Home Movies (1942)

HOME MOVIES FOR OCTOBER • Winding film accurately on developing rack is a tedious job especially in total darkness. Here the amateur has devised a guide running on a threaded bar before the rack which automatically distributes film as it is unwound from thp camera spool. N preceding issues, we have taken our class of beginning cineamateurs through the various steps of making home movies. Now we have reached the point where somethmg should be said about the processing of film — not so much because some amateurs will want to engage in that fascinating phase of the hobby, home processing — but because every movie amateur should have a smattering of knowledge of the reversal process. However, our discussion will concern the routine of home reversal processes rather than professional laboratory procedure . The term processing differentiates from the more common photographic Fra»k HoUfki What amateur^ should know about B y term, developing, in that it describes a procedure of cine film development that is more than straight development. As most amateurs know, when a roll of still camera film is sent away for development and printing, we receive back from the laboratory the developed negatives plus prints of each exposure. In professional 35mm. cinematography, the original film is returned by the laboratory developed as a negative from which one or more "positive" prints are made. But when we send our roll of reversal film to the processing laboratory, that same roll of film is returned to us in the form of a positive print — the result of processing which involves developing the film to a negative then redeveloping it to a positive. One film serves both purposes. There are no separate negative and positive films. The only exception to this is where i6mm. negative film is used in the camera instead of regular reversal film. Then the film is handled the same as 35mm. studio negative. Many have discovered in home processing, a fascinating branch of the • A well planned home reversal plant. Developing and drying racks are rotated by motor power. Handy, too, is the spacious shelf above the racks for holding all necessary ingredients for developing formulas. 391 lum mmim E . W amateur movie hobby. Today many amateurs have built extensive processing equipment capable of handling 100 feet or more of film at one time, and enabling them to shoot a roll of film during the day, then completely process it and have it ready for projection the same evening. Some amateurs have taken to processing their own movie film because it enables them to extend their filming ac tivities. They purchase cheap bulk film in large quantities — 200 and 400 foot rolls — slioot it, then process it themselves. Thus they gain considerable practice in the use of their camera, are able to test theories of exposure, composition, etc., then, when ready to film something important, load their camera with regular reversal film, sending it to the manufacturer's laboratory for • Continued on Page jpS Arthur Zaugg