So as my Neibolt St Blender project is set in 1960 (less than a year after the events described in "IT") I thought it'd be cool to try and make it look like it was shot on a 16mm camera from the period. Quite a challenge as well as I know nothing about cameras really. Some quick research led me to the Bolex H-16 Reflex as a camera model that was both commercially available at the time, and also, surprisingly, still somewhat in use today, to the extent that there are actually short films on Youtube shot on one that have been useful reference for helping me figure out what footage from a 16mm film camera from 1956 should look like.
I've managed to find a user manual for one and have been trying to make sense of what the technical specs actually mean (like I said, I know nowt about cameras). It's taken some effort just to figure out what the aspect ratio should be and I still really need to see what lenses were available and would be plausibly in use. But so far, there's been two discoveries that have directly impacted my approach to handling Blender's virtual camera. Firstly, the H-16 could have up to three different lenses mounted at once, and from what I can tell, it was actually possible to switch between the lenses while shooting. That means I've been able to keyframe some focal length changes and I think I'll have to work out some sort of swipe transition in post in Kden Live. Secondly, it seems this camera could use either 50ft or 100ft film reels, with the latter allowing only about 28 seconds of footage at 24fps. I was originally planning on animating this as a single long take, but it seems that wasn't possible with these cameras, unless the framerate was dropped waaaaay down, which was also apparently possible, but I don't want to be doing some crappy 8fps video. This means I'll have to cut this up into shorter shots of not more than 672 frames / 28 seconds.
I also looked up a video on Youtube that demonstrated how to change the film reel on this camera, and it looks like a bit of a faff on: it involves putting the camera down, opening up the side panel and feeding the film through the winding mechanism, which requires two hands. I reckon it'd take a solid minute even if you're well practiced with it, and that means you'd be unlikely to then pick up the camera and immediately start shooting right where the last reel finished; more likely you'd look to find another position or subject to shoot, and that will effect the continuity between shots. Actually, this might work out better as the "set" that I've built in Blender is pretty big. Using the camera navigation at something like a normal walking speed, it takes two and a half minutes to get from the intersection by the school to the trainyard gates. If it's going to be stopping to look about too, then that could get tedious, so some cuts would help the pacing.
Finally, I've done a rough model of the camera in Blender - though I still haven't added any materials to it. This is just on the off-chance that the camera (and POV character) are visible in window reflections or shadows, as I think they may be. I don't really want to be animating the character if I don't have to, but having summat in place makes sense I think.