Kodak EXR 7248

[Roger Richards]

I have come across a tested batch of 7248 at a good price that I was considering buying for use on a doc project. How does this film compare to the modern 7201 and 7217 stocks? This is for lightweight handheld MOS use in daylight mainly, to be transferred to 1080 HD in telecine, with a 1.78:1 extraction as the camera is regular 16mm. How well can it intercut with Fuji Eterna 250D? Any help appreciated.

[Saul Rodgar]

I have come across a tested batch of 7248 at a good price that I was considering buying for use on a doc project. How does this film compare to the modern 7201 and 7217 stocks? This is for lightweight handheld MOS use in daylight mainly, to be transferred to 1080 HD in telecine, with a 1.78:1 extraction as the camera is regular 16mm. How well can it intercut with Fuji Eterna 250D? Any help appreciated.

 

The EXR series have a more contrasty and punchy look than the Vision stocks, and a little more grain. I believe '48 was an earlier precursor of Kodak's '12 stock, which is reputed to be the negative stock with the tightest grain structure sold today. I have used the '45 version to great results, but have not used the '48. Theoretically, the '48 stock should inter cut well with Fuji stocks, which ted to be grainier and more contrasty than their Kodak counterparts, perhaps with the exception of the F-500t and Eterna Fuji stocks.

 

The 16x9 extraction from R16 should not kill you provided the negative is not underexposed more than 1 stop and the telecine machine is a Spirit 2K or better for wide-angle, scenery shots and the like. The added resolution of imagers on high end telecine machines will offset some of the resolution lost by the extraction _but on medium and close up material, even analog (CRT tube based, i.e, Rank ) machines are likely to handle it properly

[Roger Richards]

Thanks for the advice, Saul.

 

The topic of the film is war-related, and that is why I was not so worried about a slight increase in grain and am even considering 7248. Preferable would be 7245. The idea would be to shoot the 7248 outdoors with an 85 and overexpose by 1/3-2/3 of a stop to tighten grain. Most of the shots would be medium, medium-close and tight. I would be using Fuji Eterna 250D and 500T stocks as well, and bump the contrast a bit in telecine. I was considering using the Cinelicious Diamond Clear HD to keep cost manageable. I read that in the film Babel the 7248 stock was used in some of the Morocco scenes.

[Saul Rodgar]

You should be fine. Cinelicious is great, albeit their machine's CRT limitation means you will get noise in the dark mid tones if the footage is underexposed more than 1 stop _or sometimes even less. Overexposing should help you clean up your grain, as you said. Good luck with the project.