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RitM: About the Aaton XTR and a Day Eighteen Update

Rain in the Mountains is being shot with an Aaton XTR, a camera billed by the manufacturer as "the ultimate shooting machine." True? Well, I don't have much to compare it with (although I'd say this also falls into the category of shooting machine.)

Read more...Technical minded people might like to know that we're using 400 foot mags (Aaton's website claims the XTR can take 800 foot mags) of super-16 film (the camera also takes regular 16mm). The XTR has a number of features we're not making use of, most revolving around video taps and electronic slates. We've used the variable speed capability only once, a shot of a light bulb breaking in slow motion.

The second half of the camera kit is a Canon 7/63 zoom lens. Joel considered ordering some prime lenses -- I'm not sure what brand -- with the camera package. Price was a factor, but also set-up speed. Because we're not changing lenses all the time, the production moves swifter. 35mm film was also considered, but again speed and price were a factor. A mag of 35mm is twice as heavy and shoots for half as long. (And I thought I was in the changing bag all the time!)

Weight is important because Joel insists on doing everything handheld...

Up a tree:

On the ground:

In the water:

I'm not really qualified to speak to its operation, so maybe Joel will comment below. [UPDATE: He has!] What I can talk about is how to load and unload the mags. Another post with a tutorial on that has been delayed, due to the fact I need to eat dinner right now.

About Day Eighteen
This was our slowest start yet. We were filming north of Tacoma at a unique convenience store called Ravensdale Market. Traffic delayed us quite a bit. The owner closed up for the morning while we filmed two scenes that simulate the power being out. That's not as easy as you think. There are lots of things that are tough to turn off, or that a store owner doesn't particularly want off. Jameson and Danny figured out the breaker box so we could turn off all the freezers before each take and turn them back on when the directors called 'cut'.

Outside the market, we grabbed a third quick scene involving Todd and Eric with belly-aches after eating too much ice cream. Pretty funny. (See last photo below.)

The sun was bright outside and since we are low on the Kodak 50D film stock (7245) we were using a Fuji 250D (8662, more light sensitive) today. That meant we needed to use ND filters to reduce the amount of light hitting the lens. I'd read all about how to calculate the f-stop compensation of ND filters in my Camera Assistant's Manual. The short of it is that an ND3 reduces light one stop; ND6 and ND9, two and three stops, respectively. We needed two stops less, so I pulled out the ND6. It makes me happy to put such knowledge to use.

About J. Ott

John Ott is a writer, filmmaker and futurist. Follow him on Twitter or Like him on Facebook.