How to edit 16mm Film
16mm & 35mm Film in the Cutting Room.
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this is a 16 milled steamed back brewing
machine on this machine you can view
separate picture and separate sound and
combined optical sound and combined
magnetic sound
so now I'm going to lace the steam bit
with a 16 mil print and sound and first
of all this is the print just and notice
that the print has perforations along
the bottom edge and we have sprockets
which go into these perforations this is
a fairly simple operation with the print
we look machine runs through onto a core
on the other side so now we're ready to
run print through to the gate
and the gate is a cross symbol
and there it is so I'm going to put a
brake on that and hold that there
and now we'll get the sound slightly
more complicated operation more rollers
and there is a sound head that has you
have to pass over so first of all goes
around a roller and then perforations
and sprockets making sure that the film
runs across the head you do the same on
the other side and then onto another
core so we've holding the print as you
can see I'm just going to run the sound
through and there's the equivalent on
this so we're looking for a gate again
and then we got them together I can take
the brake of the print and now they run
together the leader is 6 feet long or
nine seconds and 15 frames and I'm going
to run this through to the first frame
I'm zero there first frame and ready to
play well I've had this girl I said are
you free tonight she said no but I'm
reasonable he said you want a bit on the
side I said I didn't know that mode if
it's still with
as I mentioned earlier there is I come
up to the coal mag so I'm going to put a
comic on to machine now and comm AG is a
print with a mag track running along the
top edge and originally used in news
gathering and as with an all new print
you run it exactly the same way to the
lamp the perforations at the bottom
sprockets go through the perforation and
at this point takes a slightly different
path up to the core mag head so we go
outside and inside these rollers and at
this point I'm going to change the route
to the comic head and just I'm not
across there and then around that Rolo
and on to the core
we just run that down to the first frame
and I'll run it down to the first frame
our zero there as you can see there's
the Commack running along the top so and
down here this is a fader for the comic
so I'm going to bring that up when we're
ready to go
you
okay I know
and lace up a obstacle combined optical
track so now I'm going to lace up they
come up to print and as with the others
the perforations I'll just turn the lamp
on the perforations at the bottom so we
just match those up put the sprockets
and same lace with the co mag that's the
core mag and but we move the come up
head rounded to play optical head that's
slightly nearer the lamp it's 26 frames
and hearts
making sure that it's not too tight run
another over there for a bit more
tension onto the call and we're rolling
they are now going to run it down to
first frame
that's approximately the first frame so
I'm going to zero there for a reference
and run back slightly and as you see
there there's the comm up signal running
across the top of the film and over on
this side there's the fader so we'll
bring that fader up and we're ready to
play
you
these are scratches on the base side of
the film otherwise known as tramline
scratches because usually there's more
than one and this is a emotion scratch
as you can see the it's gone into the
colours on the side of the emotion these
sometimes are difficult to repair
usually be repaired by transferring the
film to tape using a wet gate method wet
gate pills in the damaged
and here we have film with a bad case of
mold and this can be caused by certain
storage conditions and as you can see
it's fungal and bit powdery this
condition also affects soundtracks and
here we have an example fungus
here here mag tracks can be cleaned by
the ultrasonic process
before the film
washing or polishing process can take
place wolf film must be checked for
damage and also meant supplies is backed
up on the base side and all tape joins
remade on both sides with waterproof
tape the film must be prepared same side
out all emulsion or all base whether
negative or positive and whatever the
geometry MP also called ein or SMPTE
during the polishing process only the
base side of the film is polish for film
rewashing the film is loaded onto a
purpose-built dual gauge rewash machine
and run fro rewash bath this cause of
the emulsion to swell when the film
emulsion contracts again upon drying any
fine to medium emulsion scratch it will
close up this process is more effective
with thicker emulsion stocks usually
color following this process the film
would be ultrasonically cleaned to
remove dirt and dust cry to polishing or
transfer for film polishing the film is
run over a glass wheel and any base
scratches are filled in with acetone
which recontour the sharp edges of the
scratches
rendering them invisible during
projection scanning or printing constant
speed must be maintained at all times
for this application to be successful
then if necessary
the film is rejoined back to its
