Dirk DeJonghe

Daylight stock is always less grainy than the equivalent tungsten stock.

The advantage of AnotherGui is that you can easily do batch processing where entire directories are converted overnight. Once the proper command-line is established, it is stored as a preset and an non-technical person can do the job. It takes a bit of learning but is well worth it.

ffmbc will do what you want. Test on a small sample first. There is a front-end that makes it much easier to work, I believe it is called AnotherGUI. Both ffmpeg and ffmbc are excellent tools. You will need to put some effort in learning the command line, but with AnotherGUI you can tweak the command line and store for future use.

Getting a B&W film print from a color negative is by making a color IP 2242 first and then a B&W dupeneg 2234 to be printed on B&W positive stock. You need to adjust RGB color balance going from color IP to B&W dupeneg in order to get a correct B&W rendition. So you will need, in addition to the B&W camera negative, 65mm 2242 and 2234 if you follow this route.

I have had productions shooting that much footage on Super16. Only one production on 35mm used this little. Talking about typical 90 minute feature films here.

ME4 was the current Ektachrome process when I started in 1973. The first two steps were a prehardener and a neutralizer before the first developer. The ME4 films (7242, 7241 and 7256) were unable to withstand high temperatures without the prehardener bath; about 6 years later came the VNF1 process which was the same as ME4 but without the prehardener and neutralizer first steps. The corresponding films (7240, 7239, 7250 and 7251) were hardended during film manufacture and could be processed at high temperatures. If you still have an old roll of ME4 stock, it is very likely to be very fogged due to age. There is a rather nasty component in the color developer chemistry (RA-1 for chemical re-exposure) that is certainly no longer available. You can still process it as a black and white negative, probably of very poor quality.

Converting a color ECN2 machine to a B&W neg/pos machine is a major undertaking. I have done it and have the scars to show. Heating the baths is easier than cooling, the processing times for B&W are variable and standard is around 7 minutes for 5222 (variable to attain the requested gamma). So your machine will run at half the speed of color given the same footage in the bath (color is 3'15" developing time). You will need lots more of washing time (countercurrent tanks, at least four to five). Compared to a 35mm machine, 70mm rollers take up more space in the same tank, reducing machine speed by half again. So, compared to a 35mm ECN machine, a B&W 70mm processor would run at 1/4 of the speed in the best case. This means more turbulator bars in the developer with heavy pumps because you want the film to pass a turbulator with fresh developer every few seconds. Despite the lower cost of B&W chemicals, I would say the B&W processing is much more expensive, there is less footage to process, there are differents processing times for each emulsion type (5222/5231/5234/5366/DN21/DP2 etc only for negative process), and you have to constantly switch between neg and pos processing (I have two developer tanks in the machine). 65/70mm quality is certainly a wet dream for many directors, but as one of my previous customers found out, the highest image quality is not a sure road to success. There are only a few places in the world left that can properly show 70mm prints.

Printing B&W negative onto color positive is not a good choice. Real B&W is much better. Good luck finding a lab that can handle this. The last 70mm lab in Europe closed a couple months ago.

Color negative is far sharper than B&W negative. Plus-X has some 'snap' probably due to edge effect. Double-X or Orwo don't have that. We don't see much Plus-X anymore, but when some comes out of the processing, it really stands out among the Double-X and Orwo. B&W negative is a different medium from color negative, just like water colors are different from oil colors and a digital photo is different from a pencil drawing.

You need to adjust the light on telecine/scanner to accommodate shadow detail. If you need to give much light the highlights may suffer or halo may appear (sensor overload, lens or prism flare). What really matters is the density difference between the brightest and darkest parts of the image. Low contrast reversal 7252 is much easier to scan. Negatives or IP are low contrast by design. You want rich shadow details with sufficient detail in the highlights at the same time.

If you scan reversal film you have a large dynamic range to cope with; Pushing the whites up will cause flare in the system (a bit in the lens, a bit in the prism, some in the sensor). For example the perforations have the highest possible white level, no film density at all. The scan will be a lot easier from negative film since everything is more compressed by the film gamma of 0.55. Slightly overexposing the reversal stock may also help.

The FPN function will filter out the lamp and lens shading not horizontal noise. If the noise pattern is horizontal, check if it is within one color only (RGB). If so there might be a problem with the sensor since that is a line-array; If it is on all three color channels, it might be power supply or something common to the three channels. A rescan is definitely required.

I don't think the Spirit has anything to do with this scratch. Could be camera loop or processing.

The faster the film, the more gamma-ray fogging will accumulate even if stored at -18°C as we do with sensitometric control strips. At six months after exposure we see a marked increase in blue fog level on 200 ISO. 50 ISO would be much more stable, 500 ISO much less. Process your film as soon as practical, keeping it cool in the meantime.

