Photography = Pictures.....

The dryness and lack of images on a blog about an awesome analogue film is not lost on me. In many ways it's a bit indefensible and revealing of my cynical business approach to this idea.
I'll have a stab at defending it. My drum scanner, my printers, my entire creative life in fact is currently in storage and totally inaccessible for use. I don't want to put up second rate snap shots from my phone, i'd like to avoid linking to others images unless it's part of an analysis. Mostly though I conclude that because I cannot create with my own tools, for this period i'm occupying myself buy exploring launching this film.

Oh and i've hit on a simple name...... CineVision!?

8fps

My plan is un-folding. The first stage, simply being to explore if the process of removing remjet is commercially viable. This after some phone calls to people with a vast knowledge of motion picture film, it appears to perfectly possible as a custom process. Leading to the obvious question, how much!

I have managed to find a few companies whom are selling off ECN2 processing machines of various vintages. There's a great appeal to think of owning the equipment and performing the whole process in house. But in London with space at an all time high price I doubt I would be in a position to explore this option. I've floated the idea of a Kickstarter in my head but it's too early. So i'm pushing on with using one of the few commercial cine labs left to quote on a custom setup for stripping the rem jet. My understanding at this stage is that the first bath and the jet/washer stage will be utilised then the subsequent development stages bypassed until the film reaches final rinse then into the dryer, of course all in absolute darkness!
Some serious testing will required. I also have queries about the films change in sensitivity and if there's any effect from film swelling.... all to be answered I hope.

Millions of feet....

Cine-Experiment

In a nutshell this blog will seek to map my exploration of an idea..... Taking readily available 35mm motion picture film, both fresh and old and re-purposing it for use by any 35mm still's photographer.

Sounds simple but alas there are many layers to be solved (these are just the ones i know of!)

Firstly, the most prominent issue is that colour movie stock has a carbon black layer called Rem-Jet. 

I believe this layer enhances anti-halation and helps reduce static during shooting. This layer is removed in motion picture films native development process, ECN2 with a high PH bath and water jets before passing on to development stages. But for the film to become usable in C41 colour process familiar to most still's photographers it must be removed before even being shot! You might think it ok to just use the film and then drop it in for processing..... The Rem-jet will ruin the colour chemistry and damage the negative in the process and probably make you very unpopular with your local lab. 

I must come clean early on and say the biggest impetus for this journey is the incredibly successful CineStill film from America and the abundance of affordable rolls of 35mm motion picture film I come across. 

My feeling is that is must be possible to create a process that leads to rolls of film that are substantially cheaper than the retail price of CineStill's 800T. Of course I could be wrong! 

In part I also want the process to be robust enough that any colour film stock can have it's remjet removed be spooled up for still use. This would open up a world of millions of feet of film stock to be played with. 

Watch this space......