original geometry finally the film is
ultrasonically cleaned again to remove
any dirt or dust built up during this
process
what we're going to do here is show you
how to lace up the steam deck machine
and what we're looking for before any of
this material is transferred our making
sure that the bitumen is in the fit
state to be transferred if there any
problems if the sink is out and I'll
show you some of the operation of how we
lace to film up and the various things
that we do when we're running the film
we've got some aspect ratio we can
change if we've got widescreen films or
normal ratio we've got a timecode
setting if you want to have VHS copy
made with a timecode we can run the
picture separately this is a picture
head and this is the sound head of mag
head and we can run the mag separately
so we can run them together or
individually stop one then run the other
and the button here will be for racking
the film but we're going to lace up the
film now I'll start off with the picture
material and what you have to be very
careful is that you're actually going
around the correct rollers because if
you don't you can end up scratching the
film and one of the common mistakes it
is made is that you can run the film
through one of the hard edge you say of
the the mag pickup here and end up
seriously scratching the material so
what I've got here is he running it
through the separate picture head you
could run here if you had a combined
print but we're actually going to be
running a separate picture so I'm going
through rollers
but I'm now going to lace up the mag
track so the first thing I'm going to do
is make sure that the picture is
switched off so that when I run the
machine the picture won't run forward
and then when lacing up the mag we have
to make sure that the tension is nice
and taut otherwise you'll get distortion
to the sound
just pull the perforation through and
here you can see where the actual mag
head is that it's nice and tight you've
got the rollers here they'll take up the
tension and you don't want it too tight
that you're actually going to be almost
stretching the film but if it's too
loose then you'll be getting a sort of a
WoW and a distortion here so I'll just
gently ease a film through onto the film
bobbin pushing it through and taking it
up
and there you go now some people maybe
who aren't that experience with lacing
films onto bobbins
we use tape not a good idea if you put
tape on the bobbin and then when the
film has been run and then round
backwards it can actually be quite tight
and sometimes snap the film even but
don't use tape you can push it through
the little areas of a cut in the bobbin
or call but I mean you should actually
get used to doing I'll just show you
what I did again just place it round let
it go through gently got my thumb
against the core there it is right the
next thing I'm going to do is get the
picture and the soundtrack in sync so
I'm going to be looking for the sink
marks so I'm not going to turn the
picture or on so it'll run with the mag
run it through and then going to be
looking for the sink marks the other
thing also is to check that it's in rack
now this button here will do the rack
and if you look on the screen you'll see
that the picture is rolling now it's in
rack so I'll leave it in the correct
position and here comes the sink mark
you can actually use them through if you
wish by hand and I'll do that when I get
to the mag track so I'm going to look
off the picture there I have the sig
mark for the picture
run the mag track until I get the sinc
mark for the mag just watching out for
it
it's just coming through here so there's
the cross for the sinc mark I'm going to
stop it on the mag head you can actually
also by doing that ease it backward and
forward until you get the exact position
so I've got the sync mark on the mag
head lock it off sync mark for the
picture and I'll lock that off so now
the mag and the picture will run
together in sync
well that can draw something for today
is be myself with inception of people
we previously looked at
a picture and separate mad track now
we're going to look at a combined print
which is sometimes called a comm op
let's lace it up and what we have to
lace up the picture and then I'm going
to go through the sound head
and we go through the sprocket drive
here because it keeps the film nice and
taut if we didn't go through this one
here you can get some distortion on the
sound and then here we have the exciter
lamp which plays on the soundtrack of
the film
so a sound truck is actually growing
through the sound head here two years
past New Year's Eve has coincided with
we get and that's probably why this year
the fare was bigger and better than ever
before the Nancy Grace team was hunting
shooting and fishing and it seemed that
half the country was there
there are many color systems in use but
two of the most common systems Eastman
color and Technicolor with Technicolor
in the very early days they used to
shoot what we call separation negatives
which were black and white negatives and
these were called yellow cyan and
magenta and they were in a three strip
camera shot of black and white and then
they would end up with a color print
so from these ycm eggs they used to make
what was called a matrix and then dyes
