Mitchell BNC Camera Construction -Personal Observations
Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2014 3:24 am
Greetings
In 1990 the Japanese animation industry found that the Mitchell BNC film movement was an important part of their work. I was working with LLoyd Berman at this Camera exchange on Cahuenga Blvd when several Mitchell Cameras arrived .
They were all old studio models such as BNC numbers in the 11-9 range then some in the 20's to 60's.
My task was to pull each Mitchell BNC apart and salvage the "L Plate" and the BNC film movement for sale to Japan. List prices at the time were around 5,000.00 dollars
Observed Studio Modifications to Mitchell BNC Cameras -
All had various slate devices (installed by various Studio Machine Shops ).
It seemed a terrible waste till I later learned of a film raw stock expense plan undertaken by UNIVERSAL PICTURES.
In the later 1990's at a small Film Lab called "Film Service" a former Universal Pictures worker told us that he had been tasked to run through EXPOSED PRODUCTION FILM NEGATIVE in the dark and REMOVE THE OUTTAKES !! This was considered a cost saving method .
As a filmmaker and editor , I knew that outtakes still had good moments during editing .
But to continuing with the WHY exploration of the studio installed automatic slates , it became obvious .
The time it takes for a slate clapper /loader to be in front of the camera and exit had been analyzed as a waste of time and film.
If there are any doubts about this I have all the crew work time report notes made by Fred W Applegate from the script supervisors copy of "Cult of the Cobra ". The time reports on each set up were made and sent to the FRONT OFFICE for analysis .
Therefore the Studio installed slates inside the Mitchell Camera were an early cost saving effort which proved, along with other economy efforts to be actually wasteful . By the 1960 we saw more standard slating on sets and no one was discarding outtakes before development .
In my next article on Mitchell construction, I will discuss
1) The L Plate and the camera Box
2) Sound Blimping methods in construction
3) Ground wires used to eliminate static charge on Black and White Film
Article Copyright Bruce R Morgan 2014
In 1990 the Japanese animation industry found that the Mitchell BNC film movement was an important part of their work. I was working with LLoyd Berman at this Camera exchange on Cahuenga Blvd when several Mitchell Cameras arrived .
They were all old studio models such as BNC numbers in the 11-9 range then some in the 20's to 60's.
My task was to pull each Mitchell BNC apart and salvage the "L Plate" and the BNC film movement for sale to Japan. List prices at the time were around 5,000.00 dollars
Observed Studio Modifications to Mitchell BNC Cameras -
All had various slate devices (installed by various Studio Machine Shops ).
It seemed a terrible waste till I later learned of a film raw stock expense plan undertaken by UNIVERSAL PICTURES.
In the later 1990's at a small Film Lab called "Film Service" a former Universal Pictures worker told us that he had been tasked to run through EXPOSED PRODUCTION FILM NEGATIVE in the dark and REMOVE THE OUTTAKES !! This was considered a cost saving method .
As a filmmaker and editor , I knew that outtakes still had good moments during editing .
But to continuing with the WHY exploration of the studio installed automatic slates , it became obvious .
The time it takes for a slate clapper /loader to be in front of the camera and exit had been analyzed as a waste of time and film.
If there are any doubts about this I have all the crew work time report notes made by Fred W Applegate from the script supervisors copy of "Cult of the Cobra ". The time reports on each set up were made and sent to the FRONT OFFICE for analysis .
Therefore the Studio installed slates inside the Mitchell Camera were an early cost saving effort which proved, along with other economy efforts to be actually wasteful . By the 1960 we saw more standard slating on sets and no one was discarding outtakes before development .
In my next article on Mitchell construction, I will discuss
1) The L Plate and the camera Box
2) Sound Blimping methods in construction
3) Ground wires used to eliminate static charge on Black and White Film
Article Copyright Bruce R Morgan 2014