As we celebrate the nation’s birthday, I thought it would be fun to take a look at one of America’s great camera manufacturers, the Mitchell Camera Corporation. Presented here is a slideshow showing the history of the Mitchell Camera Corporation, one of America’s premiere motion picture camera manufacturers. Beginning with the Mitchell Standard in 1921, […]
A Brief History of the Mitchell Camera Corporation Read More »
As part of my involvement with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences History and Technology Subcommittee, we have been hard at work getting the Dykstraflex cleaned up and ready to be exhibited at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. This was a long and tedious process, involving a fair amount of logistics, cleaning,
Preparing for May the 4th: The Dykstraflex at the Academy Museum Read More »
The Arriflex 16M “Magazine” camera was introduced in 1962 as a successor to the venerable ARRI 16 S. Like its predecessor the ARRI S, the ARRI M is a spinning mirror reflex 16mm motion picture camera with a bright viewfinder, a 3-lens divergent turret to work with a variety of lenses, and a small, compact
As a prelude to some work I will be doing in the next week or so evaluating the Mitchell 205, I was hoping to begin this week by taking a deep dive into some history of this camera. However, after many hours of searching, we are no more informed about the history of the 205
Mitchell 205 35mm Silent Studio Camera Read More »
While I continue my long and protracted battle with an Arri BL 4S, I wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a Happy Star Wars Day. As they say, May the 4th be with you! This got me to thinking about the ongoing work I have been doing for the Academy of Motion Picture
Happy Star Wars Day! Read More »
Before we took some time off for the holidays, I was going through blue prints and photographs of some of the projects I have done in the past. What I was really hoping to share were some of the accessories that added functionality of the various cameras without modifying the cameras themselves. These records are
A Few Projects from the Past Read More »
This past week I had the privilege of doing preventative maintenance on the Dykstraflex camera for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. I serve on the Academy’s Technology and History Subcommittee, and following the restoration of the Dykstraflex camera crane, subcommittee members were concerned that the camera may have developed problems after having
Dykstraflex Camera, Revisited Read More »
To go along with our ongoing restoration of Mitchell Standard #46, we are currently in the process of researching the history of the camera’s first owner, the Christie Film Company. Brothers Al and Charles Christie founded the Christie Film Company in Hollywood in 1916 and produced short and feature-length comedies through 1933. The Great Depression
Some Help with a History of the Christie Film Co. Read More »
Around 1983 I built this single frame rear process projector for my friend and colleague David Stipes. This lovely piece of machinery was used to project background plates into matte paintings and tabletop miniatures. We used it on such projects as “Ice Pirates”, “Real Genius”, “V”, “Trancers”, an episode of “The Twilight Zone”, and many
1983 has come back for a visit! Read More »
I wanted to share one more truly amazing item from John Hora’s collection before the end of the year. John was involved in a project in 2012, along with fellow cinematographer Douglas Knapp and director David Strohmaier, filming a three-panel Cinerama travelog about Los Angeles in the original Cinerama style. Additionally John was part of
