Regular 35mm exposing entire negative width

Robino Jones · January 19, 2017

I plan on having a print made for my film project and will want to have an optical soundtrack on the print.

To save costs for the final print I switched my camera from Super 35mm to Regular 35mm and swapped the ground glass accordingly.

I read somewhere that shooting super 35mm would cost more because you would have to optically scale down the frame to leave space for the optical soundtrack.

I shot a test roll in regular 35mm and got the print this morning. I didn't provide a soundtrack so it's a silent print.

Is it normal that on the print, the entire negative has been exposed (like super 35mm)?

The framing appears to be correct though when running it through my Moviola.

Is it normal for my camera to expose the entire width of the negative when shooting Regular 35mm?

Lets say I wanted a print made with an optical soundtrack, would the lab mask the left side and print the soundtrack on the left side over the exposed image when creating the print?

One more question, when they make the final print do they matte the frame to 1:85 or do they leave it open and the projectionist frames it?

..and if they matte the print to 1:85, how do they know where to frame the matte? Is it by giving them a shot of a frame chart?

Edited January 19, 2017 by Robino Jones

Giray Izcan · January 19, 2017

When you offset the lens mount for academy, since your gate is s35, it would still expose the entire film width. I wouldn't worry about it, it is normal.

David Mullen ASC · January 19, 2017

It is normal for the whole negative to get exposed and printed for a work print even if the lens is centered for Academy / 1.85.

The soundtrack area is masked out when they make a print with an optical track, but the rest is exposed on the print. Standard 1.85 projection is supposed to center the image vertically so equal amount of cropping top and bottom when using the 1.85 projector mask... but of course a movie can be misframed by the projectionist.