Film stock is photographic film Photographic film is a sheet of plastic coated with an emulsion containing light-sensitive silver halide salts (bonded by gelatin) with variable crystal sizes that determine the sensitivity, contrast and resolution of the film. When the emulsion is sufficiently exposed to light (or other forms of electromagnetic radiation such as X-rays), it forms on which motion pictures A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a story conveyed with moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects. The process of filmmaking has developed into an art form and industry are shot and reproduced.

History

1889–1899

Modern motion picture film stock was first created thanks to the introduction of a transparent flexible film base A film base is a transparent substrate which acts as a support medium for the photosensitive emulsion that lies atop it. Despite the numerous layers and coatings associated with the emulsion layer, the base generally accounts for the vast majority of the thickness of any given film stock. Historically there have been three major types of film base material, celluloid Celluloid is the name of a class of compounds created from nitrocellulose and camphor, plus dyes and other agents. Generally regarded to be the first thermoplastic, it was first created as Parkesine in 1862 and as Xylonite in 1869 before being registered as Celluloid in 1870. Celluloid is easily molded and shaped, and it was first widely used as, which was discovered and refined for photographic use thanks to the work of John Carbutt, Hannibal Goodwin The Reverend Hannibal Goodwin , an Episcopal priest at the House of Prayer in Newark, New Jersey patented a method for making transparent, flexible roll film out of nitrocellulose film base, which was used in Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope, an early machine for viewing animation. He was motivated to search for a non-breakable, and clear substance on, and George Eastman George Eastman founded the Eastman Kodak Company and invented roll film, helping to bring photography to the mainstream. Roll film was also the basis for the invention of motion picture film in 1888 by the world's first filmmaker Louis Le Prince, and a decade later by his followers Léon Bouly, Thomas Edison, the Lumière Brothers and Georges Mé. Prior to this, most motion picture experiments were performed using paper roll film, which made it difficult if not impossible to view the developed film as a single continuous moving image without other complex apparatuses. Furthermore, the paper film was much more fragile than celluloid.

Eastman Kodak Eastman Kodak Company is a multinational US corporation which produces imaging and photographic materials and equipment. Long known for its wide range of photographic film products, Kodak is re-focusing on two major markets: digital photography and digital printing would become the first to make celluloid film commercially available, starting in 1889; Thomas Henry Blair emerged in 1891 as the first major competitor for supplying celluloid film. The stock had a frosted base in order to facilitate easier viewing by transmitted back light, and the emulsions from each company were orthochromatic Orthochromatic photography refers to a photographic emulsion that is sensitive to only blue and green light, and thus can be processed with a red safelight. Using it, blue objects appear lighter and red ones darker because of increased blue sensitivity. Standard panchromatic film can be used with a cyan-lens-filter to produce similar effect. By November 1891 William Dickson William Kennedy Laurie Dickson was a French-Anglo-Scottish inventor who devised an early motion picture camera under the employ of Thomas Edison (post-dating the work of Louis Le Prince) at Edison's lab was using Blair's stock for Kinetoscope The Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device. Though not a movie projector—it was designed for films to be viewed individually through the window of a cabinet housing its components—the Kinetoscope introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic projection before the advent of video: it creates tests, and Blair's company remained a main supplier of film to the Edison lab for the next five years. Blair's operation was also crucial to the continued development of motion picture technology through 1892 and 1893, due to temporary shutdowns at Eastman because of problems with their production setup. Eventually patent lawsuits in 1893 led to Blair leaving his American company and starting again in Britain, which allowed Eastman to gradually fill the entirety of the Edison lab's film orders. Blair's new headquarters allowed him to supply many of the key European filmmaking pioneers, including Birt Acres, Robert Paul Robert Paul was a Canadian figure skater, who competed in pairs with Barbara Wagner. He was born in Toronto. From their start as a team in 1952, they captured five Canadian titles and four world titles, and capped their career by winning the gold medal at the 1960 Winter Olympics, George Albert Smith, Charles Urban Charles Urban was an Anglo-American film producer and distributor, and one of the most significant figures in British cinema before the First World War. He was a pioneer of the documentary, educational, propaganda and scientific film, as well as being the producer of the world's first successful motion picture colour system, and the Lumiere Brothers The Lumière brothers, Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas and Louis Jean (5 October 1864, Besançon, France – 6 June 1948, Bandol), were among the earliest filmmakers in history. (Appropriately, "lumière" translates as "light" in English.). The American Blair company was to be short-lived, however, as by 1896 the new movie projector A movie projector is an opto-mechanical device for displaying moving pictures by projecting them on a projection screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices, are present in movie cameras would demand a fully transparent film base that they had difficulty supplying. Eastman shortly thereafter bought the company out, thus consolidating its position as the leading supplier of film stock from then on. These developments also led Louis Lumiere The Lumière brothers, Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas and Louis Jean (5 October 1864, Besançon, France – 6 June 1948, Bandol ), were among the earliest filmmakers. (Appropriately, "lumière" translates as "light" in English.) to work with Victor Planchon on adapting the Lumiere "Blue Label" (Etiquette Bleue) photographic plate emulsion for use on celluloid roll film, which began in early 1896 and was brought to full production capacity by the following year.

