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Does anyone know which Fuji stock that Ron Garcia used for Twin Peaks (1990)?


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Firstly, here is an interview with Ron by the ASC:

https://ascmag.com/podcasts/twin-peaks-pilot-1990-ron-garcia-asc

 

FWIW, IMDB says that Fuji stock was used for season 1, and Kodak stock for season 2. I have to assume that 500T stock was used throughout (that's what I would do!).

 

Ron says,

 

I was shooting Fuji at the time. I’ve shot Fuji most of my career.

 

[...]

 

And what it did basically, with those double 85s in to the negative, it contaminated the black area to a point, but the contrast, that kind of went away, but it was still in the shadows, so people expecting a lot of cool looks in the wintertime, even the overcast… The skin tones stayed, I could control the skin tones, and it just permeated all the greens and browns into this kind of golden feel that we all liked. I think it was that particular time in my career, the Fuji was giving me those kind of colors and Kodak wasn’t for some reason, so it worked out.

And I think one of the other reasons, trying to explain on an audio [interview], what a visual looks like, the way the film was constructed, the way it was designed in colour couplers, if you open up your hands and spread your fingers, and then put your fingers together, and form a little wall, like you’re reading a book, there’s no gaps in between your fingers. That was the way Kodak’s system worked, as far as I was concerned. Fuji, you open up your hands, and you spread your fingers out, and you can see light through your fingers. That’s the way the Fuji worked for me. So there wasn’t a lot of crosstalk with all that light going through all the layers of film - your red, green, your blue, green, reds. And I was able to pull in that yellow and keep that orange, and keep the skin tones, just because of the design of the film which I loved and stuck to most of my career until we went to digital.

 

This list of Fuji stocks says that the F-Series was not released until 1988. However, the older AX 500T was already available to Ron before Twin Peaks. I'm guessing he shot that, and not the F-500T.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motion_picture_film_stocks#Fuji

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Fuji gave me a historical timeline sheet of their stocks but I can't find it in my file cabinet (though it's a trip to look through my folders on Fuji, Agfa, and Kodak).

 

I arrived at film school (CalArts) in 1988 and shot a lot of 16mm during the three years I was there. This was the era when Kodak had split off their lines and the 16mm color stocks were a different number than the 35mm stocks, though they shared similar designs. The slow speed was 7291 100T, which came out in 1983, and their fast stock was 7292 320T, replacing '94 in 1986 -- that was the first stock Kodak made with T-grain in one layer.

 

I wasn't a big fan of 7292 so switched to using Fuji 250T, which had just come out in 1988, and I used that for most interior scenes in 16mm until my last year at CalArts (1991) when I got larger lighting packages and could shoot on slow-speed Kodak stocks -- EXR 50D and 100T had come out in 1990.

 

Then I started shooting feature films in 1992, and in 35mm -- my first film was shot on Agfa XT100 and XTS400. Then my second feature in 1993 was shot on Fuji and my third on Agfa XTR250. My fourth was on Fuji. My fifth feature was on Kodak, but on two stocks that were being obsoleted so we could buy them at a bargain, 125T 5247 and EXR 500T 5296.

 

It was in 1992 when Kodak finally made an intermediate speed tungsten stock, 200T, which I used on some 16mm short films at the time.

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I shot quite a bit of 16mm Fuji 250T around 1992. It had marvellous color – vibrant and not what you'd necessarily choose for subtle work. But if you were looking for a larger than life sort of look, it gave you that with little work.

 

I guess Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (the Iive action) was shot on the earlier 35mm iteration of Fuji 250T? It seemed very helpful with the redesigned Starfleet wardrobe and the more vibrant, escapist tone of the production design.

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I still haven't found out the stock that Ron used. I'll post below if I do. Thanks for all your comments, as I love to geek out on film.

David, do you miss those Agfa stocks? I recall a series of ads for Agfa in AC, back in the '90s. I only have a few issues but one of them features the DP for 'Civil Wars'. So back then DPs had three distinct choices for stock: Kodak, Fuji, Agfa. I wonder if we will eventually get a company to take Fuji's place.

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