used to be pressed onto the finished
stock now the type of film that would
have been made in Technicolor would have
being Robin Hood for instance made in
the mid 30s a lot of these sort of
typical thirties and forties films which
were Technicolor prints these were also
called imbibition prints and the
essential thing is that they were a dye
transfer system now after they stopped
using the separation negatives which was
ycm negs with a three strip camera they
then shot on Eastman color negative
which was a 1951 onwards but they still
made the Dyer transfer prints so they
were still made with the three strip
with the three colors on the prints
although the negatives within Cullen X
now the advantage of Technicolor is that
the prints never faded but when we talk
about Eastman color if you look at an
Eastman color print typically from the
60s or the 70s
they're often faded to what looks like a
magenta color because he dyes were
unstable and they just used to fade and
the magenta was predominantly the color
that remained and this didn't happen
with Technicolor so the other way to
distinguish between the technical and
and Eastman color that if you look at
the soundtrack on a Technicolor print
the soundtrack is always gray and white
or dark gray and white whereas on an
Eastman color print the soundtrack will
be a dark blue and white
now with
normal 35 millimeter film there's four
perforations between each frame line and
what I'm going to show you here is how
we can correct where a film has actually
gone out of rack where the distance
between the frame lines is say to purse
or three perps or five pervs now to do
this we have two types of splices which
are most commonly used the most common
one is actually this one which has the
width of splicing tape is for Perth's
wide this one has much wider splicing
tape which is eight Purves wide and this
is much better because when you use this
splicing tape you can actually splice
from frame line to frame line you're
actually covering two frames and you're
not actually having the tape coming
through the middle of the picture when
you use this one unfortunately when you
actually do a join the tape will
actually come through the middle of the
frame but I'll show you now how we do a
splice now on this frame line here
there's two Purves which I'm going to
cut and remove so with the splicer I'll
trim the two turfs away and then I shall
join it onto the frame line there so I'm
actually joining that onto that
sometimes it can be a little bit more
difficult when you're wearing gloves and
for the sake of the film I should only
take it on one side one no I'll give it
both sides do it properly I turn it
round some people in the tape on one
side but I'll do it properly and do it
in both so that's with the full perf
splicing tape and what actually happens
is that the that's where these splices
and the tape goes right through the
middle of that frame and the tape goes
right through the middle of that frame
there and unfortunately with that
splicing tape there's nothing you can do
about it but when we use this much
better splicer with the eight perf
splicing tape I'll just make a join and
I can join them both together so I'm
going to join that frame to that frame
now when I actually do this splice on
the frame line you'll see that the
actual splicing tape splicing tape
covers right up on the frame line and
then right again up against the frame
line there over those two frames so that
none of the actual tape is shown in the
frame and when that's shown you won't
see that there was any tape there at all
so that's a much better
splicer to use than that one
but what I'm going to show you now the
difference between a fine grain
duplicating positive sometimes known as
a fine grain duping clause or just a
fine grain and a black-and-white print
now fine grain drooping pars the
intention of fine grains are to make
jute negs because they are low contrast
and with a low contrast when you're
talking in film terms you need to have a
low contrast to make jupe Naik's but the
lower contrast is also useful when
you're transmitting on television so if
you're actually transmitting a print
then you do want to low contrast print a
black-and-white print is made purely for
projection purposes or for viewing
purposes now they also are different in
two aspects with the fine grain shooping
pars they have what we call negative
perforations or when I say perforations
Perth's some people call them sprocket
holes now with the neck perforations on
the fine grain drooping bars they're
actually rounded at the edges and
slightly smaller in dimension to the
Perth's on the print the reason being as
I say that the the slightly larger pervs
are better for a print man running
through projectors and you get better
registration with the neg Perth's on the
find range opening paths
when we come to negatives there are
essentially two types of negs there are
original negatives and Juke negs now
with an original neg the Negley shot in
the camera and then it's processed and
then once it's processed you've got an
uncut film which is then cut to the
editors instructions with a dupe neg the
Juke neg will won't have any splices in
the film at all because it's actually
come from an intermediate positive so if