Eastman's first motion picture film stock incorporated the same emulsion as was used for its still film, which was, like nearly all film emulsion of the time, orthochromatic Orthochromatic photography refers to a photographic emulsion that is sensitive to only blue and green light, and thus can be processed with a red safelight. Using it, blue objects appear lighter and red ones darker because of increased blue sensitivity. Standard panchromatic film can be used with a cyan-lens-filter to produce similar effect-sensitive. Film at this point did not have a strictly defined speed; rather, the orthochromatic quality of the stock allowed the film to be processed under a red safelight Safelight is a light source suitable for use in a photographic darkroom. It provides illumination without the wavelengths of the light spectrum to which the material in use is sensitive. A safelight usually consists of an ordinary lightbulb in a housing with a coloured filter. It is possible to buy special bulbs and fluorescent tubes which are, while the density was checked as development was occurring. Standard practice until the end of the silent era A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially spoken dialogue. In entertainment silent films the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards. The idea of combining motion pictures with recorded sound is nearly as old as film itself, but because of the technical challenges involved, involved tearing off several inches from the start of each shot and testing development on it. Positive stock was created that would be slower, finer-grained, and of a higher contrast than a negative; all of these characteristics remain consistent to this day.

From 1895, Eastman supplied their motion picture roll film in rolls of 65 feet, while Blair's rolls were 75 feet. If longer lengths were needed, the unexposed negative rolls could be cemented in a darkroom A darkroom is a room that can be made completely dark to allow the processing of light sensitive photographic materials, including photographic film and photographic paper. Darkrooms have been created and used since the inception of photography in the early 1800s. Darkrooms have many various manifestations, from the elaborate space used by Ansel, but this was largely undesirable by most narrative filmmakers. Actuality films The actuality film is a non-fiction film genre that like the documentary film uses footage of real events, places, and things, yet unlike the documentary is not structured into a larger argument, picture of the phenomenon or coherent whole. In practice, actuality films preceded the emergence of the documentary. During the era of early cinema, were much more eager to undertake this method, however, in order to depict longer actions, and created cemented rolls as long as 1000 feet. American Mutoscope and Biograph The American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, was a motion picture company founded in 1895 and active until 1928. It was the first company in the United States devoted entirely to film production and exhibition, and for two decades was one of the most prolific, releasing over three thousand short films and twelve feature films was the first known company to use this, for the Jeffries James Jackson Jeffries (April 15, 1875 in Carroll, Ohio – March 3, 1953 in Burbank, California) was a world heavyweight boxing champion-Sharkey fight on November 3, 1899.

