Latent Image Fading

[Nick Norton]

I'm aware it is a common practice to refrigerate raw film stock, and then process the stock ASAP after shooting.

 

However, i cannot afford to process some color negative i recently shot... and was wondering how long i could wait to process it before degradation to the image would occur.

 

Also, i have some stock i bought close to 8 months ago and have not refrigerated it. Is there any point to putting it in the fridge now even though i'll be shooting it this summer?

 

Does anyone have any experience processing film after waiting a while after shooting it?

 

Thanks-

 

Nick

[Michael Collier]

I worked on a project years ago where we waited I think 2 months before getting it to the lab. I kept it refrigerated until the producers could afford to get it to the lab. What I found during that process though is that working with the lab helps. If your going to telecine through that lab and you don't have a whole lot of footage, you might be able to work it so they will process and hold the film in their vault until you can afford to pay your tab. That would be much much better than simply leaving it undeveloped.

[Charles MacDonald]

I'm aware it is a common practice to refrigerate raw film stock, and then process the stock ASAP after shooting.

However, i cannot afford to process some color negative i recently shot... and was wondering how long i could wait to process it before degradation to the image would occur.

Reminds me of the film " the man who skied down Everest"

 

Dude shot a documnetary, but did not have money to finish it. Stuck the cans in cold storage with the labels switched.

 

Eventually Budge Crawley (Crawley Films) bought the rights and had the film processed, they got an Oscar as I recall.