OT 16mm movie

[giellaleafapmu]

I know it is OT but any of you develop 16mm movies at home?

Any tips on where to buy stuff to set up a darkroom for 16mm movie films?

GLF

 

[NickTrop]

I've thought about this myself but this is where I jump off the "give me film or give me death" wagon. Video is just soooooooo much cheaper. Having shot two indie films in a younger year - one shot 1/2 on 16mm black and white reversal, and one on digital video... The cost of stock and processing a feature-length film - forget it.

In any event, if it's negative film, where you're film comes out inverse/negative, you'll still have to take it to a lab to get a positive work print. If your film is 16mm reversal, I believe you need to "fog it" - expose it to light. However, I might be dead wrong about that - don't quote me.

Anyway, here's a thread that discusses it. 2/3rd's down someone mentions a "Morse developer" that was cheap ($40) used (trick is probably finding one...) And someone else mentioned a "cinetank" - seems like a spiral + tank like used b&w stills but for 16mm movie film. The thread has links.

Here's the thread:
http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=000d1o

 

[giellaleafapmu]

I've thought about this myself but this is where I jump off the "give me film or give me death" wagon. Video is just soooooooo much cheaper. Having shot two indie films in a younger year - one shot 1/2 on 16mm black and white reversal, and one on digital video... The cost of stock and processing a feature-length film - forget it.

In any event, if it's negative film, where you're film comes out inverse/negative, you'll still have to take it to a lab to get a positive work print. If your film is 16mm reversal, I believe you need to "fog it" - expose it to light. However, I might be dead wrong about that - don't quote me.

Anyway, here's a thread that discusses it. 2/3rd's down someone mentions a "Morse developer" that was cheap ($40) used (trick is probably finding one...) And someone else mentioned a "cinetank" - seems like a spiral + tank like used b&w stills but for 16mm movie film. The thread has links.

Here's the thread:
http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=000d1o

Maybe I have to explain... With a friend we are considering making a short animation. Of course there are plenty of viedeo cameras with the single "frame" function as well as many computer programmes one can use but we would like to make it the
old way using dolls, drawings and common objects and a Bolex.

What I would like is just to be able to run some tests with wahtever film just to check things before taking the real shot. The colour version will then be processed by a "real" lab and very likely we shall pass all to digital for sound etc.

Anyway, thank you for the link!

GLF

 

[rickmaersk]

DIY 16mm

DIY 16mm

I have done exactly what you are proposing (and much worse)- processing a short length of 16mm film to check everything is working OK . It should let you know that you have used the correct exposure compensation for the shutter angle and lens extension. The easiest thing is to use a 16mm reel that is just a lower version of a 35mm reel- I suppose they were originally made for 126 film in from the 1970s. It fits in a conventional tank and takes 150mm of fluid. The ones I used were either Jobo or Patterson.
It's fine for black and white and you COULD do your own colour reversal. I suggest you test shoot with black and white as it is relatively easy to read the negative and assess it for exposure. If you test shoot colour reversal you might have to deal with your own processing faults as it is considerably more difficult to do lab quality E6 processing at home than BW neg.
A lab will do a clip test for you with a negative report if you want to do the whole cinematographer thing.
Good luck shooting motion picture film. It's a real head wrecker compared to a 35mm SLR as you cannot just choose the shutter speed and aperture you want.