1900–1919

Work on improved film stocks was rather slow in the first decade of the new century, as the equipment and formats This list of film formats catalogues formats developed for shooting or viewing motion pictures, ranging from the Chronophotographe format from 1888, to mid-20th century formats such as the 1953 CinemaScope format, to more recent formats such as the 1992 IMAX HD format. The formats listed all should have been used in the field or for test shooting,, particularly, were still in the process of gradually standardizing. With a large number of differing film gauges Film gauge is a physical property of film stock which defines its width. Traditionally the major film gauges in usage are 8 mm, 16 mm, 35 mm, and 65/70 mm . There have been other historic gauges in the past, especially in the silent era, most notably 9.5 mm film, as well as a panoply of others ranging from 3 mm to 75 mm in use, supplying a market still in its infancy was likely a difficult task, and Eastman was able to retain the majority of the market share without making major adjustments to the emulsion; their only major change was to increase the length of rolls to 200 feet. Lumiere, on the other hand, reformulated their stock to match the speed of Eastman film, which became known as "Violet Label" (Etiquette Violette). Blair retired back to the United States after selling his English company to Pathe Pathé or Pathé Frères is the name of various French businesses founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France in 1907, who began using the facilities for producing their own film stock. This sale had future repercussions among film preservation, as Pathe began to supplement their operation in 1910 by purchasing film prints in order to strip the silver and emulsion from the film base for recoating.

As the quantity of film and filmmakers grew in these early years, the demand for standardization increased in prominence. 35 mm film 35 mm film is the basic film gauge most commonly used for chemical still photography and motion pictures, and remains relatively unchanged since its introduction in 1892 by William Dickson and Thomas Edison, using film stock supplied by George Eastman. The photographic film is cut into strips 35 millimeters (about 1 3/8 inches) wide — hence the, largely thanks to the popularity of the Edison and Lumiere camera lines (and their often unauthorized clones) had begun to stabilize as the dominant gauge, but still was usually purchased unperforated, and subsequently punched by the consumer with perforation equipment designed by third parties. Although Edison (4 square perfs per frame on each side) and Lumiere (1 rounded perf per frame on each side) formats - based on the camera designs - were the most common, the perforators were not always precise, and it could be difficult to create prints for the opposite perforation format. Edison's organization of the Motion Picture Patents Trust The Motion Picture Patents Company , founded in December 1908, was a trust of all the major American film companies (Edison, Biograph, Vitagraph, Essanay, Selig, Lubin, Kalem, American Star, American Pathé), the leading distributor (George Kleine) and the biggest supplier of raw film, Eastman Kodak. The MPPC ended the domination of foreign films, though largely ineffective in controlling the burgeoning film industry, was able in 1909 to agree to what would become the de facto standard: 35 mm gauge, with Edison perforations and a 1.33 aspect ratio The aspect ratio of an image is the ratio of the width of the image to its height, expressed as two numbers separated by a colon. That is, for an x:y aspect ratio, no matter how big or small the image is, if the width is divided into x units of equal length and the height is measured using this same length unit, the height will be measured to be y. These parameters have remained largely constant to the present day.^[1]

The Bell and Howell Böwe Bell & Howell is a U.S.-based former manufacturer of motion picture machinery company perforators entered the market in 1908 and very shortly were recognized as exceptional enough to pervade the American industry. Eastman Kodak was also quick to opt to use the machine to pre-perforate their films, which assured the perforation specifications being adopted as the world standard not long after. These perforations, known as BH-type, remain the standard for original camera negative The original camera negative is the film in a motion picture camera which captures the original image. This is the film from which all other copies will be made. It is known as raw stock prior to exposure film.

The belle epoque era also saw the creation of numerous small, local film suppliers, the vast majority of which were short-lived due to their smaller production batches, slower emulsions (which were also usually blue-only sensitive rather than orthochromatic), and inferior quality control. Among these companies, Agfa Agfa-Gevaert N.V. (Euronext: AGFB, FWB: AGE) is a European multinational corporation that develops, manufactures, and distributes analogue and digital products and systems for the making, processing, and reproduction of images. It is an imaging technologies company with three main divisions: healthcare, graphics, and materials began to produce motion picture film in 1913, but remained a largely local supplier until World War I boycotts of popular French, American and Italian films allowed the newly-founded UFA film studio to flourish and thus boosted Agfa's orders.

