camera and use the previous two days' film, shall we?"

"No, if we use another brand of camera, we must reshoot, otherwise the films shot by different cameras will be mixed together during editing, and the audience will feel very strange." Director of photography Matthew disagreed with this approach.

"Or we can use an ultraca backup camera to shoot first and wait for their repair." Another producer Azov said.

"I don't have confidence in them. It seems that the backup camera cannot avoid this problem. "Matthew answered.

The director of photography, the producer, Crowe, Heckerling and others all looked at Ronald. Everyone in the crew can give their professional or unprofessional opinions on the problem. But in the end, it all comes to the director for the decision.

Just like the army to the general, the officers and soldiers below can express their opinions, but once the general makes a decision,

Similarly, the person who makes the decision must bear the consequences of the decision. No matter which method is adopted, Ronald must be responsible for the current decision.

If there is still a problem after changing to the backup camera, or if the two-plate film of another brand of camera is used, Ronald must find a solution, and the delay in shooting time and cost overruns caused by this must be explained to the Universal executives by him.

Ronald did not make a decision immediately, but walked to Alonso and looked at the battery on the ultraca camera. After the battery was installed, the power indicator light of the camera was slightly lit, and Ronald imitated Alonso and pressed the power button.

"Woo..." A low motor sound sounded, and the waste film in the film box was pulled to accelerate and rotate. After a few seconds, the film reached its highest speed and switched to uniform motion. This is what Ronald calls a! Before that, the director of photography must confirm why the motor is already running at a constant speed.

Alonso was like this before, press open, let the film roll to the end, then stop, load the film in reverse, and press open again. Repeatedly.

Then...he pointed out that the problem was with the battery.

A flash of understanding flashed through Ronald's mind, he pointed at the indicator light and said, "The problem here?"

Alonso smiled, "Yes, the indicator light read the battery incorrectly. The battery has dropped below a certain level and cannot run the film at full speed, but the indicator light still lights up normally."

"Why are Panasonic batteries okay?"

"Japanese people are very serious. The battery voltage and current drop curves are very smooth. They can maintain a basically flat line before they are completely out of power. When they are out of power, they drop rapidly. At this time, the indicator light will jump to a warning state.

Our manufacturing industry in America is no longer as attentive as the Japanese. Companies like Panavision can also customize batteries. Ultraca can only use standard battery packs on the market. "

"I understand, but what about the film fogging problem?"

"That's a design flaw. As the manufacturer's expert said, in order to open up the market, this model of camera has a specially designed viewfinder that works with a zoom lens. You can clearly see the change in depth of field during the zooming process of the lens.

But in this case, a very long viewfinder is required, which compresses the distance between the lens and the internal exposure plane of the camera. In this way, their reflector is compressed into a too short flange distance, and the lens tilt angle is too large, which can easily be A motor with insufficient voltage causes resonance and scratches the surface.

If your crew is using some Kodak films that require high light transmission, there will be slight fogging. According to your shooting progress, when the battery is low, the resonance is greater and the fogging phenomenon is more serious.

To completely solve this problem, the camera design must be changed. Now that Panasonic has a stable voltage battery, serious fogging will basically not occur. Of course, the picture is slightly blurry than Panavision, which is inevitable.

If you are not a professional, ordinary viewers should not be able to find it. "

"Why can't an expert like you be in charge of the technical department?" Ronald completely understood Alonso's logic. He had just repeatedly used waste film to idling, trying to recreate the shooting scene. How could the film jam occur?

"I like being on the set, and speaking of my accent..."

Ronald knew in his heart that there was a hierarchy among white people in America. Europeans, who are mainly Anglo-Saxon, have always discriminated against Latinos. In the early years, southern European immigrants were also said to be half-black.

Descendants of immigrants from Mexico like John Alonso are even lower than those of southern European descent.

Ronald stretched out his hand and shook it vigorously, "Thank you, Mr. Alonso. You are really a skilled photography expert. I hope to have the opportunity to cooperate with you, Aigo."

"I also hope to work with young directors like you. My master likes to work with young directors. He said that young people are not limited by so-called industry conventions and can actually make good movies."

"Who is your master?" Ronald didn't understand the inheritance between photographers.

"It's Chinese-American photographer James Huang. He is the greatest master of low-key photography. He was also the first photographer to use a portable camera. He also invented the velvet method so that actors with blue eyes would no longer be discriminated against in the era of black and white films.

In fact, he was the inventor of deep focus photography and the first lamp available in the sound era. However, like me, many of his achievements were not recognized by the mainstream Hollywood photography community because of his ethnicity. "

Unexpectedly, there is such a Chinese photography master in Hollywood. This is the first time Ronald has heard of it, "What about him now?"

"He has been dead for a few years. He was included in the gray list due to anti-Chinese and anti-confession reasons. He did not have many works in the color era. But he has been nominated for the Oscar for Best Cinematography many times and won twice."

"Oh," Ronald nodded. When he watched old movies, he paid more attention to the director and actors, but did not pay attention to the name of the master of photography.

Thanks to Alonso, Ronald decided to adopt the solution he provided, using Panasonic batteries produced in Japan, leaving everything else unchanged and operating as usual.

"Go buy some more batteries for the Panasonic camera. We'll still use this camera." Ronald instructed the camera assistant to run errands.

"Are you sure?" Producers Lin Sen and Azoff both asked.

"This is the best solution right now."

Everything went well during the shooting that night. The efficient lighting system and the camera that had no problems again made the shooting progress ahead of schedule again.