Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1953)

294 PREPARATION: Splices, perforations, leaders and trailers are carefully checked when film enters lab. Note the white gloves. ¥**:. frHH 1 CLEANING: Both machine and hand cleaning methods are used to prepare your original picture for the printing operation ahead. SCENE TIMING: There is no substitute for experience in selecting, scene by scene, the correct timing values for printing. COLOR PRINTING: Using the step method, these printing machines hold original and print stock stationary for exposures. LOOK TO YOUR LABORATORY JAMES W. MOORE, ACL SINCE the hobby of amateur movie making began in 1923 with the announcement of the reversal process of film development, the average home movie maker has had little interest in or contact with the work of commercial film laboratories. He took his pictures, sent the film (be it black and white or color) back to its manufacturer, and in due course he received through the mail a finished positive — ready for projection. There was no negative. But the amateur filmer didn't care. Not so today. Movie Makers and the Amateur Cinema League now receive an increasing stream of inquiries concerning such new-old mysteries as the meaning of "negative," "positive," "duplicate," "dupe negative," "timed print" and the like. Perhaps much of this interest in film lab activities stems from the ever-growing use of magnetic sound on film. For with it has come the desirability (it is no longer a necessity) of having one's older, silent footage copied so that the audio benefits of a full-width magnetic stripe may be realized. Perhaps also the increasing use of outstanding amateur films on television (which would require lab work) has swelled the chorus of queries on this subject. In any case, there the queries are — and Movie Makers herewith proposes to do something about them. BASIC LABORATORY OPERATIONS The basic operations carried on by any commercial film lab may be itemized easily and quickly. They are (1) film developing, and (2) film printing. And, lest you feel that these seem too simple to merit a full-scale discussion, just stick with us for a few paragraphs. Actually the film development phase of a laboratory's work is relatively simple, and today's amateur is likely to be little concerned with it. His unconcern stems from two facts: first, that universally he uses emulsions which call for reversal processing; and second, that almost universally he uses emulsions which call for reversal processing in full color. This latter form of developing few commercial labs can do. The former, even in black and white, they prefer not to do. NEGATIVE-POSITIVE For 35mm. commercial film labs work almost wholly with the classic negative-positive system. They do so because the majority of their clients make their black and white movies with that system; and these clients in turn make their movies via the neg-pos system because primarily they want a large number of projection prints. In that system the film lab develops a length of monochrome movie film which has been exposed to light in a camera. The result is a negative image of the object photographed, and the film itself is therefore called a negative. By inserting that negative in a film printer and projecting light through it onto another length of film, the lab may then create on this second film (after development) a positive image of the object photographed. This strip of film is then known as a positive print or print, and its re-creation from the negative may be repeated by lab printing as often as the client desires. Very well . . . Where, since his reversal film offers no negative, can the amateur movie maker use the facilities of a