Among the foremost problems with the film stocks of this era was that they were all manufactured on a nitrate Nitrocellulose is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to nitric acid or another powerful nitrating agent. When used as a propellant or low-order explosive, it is also known as guncotton film base A film base is a transparent substrate which acts as a support medium for the photosensitive emulsion that lies atop it. Despite the numerous layers and coatings associated with the emulsion layer, the base generally accounts for the vast majority of the thickness of any given film stock. Historically there have been three major types of film base, which was a derivate of guncotton and thus highly flammable. Additionally, nitrate fires were notoriously difficult to put out, as even full submersion in water will not stop the fire. This had led to a significant number of fatal accidents in theatrical projection booths, where the heat of the projector lamp made ignition most likely. As the amateur filmmaking market slowly developed at the beginning of the 20th century, Kodak began to develop a more heat-resistant "safety base" which could be easily projected without incident even at home by those with no prior experience. Early tests in 1909 showed cellulose diacetate to be a viable replacement base, and Kodak began selling acetate-base films the following year in 22 mm widths for Edison's work on the Home Kinetoscope, which was commercially released in 1912. Eastman Kodak introduced a non-inflammable 35 mm film stock in spring 1909. However, the plasticizers Plasticizers or dispersants are additives that increase the plasticity or fluidity of the material to which they are added; these include plastics, cement, concrete, wallboard, and clay. Although the same compounds are often used for both plastics and concretes the desired effect is slightly different. The worldwide market for plasticizers in 2004 used to make the film flexible evaporated too quickly, making the film dry and brittle, causing splices to part and perforations to tear. By 1911 the major American film studios were back to using nitrate stock.^[2] In the wake of the availability of safety film, more amateur formats began to adopt it, and several, including Kodak's own 16 mm 16mm film refers to a popular, economical gauge of film used for motion pictures and non-theatrical film making. 16mm refers to the width of the film. Other common film gauges include 8mm and 35mm format, were designed specifically so that the only film stocks released for the format specifications would be safety base.

Kodak also continued to refine their camera negative stock during the late 1910s, releasing Cine Negative Film Type E in 1916 and Type F (later known as Negative Film Par Speed Type 1201) in 1917. As both of these orthochromatic films were no faster than previous offerings, it has been suggested that the improvements most likely were in regard to granularity and sharpness.

1920s

The 1920s proved to be the decade in which film stock manufacturers began to diversify their offerings. Prior to this, each manufacturer only offered one negative stock (usually orthochromatic) and one print stock. In 1920, a variant of Type F film known as X-back was created in order to counteract the effects of static electricity on the film, which can cause sparking and create odd exposure patterns on the film. This was created through the use of a resin backing on the film, which also had the effect of rendering the film too opaque to allow focusing through the back of the film, a common technique for many of the contemporary cameras of that era. As the static electricity was more likely to occur in colder climates, the X-back stock was mainly popular in the East Coast of the US. Other manufacturers also began to emerge in the 1920s as well, including American E.I. Dupont de Nemours E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company is an American chemical company that was founded in July 1802 as a gunpowder mill by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. DuPont is currently the world's second largest chemical company (behind BASF) in terms of market capitalization and fourth (behind BASF, Dow Chemical and Ineos) in revenue. Its stock price is a in 1926 and Belgian Gevaert Agfa-Gevaert N.V. (Euronext: AGFB, FWB: AGE) is a European multinational corporation which develops, manufactures and distributes analogue and digital products and systems for the making, processing, and reproduction of images. It is an imaging technologies company with three main divisions: healthcare, graphics and materials in 1925.

