[Frameworks] a question about negative film stock for s-8mm

[Marco Poloni]

Dear Frameworkers,

I have a question about film stock for Super-8mm.

I am back from a scouting trip for a 16mm film project. I did all the
location filming in Super-8mm because I wanted to use the material in
the film as well. I worked with my Leicina Special with a Schneider
Optivaron 6-66mm zoom, which had just been revised, and with Kodak
Vision 3 200T and 500T, a stock that I well know and love when used in
16mm. The material was scanned in AppleProRes422 on an Ursa Diamond in
a laboratory in Turin, Italy: Nova Rolfilm. People who were
recommended to me and do very good work.

The result is very disappointing. The footage is super grainy, looking
kind of OK when I'm filming objects but terrible on skies: exploded,
saturated, not fluid. I know the problem is neither the camera nor the
lens. I have shot excellent b&w footage with this camera.

The colorist said that my material was not excellent, but well within
the normal-to-good range for S8mm. He said I should have worked with
reversal film, because Super-8 cameras were never designed and
calibrated for negative stock and cannot thus yield good results on
negative emulsion. Add to this the fact of working at 200 and 500 ISO,
maybe I had a recipe for failure inside my camera.

Since the sublime Kodachrome 40 is gone, this technician suggested I
should try Fuji reversal stock, which was Fuji's “response” to KR, and
with which other customers of the lab have excellent results in terms
of grain, “paste” (italian filmmakers use the same word for film grain
and spaghetti: pasta), fluidity. He also mentioned that in his
experience as colorist, the best S-8mm footage was produced with Nizo
cameras.

I am now overcoming my disappointment and would like to do some tests
with reversal film before moving on with the project. So I was
thinking of Fuji Velvia 50 Daylight.

Does any of you have a similar experience to mine, to share, and about
Fuji reversal stock?

Many thanks in advance.

Best,
Marco

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Sent from my computer


marco poloni
usedomer strasse 8
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skype marcopoloni