16mm film

1. 16mm film George Bishop and Jordan Weber

2. What is 16mm film? • 16 mm film refers to a gauge of film used for industrial and educational film making. • 16mm refers to the width of film. • 16mm can be used for TV production and for low budget films that can’t afford 35mm film e.g. Kevin Smith’s 1994 film “Clerks” was shot using 16mm film as the film cost under $30’000. • 16mm film has perforations down both sides at every frame line. When loading the film, the reel would get attached to the perforations to move it along easily.

3. Super 16mm • As you can tell from the diagram below, the super 16 has an expanded picture area and a higher aspect ratio compared to the standard 16mm film. Some higher budget shows use super 16 such as BBC1’s Merlin.

4. Loading the film • This is fairly similar to processing film in photography. • The film must be loaded in perfect darkness. • You insert the film into a black tent along with the magazine and load the film inside there. Remember, the film must not be exposed to any light. • Your hands are the only thing to enter into the tent, so you essentially go through the loading process without being able to see. You need to be able to do this with your eyes closed. • First you practice loading 16mm film magazines using a dummy roll of used 16mm film over and over again until you have mastered the technique.

5. 16mm film canisters • When using several cans of 16mm film stock, it can get rather confusing as to what string of film was exposed and what is fresh. • There is a standard colour coding system for 16mm film stock that you can use to identify them on set. • If there is black tape on a film canister that means it has been exposed and you should not load it. Those with white tape are unexposed and ready to be loaded into a 16mm film magazine. Never deviate from this formula.

6. Editing 16mm film • First you need to make sure you have developed your film to that you can see what you are editing, second so that it doesn’t get overexposed. • Lace the film through the machine, this way you can use some knobs to twiddle around with to either fast forward or rewinding the film, the selected frame of the film will appear on the screen to show you which parts you’re editing. • You can either also do some fast motion or slow motion in your film with some of the standard effects.

7. How to project a 16mm film

8. Directors still use 16mm film todayand films shot in 16mm film • Darren Aronofsky has directed well received films using 16mm film such as a remake of the film “Black Swan” (2010) and “The Wrestler” (2008). Both these films have won many academy awards. • In 2006, Stephen Fears directed “The Queen” which was also shot in 16mm film and was also very well received. • In 2007, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo directed the sequel “28 Weeks Later” using 16mm film. The original film “28 Days Later” (2002), was directed by Danny Boyle and was shot entirely on digital video.

9. Difference between shooting digitally and on 16mm film • 16mm film has a much crisper image than on digital. • Digital is much more portable than 16mm film meaning that it’s much smaller than 16mm.