Dirk DeJonghe

You can use the 1/60 setting, you will be overexposing by about 1/3 of a stop, not harmful at all.

It has the 1.5v AA battery.

I have a Minolta F Spotmeter. If I go down in exposure times past 1m, 2m, 4m, 8m, 16m, 30minutes, I get 50 (1/50 of a second, also useable for 1/48). 

Low contrast prints were our normal for TV fiction 25 years ago. No longer manufactured. A workaround is to process the current printstock in ECN2 instead of ECP. Also make the print 2-3 printerpoints lighter than normal.

This is exactly what we are doing on a daily basis. Recording digital to camera negative, not intermediate, and scanning back to digital. Choice of 50D, 200T or 500T for desired texture.

Sample can be seen on Amazon Prime "Guava Island" : Alexa footage made to look like 1960.

You are right, I simplified a bit, but the result is the same.

I also wonder if the B&W positive stock is going to survive the 41.1°C temperature of the ECN2 developer.

You need to skip bleach, otherwise you end up with transparent film since bleach removes silver.

It was an intial request by a well-known DoP who wanted a 'home movie' look for a Superbowl commercial a few years ago, as if the consumers themselves had filmed the images. This prompted some testing and we arrived at the combination of 500T camerastock plus S16mm sized area.

The objective of Intermediate films is to be as transparent as possible, to make an Interpositive and Duplicate negative that matches as closely as possible the original negative in contrast and color rendition. This is not what we want in this case, we want to add some texture and character. The camera stocks have some character (greens, flesh-tones, sky etc) that is added during the process.

The intermediate stocks have very little grain, again, not what we want. Grain is 'texture' now, no longer a 'defect', just like some painters use a broad brush with visible brushstrokes against a digital picture (completely texture-free).

We ship about 750 packages per year with FedEx. Never any damage or loss. They are inspected with low dose x-ray scans. With the help of FedEx rep we tested 500T and passed it 2x, 4x, 8x in the scanner. Compared to the control (0x) no measurable density change was found on densitometer readings even on 8x.

The link to my (temp) website is fixed. We use split screen with the original digital image and recorded negative. See my previous post.

1. process the exposed film received from camera crew.

2. make workprint (eventually transfer sound to SEPMAG)

3. edit workprint on film editing table (if all else fails on the kitchen table with scissors)

4. send edited workprint to negative cutter for conforming (reads keykode numbers on workprint and conforms negative accordingly)

5. prepare for filmgrading by noting shot changes, and discussing with DOP

6. filmgrading on Colormaster, simulating the printlook from the negative using only RGB  light changes,  making a list of FCC-RGB data (where the lights have to change and printing lights, eventually fades and dissolves)

7. negative laced up on printer, paper tape read in Printer Control Unit, lights out, printstock laced up and start button pushed.

8. after print run, exposed printstock is processed.

9. screen print with customer, note further grading changes required, goto step 6. and repeat.

The MTF curve takes into consideration the resolving power of the camera lens, the filmstock and also the scanner.

As a comparison, at the frequency of 20lp/mm, on 1K you will have 30% modulation response, on 2K 57% and on 4K 63%.

It is a matter of diminishing returns, there is a very noticeable improvement from 1K to 2K, from 2K to 4K it is much less.

These measurements were done on 35mm camera negative, 16mm will be more limited of course.

Because the cyan layer used to be fairly unstable and faded with age. When restoring old faded film, we have to increase the gamma of the cyan layer in order to bring the three layers more parallel, then do color correction. The current printfilms are much more stable now than they used to be before the mid 80s.

Will,

We have done dozens of commercials as well as sections of feature films and entire films. On one particular commercial for Vaseline, we used 500T, 200T and 50D to show different timespans, from mid 1800s to Vietnam to present day. It can be seen on vimeo:

Another one, completely on 500T to simulate a 1960s film is on Amazon Prime: Guava Island.

One problem with cutting the internegative is that you can only get polyester base stock. Splicing is only via ultrasonic splicers, not known for high quality splices.

The alternative is to use pull-processed and pre-flashed camera stock such as 7203 or 7213.

Note: the current 'official' internegative also benefits from preflashing and pull process.

There used to be an extra anti-lightpiping layer on negatives. One day Kodak told me they were no longer putting this layer in since it was only on stocks to be spooled on "daylight spools".

This was in the days of 7245.

We have a process called RFG. We record the digital files to 35mm camera filmstock (500T or 200T), the rescan the film back to digital DPX log files for final grading. We try to match the main primary colours but let the secondaries float.

A recent example of our work can be seen on Amazon Prime: Guava Island.

I suppose they gave you the D-Min values (perf area?) to show if and how much the filmfog has increased due to old age, radiation etc.

First to know is which filmstock and compared the values to a known fresh stock reading.

The problem with x-ray exposure is that it is directional. It will appear as uneven density changes mostly blue/cyan in the shadows. I have received a box of 40 100ft spools. Only the spools on the outside had a visible exposure, the x-ray had exposed the box from the short side and not penetrated more than one row.

Anyway, exposure is cumulative and each pass adds something.

Big difference between low-dose hand luggage and checked luggage.

Depends on how 'visible' the contents were in the scanner. If you hide the films in a lead bag, the operator will turn up the dose.

I always recommend to ship by Fedex or similar. We recently did a test with the help of Fedex and after eight passes, the increase in D-Min was less than 0.02 (densitometer tolerance). It all depends on the settings of the x-ray machine.

Ken Loach: "Sorry We Missed You " (2018, in postproduction)

John,

Send mail to info(at)postproduction.be

Two years ago we processed and scanned this Super16 Double-X short, the result had to look like a mid 1960 period.

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/deoverkant

We had a server failure. Will put a new website on a new server in a few days; email and telephone work normally. We have backups but they need to be transposed;

I have seen many rolls damaged by X-Rays. I am sure any lab can tell you horror stories.

They look like a pulsating blueish fog. We can even tell if the X-ray exposure was before or after the camera exposure by the increasing rythm of the pulsations. I have one customer with a full carton of 100ft daylight spools; the box must have passed the x-ray machine looking at the short edge. The first two rows of cans were damaged, the second one less than the first one, the X-rays did not penetrate more than two rows of cans.

The world is a changed place since the war on terror.

All I can say is that the film is most likely total loss, no easy digital fix.