Podcast Interview with Aerlan Barrett

In this podcast we talk to Aerlan Barrett—a local filmmaker, film student, and currently an intern at FAVA in the production rental depot. Aerlan has a blog too.

Some topics covered are film school, working at FAVA, also some good information about FAVA’s 16mm film cameras, and also a bit of a discussion on why one might choose to shoot on film versus digital, or vice-versa.

Podcast, pictures and more after the jump!

Fava’s Film Cameras

Aerlan mentions the Bolex and Scoopic cameras, which are typically not sync-sound cameras, and also the Arri SRII and SRIII cameras which many a great film has been shot on. (I shot my first short film on a Scoopic!)

As well, a few weeks ago Fava was kind enough to let me into their production rental depot to take some pictures, a few of which I’ve uploaded below, to give an idea of what these great cameras look like.

Cost of Shooting on Film

In the podcast Aerlan gives some numbers for the cost of shooting on film versus the cost of shooting on something like the Red Cams, at least from his perspective as a film student shooting short films. For many filmmakers, Red is going to make financial sense.

That said, the cost of renting the ARRI SR2 and SR3 from Fava has basically dropped to zero. While the Fava website still—unfortunately—says it’s $165 to rent the camera body, per day for members, the price has actually recently dropped to $60/day for the SR3. That is just an insanely low price to rent an amazing camera!

Zoom Lenses

Aerlan also mentions that the lenses that usually go out with the Arri 16mm cams at Fava are zooms. High quality zoom lenses worth thousands of dollars.

I feel like new filmmakers often avoid zoom lenses. It seems like every budding cinematographer knows one thing—primes are better than zooms. Generally speaking that’s usually true, but not always. I am a fan of zoom lenses. I think they can help cut down on the number of lens changes, camera moves, etc, which can really save time and money on set. Plus the glass is amazing.

Try to Shoot Film at Least Once

I know that film is expensive, and that emerging filmmakers often don’t have much experience with it—myself included—but I highly suggest taking the time, and money, to shoot a short on film as part of a personal “film school.”

While I’ve never rented either of the Arri cameras from FAVA, I have every intention of doing so in the next few months. FAVA has made the price of renting the cameras so low that I think it’s become unavoidable to at least try shooting one short film with it. Sure, there is the cost of the stock, development, and scanning (telecine) on top of the camera rental, but if you’ve never heard the sweet purr of film through a motion picture camera…it’s worth the money to hear it at least once.

Martha Marcy May Marlene

Since Aerlan mentioned this film, and because I love the look of this film, I’m going to post the trailer here. I’d suggest two things: 1) Bump the resolution in youtube to the highest quality and go full screen and 2) Rent the Blu-ray from The Videodrome. This movie has a great look to it and was shot on film.

The Cameras

The Bolex

Fava has a few bolex cameras. I’ve shot several times with the Super 16mm version. These cameras can take some amazing images, but I highly suggest renting them and getting some experience prior to shooting an important work with them.