dirty gates

Brad Grimmett · November 5, 2004

I'm currently working on a S16 feature using a high speed SR2 w/Fuji 64D and 250D. We constantly have a lot of emulsion build-up and have had quite a few "bad" gates. I'm used to working with Kodak, and not used to this kind of issue. My 1st A.C. uses Fuji quite a bit and she is very used to this problem. How common is this? Do those of you that shoot Fuji find this to be the case more often than not, or is the camera a possible problem? The mags on this camera are quite loud, (I'm flying a barney and optical flat all the time for sound) and at the very least need to be tuned, so that could be part of the issue as well.

One instance of a bad gate happened tonight. We had just finished a scene with Gary Busey (who is a wild man, and we were trying to shoot him out as quickly as possible) which was to be his picture wrap, and the AD called picture wrap on Gary before my 1st had checked the gate (she was just removing the lens) Gary was around the corner and gone when my 1st gasped. There was basically a ball of emulsion covering the bottom right corner of the frame. Of course we had to drag Gary back and do his single again (he was NOT happy about it). I don't like being in that situation and am just wondering if this is just a fact of life with Fuji.

Thanks for any tips.

Adam Frisch FSF · November 5, 2004

I have heard about it before, but always put it down to the anti-Fuji lobby lurking about everywhere. Often the case is that they also are using a new or different camera, which

makes it harder to know what to blame. I've shot mostly Fuji in my life, and I have not

had any problems.

What kind of buildup do you get? Just in one spot? Because then it might be something is scratching the film.

John Sprung · November 5, 2004

Crud creation is almost always a problem with the magazine and camera body, not the raw stock. Try to find a Kodak short end and run it thru the same mag and body that had a big problem with Fuji. That's the only way to know for sure if there's a real difference in the emulsions.

-- J.S.

Brad Grimmett · November 6, 2004

What kind of buildup do you get? Just in one spot? Because then it might be something is scratching the film.

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We get buildup all around the gate, mostly above it. Nothing is scratching the film....dailies look fine. So I'm not worried that there is a major problem. In watching dailies earlier tonight my 1st and I could predict when a rollout was coming (we've been rolling out quite a bit) because a few seconds before the rollout we'd see a couple of hairs or specks fly across the screen. I guess some of the buildup would release just before rollout. It's nothing that will affect anything poorly because it's right at the end of the roll. Honestly, this camera package, which is the DP's package, is not the best, so that may be the culprit. And since my 1st works with the DP (who uses Fuji almost exclusively) a lot that could be why she's so used to the buildup with Fuji. Anyway, just wondering what others had experienced. Hopefully anyone else with a similar experience will still post.

John Sprung · November 8, 2004

We get buildup all around the gate, mostly above it. Nothing is scratching the film....
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Look for edge damage, scraping of the sides of the film, sometimes called skiving. Also check for scratches outside of the image area, where the perfs and key code are.

-- J.S.