Hello. I am in a film class and for the first time ever, I am working with film. I am responsible for researching and purchasing my own film stock. I would like to learn about the different kinds of film and the differences between them. What I mean is about film speeds, exposure indexes, and all that techincal shit one has to know in order to pick the right film for the right situation and to know what it would require to light it the right way.
Do you all know of any online resources good for absolute beginners suddenly thrust into the pool, so to speak?
In case you're wondering, the "film" class before the one I'm in now used to use real film as well, so that is where one would learn the things I seek to learn now. But when I joined this college they switched the introductory film course into introductory video, but then kept the second level class as film- so that's why I am a little lost.
Thanks for the help in advance, really appreciate this community here.
Well, for Cinema Film there is Kodak and Fuji, and perhaps there may be some Black and White reversal film by other people (namely Russian and Asian make), but I don't know too much about that, because I usually shoot on Kodak. Your options are 8, 16, 35, and 65(70)mm. Super 8mm film comes in 50' cartridges, at about $15 per. 16 and up gauges are sold cents/foot (euro/meter??). Basic speeds in the larger gauges are 200 and 500. There is also the option of Daylight balanced or Tungsten. And either can be used with the proper filters in either case.
Here are some links for further reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_stock
http://www.motion.kodak.com/US/en/motion/index.htm
Once you read all that, and get familier with the terms used (Vision 2, 6250, 500T and so on), you should check out this forum:
http://www.cinematography.com <<-- THE forum for learning the "behind the camera" stuff.
I would google any term or word you don't know. Also, if you don't know anything at all about film, you might look into these forums and links.
35mm still photography is an excellent learning point to understand how Cine film works (it is somewhat of a different animal).
http://www.Photo.net
http://members.lycos.co.uk/RobertSlade/Photo/frames.html
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Basic_Photography/Exposure_controls
Hope that helps.
If your not into reading, then perhaps you shouldn't be in film. But, here is what I would do, if I didn't have even the time to read:
Buy x feet of film, depending on the length of your film. 16mm runs at 36 feet per minute at sound speed (24fps). 35mm runs at 90 feet per minute at sound speed.
SO, for a 30 minute feature, with a modest 3:1 shooting ratio, you will need (roughly) 8100 feet of film for 35mm about 3300 for 16mm.
16mm is usually cheaper than 35mm, and you can get both Kodak and Fuji in either size. Since most schools use 16mm cameras, I would use Kodak 200T Vision 2 (7217).
If your doing any outdoor work, daytime, you might go with some 7205, which is 16mm 250D Vision 2.
Total cost for 4000' feet will be roughly:
567.68 (4 rolls of 250D)
574.48 (4 rolls of 500T)
That gives you 1600 feet of daylight and 1600 of "indoor" type Tungsten balanced film.
So that's about: $1142.16
This will yield about 30 minutes of good footage.
Price Cataglogue: http://motion.kodak.com/US/en/motion/Products/Product_Information/index.htm
It's call grain, its suppose to be there.
