Dirk DeJonghe

Printer lights are used in additive colour systems. The white light of a halogen lamp is split into red, green and blue channels, using mirrors and dichroic filters. In each channel there is a light valve, which is nothing more than a mechanically actuated diaphragm controlling the light output of each colour channel. here is a drawing by Brian Pritchard. The lights go from 0 to 50 with 0 being completely closed. During colour timing, the best value for each channel is determined. 25-25-25 is the middle setting, 31-31-31 would be printed one stop darker, 20-30-30 would be more red, etc.

I am sure there are a couple of A-Minima owners in the US who would want to test your prototype.

Hello Santi, It was agreed from the beginning that both direct contact prints and digital scans to DCP were needed. On his previous film 'Other Side of Hope', the negative cutting and film grading was done first and then the scanning and digital grading trying to match the film grading as closely as possible. There were about 25 direct contact prints made of 'Other Side of Hope', mainly shown at premieres in many different languages (subtitled). For 'Fallen Leaves', we did the 4K scan first and remote digital grading, sending over a preview every couple of days. Negative conforming and film grading was done after the approval of the digital version. Since in both films there was a digital and an analog version planned, I had to grade the digital version respecting the negative as much as possible and trying not to introduce any digital-only tricks. Aki commented that in only a couple of years since the previous film, digital laser projection of 4K DCPs has made tremendous progress, certainly in high-end festivals such as Cannes. We finished the DCP preview for Cannes selection minutes before the train from Kortrijk Belgium to Lille, France left. The trains in France were on strike but the producer Mark was lucky to be allowed on the single train to Paris that ran that night because the train crew needed to get home, no payment was allowed. Over all, my guideline for film and digital grading is to respect the negative as much as possible.

The A-Minima has very specific spools, unlike any other camera. You only need two parts, the center core and the flange, identical left or right. I had about 50 spools in stock, they were all sold by us with fresh filmstock and processing and scanning included. Not one has been returned for processing since several years, the empty spools are apparently worth more than the filmstock, processing and scanning (roughly 150€ each). This is a pity for the A-Minima owners who want to use their nice camera and can't find the spools anymore;

Have you thought about making Aaton Minima 200ft reels? They are plastic, left and right sides are identical, with a core in the middle. They are nearly impossible to find. I can supply one if you want, or someone in the US. This would be a very useful and fun project that would make you many friends around the world.

Since we began scanning with our Scanstation two years ago, we noticed the same lateral unsteadiness on Super 8 scans while Standard 8, 16 and 35mm were rock steady. It turns out there is a 5 frame repetition of the lateral movement. After talking to Kodak and Lasergraphics, this is what we found: 1. Kodak perforates the S8 film cutting 5 perfs at a time and the 'knife' cutting the perforations is slightly skewed, not perfectly straight to the edge of the film. When asked why this is not yet fixed, Kodak replied 'it is the consumer division'. 2. The Scanstation adjusts each frame by looking at the perforations and adjusting both horizontal and vertical position of the frame. Because of previous complaints, the scanning software now has an option to only do the vertical positionining of the frame, improving the unsteadiness introduced by the skewed perforations. 3.Using the Resolve Stabilize function, most shots can be easily stabilized. You need to do it shot by shot.

We had several of these for lab work, but they all have gone west, any recommendations on new equipment? It must be useable for working at arms length one-eyed, single handed, not for shooting deer at night.

Thanks for all the attention. The film was shot entirely on 5219, processed normal. Timo Salminen is the DOP; I have worked on the previous Kaurismaki film 'The Other Side of Hope' as well. What do you want to know about the technical parts of this film?

We do this workflow several times per week, mostly to 35mm camera negative, but several times per month to 16mm. We also make 16mm optical sound negatives and contact prints with optical soundtrack; Most of our work in this area is digital-film-digital to add analog feel to digital images. We accept any resolution from HD to UHD and higher.

I got CH-DTPQ-01 and happy with quality and service, I asked a couple questions and they were promptly answered. If you order via their website, you can get 10% off, the code is PROAIM10 (don't know if it still works).

I bought a new dovetail and bridgeplate for my Aatons from ProAim recently. The price was very reasonable and the quality is good. Not more than 150€ for both, brand new. Proaim is an Indian company making tons of grip equipment, tripods etc.

There is one aging effect that you cannot stop by freezing and that is cosmic ray fogging; it is a bit like X-rays but much lower dose over a very long time. It affects high speed stock a lot more than say 50D, but even then 15 years is a lot. I recommend shooting a minute of so in various conditions, overexposing already one stop to start and ask your filmlab their opinion.

Gevapan is B&W film, not suitable at all for E6.

First, start with viewning through the proper input LUT in Resolve, see my document below (previously uploaded). I attach it again because many people found it helpful. Cineon Log to Rec709 needs a LUT before anything else to compensate for the 'curve'. The general rule is to keep 'blacks with detail' at -4 stops, but this is a matter of personal preference. Underexposing will NOT give you deeper blacks, overexposing slightly and printing down will. I suggest you start with 2/3 of a stop overexposing. Using the Input LUT as described in the document, you will see if you need to bring down the overal exposure with offset or increase exposure. This is before doing any 'real' colorgrading. CineonLog_DaVinci.pdf

We are glad to have been involved for the lab work for two major films shot on 35mm: "Fallen Leaves" (Prix du Jury, 2023 Official Competition) and "Occupied City" (Steve McQueen).