Preparations

Tape Up Spool - There is nothing so disappointing as to arrive out on location, open the camera and not see a take up spool. Disappointing too, since it is so easy to avoid by checking for one ahead of time. (You can always kill a roll, to provide a tape up spool, but it’s a little expensive and wasteful to do this for an otherwise not-so-valuable take up spool.) It is also a good idea to see that the spool isn’t bent, in order to avoid a camera jam. And, when you are done filming, if you are giving the camera back without an empty spool, it is just plain courtesy to mention this, in case the next person rushes off without having checked for one. (It is also a good idea to have a spare spool in your ditty bag, just in case.)


Quick Release Shoe - Like the take up spool, this is something obvious to check that can easily go neglected.


The Filter Holder - The filter holder must be in place when shooting, even if you are not using a filter. If the slot is empty, you will get a very particular light leak: a streak of light on the right side of the frame, caused by light entering through the slot and reflecting off the prism of the viewfinding system. Most importantly, this often cannot be seen through the viewfinder, and so you might end up shooting a great deal of footage with this problem without ever knowing. Saving this footage through optical printing is as costly as reshooting (proving you didn’t shoot some extravagantly expensive scene to begin with), and will end up degrading the image quality significantly.

The Film Speed Dial - As the spring of a Bolex ages (especially if it hasn’t been properly stored with the spring wound down) the camera speed will slowly shift from the reading on the speed dial. It is rather expensive to have the camera recalibrated, and far easier to just test the camera and mark the setting for 24 frames with a dot on the dial. If the camera you are using has a dot on the speed dial (Controls on the Bolex, right side-g). This is where the camera should be set for filming at 24 frames per second.

Placing the Lenses on the Turret. - The lenses should be placed with the 25mm lens (the normal lens) in the center position (as pictured here). This prevents the telephoto and the wide angle lens from being mounted adjacently, which will cause the simple problem of the telephoto lens being visible in the corner of the frame when you shoot with the wide angle lens.

All those caps - There are three caps for each lens: Front, Rear, and the Body Cap on the camera. It is a good idea to have a consistent routine for where to put them when shooting, such as in the camera case, otherwise they are very easy to lose and expensive to replace ($20 or so).

The Variable Shutter - The variable shutter (Controls on the Bolex, right side-k) can be used for fades (but you’re probably better off having them done in the lab in post-production). If is closed you will be filming NOTHING. The up position is open, the down position is closed. Later model Bolexes will have a warning in the viewfinder: a little pointer that appears in the bottom left of the frame. This tells you that the shutter is closed and you are filming nothing.

The Turret Lock - The turret lock is helpful for two things: When doing a rack focus, it can prevent the turret from slipping, or to prevent the turret from slipping when using a very heavy lens. Otherwise it tends to just get in the way all the time and can be terribly frustrating. You can solve this by simply locking it away from the turret, as illustrated.

A Quick Check of the Gate - The simplest way to check for debris in the gate of the Bolex is to rotate the turret so that the gate is revealed, set the I/T switch to “T” (see Controls on the Bolex, right side-m) and hold the side switch (Controls on the Bolex, right side-b) forward towards the “P.” This will open the shutter, exposing the gate (you can even do this with film inside the camera: all it will give you is a flash-frame between shots). Check for hairs or fragments of broken film. Hairs can be very small and hard to see. If you see anything suspicious it is a good idea to clean the camera. If you are not sure of how to clean the camera, get help from someone who knows what they’re doing. Whenever you are returning a Bolex, you should always set the I/T switch back to “I,” as a courtesy to the person who might try to do single frame shooting without checking this switch first.

