Re: Shutter 2004 Horror Movie Dual A
Toccara Delacerda
The Fuji GS645S is _not_ a Holga on steroids. It's so far past a Holga that it's not even the same species anymore, really (or maybe it's the Holga that's so far below the Fuji...not that Holgas are bad, they have a purpose and place). The Fuji has a rangefinder (spot is a bit dim, but usable in most situations) and an incredibly sharp lens. I mean scary sharp. Even with a flatbed scanner, I am blown away by the sharpness.
The body may be plastic on the outside, but it's clearly a metal subframe from the heft and weight. It's a very durable body. The lens has a protective "rollbar" around it, since apparently the shutter is a bit delicate. But I haven't exactly babied mine and it's held up wonderfully. I love this camera.
Allan is absolutely right about the quality of the Fuji's lens but the 'roll bar' is there for a very good reason: hit the lens the wrong way and you'll shear the lens mount screws, resulting in an expensive repair. I did it twice before giving up on the camera.
I appreciate the correction. I didn't mean to imply that the rollbar didn't have a very important purpose, I just wasn't aware it was _that_ bad. Regardless, while I have been cautious not to really bang the thing on anything, so far I've been alright.
The Holga is a 'toy' camera. It is a basic and cheap (in every way) device that produces soft (espacially in the corners) pictures but good tonality because of the medium format film. Those toys have some followers but i think you would be disapointed.
If you must have a 6x6, there is the excellent but expensive Mamiya 6 mf with changeable lenses but the best value lies in an old TLR with a 4 element taking lens (Yashica Mat, Minolta Autocord, Rollie Rollicord, etc.)In most cases, you must add a hand-held light-meter. There are also the slightly better but a lot pricier Rolleiflex with 5or 6 element lenses.
There is another possibility: an old folder : most are 6x6 and some are 'dual' format: 6x6-645 or 6x9-6x6. The 4 elements ones are rarer and pricier but some 3 elements are quite acceptable. Comparing with the Fuji: more compact since they fold but absolutely basic : red window, no rangefinder, no meter, manual shutter cocking.
As someone else mentioned you could try an old folder (if size is a constraint) which can do anything from 6x4.5 to 6x9. The Moskva 5 is a very capable camera with an excellent coated lens, a good one should be well under $100, and will do 6x6 (with mask) and 6x9. Folders were my intro into the world of MF. Other options are a Bronica RF, or Mamiya 6/7, but these are pricey.
The GS645S certainly feels light and plasticky but I've been mistreating mine for years with no ill effects (yet). I orginally bought it as a back-up for when travelling with a Pentax 67 outfit and for times when I didn't feel like carrying the extra weight of my old Super Ikonta. But ended up using the Fuji rather more often, partly because I find I can focus it much quicker than the Zeiss and partly because I like getting 30 shots on a 220 roll before reloading. The SBC lens also turned out to be better than I expected and is very contrasty. The rangefinder spot could be a little more distict but it's perfectly adequate once you get used to it.
If you're used to normal cameras with a square or landscape format, it's initially a bit odd to look through a portrait format viewfinder but you adapt very quickly and the camera works well ergonomically in either format. Having the focus, the aperture and shutter speed tabs all together works really well for me - I use my left thumb for all three when in portrait format and my 2nd & 3rd fingers when shooting lanscape format. All in all, a very easy camera to hold.
Long exposures are not difficult, though the mechanism is a bit unconventional - the little grey inset button on the right of the lens assembly opens the shutter (provided you've wound on). I find you can push it down carefully with a matchstick without causing too much vibration. THen when you want to close the shutter you just press the shutter release button. Crucial thing is not to move the shutter speed dial while the shutter is open as that is likely to jam the mechanism. There's no way of cocking the shutter without winding on so sadly you can't use this for multiple exposures.
Obviously with it's protruding lens and crash bar, the GS is never going to be as compact or as well protected in transit as a folding rangefinder camera but at least you never have to worry about how lightproof the bellows are and it is nice and lightweight.
