How do you place visual effects into a shot when doing a photochemical finish?

Dirk DeJonghe · August 4, 2013

Just a word of caution maybe, intercutting Intermediate negatives with 35mm OCN just got a lot less interesting since Kodak (the only current manufacturer of Intermediate stock) decided to make only polyester stock available. It is nasty to have to splice acetate original and polyester effects together. In 16mm it is even worse since they decided (in all their wisdom) to manufacture only polyester double-perforated intermediate stock, not very helpful for S16 productions.

David Mullen ASC · August 4, 2013

Do people then use A-B rolls to get around that problem of mixing acetate and Estar, or do they just find a way to splice them?

Dirk DeJonghe · August 4, 2013

David,

It is unusual but not impossible to run A-B rolls in 35mm. Usually dissolves and effects are AB-rolled and printed to IP/DN. The DN is spliced into the OCN. For large print runs an new IP/DN is made from this composite OCN/VFX-DN. For small productions needing only a few prints, they are made from the OCN (with very high quality). I guess we will be forced to do the digital recording back to low-speed camera stock instead of intermediate stock (I am speaking of simple titles, etc). Intermediate film has much finer grain and a longer straight portion of the curve. There is also an edge-effect that enhances sharpness.

My inside information is that the manufacturers prefer to make polyester versions only of low-volume labstocks because acetate shrinks with aging and polyester stocks remain 'in spec' for a longer time.

I don't know of any clean way to splice polyester to itself or to acetate. Ultrasonic splices are very crude and not suitable for shot-to-shot splicing.

David Mullen ASC · August 4, 2013

So what's the answer when you have efx shots recorded out to Estar that have to be cut into OCN?

BTW, the Kodak site says that the new Vision 3 intermediate stock is available in both Estar and acetate:

http://motion.kodak.com/motion/Products/Lab_And_Post_Production/Intermediate_Films/VISION3_Color_Digital_Intermediate.htm

Dirk DeJonghe · August 5, 2013

David, the site is out of date. B&W 5366/2366 Is no longer manufactured at all. We tried to order 7242 (Color Intermediate 16mm single perf, acetate) from the US (still in the US price list). No luck. There may be some rolls floating around in labs still. if you know a lab that can spare a few rolls, we buy.

The answer? I haven't done any professional films with effects the last year that weren't done via DI. The films we do via traditional way are artist's films and they don't do vfx, only titles which we record to camera stock.

David Mullen ASC · August 5, 2013

Are you saying that 2254/5254 Vision 3 intermediate stock is already discontinued? I can't find any press about that online; Kodak was just touting the stock in December.