Loading

The Pressure Plate. One of the more common problems in loading the Bolex is the rather pesky Pressure Plate. If it is disengaged the film will not be held in place and the image will jiggle and be out of focus. (If you are lucky, and are shooting out-of-doors, an f-stop of 8 or better will often make up for the film being off the film plane, but rather than rely on luck it is better to check the pressure plate before closing up the camera.) Unfortunately, the pressure plate is not designed in such a way that you will be easily alerted to its being engaged or disengaged. You cannot even look at it and easily tell if it is in place, or not. This is something you have to tell by touch. Gently push it towards the gate. If you hear a faint “click,” you have just saved all your footage from being ruined. It is always worth checking, even if it feels like you are being overly-cautious, principally because of the design flaw that makes it possible to shoot anything at all with the pressure plate disengaged.

Clipping the Film - Although it might sound a little finicky, it is a good idea to be careful when clipping the film, that you clip it between perf. Otherwise, it is possible for the broken perforation to break off in the gate, scratching the film, or worse still, getting lodged in the gate where it is visible in the frame.

Putting the Film on the Take Up Spool - Do not be miserly about the amount of film you run out when loading. About a foot and a half is good. The film needs to wrap around itself a few times when you put it on the hub of the take up spool. This will cause it to tighten itself the more it is pulled. If it has not wrapped around itself then, it is likely to just pull itself out of the slot in the spool. Never use tape to attach the film to the daylight spool: Labs hate tape on the ends of film will eventually run through the developing machine.


Taping up the Camera Door - This is always recommended for shooting out-of-doors, to prevent light leaks. The tape should run all around the door. Be sure to use either camera tape or gaffer’s tape (they are really the same thing), as they are designed not to damage equipment by leaving a sticky reside behind.

The Turret - It is possible to have the turret not quite in place, in which case the image will be vignetted and underexposed. This can be prevented by a little extra care when changing lenses in making sure that the turret has clicked correctly into place.

Turret has not
clicked into place

A Camera Jam - The thing which will first alert you to a camera jam will be the sound of crunching film when you run the camera. When it happens, it is a good idea to check that the spool is not bent. It is also a good time to check that there are no broken perf left behind the pressure plate as a result of the jam.

General Care

Running out the Spring - When you are done shooting and are going to return the camera it is a good idea to run the camera until the spring runs out and leave it unwound. This preserves the strength of the camera’s spring. It is not necessary to go to crazy over this: a few hours won’t make much difference, but if the camera goes a few months fully wound, that would be bad. The people at the equipment return window will like you all the better for this too.


Cleaning the Lenses - Frankly, if you are unsure about cleaning a lens, don’t do it on your own. Get some help from someone who knows something about it. Unfortunately, it is probably easier to damage a lens from improper cleaning than it would have mattered had the lens been left alone. This said, here is how to clean a lens: 1. Remove all dust first! If you don’t do this, the dust itself will abrade the lens and cause scratches when you try to clean it. The dust can be gently blown off with a rubber blower or brushed off with a camel hair brush, or very gentlely brushing the lens with a rolled up piece of lens tissue. An ear syringe from the pharmacy often makes a better blower than the wimpy ones from photo stores. Canned air is often not such a good idea, as it can stain the lens with its own contents. Breathing on the lens is an even worse idea, as inevitably you will wind up with saliva on the lens, which is even harder to clean off. 2. The lens should be cleaned with lens tissue only. Any other type of tissue or cloth (cotton too!) will scratch the lens. Furthermore, the lens should only be cleaned with lens tissue that is wet with a drop of lens cleaner. Do not put the cleaner directly on the lens, or it is likely to penetrate into the inner parts of the lens and give you a foggy image when it condenses on the inner surfaces. Start in the center and move the tissue in a circular pattern outwards. Do not be afraid to be wasteful with the lens tissue, it is better to do so than to possibly scratch a lens from cleaning it with a tissue that has collected debris. Cleaning the lenses really matters if you are filming out-of-doors and getting a shot with a clear sky in the background, because then the dust can shot up as fuzzy black spots. These spots can sometimes be hard to see, and are effected by the depth of field, so if you look through the viewfinder and open and close the iris, you will see if there are any, because they will grow and shrink as the depth of field changes.


