To Boldly Go: a Starters Guide to Hand Made and D-I-Y Films to Boldly Go: a Starters Guide to Hand Made and D-I-Y Films
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To Boldly Go: a starters guide to hand made and d-i-y films To Boldly Go: a starters guide to hand made and d-i-y films What is most exciting about this type of filmmaking is not knowing exactly what will result. One then needs the lyrical, musical and cinematic taste to sculpt the result into a film which best demonstrates, exploits and celebrates the results of the experiments. If you stick with good ingredients you will in- evitably have happy results. Then again, not all experiments work but what you learn there can often be employed in a new direction or experiment to actually work. It’s also very important to have fun in and a love of the process. (Jeff Scher) It’s fun to handle film as a celluloid canvas rather than as a fragile This is a booklet for both those eager to begin in hand made film and carrier of images only to be handled by lab technicians. those who already started but are keen to know more. It signifies a hope You can experiment and create the most beautiful images ever. Helen Hill (1970 - 2007) and commitment to making sure these techniques, tricks and handy tips remain openly available to all who might need them. Let’s not keep any Recipes for Disaster: a handcrafted film cookbooklet secrets! These (chemical) receipts, printing processes, after dev. Effects, http://www.angoleiro.com/cine texts/recipes for disaster hill.pdf emulsion extras and celluloid experiments should be absolutely public. Let’s make hand-made d-i-y films! Let’s make a lot! Images and texts have been gathered, harvested, illegally used, replenished and inspired by a plethora of found sources including those of David Leis- ter, Greg Pope, Dirk De Bruyn, Maia Cybelle Carpenter, Frank Bruinsma, Steve Sanguedolce, Rebecca Moran, Jurgen Reble, Ben Russell, Jeff Scher and many many others. Thank you all. All info and a smorgasbord of extra will shortly aditionally become avail- able via www.filmwerkplaats.wormweb.nl. And if you yourself have any- thing to share, contribute or want to complain about something please feel free to spam me on [email protected]. Esther Urlus (Rotterdam, January 2008) This booklet is made possible thanks to the IFFR 2008/Starting from Scratch, WORM and Erwin van ‘t Hart. Designed by Alfred Boland. printed at KNUST, Nijmegen HOW TO START YOUR OWN D-I-Y 16MM LAB DEVELOPING starting LIST You can make film without a camera. In fact, THE ‘HAND JOB’. - Space you can make completely dark pref- the tape splicer is the number one item to set Small lengths of film (6’ - 20’) can be tray erable (but not essential) with a water tap your sites on if you are serious about putting developed one at a time using a sees - saw - Red safe light for printing and dev. BW films together. ‘U’ motion in a ‘universal’ developer. Or film printfilm (some red filter hose for a tube can be laid flat submerged in the tray of de- light may do as well) BUT NICE EXTRAS ARE veloper and ‘rolled’ back and forth in a spool- - Buckets and photo developer trays - A 16mm developing tank (Russian LOMO ing motion for the required times. Bigger - Vinyl clothes line and clothes pegs to let or the MORSE G3) amounts (till 50 ft) can be developed spagetti your film dry - Flatbed editing table (4 plates or more) wise in buckets but it will need much more - Rubber or latex gloves such as Steenbeck or Cinemonta working solution of your chemicals. Obvious- - Hand held torch - Neutral density filters for printing (cheap ly negative 16mm is done in complete dark- - Pieces of plate glass for funky contact and handy is to buy a sheet of 0.3 ND lamp ness! Use dilutions for negative film for neg. printing (A4 or 5) filter and cut it into small pieces) stock, and for print stock use the dilution for - ’Universal’ or ‘Polycon’ developer for BW - 16mm camera (a wind-up Bolex is the ideal paper. Timing is a matter of trial, error and print and negative plus Fix and payable d-i-y camera) test strips, but the neg. times should follow the instructions on the bottle. Print stock AND MOST important will usually take 3 1/2 minutes. But as you - A 16mm splicer and tape are doing this under a red safe light... when it looks good it’s done! Repeat the procedure with rinse and fix. And wear rubber gloves, as chemistry can be bad for your health. The method described here is obviously not industry standard. This is literally a hands on approach, so there may be a few finger- prints, hairs and dust on the film once you are done. THE ‘RUSSIAN TANK’ Note: When using chemicals it is best to be aware of A Bakelite container that contain a plastic health and safety issues. Adequate ventilation should be in spiral onto which you can load both you neg. place esp. when developing and fixing the film, and rubber gloves or tongs should be used to avoid skin contact with and print stocks for developing. They can chemicals while handling film whilst in dev and fix. take two times 50 feet of 16mm film. The film is loaded onto this spindle by attaching the film to the middle and slowly spinning it clock wise like a top until it is all wound onto the spiral grooves ready for developing. But practice with some scrap film in daylight a few times until you get the hang of it. THE MORSE G3 tank Film is wound on to a spindle (of course) but it is attached to another spindle in the tank, and then the film is wound back and forth in a smooth and orderly fashion for what seems like an interminable amount of time. It gives good clean results for the patient and you can do a whole 100’ roll in one go. Note: by adding water for a pre-rinse before the de- veloper was added made the developing more even as the film was them already wetted and willing to receive the developer, and this also avoided the film sticking together. RUSSIAN FILMPROCESSING TANK MORSE G-3 DEVELOPING TANK INSTRUCTIONS Very handy to have, but very fragile and... How to get the film in the tank Operation They are not manufactured anymore and (do this in complete dark) The Morse G-3 developer is a therefor very hard to find. If parts of it Two 50ft layers of 16mm 100ft in total manually operated rewind pro- break or get lost you’re very unlucky as Put the end of the film in the 2 slits of the cessing tank 16mm and 35 mm they’re not replacable at all. bottem-spiral (nr.7 And 5) and turn it around motion picture film. The G-3 re- The tank in mint condition can hold one or the corner (always put the perforation quires a minumum of 32 ounces two layers of each 50 ft or 15m. Of super8 down). Hold the film with your finger down of solution for processing 16 and/or 16mm or one layer of 35mm. at the outer edge of the spiral. Place with mm and 64 ounces for 35 mm. your other hand the middlespiral nr.8 (With Film may be processed complete THE parts the transparant ring nr. 10 Screwed on the through reversal to a positive im- 1. Tank with hose bottem) exact above the bottomspiral and age, ready for projection, or to a 2. Cover screw in the tip of the screw nr.11 And fas- negative image from which posi- 5. Slits (film treat) ten it (but not too tight). tive copies can be made. 6. Upperreel Now hold the film loosely in between your As a true D-I-Y device, the G-3 must be hand dle so that it will unwind counter-clockwise. 7. Bottomspiral (small hole) fingertips, in a angle of approximately 45 de- turned. At the rate of two turns per second, Place empty reel on left spindle. 8. Middlespiral (big hole) only if you want to grees. Start turning the wheel/screw clock- a 100 foot roll of film will pass from one reel 4. In sert the end of the film in the left-hand develop two layers wise with your other hand. The film should to the other in about one minute. This is not reel and clamp. To insure straight winding, 9. Small black ring (for one layer of super8 get in the grooves automatically. When the critical, however, and the important feature give the reel two turns clockwise, loosen or 16mm spiral is full tear or cut the film. to be remembered in turning cranks is to clamp and re-clamp. Make sure the end is 10. Small transparant ring for two layers of Then put the end of the other 50ft in the slits prevent excessive clinching of the film at the securely clamped, however, before continu- 16mm or one layer of 35mm of the middlespiral in the same way as at the end of each pass. ing. Unwinding the film spool is the only 11. