Good Examples of 35mm Ektachrome?

David Cunningham · May 30, 2013

Hi All,

Anyone have or know of a link to any HD and really good examples of 35mm E100D? I imagine some motion picture must have used it at one point or another or it wouldn't have lasted even as long as it did. The 16mm and Super 8 I have seen shot and scanned correctly is just amazing. I can only imagine 35mm. Any links?

Dave

David Owen James · May 30, 2013

The only film I know of is Buffalo 66 by Vincent Gallo.

John Holland · May 30, 2013

"Domino" a Tony Scott film used Ektachrome in a few scenes ,havent see it .But might be worth checking out.

Austin Schmidt · May 31, 2013

"Man On Fire", another Tony Scott Film, has a lot of Ektachrome work in it. "Three Kings" also used some of that stock.

James Compton · June 1, 2013

@ David C. : 85% of DOMINO was shot on KODAK 5285. All exteriors and a few interior scenes. Pay attention to the interrogation scene where Lucy Liu questions Kiera Knightly, it was lit with tungsten lamps to push the color into a yellowish-green shade. Check this out it was shot on Super 16mm http://vimeo.com/5576935 . No it's not 35mm but it looks great. Notice the red saturation in the woman's rain coat. Very nice. The clip is on a channel of clips all shot on film called : SHOT ON FILM. Super 8, 16, 35.

@ Austin : You're wrong 5285 was not used on Three Kings. Newton Thomas Sigel had KODAK make custom 1000ft roll of 100 EPP with keykode for that movie. It was then crossprocessed. There is an article in American Cinematographer from that year. EPP is less saturated than 5285, which did not exist as a motion picture film stock in 1998, when Three Kings was shot.

@ David O.J. : Buffalo 66' was shot on Ektachrome 160T 5239. That film stock was also less saturated than 5285.

Edited June 1, 2013 by James Compton

Will Montgomery · June 3, 2013

And, it looks amazing projected.

David Mullen ASC · June 3, 2013

Most reversal used in movies was cross-processed into negative especially since many of these movies pre-date using D.I.s and most want that harsh saturated cross-process look (even the ones that used a D.I.)

"Buffalo 66" used a 1970's era Ektachrome VNF stock, not 100D, but it wasn't cross-processed so required an optical to create a dupe negative for printing. Some of "Kill Bill" used Kodachrome stock (some flashbacks in China).

Chris Burke · June 4, 2013

Daniel Mindel used it on Savages just last year. Anamorphic 35mm. Probably the last greatest example.

David Cunningham · June 4, 2013

Do you know what scenes in savages and if it was cross-processed or not?

Chris Burke · June 4, 2013

I don't know specifically, but give it a watch, some of the scenes are very saturated and high contrast. Other scenes could have been cross processed, but I think it was normal reversal processing mixed with color negative and black and white.

Shawn Martin · June 5, 2013

It was used for some flashbacks in "Cowboys & Aliens" and "Django Unchained" (both cross-processed, as well as anamorphic 35).

Shawn Martin · June 5, 2013

Oh, and the AC article on "Savages" says it was cross-processed.

James Compton · June 5, 2013

Do you know what scenes in savages and if it was cross-processed or not?

Two scenes in SAVAGES used 5285 100D crossprocessed. The first is a night scene home invasion of a small time drug dealer. the second is the daylight robbery scene in the desert mountains where the two main characters and a few NAVY SEALs rob the cartel for a few million dollars to pay the ransom for their kidnapped girlfriend..

David Cunningham · June 6, 2013

It's just amazing to me that 100D lasted in 35mm format for as long as it did with apparently no one really using it and certainly not sure it as reversal. It just seems to weird to me since it's such an amazing look in 16mm and Super 8. My 35mm and 120 still E100VS (pretty much the same stock) has an amazing feel to it that I can't understand how no one ever used it for it's real purpose, reversal.

Will Montgomery · June 7, 2013

100D and Fuji reversals lasted as long as they did because some pros still shoot medium & large format stills and reversal scans better on some types of scanners plus there's less ambiguity about the color.

I loved Kodachrome simply for the archival properties as well as the look. Nothing quite matches it projected although if you like 100D after transfer, try projecting 16mm 100D and you won't believe the color and sharpness.

David Mullen ASC · June 8, 2013

Hard to find labs set up to process thousands of feet of stock using E6 instead of ECN2... I shot some small amounts of 100D and sent it to Spectra Labs... They were supposed to cross-process it but accidentally processed it normal, so to make up for the mistake, they duped the footage to 100D again and cross-processed the dupe, which was pretty extreme-looking in contrast. But the normal E6 version looked beautiful. As I said, very few labs could process in E6 in the volumes and roll lengths of movie film, and the few that did charged quite a bit for it (E6 processing was designed for shorter still rolls and priced accordingly.)