I own a Fuji Gs 645 with rollbar; good portable camera (really small, lighter than fm2 with 35) but not as fast as you could imagine. Speeds and f rings are too close each other, focusing is not as smooth as nikon or leica or else...the small lens has all the 3 controls cohassial to the barrel, so they are jammed and it's hard to adjust them without watching them (...forget to use it in a fast leica or nikon way).
The image quality is good, as has been already said. But I also find the rangefinder spot incredibly dim (mine is ligh yellow...very very light yellow...) and I wonder if any GS user has found a simple way to improve the contrast of the rf spot...any suggestions?
Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom: We always discuss everything before we start shooting and do everything together as a team. Whether it is acting, location scouting, sets, etc., we talk to each other before we talk to anyone else.
Youngyooth Thongkonthun: Banjong and Parkpoom have the same alma mater. Bangjong worked with Parkpoom at a production house called Phenomena films as assistant directors for commercial productions. And then they won a spot to direct a feature film. And then Phenomena came to talk with me at my production company GBH. That was the start of Shutter and after that they decided to do Alone together and continued to work together on 4bia.
Offscreen: Are they open to the genre films at the University, because at our University where we teach film is in the fine art faculty and students are less likely to produce genre films. They are more likely to make art films, personal films, documentary films.
Offscreen: There have been a few recent Asian omnibus horror films, like Three Extremes, Three, Scary True Stories, but not many. The first Three (2002) even had a Thai director, Nonzee Nimitbur, who did Nang Nak (1999), that played here in 1999. A very good film. How did the idea of doing a film with four multiple stories and directors come about?
Youngyooth: There have been several Asian horror films with many stories but they have not been very successful because it often is a mixture of different Asian countries and they usually do it separately and then put the film together; whereas we worked together so that each story complemented each other. And we also were sure to make each story work as a short story.
Youngyooth: We came up with the four stories and then put them in different sequences and we had focus groups with the different edits and it seemed that in every case the last story was the one that people liked the least. We figured that maybe by the last story people were becoming tired or less interested! But then we decided on this particular sequence and it received the best reception from the focus groups. And this was the sequence that we had envisioned from the start anyway.
Offscreen: I just want to ask about another thing that I found very interesting about 4bia that made it different from other Asian horror and ghost story films. In the majority of Asian horror films and ghost stories the ghosts are female and that is bound up in tradition, culture and folklore, and has now become a cinematic convention. In 4bia three of the four ghosts are male, so I was wondering if that was just a coincidence that was arrived at individually or were you conscious of changing that up, because as a viewer it feels a little strange to see a male ghost. I think we are conditioned to it being a woman, preferably with long dark hair. In 90% of Asian ghost films the ghost is female. This is the case also in your two feature films Shutter and Alone. But not in 4Bia, where three of the four stories feature male ghosts. Was this a conscious choice to make it different, or just a coincidence?
Offscreen: I have a general question on Alone about the Siamese twins because when I [Peter Rist] was a child in England I remember this famous story of Chang and Eng Bunker and so I wondered how important the whole history of that story was in Thailand? And the fact that they are called Chang and Eng does this mean they were Chinese from Thailand? Were the original Siamese twins ethnically Chinese?
Youngyooth: Yes it is a pretty big part of our culture and there is even a big monument to them in their home town. There are stories and plays about them and even a documentary about them so it is a big part of their culture, and they are half Chinese.
Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom: Yes we did extensive work on the color. For each part, Korea, Bangkok, the past, the present we did a lot of color testing with the film. For the period sections we used something called a chocolate filter.
Youngyooth: We did tests before we even started. For example we would bring a piece of clothing and place it next to a wall and take a picture and then we would go through the bleach bypass process to see how the colors would come out. So it was all planned out.
Offscreen: I find it hard to explain but I think the film looks fantastic and has a very consistent look. There is something about the way it is dark even during the day scenes, and the subtle lighting you have with colors that are muted but still strong, like the brown is very strong so when you see red it is very strong also. I find it fascinating because right from the first Thai film I saw I was struck by how this was a completely different look from Hong Kong film, Chinese film, and Japanese film. And I see it in this film also and it seems to work especially well with horror and ghost stories because of this faint light.
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