trouble-shooting fogged daylight spool on Arri S

[Gabriel_Judet-Weinshel]

Just got one of those dreaded calls from the lab telling me 100' from a 1000' music video shoot was totally fogged - 'totally' meaning the lab technician thought he was looking at black leader when he looked at my developed neg, not just characteristic end-of-reel edge fog that is par for the course on daylight spools, and uniformly fogged throughout the reel. He had to examine it under direct light to see that there was a vague image, but the chances of pulling something acceptable out of the neg in the telecine seems nill.

 

I should mention I haven't shot with an Arri S (this was a rental) for awhile. Because this was a daylight spool, I wasn't using a 400' mag, just loading the daylight spool directly into the camera body. I am religious about taping the body for leaks. I was shooting 7274, rating it at its normal 200 speed, so even if there were a light leak, it's hard to imagine a leak fogging the film so thoroughly, but perhaps I'm wrong. Again, because it's a daylight spool, once the film was run through the camera body, there's no opportunity for such a complete fogging to occur (no changing bag). And the rest of the footage, shot on the same camera and in the same conditions, came out fine.

 

The other possibility is bad film, which I haven't before experienced, so I'm unfamiliar with the symptoms. This 7274 did not all come from the same place at the same time. Some was purchased new directly before the shoot and some was short-ended from other projects. But the oldest of the film (which had been stored properly), wasn't older than eight months, and I've been told from techs at Kodak that you shouldn't really even start to worry until it's more than a year old.

 

Any guesses?

[Rik Andino]

Well if your AC loaded that 100' the same way he did the others

Then it's most likely the film.

 

You can never always trust those shortends...

If you got shortends that were rolled into Daylight spools

They may have been accidentally flashed while someone was spooling them.

 

You have to be careful where you get your shortends.

If it's a very important shoot you should used factory fresh stock

So as to aviod problems like this.

 

Also were you guys looking through the viewfinder while you were shooting?

[Patrick Neary]

welcome to the russian-roulette world of short-ends!

 

Anymore, I just assume that all shortends and recans are fogged, it's just a matter of how much. If you're going to telecine, not such a big deal. If you're making a print, it can be a very big deal.

[Gabriel_Judet-Weinshel]

But here's the tricky thing that I wasn't clear on in my initial post: all the daylight spools were NOT short-ends. Some had been sitting around in my fridge for months, but it WAS factory fresh.

 

I ALWAYS look through the viewfinder to avoid fogging through the viewing system, too.

 

It's possible that the fogged 100' daylight spool was part of a batch of unopened stock from a previous video shoot that was in sub-zero temperatures (Vermont in January, ridiculously cold). I can't imagine how damage to the film due to temperature would result in a 'fogged' look, but I'm really grasping at straws.

 

Otherwise, I guess I have to assume the camera body was somehow not closed or taped properly.

 

thanks so much!

 

Gabriel

 

welcome to the russian-roulette world of short-ends!

 

Anymore, I just assume that all shortends and recans are fogged, it's just a matter of how much. If you're going to telecine, not such a big deal. If you're making a print, it can be a very big deal.

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[gnasr]

well, the daylight spools are plastic made... if the loader held the reels by the plastic spool just once, then a slight opening would fog or flash the film.

 

I never trust these spools and load them in the bag.