Bleach Bypass + S16mm?

[Chayse Irvin ASC, CSC]

Any movies done a bleach bypass on S16mm?

Has anyone here done it that way and have some advice?

[Ry Kawanaka]

Do the test before the shoot with the lab you are thinking to use. Contrast test, latitude test, etc. Underexposing a stop or so is usually recommended by a lot of labs. I rated my meter to ISO500 for 7217 stock and got a good result.

 

Ry

[Mike Williamson]

I did it on a music video so I didn't print any of the footage, don't know whether you'll be going to print or telecine. The main lesson for me was that you should shoot tests ahead of time to figure out how you fast you want to rate whatever stock you're using, obviously a full skip-bleach will increase the density significantly so you don't want to end up with your lights pegged at 50 and still overexposed.

 

Besides that, I liked the texture it creates, it brings out the grain a little but it's different than you'd get from pushing or underexposing. There's a good AC article on "Saving Private Ryan" where Kaminski talks about how skip-bleach brought out texture in the costumes, I believe it's in the online archives. It also will increase contrast, reduce color and give you a more pronounced effect than skip-bleaching a print.

[Chayse Irvin ASC, CSC]

Do the test before the shoot with the lab you are thinking to use. Contrast test, latitude test, etc. Underexposing a stop or so is usually recommended by a lot of labs. I rated my meter to ISO500 for 7217 stock and got a good result.

 

Ry

Good call. Defiantly testing before shooting.

 

 

I did it on a music video so I didn't print any of the footage, don't know whether you'll be going to print or telecine. The main lesson for me was that you should shoot tests ahead of time to figure out how you fast you want to rate whatever stock you're using, obviously a full skip-bleach will increase the density significantly so you don't want to end up with your lights pegged at 50 and still overexposed.

 

Besides that, I liked the texture it creates, it brings out the grain a little but it's different than you'd get from pushing or underexposing. There's a good AC article on "Saving Private Ryan" where Kaminski talks about how skip-bleach brought out texture in the costumes, I believe it's in the online archives. It also will increase contrast, reduce color and give you a more pronounced effect than skip-bleaching a print.

Cool I'll read that article, but what about movies made on S16 that did a bleach bypass? Any?

[Patrick McGowan]

I am interested in this, do most labs charge a set up fee? Will labs do a bleach bypass for small productions, let's say a couple thousand feet of footage? I know every lab is different so I guess will something like DuArt New York provide this service for small productions?

Edited August 23, 2006 by Patrick S. McGowan

[Mike Williamson]

Some labs charge a set up fee while others will just add a per foot charge. On the music video I shot, we did a full skip bleach at Alpha Cine and I believe the cost was something like an extra seven cents per foot, same as a one stop push. That made it affordable for us, I think we had them skip bleach about 1,000 feet.

[Dan Horstman]

At Colorlab we will only charge for setup if it is a very small run (less than 400 feet) otherwise we charge it just like normal.

[Guest Stephen Murphy]

Ive done it before plenty of times and ive always been very happy with the results. Theres some footage on my website that might interest you. Depending on the stock you choose it can give you a beautifull texture. As has been recommended by others be sure to test.

[Chayse Irvin ASC, CSC]

Ive done it before plenty of times and ive always been very happy with the results. Theres some footage on my website that might interest you. Depending on the stock you choose it can give you a beautifull texture. As has been recommended by others be sure to test.

 

Nice. Footage looked great. I'm unfortunatly shooting with Zeiss super speeds and not the cooke S4's like I intended but should be fine. Our stock is the fuji Eterna 500 8673. Tests are tomorrow. Look forward to what it comes up with.