Sool Down

[Paul Mattei]

Hello!

 

I am new to this site. I will be starting a film project in the next coupl of weeks and I plan on purchasing 400' camera stock and spooling it down onto 4- 100 ft daylight spools. I have a pair of rewinds mounted to an editing table. I understand that his must be done in total darkness but need advise on the proceedure. Do I need a split reel to

put the 400' roll on the rewind? I read somewhere that you need to unroll the raw stock onto another reel and then spool down onto the daylight spools. Is this correct??

Help!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Paul Mattei

[Nathan Milford]

Paul,

 

This has been covered before on the forum a few times. You can use the search function to locate those posts, but here is a quick run down of the issues regarding spooling down film.

 

IT IS NOT FUN or PARTICULARLY SAFE.

 

You would not find any significant saving by down spooling. If you do go that route though it gets messy in the dark room. A split reel would be nice. One problem is knowing when exactly 100' has been spooled in the dark and another problem has to do with the daylight spool winding. When Kodak winds thier stock on the flanged daylight load they wind them in a swiveling patern so the stock blocks the path of light down both sides of the flange. If you spool it down yourself you will probably have to load the camera in darkness as light will be more likely to strike the stock.

 

But, it has been done succesfully many hundreds of times I suppose.

 

- nathan

[jasarsenault]

I have done this as I buy 400ft rolls of a stock not available in 100ft loads, but shoot with a cam that only takes 100ft loads. Room should be completly dark. Put 400 ft roll on a split reel. Roll off on to a daylight spool and then cut film. After this you must roll that 100 ft back on to another 100ft roll so your perfs are on the right side.

Jason

[Paul Mattei]

I have done this as I buy 400ft rolls of a stock not available in 100ft loads, but shoot with a cam that only takes 100ft loads. Room should be completly dark. Put 400 ft roll on a split reel. Roll off on to a daylight spool and then cut film. After this you must roll that 100 ft back on to another 100ft roll so your perfs are on the right side.

Jason

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Jason,

 

Thanks for the tip. Do these daylight spools now have to be loaded into the camera in complete darkness??

 

Paul

[jasarsenault]

As dark as possible. SHould learn to use a change bag just to be sure. Better safe then sorry. As previous post explains the lab winding process allows you to load them in moderate light only exposing the outer layer. I have seen people load them in light and have fine images. Use a bag or darkroom to be sure.

Jason

[John Pytlak RIP]

As dark as possible. SHould learn to use a change bag just to be sure. Better safe then sorry. As previous post explains the lab winding process allows you to load them in moderate light only exposing the outer layer. I have seen people load them in light and have fine images. Use a bag or darkroom to be sure.

Jason

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

If you spool film yourself, probably safest to load in total darkness, as light may sneak in along the spool flange causing some edgefog.

[Guest no-bones]

I have done this as I buy 400ft rolls of a stock not available in 100ft loads, but shoot with a cam that only takes 100ft loads. Room should be completly dark. Put 400 ft roll on a split reel. Roll off on to a daylight spool and then cut film. After this you must roll that 100 ft back on to another 100ft roll so your perfs are on the right side.

Jason

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

If my camera will take double perf film, do I still have to "that 100 ft back on to another 100ft roll so your perfs are on the right side?" I am using a K-3.

 

Also, where do I find cans for 100' spools?

Thanks,

Bill

[Dominic Case]

If my camera will take double perf film, do I still have to "that 100 ft back on to another 100ft roll so your perfs are on the right side?"

If you plan to use the edge numbers (Keykode) for neg matching, then yes. Not all neg logging and matching software copes with edge numbers that run downwards instead of upwards, and even if they do, it's not always reliable. Also, if you rely on a barcode reader to scan the keykodes, then it won't be on the right edge of the film.

 

It's not a matter of the camera taking double perf film (they all will) - it's a matter of the filmstock itself. If you use double perf stock, then your only problem will be the edge numbers. If you use single perf stock, you will have to double rewind.

 

As far as winding exactly 100 ft is concerned, do a dummy run first with some junk film (your lab will have some junk film.) Measure 100ft, then count how many turns on the winder it takes. It will be the same number of winds every time. Best bet is to rewind the entire 400 ft first onto a 400 ft spool, then wind back 100 ft at a time from that. That's better than cutting to 100 ft on the first winding as you handle the ends less.

[J. Lamar King IMPOSTOR]

If you live near the lab that is going to process the film ask them if they will do it for you for free.

[John Sprung]

If you spool film yourself, probably safest to load in total darkness, as light may sneak in along the spool flange causing some edgefog.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

When you unload a daylight spool camera, the exposed film isn't wound tight to both sides. Is there an edge fog problem with that? I've never seen one, but I always used to find a dark place, if not total darkness.

 

I did once do the re-spooling thing, but we were breaking down 1200 ft rolls into 400's. We went split reel to ordinary reel, then back on a tightwind to get nice tight rolls and edge numbers the right way around. Somebody briefly turned on a light in the next room during the process, but we got lucky because we were at a break point at the time, and the tiny bit of edge fog didn't even get as far as the perfs.

 

 

 

-- J.S.

[John Pytlak RIP]

When you unload a daylight spool camera, the exposed film isn't wound tight to both sides.  Is there an edge fog problem with that?  I've never seen one, but I always used to find a dark place, if not total darkness.

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Obviously, if there is a "gap" between the edge of the film roll and the spool flange, bright light could cause some edgefog, which is more of an issue today with machine readable barcode (e.g., EASTMAN KeyKode) along the edge and use of Super-16.

 

Edgefog is a matter of how bright the light is, and how long the exposure is during loading/unloading of spooled film. Experience is a good teacher for what light can be tolerated, but a changing bag or darkroom eliminates any question of unwanted exposure.