Conversion of the industry from orthochromatic Orthochromatic photography refers to a photographic emulsion that is sensitive to only blue and green light, and thus can be processed with a red safelight. Using it, blue objects appear lighter and red ones darker because of increased blue sensitivity. Standard panchromatic film can be used with a cyan-lens-filter to produce similar effect to panchromatic Panchromatic film is a type of black-and-white photographic film that is sensitive to all wavelengths of visible light. A panchromatic film therefore produces a realistic image of a scene. Almost all modern photographic film is panchromatic, but some types are orthochromatic and are not sensitive to certain wavelengths of light. As naturally stocks was initiated by Kodak over the course of the decade. Created in 1913 for use in early color film processes such as Kinemacolor Kinemacolor was the first successful color motion picture process, used commercially from 1908 to 1914. It was invented by George Albert Smith of Brighton, England in 1906, and launched by Charles Urban's Urban Trading Co. of London in 1908. From 1909 on, the process was known as Kinemacolor. It was a two-color additive color process,, panchromatic was first used in a black and white film for exterior sequences in Queen of the Sea (1918) and originally only available as a special order product.^[3] The stock's increased sensitivity in the red-light range meant greater overall light sensitivity and made it an attractive option for day for night shooting. Kodak financed a feature in 1922 shot entirely with the panchromatic stock, The Headless Horseman, in order to promote the stock when it was introduced as a standard option; however, the fairly higher price of the stock compared to the orthochromatic emulsion meant that no other films would be shot entirely with the panchromatic stock for several years. The cross-cutting between panchromatic and orthochromatic stocks also was noted to cause continuity problems particularly with regard to costume tones, and thus was often avoided. The dominance of orthochromatic film lasted until the mid 1920s due to Kodak's lack of competition in the panchromatic market; Gevaert emerged onto the market in 1925 with a dual product line of an orthochromatic stock with limited color sensitivity as well as a full panchromatic stock, Pan-23. This latter product likely encouraged Kodak to respond, and in 1926 they lowered the price of panchromatic stock to parity with the standard orthochromatic offering. Without any economic barrier remaining, the panchromatic stock began to overtake the orthochromatic stock's market share within a few years, as the cinematographers gradually became more familiar with the stock.^[4] With similar panchromatic offerings also made around the same period by Agfa and Pathe, the shift to panchromatic stocks had largely been completed by 1928, and Kodak discontinued orthochromatic stock in 1930.^[5]

Color films

Experiments with color films were made as early as the late 19th century, but practical color film was not commercially viable until 1908, and for amateur use when Kodak introduced Kodachrome Kodachrome is the trademarked brand name of a type of color reversal film that was manufactured by Eastman Kodak from 1935 to 2009. Kodachrome was the first successfully mass-marketed color still film using a subtractive method, in contrast to earlier additive "screenplate" methods such as Autochrome and Dufaycolor, and remained the for 16 mm in 1935 and 8 mm in 1936.

Before 1941, commercially successful color processes used special cameras loaded with black and white separation stocks rather than color negative. Kinemacolor Kinemacolor was the first successful color motion picture process, used commercially from 1908 to 1914. It was invented by George Albert Smith of Brighton, England in 1906, and launched by Charles Urban's Urban Trading Co. of London in 1908. From 1909 on, the process was known as Kinemacolor. It was a two-color additive color process, (1908–1914), Technicolor Technicolor is the trademark for a series of color film processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation , now a division of Technicolor SA. Technicolor was the second major color film process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color motion picture process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952. Technicolor became known processes 1 through 4 (1917–1954), and Cinecolor used one, two or three strips of monochrome film stock sensitized to certain primary colors or exposed behind color filters in special cameras.

Technicolor introduced a color reversal In photography, a reversal film is a type of photographic film that produces a positive image on a transparent base. The film is processed to produce transparencies, in contrast with negative and print. Reversal film is produced in various sizes, from 35 mm, roll film to 8x10" sheet film stock, called Monopack, for location shooting in 1941; it was ultimately a 35 mm version of Kodachrome that could be used in standard motion picture cameras. Eastman Kodak introduced their first 35mm color negative stock, Eastman Color Negative film 5247, in 1950. A higher quality version in 1952, Eastman Color Negative film 5248, was quickly adopted by Hollywood for color motion picture production, replacing both the expensive three-strip Technicolor process and Monopack.

Classification and properties

There are several variables in classifying stocks; in practice, one orders raw stock by a code number, based on desired sensitivity to light.

Base

A piece of film consists of a light-sensitive emulsion An emulsion is a mixture of two or more immiscible (unblendable) liquids. Emulsions are part of a more general class of two-phase systems of matter called colloids. Although the terms colloid and emulsion are sometimes used interchangeably, emulsion tends to imply that both the dispersed and the continuous phase are liquid. In an emulsion, one applied to a tough, transparent base A film base is a transparent substrate which acts as a support medium for the photosensitive emulsion that lies atop it. Despite the numerous layers and coatings associated with the emulsion layer, the base generally accounts for the vast majority of the thickness of any given film stock. Historically there have been three major types of film base, sometimes attached to anti-halation backing An anti-halation backing is a layer found in modern photographic films. It is placed between the light-sensitive emulsion and the tough film base, or sometimes on the back of the film base. The light that passes through the emulsion and the base is absorbed by the opaque anti-halation layer. This keeps that light from reflecting off the pressure or "rem-jet" layer (now only on camera films). Originally the highly flammable cellulose nitrate Nitrocellulose is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to nitric acid or another powerful nitrating agent. When used as a propellant or low-order explosive, it is also known as guncotton was used. In the 1930s, film manufacturers introduced "safety film" with a cellulose triacetate plastic base. All amateur film stocks were safety film, but the use of nitrate persisted for professional releases. Kodak discontinued the manufacture of nitrate base in 1951, and the industry transitioned entirely to safety film in 1951 in the United States and by 1955 internationally. Since the late 1990s, almost all release prints have used polyester film stock.

