Hello Cotty Thanks very much for the brilliant lesson. I had no idea moviemaking was that complicated, really. Guess I'll stick to Super 8 for a while - and of course 35mm still-photographs :-) Cheers Jens
-----Oprindelig meddelelse----- Fra: Cotty [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sendt: 31. marts 2003 20:47 Til: Pentax List Emne: Re: Fuji Reala Movie film >I've com across some 35mm movie film; Fuji Reala 500D, Super F series. On >the can it says Fujicolor Negative Film (kind of odd, isn't it - do they >shoot movies on negative film?). Yes. Traditionally, a movie is shot on negative film. On a set, they may shoot (say) 7 takes of a scene. Takes 1, 2, and 5 are no good because of fluffed lines by the actors. Take 6 is spoiled by a hair in the gate. Takes 3, 4, and 7 are all good, so the Director asks for those takes to be printed. At the end of the day, all the day's takes that are to be printed are noted down and sent to the labs with all the day's shooting (called rushes or dailies). Overnight, all the neg film shot that day is developed, yet only those takes indicated (3, 4, 7 in our example) are actually contact printed onto positive film (also called 'reversal' film because it is the reverse of negative). This positive film is referred to as the 'print', even though it is not paper - it is positive (or slide if you like) film. These positive prints then become the 'rushes' or 'dailies' (rushes in UK where they are rushed overnight, dailies in USA because they are the daily offerings from the shoot and traditionally viewed daily) and are viewed on location or in a theater by the Director and relevant crew. Much later, all the printed takes are assembled in one place - the cutting room, where the film is edited. All the best (or indeed worst!) bits and pieces are put together and become the 'cutting copy' or the 'work print'. It's all stuck together with a kind of cellotape (Scotch tape) and bits can be added or removed at will. When the editing process is finished, the cutting copy (work print) is sent off to the labs where all the original neg film has been stored, and a team there assemble the negative exactly frame for frame to the recipe that is the cutting copy (work print). There are edge numbers every foot or less of the neg film that corresponds exactly to the edited cutting copy. Every single shot, no matter how short or long is matched exactly. This then becomes the 'cut neg'. Obviously, this is the end of the line for the neg as it is literally cut with a cement film joiner (splicer), and obviously you lose one frame of neg every time they cut through at the start of a shot. Not much room for mistakes, cos if you cut through the wrong frame, disaster can occur! One frame adrift, and you're out os sync with the sound by one frame. Not many people will see one frame out of sync. I can spot 2 easily. Most folk will see 3 or 4. But what if you cut through the middle of a shot accidentally? To join it back together will lose one frame in the middle of the shot - a jump cut! Has been done, and has been hidden - easy in lots of action :-) [Incidentally, with 35mm film, you can cement 2 bits directly together, there's enough room between the fames to hide the join so it doesn't appear when viewed. Not so with 16mm. There, you produce 2 rolls of cut neg that correspond frame-for-frame. This is called A and B roll, or 'chequerboard' cut neg. For every frame of neg on roll A, on roll B there is opaque 'black spacing' film that will not allow light through, then at the next shot change, you swap so that the next shot is on Roll B, and you join the black spacing onto roll A. The neg is joined so that the cemented piece of film is into the black spacing, leaving a clean last frame of one shot, clean first frame of the next shot. Later, roll A is printed, then the exposed but not yet developed positive print film rewound, and roill B is then printed onto it, double exposing if you like, except, the black spacing on both rolls prevents a double image, only those areas where the neg is does the light get through. Follow this? Test later....] Meanwhile, back on our 35mm movie, the cut neg is then contact printed on a much better 'final quality stock' of positive film. this is called the 'answer print' because it is the first real look at the colour corrections made by the colour grader before it is printed. Adjustments can be made accordingly, and it may take several more prints before the Director is satisfied. The final final version are the release prints. This is the procedure for a tv movie. For theatrical release where zillions of prints for distribution around the world are required, all sorts of methods are used - internegs chiefly where a duplicate set of negs are used for speed and safety. It wouldn't do to rip up the original cut neg on a Spielberg epic ;-) I started my career in 1979 when I trained and became a neg cutter for Brit TV. Some shots to match were so short they had no edge numbers on, and assistant film editors so lax they couldn't be bothered to write in chinagraph pencil, a near-reference number, so second-guessing them as to which bit of which take of which scene (of which bloody production) they were using became a skilled pastime. When I later became an assistant editor, I made sure those short ones had a ref for the neg cutters, poor bastards! Cheers, Cotty PS - at the start, I wrote 'tradtionally' because a lot's happened in the movie industry since those days, and video cameras shooting in tandem with the movie camera gives the Director the ability to watch shooting as it happens, and play back endlessly. Funny how the master is still film though ;-) _____________________________ Oh swipe me! 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