If the can is sealed, the film may start to decompose and ignite spontaneously. You cannot extinguish a nitrate fire, it will continue to burn even under water. Nitrate film was last manufactured in the early 1950s so it will be fogged, shrunk and brittle. Will make a spectacular bonfire on NewYear's eve (stand well clear).

If printing from color negative to positive, you need 6 printer points to compensate 1 stop on the negative, if printing to reversal or intermediate, it would be 12 points as Dennis pointed out.

An Intermediate Positive is the step between the Original Color Negative and the Duplicate Negative. Color Intermediate Stock is used. Its qualities are a very long straight middle portion of the HD curve, very fine grain and high sharpness and a gamma close to 1.0. In the color process, the same stock is used for both IP and DN. From one IP many DNs can be made and from each DN many thousands of prints could be made. During the 1980s there was also a Color Reversal Intermediate stock which was processed in a modified ME4/ECO3 type of process but with much higher agitation. Using this stock, you could make a copy negative in one step instead of two. Just today I received an old 35mm B&W negative where the original timing sheets were still in the cans. It is a simple list of numbers with a value of 1 to 4 next to it, the nitrate negatives (Pathé Vincennes with a few feet of Kodak) were notched. So the printer operator would follow the chart and preposition the printer to the next aperture (1 to 4), the notch in the film would trigger the exact change to the new setting; Later this system was improved with a 35mm black paper tape in which holes of various sizes were puched according to the amount of light needed on the shot. After the introduction of color, initially gelatin filters were glued to the punched 35mm paper tape. All these systems were substractive color. In the 1960s Bell and Howell perfected the additive lighthouse where three light valves modulate white light that is split into the three primary colors RGB by dichroic filters and after modulation recombined into colored light by mirrors. A punched paper tape was used to control the three light valves with values from 0 to 50. One step is about 1/6 of a stop or 0.025D. Initially notches or metal foil was used on the film to trigger light changes but later Frame Count Cueing was used making changes much easier. I will write more about the way the film grader works later if anyone is interested.

May I suggest that you read 'The Negative' by Ansel Adams. All your questions will be answered and much more.

You will have two timecodes for working, the continuous editing timecode from start to finish of the reel (01:00:00:00 equals Reel 1 etc) and the Aatoncode that will be the reference for audio sync. If working with a Minima, the Minima can be the masterclock and jamsync to the portable timecode generator; If you can lay your hands on an Aaton OriginC+ masterclock, this would be better because it has a temperature compensated crystal oscillator same as the camera. This will allow you to jamsync only once per 6 hours. Obviously the Cantar-X audio recorder from Aaton has the same clock built-in. Avid can handle Aatoncode quite easily, I would have to check for Premiere and Final Cut. We were one of the pioneers with Aatoncode (3rd installation in the world), my own Minima is now starting a feature film (cinema vérité style). Contact us for much more details regarding postproduction from negative processing to DCP, 35mm filmout or HD files.

We still offer telecine with Aatoncode readout. We have many customers from Nordic states. We arrange FedEx pickup at your door.

It looks like an emulsion scratch (the top layer is the blue layer). Could be the loop in the camera being way too large, or a problem in a processing machine (only if sprocket drive). Did you hear any unusual noise during the shoot?

David, skip bleach on the negative will give you blocked highlights. I agree that a properly exposed and graded 50D would give the closest result to Kodachrome but with more saturation and shadow detail. Modern lenses are also partially responsible for this look.

The picture negative and the sound optical negative are two different items, not related to each other until printed to the same print stock on the final positive print. So no matter how much you push or pull the picture negative, it has no relationship to the optical sound quality. Sound negatives are made on special B&W high contrast stock such as ST9D, very sharp and very fine grain but no straight portion on the sensitometric curve. They are made with a controlled amount of overexposure (image spread) so that the print can also be made with controlled overexposure to get the desired density on the soundtrack (positive image spread that compensates the image spread in the negative). For more information see: Crossmodulation distortion testing. B&W prints are silver based and do not require sound track application, 35mm color prints are made with dye tracks these days, 16mm color prints still require applicated (redeveloped) sound tracks (silver+ dye).

As noted by Simon, the replenisher solution has more CD3, less bromide than the machine tank. Without looking at the other components, processing in replenisher would result in higher activity because of too high CD3 and pH, and too high fog level because of too low bromide level. Probably a lot more grain and saturation too.

Today the choices are 5222 (but for how long?) and Orwo stocks; There used to be a 4-X negative too but long gone. Both 35mm and 16mm Double-X give excellent period style results. We did a film noir '13 Tzameti' shot on Double-X that won a prize at Sundance a few years ago, shot on Anamorphic 35mm B&W.