Cleaning the Camera - Likewise, if you haven’t cleaned a camera before, find someone who knows something about it to help you before proceeding ahead recklessly. Occasionally it is a good idea to check the gate and clean the area around it (the Bolex is often less of a gate-hair-magnet than a cassette-mag camera, like the Arri SR or Eclair NPR). An improper cleaning can put debris into the camera, leaving it worse than it was before. Things never to get near the inside of a camera: a Q-Tip, a brush, or anything metal. A Q-Tip should not be used for cleaning a camera because it will leave behind cotton fibers, giving you a hair in the gate, and thus ruining all your footage. Likewise any sort of brush will do the same. Metal tools should also not be used, as they will damage the camera, leaving spurs on the surfaces that will scratch the film. The way to clean a camera is with an Orange Stick, found at any pharmacy for cleaning your fingernails. The steps are as follows: 1.: Remove the pressure plate (if you don’t know how, get someone to help you with this!). 2.: Use the orange stick to remove any emulsion buildup or hairs from around the gate and the pulldown claw. 3.: If you need to blow out the camera with a blower, hold the camera up, with the inside facing downwards, so the debris will fall out of the camera rather than just fly around inside. 4.: You can clean and lubricate the pressure plate with the cameraperson’s trick: nose grease. Simply rub the pressure plate along the side of your nose. 5.: Put back the pressure plate, and be sure that it is securely in place.


The Prism - As with the lenses, cleaning the prism should only be attempted if you know what you’re doing. Perhaps it is something that should be done with even more care than cleaning lenses. Lenses are easily interchangeable, the prism is not. Just like an lens, the prism should only be cleaned with lens tissue that is wet with a drop of lens cleaner, and only after any dust has been gently brushed away. It is also worth considering that dust on the prism will not produce spots in the same way as dust on the lens will, except if you are using the camera as parto of an Optical Printer, so priority really should go to clean lenses in most cases.

Bolex Myths

No doubt, this is not a compete list off all the peculiar and unnecessary rituals some people attach to the shooting process, but it does give you an idea of some of the most common ones.


The Viewfinder Door - Quite often you will see people who get quite antsy about the viewfinder door (Controls on the Bolex, right side-f), thinking that if it is open, even when the camera is not running, light will get in and ruin the film. This is just not the case. The Viewfinder Door should be closed if you are filming while not looking through the camera (for animation and such) but it has absolutely no consequence when the camera is stopped.


The Variable Shutter - As with the viewfinder door, there are some people who take the thoroughly unnecessary step of closing the variable shutter (Controls on the Bolex, right side-k) between takes, which is not only pointless, but probably ends up wasting takes accidentally filmed with the shutter still closed. The fact is, the Bolex is designed to stop with the shutter closed (that’s the shutter itself, not the variable shutter) and it wouldn’t even matter if it wasn’t designed this way. The only time the camera stops with the shutter open is when the spring winds out. Not only is this not a problem (an electric motor driven camera stops this way all the time) but the resulting flash frame makes pulling shots all the easier in editing.


The Speed Dial - It is not uncommon to find people who will change the camera speed for all sorts of reasons, to backwind film, to shoot single frame exposures, etc. Not only is this not necessary, but you will often find one person saying you need to change the speed to 64 for single frame shooting, and the next person will tell you it’s 12. There is no need to do any such thing. The reason to change the speed is to film fast motion or slow motion. There is only one other reason to change the speed setting: If you are using an electric motor that attaches to the side of the camera, such as the MST Motor, you must set the camera to 64 frames per second, to keep from burning out the governors of both the motor and the camera (Likewise, if you are using the 8 to 1 shaft to do handcranked footage, turning the speed to 64 is not such a bad idea for the same reason).


The I/T switch - The I/T switch has no effect whatsoever on regular filming. It can be set to “I” or “T.” It is a good idea to leave it on “I” in case you end up filming a single frame exposure sequence and forget to check it, or if someone else will be using the camera for single frame shooting later on.

The material on these pages may be printed out for personal use only. Use as course handouts only with proper acknowledgment of authorship and the New School's Film Production Department.