Emulsion

The emulsion consists of silver halide grains suspended in a gelatin colloid; in the case of color film, there are three layers of silver halide, which are mixed with color couplers and interlayers that filter specific light spectra. These end up creating yellow, cyan, and magenta layers in the negative after development.

Chemistry

Development chemicals applied to an appropriate film can produce either a positive (showing the same densities and colors as the subject) or negative image (with dark highlights, light shadows, and, in principle, complementary colors). The first films were darkened by light: negative films. Later films that produce a positive image became known as reversal films; processed transparent film of this type can be projected onto a screen. Negative images need to be transferred onto photographic paper or other substrate which reverses the image again, producing a final positive image. Creating a positive image from a negative film can also be done by scanning the negative to create a computer file which can then be reversed by software.

Image record

Different emulsions and development processes exist for a variety of image recording possibilities: the two most common of which are black and white, and color. However, there are also variant types, such as infrared film (in black and white or false color); specialist technical films, such as those used for X-rays; and obsolete processes, such as orthochromatic film. Generally, however, the vast majority of stock used today is "normal" (visible spectrum) color, although "normal" black and white also commands a significant minority percentage.

Physical characteristics

Film is also classified according to its gauge and the arrangement of its perforations— gauges range from 8 mm to 70 mm or more, while perforations may vary in shape, pitch, and positioning. The film is also distinguished by how it is wound with regard to perforations and base or emulsion side, as well as whether it is packaged around a core, a daylight spool, or within a cartridge. Depending on the manufacturing processes and camera equipment, lengths can vary anywhere from 25 to 2000 feet. Common lengths include 25 feet for 8 mm, 50 feet for Super 8, 100 and 400 feet for 16 mm, 400 and 1000 feet for 35 mm, and 1000 for 65/70 mm.

Responsivity

A critical property of a stock is its film speed, determined by ASA or its sensitivity to light listed by a measurement on the raw stock which must be chosen with care. Speed determines the range of lighting conditions under which the film can be shot, and is related to granularity and contrast, which influence the look of the image. The stock manufacturer will usually give an exposure index (EI) number equal to the ASA which they recommend exposing for. However, factors such as forced or non-standard development (such as bleach bypass or cross processing), compensation for filters or shutter angle, as well as intended under- and over-exposure may cause the cinematographer to actually "rate" the stock differently from the EI. This new rating is not a change to the stock itself - it is merely a way of calculating exposure without figuring out the compensation after each light reading.

Color temperature

Another important quality of color film stock in particular is its color balance, which is defined by the color temperature at which it accurately records white. Tungsten lighting is defined at 3200 K, which is considered "warmer" in tone and shifted towards orange; daylight is defined at 5600 K, which is considered "colder" and shifted towards blue. This means that unfiltered tungsten stock will look normal shot under tungsten lights, but blue if shot during daylight. Obversely, daylight stock shot in daylight will look normal, but orange if shot under tungsten lights. Color temperature issues such as these can be compensated for by other factors such as lens filters and color gels placed in front of the lights. The color temperature of a film stock is generally indicated next to the film speed number - e.g. 500T stock is color film stock with an ASA of 500 and balanced for tungsten light; 250D would have an ASA of 250 and be balanced for daylight.

While black and white film has no color temperature itself, the silver halide grains themselves tend to be slightly more responsive to blue light, and therefore will have daylight and tungsten speeds - e.g. Kodak's Double-X stock is rated 250D/200T, since the tungsten light will give slightly less exposure than an equivalent amount of daylight.

