DCB
Well-known
Is there any way to find out what kind of film a movie was shot in?
I was watching a 1972 film called "Whoever Slew Aunti Roo?"
Not a really good film but the colors were amazing. Reminds me of Portra.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9ywaxDj0YE
Thanks
Peace
I was watching a 1972 film called "Whoever Slew Aunti Roo?"
Not a really good film but the colors were amazing. Reminds me of Portra.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9ywaxDj0YE
Thanks
Peace
oilman930
Established
Try going to IMDB. That site should give you the whole technical details of the movie.
bluesun267
Well-known
Well, I don't know of any sure fire way to know, short of having a personal contact in the archive that houses the original negative (if it still exists)--but even then, deciphering edge markings on MP film is not a clear-cut science...
But having worked in film archiving (and having seen and loved Curtis Harrington films), I can make some pretty educated guesses.
First off, you can be pretty sure that 95% of 35mm films prior to 1980 or so, made in America and Britain, would have been Kodak negative. In 1972 they had only one or two color negative stocks. The first was 5254 (ISO 50T) and by this time, possibly 5247 had been introduced (ISO 100T). In the years from about 72-75, they were phasing out the 5254 in favor of the "fast" 5247. Many filmmakers did not like the 5247 so they kept the 5254 around longer than usual. In fact, I believe response to 5247 was so poor initially, they even brought back 5254 for a time.
The complaints about 5247 were that it was too grainy, too low contrast, not enough color saturation. Many of the films of the middle and late 70s--in fact, that very "70s" "look" that everyone knows the minute they see it, comes from 5247.
On the other hand, 5254 was a brilliant stock, with sometimes wildly saturated colors. It was used on everything, from Hawaii-Five-O to Midnight Cowboy to Sweet Charity, just to name a couple off the top of my head.
Somewhere on-line there was an article about Hawaii-5-0 cinematographers testing the then new 5254 (for season one--1968) which was at that time another jump in speed from the former stock (5251, ISO 25T), allowing them to do far less lighting set-up on-location.
Not to get too long winded, but having studied films for a number of years, and knowing how few choices in film stock there were, I've come to the conclusion that it was the labs that were much more integral part of the process as far as tailoring a 'look' for a particular movie or TV series. This was before the perfectly uniform 'bag-in-box' method of chemical delivery that labs use today. I believe many film labs of the era mixed chems from scratch and had their own proprietary/secret ingredients that account for the many different, and often hugely varying looks of color MP film from the 50's-70s.
But having worked in film archiving (and having seen and loved Curtis Harrington films), I can make some pretty educated guesses.
First off, you can be pretty sure that 95% of 35mm films prior to 1980 or so, made in America and Britain, would have been Kodak negative. In 1972 they had only one or two color negative stocks. The first was 5254 (ISO 50T) and by this time, possibly 5247 had been introduced (ISO 100T). In the years from about 72-75, they were phasing out the 5254 in favor of the "fast" 5247. Many filmmakers did not like the 5247 so they kept the 5254 around longer than usual. In fact, I believe response to 5247 was so poor initially, they even brought back 5254 for a time.
The complaints about 5247 were that it was too grainy, too low contrast, not enough color saturation. Many of the films of the middle and late 70s--in fact, that very "70s" "look" that everyone knows the minute they see it, comes from 5247.
On the other hand, 5254 was a brilliant stock, with sometimes wildly saturated colors. It was used on everything, from Hawaii-Five-O to Midnight Cowboy to Sweet Charity, just to name a couple off the top of my head.
Somewhere on-line there was an article about Hawaii-5-0 cinematographers testing the then new 5254 (for season one--1968) which was at that time another jump in speed from the former stock (5251, ISO 25T), allowing them to do far less lighting set-up on-location.
Not to get too long winded, but having studied films for a number of years, and knowing how few choices in film stock there were, I've come to the conclusion that it was the labs that were much more integral part of the process as far as tailoring a 'look' for a particular movie or TV series. This was before the perfectly uniform 'bag-in-box' method of chemical delivery that labs use today. I believe many film labs of the era mixed chems from scratch and had their own proprietary/secret ingredients that account for the many different, and often hugely varying looks of color MP film from the 50's-70s.
bluesun267
Well-known
BTW, the above applies to 35mm "commercial" movies. In 16mm/Super 8 (and still photography), there was a veritable smorgasbord of stocks at the time, both negative and reversal, from Kodak, Ansco, Ferrania, Agfa, Fuji, Dupont, Sakura, etc.
DCB
Well-known
Negative Format 35 mm
Cinematographic Process Spherical
Printed Film Format 35 mm
Is all IMDB had.
Loved the colors.
Peace
Cinematographic Process Spherical
Printed Film Format 35 mm
Is all IMDB had.
Loved the colors.
Peace