Stefan Zambinski

Monday 13 May 2024

Fostex Archives Tapes

Back in the 90's I purchased a second hand four track tape recorder to make recordings of my guitar playing. There are many types of home recording four track such as the Tascam Portastudio and the Fostex Multitracker XR range. The Multitracker XR-3 was an interesting option at the time as the feature of bounce down (essentially a basic mix) of 3 tracks to 1 track which then enabled the use of the 3 tracks again to essentially give 7 track capability. This feature was a little bit fiddly and once committed to the bounce down you lost any adjustability to individual levels. However the system wasn't designed for perfect recordings but idea creation (or demo recording).

Multitracker XR-3 by Fostex

I used the XR-3 for many years as a way to quickly record guitar ideas and as my musical horizons spread from heavy metal guitar to electronic music creation the XR-3 stayed with me as a trusty way to capture the moment. Its small form factor meant band rehearsals and trips away weren't an issue and storage was convenient too.

The recommended tape to use was the C-60/C-90 (type II/High position) TDK SA, Maxell XLII or equivalent - however due to limited funds sometimes the only option was to record using whatever tape was to hand - as such often when playing back there would be a track of high speed music pitched up as a result and often backwards - this all adds to the strange world of four track recording.

In recent times I mainly use my phone to record guitar ideas - which isn't ideal as voice memo doesn't allow multi track recording - however I always have my phone with me so its often convenient to record on it. To produce multi track recordings I will often use Garage Band on my Mac computer or a program such as Pro Tools or sometimes Audition. Both of these programs allow multi channel recording through a digital audio workstation (DAW). The Focusrite Scarlette 18i8 allows 8 devices to be connected to enable live recording.

To preserve the recordings I have made over the years on the XR-3 I recently recorded the output of the XR-3 using the Scarlette 8i8 into ProTools and I'am now going through the recordings and mixing them to share online. I have currently completed 3 Archive Tape recordings and have many more. Here is a link to my Soundcloud account where I posted the archive recordings and who knows maybe some of the ideas will get a re-working using ProTools or even developed into new songs altogether in the future.

Soundcloud - Sausisson Fas https://on.soundcloud.com/2L9RBLpabJPQvLFk8

Wednesday 22 February 2023

Short Film 'Final Rinse and Spin'

Last July I had the privilege to film a short with a fantastic crew in a challenging circumstance - a car wash! The short film, written and directed by Nigel Bristow and featuring the talented Ingrid Evans and Georgie Fox centres around a strange occurrence in a regular car wash somewhere in suburbia.

The project is currently in post production and I hope to share it once available. The main challenge faced was how to rig the camera in the limited space available. Test shoots helped a lot in understanding the limitations.

Feature film in Malta

In August 2021 I flew to Malta to help Peter Sant with his new feature film Background Sound. My task was to work along side the Director, who was also DoP for the shoot, as essentially Gaffer but with some camera duties also. Shooting on an ARRI SR2 using 16mm film (50D and 500T) with a strong tungsten hard light aesthetic (2K open face). Unfortunately I don't currently have my Nikon DSLR pictures but here are some iPhone pics of the trip (no production pictures just yet I'm afraid).

Journey snack at Liverpool Street train station

1930s Maltese apartment in St Pauls Bay

Kitchen area

View of the bay at dusk

Popeye village tours poster board

St Pauls Bay

Nikon D7000 DSLR with Nikkor 35mm Lens

Empty water bottles (average temperature was around 40 degrees)

Beach sandles

Palms

Hobz Biz-Zejt tuna roll and coffee

Resting boats

Harbour

Valletta harbour

Valletta Streets

Churchill Statue

Bastion of Valletta

Gateway to Valletta

Opera house

Same designer as Covent Garden in London

Basement stairs

Street decorations

Republic Street banners

Red letter box

Red phone box

Wide steps for the knights and horses

View to the top

Baking Pistizzi

Mdina bridge

Archway

Balcony

Mdina street

GoT merchandise

Self catering breakfast

Blue sky

Apartment balcony

Plants

Wednesday 16 December 2020

Camerimage 2019

Camerimage in Poland is one of the world’s leading film festival with a focus on the art of Cinematography. Now in its 27th year the festival has gone from strength to strength. 2019's festival was my fourth and there is lots to report. The festival was a little different to the previous three I have attended due to a relocation to Toruń from Bydgoszcz. The new location is much the same as the previous in that its based in a large town with a medieval history.

Torun city wall

Statue of Copernicus

The main festival hall was based at the CKK Jordanki, a fantastic contemporary theatre with more than sufficient space to house the excellent marketplace of companies from the world of camera and lighting through to pre and postproduction facilities. However whilst attending the festival I heard of the exciting plans to build a permanent CAMERIMAGE European Film Centre on a disused site a five minute walk from the CKK. The centre will be for research and training in the area of filmmaking all year round and not just during the festival – a great asset to Toruń and the wider community and Camerimage festivals to come!

CKK Jordanki main festival hall

The festival site consists of many locations for workshops and seminars held by leading figures from the cinematography discipline. One such venue this year was a local high schools hall that made a fantastic location for a set construction to display live demonstrations of camera and lighting set ups. I attend one such event run by Canon and lead by Claudia Raschke a leading documentary maker who creates films using the Cinema Verite style.

Workshop centre directions

Claudia Raschke workshop

I also had the chance to attend the ARRI seminar on connectivity. ARRI are one of the leading camera and lighting companies in the world. Created by two friends Arnold and Richter (AR + RI = ARRI) ARRI was born in 1917. Today the company offers training and their seminars and workshops are leading the way to understanding the now very complex landscape of camera technology cinematographers are faced with understanding. Look up tables (LUTs), metadata, wireless connectivity and camera access protocol (CAP) being just a few things covered in this in-depth seminar.

As well as the fantastic workshops and seminars the festival is predominantly a film festival like any other, with awards presented in all major categories of filmmaking. The main festival winners (Golden Frogs) this year where 1st place Joker, 2nd place The Two Popes and 3rd place The Painted Bird plus there were also awards for best documentary Midnight Family, best music video for James Massiha ‘Natural Born Killers (Ride for Me)’ plus best music video Cinematography for the Jon Hopkins ‘Singularity’ and round table discussion of short films Lefty/Righty, Cactus Blossom and Boarder Crossing to name a few.

Award ceremony

Helena Trestikova documentary event

The whole experience of visiting Camerimage 2019 despite the change of location was a real treat and one to remember. Discovering all the new venues and seeing familiar faces in familiar scenarios made for a real adventure. The new home of Toruń looks set to be an interesting chapter in the Camerimage story. The ever-changing face of cinematography technology shows no sign of slowing and with other developments looming in the future such as computer gaming engines crossover into the film industry, events such as Camerimage are an essential calendar event for industry professionals.

Rose jam Paczki shop (Polish Doughnuts)

Flower stall at night

So, another Camerimage over and I have no doubt the organisers are already busy planning and refining the 2020 event to be even more impressive and integrated with the town of Toruń, which incidentally was the festivals birthplace in 1993. The previous site of the festival, Bydgoszcz will always be a place I have fond memories of, and I will no doubt visit the town again in the future.

Web links:

Camerimage Festival

https://camerimage.pl/en/

Documentry filmmaker Claudia Raschke IMDB

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0711070/

Cinema Verite

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cin%C3%A9ma_v%C3%A9rit%C3%A9

ARRI 100 History

https://de-de.facebook.com/TeamARRI/videos/arris-history-1917-the-beginning/10156022267839061/

CAP app

https://pomfort.com/pocketcontrol/

ARRI LUTs