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16 mm for movie theaters?


Boris Sorokoumov

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Feature films shot on !6mm have been blown up to 35mm in the past, "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" and that old indie dream coming true "El Mariachi" are examples. People tend to either shoot on Super 16 or HD these days if they're planning for a theatrical distribution.

 

Although, there nothing to stop people using 16mm even now, it's just not the best option if you're putting the time and money into making a feature film. However, I expect there are people out there now shooting their low budget feature on 16mm using Arri 16 BLs or Eclair NPRs.

Edited by Brian Drysdale
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I have heard that some commercial movies are shot in super-16 so as to get film copies 1.66 or 1.85. Does anyone know anything about that? Is 16 mm ever used for shooting movie theater films?

 

Here are a few that use Super16 to check out (in no particular order--just films that come to mind):

 

The Wrestler (in theaters now in the US)

Vera Drake

Leaving Las Vegas

Irreversible

The Queen (the scenes focusing on Tony Blair)

Bloody Sunday

Babel (scenes in Morocco)

Pi

The Station Agent

City of God

The Constant Gardener

Motorcycle Diaries

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You might be able to find some indie exhibitiors that project 16mm, However for Widespread release 16 is blown up to 35, or made digital for projection. I've always read that most often when they blow it up there has to be some clipping that occurs, if you call up your printer i'm sure they would explain the process far better than I.

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