Deterioration

All plastic is subject to deterioration through physical or chemical means, and thus, motion picture film is subject to the same deterioration. Cellulose nitrate, cellulose diacetate and triacetate are known to be unstable mediums: improperly preserved film can deteriorate in a period of time much faster than many photographs or other visual presentations.

Cellulose nitrate, because of its unstable chemistry, eventually breaks down, releasing nitric acid, further catalyzing the decomposition. In the final stages of celluloid decomposition, the film turns into a rust-like powder.

Likewise, tri-acetate stock is not invulnerable from deterioration. Because of the small gauge of the film, owners of home-made films often find that their film can become shrunken and brittle to the point where the film is unwatchable in the space of a few years. In general, decaying acetate film breaks down into acetic acid, and similar to celluloid decomposition, leads to an auto-catylictic breakdown of the base that cannot be reversed. The result of the acetic acid released is a strong odor of vinegar, which is why the decay process in the archival community is known as "vinegar syndrome".

Modern polyester-based stocks are far more stable by comparison and are rated to last hundreds of years.

Intermediate and print stocks

The distinction between camera stocks and print stocks involves a difference in the recording process. When the work print or edit master has been approved, the Original Camera Negative (OCN) is assembled by a negative cutter using the edited work print or EDL (edit decision list) as a guide. A series of Answer Prints are then made from the OCN. During the Answer Print stage, corrections in the film's density and color are corrected (timed) to the filmmakers' tastes. Interpositive (IP) prints are struck from the OCN, checked to make sure they look the same as the custom timed Answer Print, and then each IP is used to make one or more Dupe Negative (DN) copies. The release prints are then generated from the DN(s). Recently, with the development of digital intermediate (DI), it has become possible to completely edit, composite visual effects, and color grade the image digitally at full resolution and bit-depth. In this workflow, the answer print is generated digitally and then written out to the IP stage using a laser film printer.

Due to the specialized nature of the exposure and the higher degree of control afforded by the film lab equipment, these intermediate and release stocks are specially designed solely for these applications and are generally not feasible for camera shooting. Because intermediates only function to maintain the image information accurately across duplication, each manufacturer tends to only produce one or two different intermediate stocks. Similarly, release print stocks usually are available only in two varieties: a "normal" print or a deluxe print (on more-costly print film like Kodak Vision Premiere) with slightly greater saturation and contrast.

See also

• Direct film
• Film format
• Film preservation
• List of film formats
• List of motion picture film stocks
• Color motion picture film
• Photographic film with emphasis on film for still photography.

References

Bibliography

• Koszarski, Richard (1994). An Evening's Entertainment: The Age of the Silent Feature Picture, 1915-1928, University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-08535-0.
• Salt, Barry (1992). Film Style and Technology: History and Analysis. London: Starword.

Notes

1. ^ The gauge and perforations are more or less identical to modern film stock; the full silent ratio is also generally still used as the film gate in movie cameras, although portions of the image are later cropped out in post-production and projection.
2. ^ Eileen Bowser, The Transformation of Cinema 1907–1915, Charles Scribner's Sons 1990, p. 74–75. ISBN 0-684-18414-1.
3. ^ Koszarski (1994). p. 140.
4. ^ Salt (1992). p. 179. "There was apparently some question as to differences in relative contrast between the two stocks. As Barry Salt notes, "this claim is almost impossible to substantiate now, given the extreme difficulty there is in seeing a reasonable number of original prints of films shot on both stocks."
5. ^ Kodak: Chronology of Motion Picture Films, 1889 to 1939.

Further reading

• Ascher, Steve and Edward Pincus. The Filmmaker's Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for the Digital Age. New York: Penguin Group, 1999.
• Cinetech. Motion Picture Stock Time Line, 1999. Retrieved 2007-07-09.
• Fujifilm UK. A Brief History of Fujifilm, 2001. Retrieved 2007-07-09.
• Fujifilm USA. Motion Picture Chronology, 2001. Retrieved 2007-07-09.
• Kodak. Chronology of Motion Picture Films, 2005. Retrieved 2009-06-29.

External links

• Fuji motion picture stocks
• Kodak motion picture stocks

Categories: Film and video technology | Storage media

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