Is it possible to print a BRAW 3:1 to 16mm film?

[Brian Hatfield]

Hello all,

I am hoping that someone can answer my questions here. I am planning on shooting a 20 min. narrative short on a BMPCC 4K Cinema Camera. I will be using the BRAW 3:1 at 2.6K in a 16:9 aspect ratio, at 24 FPS. Once it is edited and color corrected and sound design is applied, I will take a digital file and send it to either CineLab in Massachusetts, or Colorlab in Rockville, MD for a filmout negative and a 16mm print. I am thinking that the lab will be able to make a 4:3 squeezed print from the 16:9 image. Is this even possible?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Robin Phillips]

I would think its possible, but it wont do you any good if you want to project it given you'd need a non standard desqueeze lens on the projector. If you're doing this as a backup for archival purposes its probably fine so long as you tape desqueeze instructions to the box. But I would talk with the labs about this, especially if you want to include sound on the film 

[Mark Dunn]

Curious about your reasoning. A widescreen print is (was) common enough on 16mm. We even had one at college, paying extra for a burnt-in 1.66 mask on a C-roll.

[David Mullen ASC]

It would be hard enough to find places to project it in 16mm but very few have anamorphic lenses and those were 2X so would only make sense for a scope image. For anything 1.66, 1.77, 1.85, etc. a matted image was more likely in the past. You'd need a 1.3X or 1.4X anamorphic projector lens to show 1.77 squeezed onto 1.33.

[Brian Hatfield]

Thank you all for your input. I am now thinking of putting the same file to 35mm, although I know that it would be expensive. I would have it recorded to and Inter-Negative, then from there, taking it through a print pipeline. I'll be researching this some more, ty.

[Robert Houllahan]

We have done plenty of digital to 16mm with an anamorphic squeeze, most for recording and re-scan.

It would not be a problem to make a squeezed 1.33 print with sound and de-squeeze it in projection with a anamorphic projection lens, there are plenty of them on eBay.

Just be aware of the very narrow sound on 16mm which is mono and frequency and DR limited.