Film Loading

[Danny Lachman]

Hello all Clapper Loaders or Camera assistant's,

 

I've recently landed an internship on a low budget film and I think the DP might want me to know how to load film into a 35mm camera (probably 400ft mags into a Panavision Millenium)

 

Could someone give me a gist of how to do this so that I don't make a total dick out of myself when trying it.

[Jon Kukla]

If you're at all near a Panavision facility, I would HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend simply calling them up and explaining your situation. They should be more than happy to have you come in and show you all the basics including practicing your loading. No text can come close to that kind of experience.

 

HOWEVER, in the case that you can't, the gist of it is as follows: the magazine loads in the "99" configuration. This means that the film winds off it clockwise and winds back up counterclockwise (which makes it look like a 99 when the film comes on/off the cores). This is also known as an "emulsion out" takeup because the emulsion (usually brownish) will be on the outside for the takeup. It usually is on the inside for the feed side unless you have a specialized camera. Otherwise, there's not too much to it - there are no sprockets - all you have to do is take the film through the left-most slit at the bottom, then take it back up through the next one to the right and wind it emulsion out. Make certain that the takeup is wound enough to maintain its hold.

 

More info can be found in the manual here: http://www.cinematography.com/docs/millennium.pdf

 

And diagrams can be found here: http://www.davidelkins.com/cam4/threading/index.htm

 

Good luck!