you wanted to tell the difference
between a dupe neg and an original neg
or shall I say an original cut negative
the original cut neg will have splices
at every scene change and there won't be
any print through imagery between the
perforations whereas with a Tjuta neg
you won't have any physical splices
you'll probably see print throughs or
perforations around the edges of the
purse and you might see print through
edge markings that have been printed
through from the original or from the
print that made the duplicate if and
basically the dupe neg is the one that
can be used to make further copies but
you don't want to wear your original
negative out by making copies from that
so the original neg has to be treated
with more care than the Juke neg is the
one if you were going to do a large run
of copies which would be used
when you see a print on the screen you
will see what is a graded print and that
means that all the scenes are correctly
graded the exposures are correct there's
nothing too bright and there's nothing
too dark you know the shadows aren't too
dark that you can't see the detail but
to achieve this the negative that makes
the print has to be graded because you
might have scenes that are overexposed
and very heavy and you might have scenes
that are underexposed now to degrade a
negative to achieve a properly graded
print the lab will will use to use what
the called lawdy clips and these were
tiny little clips that went between the
perforations and these triggered the
printer machine to give the correct
exposure so that the print would have a
uniform exposure and these lawdy clips
came either side of the perforations
there would be one on one side and then
I've removed one on the other they have
to be removed because if the film is
going to tell a cine process and if
they're left in the film they will
damage the telus tinny equipment and you
have to take great care when removing
these lawdy clips by prising either a
razor blade or a very fine blade and one
side you'll see the clip is bent over
and you comprised a clip apart and then
remove it but when you do be very
careful not to damage the actual film
especially on the emulsion side because
you can scratch it and also be careful
not to damage the Perth's otherwise
you'll have to repair the Perth's the
lorry clips were superseded sometime
around say the 60s difficult to be exact
but say mid sixties you had the
introduction of what we called light
notches so instead of having these
little lorry clip pieces of metal the
side of the film would be cut with a
notch and they would either be 8 perf
notches 6 / 4 4 perf notches and these
did exactly the same thing they would
trigger the printer machine to give the
correct exposure when making the print
now there's one disadvantage with the
light notches is that if they were cut
too close
- the Perth's then the purse would
damage when you were running the film
and you'd have to make sure that the
pervs were actually in good repair
before you sent a film off for duping if
it had light notches that had been cut
too close
in 2004 it was discovered that some of
the BBC news film acquisitions contain
nitrate sections these films had to be
removed to a secure vault in the country
where the sections were identified and
removed and were transferred onto
high-definition video the story of this
project starts in 2003 when an operator
working on a black-and-white news
project came across an original item
filmed on nitrate stock this sparked a
search of the archive items around the
year in question which turned up several
others at this point it was decided to
ship a large section of suspect dates to
a secure facility for further
investigation a bomb storage bunker
specially adapted for storage of this
kind of material was found approximately
5000 cans of suspect material were
shipped to the bunker and preparations
were made for the checking and
identification of all remaining nitrate
items the checking system consisted of
three discreet processes first a visual
inspection of the complete reel under UV
light in which dark areas in the reel
indicates possible nitrate sections and
were highlighted by China graph pencil
these reels were wound manually across a
light source
checking stock identification printed on
the edge of the film any film that could
not be positively identified a safety
film had a small sliver cut from its
edge and burn tested all burn tests were
conducted in the safe area away from all
film stock if a sliver burned steadily
with a smoky orange flame leaving no
residue and gave off an acidic smell it
was identified as nitrate marked and the
entire can placed in the nitrate vault
safety film burns with a brighter
flickering flame that often goes down of
its own accord
leaving a plasticy residue and a strong
smell of burning plastic or hair many of
the items positively identified as
nitrate originated in the former Soviet
Union where the use of nitrates stopped
carried on well into the 60s
over the five weeks five thousand cans
were checked and only forty five are
found to contain nitrate film stop these
were transferred to HD cam then the
nitrate sections removed and offered to
the British Film Institute or they were
disposed of by the Essex fibra Gaede
