Dirk DeJonghe

Here is a link to Jon Chema's 'LA State of Mind' where he used our RFG Digital to Film to Digital process. LA State of Mind RFG process We do about 2 or 3 jobs a week, mostly commercials.

Maybe you should read 'The Negative' by Ansel Adams, This will give you then answers to your questions and more. Of course, digital was not yet invented then.

Each loop belt (one for each color) had pins on which the matrix and processed printstock (sound track already on it) were held in contact to allow the dye to transfer. I don't know about any coatings. My visit must have been in 1975 or so, just before I bought my first Model C printer. I had been invited by B&H to see Technicolor in operation. This plant was later sold to China because it permits mass production of prints on cheap B&W printstock (then).

They showed me the entire process, it starts with a model C type printer, just printing the soundtrack from the negative in a loop cabinet. The film then gets processed in a B&W machine and is then transported to another floor where the imbibition process takes place. Each machine is about 100 ft long (distant memory) where three matrix films are coated with ink (YCM) and then contact 'printed' on the filmstrip that already has the photograpic soundtrack. All this in a continuous motion, film roll after film roll is spliced in the darkroom before the soundtrack printer and only taken apart after screening on the projector at the end of the chain. Keep in mind that the matrix films have to be in perf sync, even one perforation offset would be a disaster. The matrix film absorbs ink according to the density required in the print. Quite a technological achievement.

Joe Dervin is right, I was going to post a correction to David's post about no photographic emulsion but no longer needed. I visited Technicolor London in the mid-70s when they were still running the IB process, they even gave me a few samples of matrix films. The minimum order then was 200 prints.

Before attaching the magazine to the camera, after loading a full roll, give a sharp know with your fist on the cover of the loading side while holding the magazine upright in normal shooting position. This will move the fresh rawstock slightly and prevent it from rubbing against the backplate. During transport loaded magazines should be stored upright, not flat.

It is the then current standard color negative film, 1st generation. Corresponds roughly to the 7247. About 30 years old now. Can still be processed in ECN2.

We did the labwork on Guava Island. The brief was to make it look like 1960. The digital images were recorded to 35mm 5219, academy frame and then scanned back to DPX Log. We received a version that was not the final frame, so we had to adjust our recorder to allow for the largest sizes, even as the majority were more cropped. Anyway, the director was happy.

It doesn't matter if the pressure plate is in the magazine or in the camera. What matters is that the pressure plate must be uniform black anodised, not chrome or with chrome rails such as used on Aatons. Both on 16 and 35mm light will penetrate the emulsion and will be bounced back of the shiny parts of the pressure plate and add a pattern of extra exposure quite visible on grey backgrounds and when the camera pans. I have had several large productions on 5222/7222 this year and I always warn customers about this. An easy way to check is to open the shutter with the lens port open and look what you see at the film plane (without film of course). Another thing: this gets worse with overexposure. I tell customers to aim for printing lights not over 20.

I looked at this same negative again just this afternoon. There is a 3.5 stop overexposure compared to the shot before and after. The printing lights are at about 45 for green. The rest of the shots is around 25 for green. I could have it scanned on an Arriscan to see how it will come out.

Hello, We worked for Yorgos Lanthimos earlier this year, send me your email address and we can talk.

Try running the camera without a lens, in a dark room and look towards the filmgate through the lens mount.

I have two demand drive and one sprocket Treise machine. The second Treise was 35mm only and was dismantled.

My processing machines don't even use the perforations, I can process unperforated stock just as easily. Those processors that use sprockets will most likely be multiples of 4 perf interval as well. On the other hand, the perforators at Kodak only work in 4 perf, so that is excluded as well. Remains only the camera as a suspect;

The fogging is at 4 perf interval while the format is 3 perf. Sorry, Need to remove my facemask, I miscounted.

What David says is correct. The white light of the printer lamp is split into RGB using dichroic filters, in each beam there is a 'light valve' that can be instantly changed to a new setting. The valves are closed at zero and maximum open at 50. The printer is first calibrated to print neutral from an LAD reference negative at the standard printing lights of 25-25-25 using printer trims. The negative is then graded and individual printing lights are then chosen per scene, taking into account pre-corrections for different filmstocks etc. Contrast and saturation can be changed with use of flashing, pushed intermediates, etc. A good color negative would print between 25 and 30 for the green channel, a good B&W negative would print around 20.

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.