Negative Cutters

Giray Izcan · September 15

Hello all! I just watched the Phantom Thread, having been aware that it was finished photochemically led me to think of the current state of negative cutters in the US. Since Mo Henry sadly passed away, is there anyone else left who does negative cutting?

Robert Houllahan · September 15

Matthew Wagenecht in Massachusetts does.

Giray Izcan · September 15

Thank you Robert.

Tyler Purcell · September 16

The chick who does Nolans films is French! She comes over to the US exclusively for his movies. I forgot her name.

Gautam Valluri · September 16

2 hours ago, Tyler Purcell said:

The chick who does Nolans films is French! She comes over to the US exclusively for his movies. I forgot her name.

The "chick", Tyler, is Simone Appleby and she's an acquaintance of mine. She's the head of film restorations at CNC (the National Centre for Film and Moving Image in France) and is a highly respected member of the independent photochemical film community here in France. As far as I know, she's only cuts 5/70mm, and the only one to do so in Europe!

Gautam Valluri · September 16

11 hours ago, Giray Izcan said:

Hello all! I just watched the Phantom Thread, having been aware that it was finished photochemically led me to think of the current state of negative cutters in the US. Since Mo Henry sadly passed away, is there anyone else left who does negative cutting?

We have a small list of negative cutters in various countries on our filmlabs website, here is a link: https://www.filmlabs.org/technical-section/editing/negcut/

For the US we only have Matthew Wagenknecht listed, whom Robert has already mentioned here.

John Rizzo · September 16

In US Andy Pratt s Company 206 714 5225 Located in Seatle Washington

www.mcafmedia.com

Giray Izcan · September 16

Thank you John.

Tyler Purcell · September 16

11 hours ago, Gautam Valluri said:

The "chick", Tyler, is Simone Appleby and she's an acquaintance of mine. She's the head of film restorations at CNC (the National Centre for Film and Moving Image in France) and is a highly respected member of the independent photochemical film community here in France. As far as I know, she's only cuts 5/70mm, and the only one to do so in Europe!

Oh awesome, she must be doing the 15P stuff as well. I mean, Nolan has been shooting 15P for a long time now.

Giray Izcan · September 16

Well I guess photochemical workflow isn't unrealistic if desired after all.. the reason I swayed away from photochemical workflow was having to print everything and get them scanned as opposed to being able to get a proxy version with edgecode numbers for editorial and only getting the conformed negative printed.. printing everything doubles and sometimes triples the already high budget that's inevitabile while shooting on film.

Edited September 16 by Giray Izcan

Tyler Purcell · September 17

On 9/16/2025 at 1:32 PM, Giray Izcan said:

Well I guess photochemical workflow isn't unrealistic if desired after all.. the reason I swayed away from photochemical workflow was having to print everything and get them scanned as opposed to being able to get a proxy version with edgecode numbers for editorial and only getting the conformed negative printed.. printing everything doubles and sometimes triples the already high budget that's inevitabile while shooting on film.

I mean, quality would be problem number 1, the optical workflow today just doesn't have the same quality as it had in past, especially seeing as print stock and camera negative is all designed for digital intermediate. We have struck some work prints of 35mm and 16mm sources and they always look great, can't really mess that up, but when you try to color things, it gets murky. I guess if you were very precise on set, you may be able to get away with it, but for the most part DI record-out's DO look better, especially with the mid tones and blacks.

Nobody is editing on film either, so the workflow would not change much compared to digital. You'd capture the key code during the telecine, edit the proxy telecine footage in Avid with the proper metadata and simply conform the negative to the flex file from Avid. It absolutely an art, but it's not overly complex like editing on film where you also need to keep tabs on audio and if you want to have multiple cuts, you need to make multiple work prints and keep tabs on them all. Editors become clerical clerks with excel spreadsheets miles long with roll, key code and edge code data, along with shot information. Heck, just watching 2 takes back to back quickly and measuring performance, is a nightmare because you need 2 flatbeds, 2 answer prints, 2 sound reels, then you to shift over to the other flatbed and watch. I've done it, man what a nightmare. Then you have a 3rd flatbed with your cut on it, so you can trim the parts you want out of the 2 other flatbed sources and cut them into your line cut on the 3rd flatbed. Sometimes a 4th one can be used for B Roll or even another take, which helps. Obviously multiple picture head flatbeds can help, but still it's a lot of work.

Ludwig Hagelstein · September 17

On 9/16/2025 at 7:52 AM, Tyler Purcell said:

The chick who does Nolans films is French! She comes over to the US exclusively for his movies. I forgot her name.

"the chick who does Nolan's films". Show some respect ffs.

Giray Izcan · September 17

1 hour ago, Tyler Purcell said:

I mean, quality would be problem number 1, the optical workflow today just doesn't have the same quality as it had in past, especially seeing as print stock and camera negative is all designed for digital intermediate. We have struck some work prints of 35mm and 16mm sources and they always look great, can't really mess that up, but when you try to color things, it gets murky. I guess if you were very precise on set, you may be able to get away with it, but for the most part DI record-out's DO look better, especially with the mid tones and blacks.

Nobody is editing on film either, so the workflow would not change much compared to digital. You'd capture the key code during the telecine, edit the proxy telecine footage in Avid with the proper metadata and simply conform the negative to the flex file from Avid. It absolutely an art, but it's not overly complex like editing on film where you also need to keep tabs on audio and if you want to have multiple cuts, you need to make multiple work prints and keep tabs on them all. Editors become clerical clerks with excel spreadsheets miles long with roll, key code and edge code data, along with shot information. Heck, just watching 2 takes back to back quickly and measuring performance, is a nightmare because you need 2 flatbeds, 2 answer prints, 2 sound reels, then you to shift over to the other flatbed and watch. I've done it, man what a nightmare. Then you have a 3rd flatbed with your cut on it, so you can trim the parts you want out of the 2 other flatbed sources and cut them into your line cut on the 3rd flatbed. Sometimes a 4th one can be used for B Roll or even another take, which helps. Obviously multiple picture head flatbeds can help, but still it's a lot of work.

I meant like shooting with photochemical workflow in mind, nailing the look in camera 90-95 percent..