Business screen magazine (1946)

NUMBER ELEVEN IN A SERIES FACTS OR FICTION! Many misconceptions exist concerning 16mm release prints made by the 35/32mm method, so it is obvious some explanation would be appropriate. Prints made by this method are not optical reductions as many believe, but are ordinary contact prints. Instead of using 16mm raw stock, two prints are made on one piece of 35mm film. However, the 35mm film is perforated with 16mm perforations on both edges. An image is printed down one side and up the other. After printing and developing, the 35mm film is passed through a slitter which cuts TA mils off each side, and then slits it down the center. The use of 35mm release stock provides a slight price advantage to this system — for one foot of 35mm film costs slightly less than two feet of 16mm. The 16mm image on the 35/ 32mm printing negative is printed by contact or by an optical system. If the 16mm images are printed down one side and up the other in one printer pass, it is obvious the release print suffers. Timing changes or scene-toscene color balancing cannot be accomplished if both images are printed to the release stock simultaneously. The normal custom is to print only one 16mm image onto the 35mm negative film. This makes for a more expensive negative because only onehalf of the film is being used. If we had two 16mm images on the same 35mm negative, so well-balanced that we could make a onelite release print, then of course there would be a slight advantage in printing labor. But, this is not the usual case. After printing, the film can be processed on a 35mm machine, but if the developing machine has 35mm sprockets, it will not accept the 16mm perforations. Of course, some machines can be modified by adding additional special 35/32mm sprockets, but then time is wasted in re-threading the machine. So, normal procedure is to process the 35/ 32mm film on a 35mm Tendency drive machine. On a tendency or friction drive machine, the film is transported by friction on the rollers, consequently it is always slipping. This action causes abrasions on the base side of the film at both edges. This presents no problem in the 35/32mm method because the sprocketed areas are on the edges of the film where the abrasions occur, so the picture and sound image are not affected. Some think that there is an economic advantage in processing, but actually this is not so. Let us assume a developing machine has twelve 35mm rollers in each bank (twelve film strands) and the machine speed is 100 feet per minute. If the machine were equipped with combination 35mm and 16mm rollers, the 16mm film fits in a slot in the middle of the 35mm rollers. If we process 16mm film using these combination rollers, we would still have twelve strands of 16mm at 100 feet per minute. Now, if we print two 16mm images on 35mm film and run it through the 35mm tendency rollers, we would still have twelve strands delivering 100 feet of 35mm per minute, but when slit this becomes 200 feet of 16mm. This appears to be an economic advantage. But if we were to put 16mm rollers on the same machine, twentyfour 16mm rollers would occupy the same space as the twelve 35mm rollers. We would now have twenty-four strands, and to maintain the same developing time the machine would be run at twice the speed, delivering 200 feet of 16mm that requires no slitting. Some claims are made that because the 35/ 32mm sound tracks are on the inside of the film, and do not contact the rollers, the signal to noise ratio of the sound track is improved. This is true if we are comparing to 16mm film processed on a 16mm tendency machine. But, if processed on a 16mm machine with sprocket drive, no abrasions would exist because there is no slipping or friction for the teeth of the rollers transport the film. No advantage in this regard is evident. When 16mm film comes off a 16mm sprocketed machine, it is immediately ready for inspection and shipping. This is not so with the 35/32 film for it now has to be slit three ways. This operation is critical and adds additional expense. Unfortunately, the film laboratory cannot slit as accurately as the film manufacturer, so there is always the possibility of side-to-side weave of the image. In the 35,/32mm technique, making just one print or any odd number of prints is economically unsound, for we have to throw away the other half of the film. Also, any equipment malfunction in the 35/32mm method causes two prints to be thrown away instead of one. Our laboratory does not endorse the 35/32mm method, but we do accept 35/ 32mm negatives for printing. But we always print to 16mm raw stock which is processed on a 16mm sprocket machine. It appears then that there are no advantages to the 35/32mm technique! But wait — there is one! If a laboratory has existing 35mm processing tendency machines and does not wish to invest in additional 16mm machines with their developing crews, there is an advantage. But only for that laboratory ! For the print buyer the 35/32mm format has no advantage — quality-wise or price-wise. As a matter of fact, there may be a few slight disadvantages. byron 101 BUSINESS SCREEN ■ 1968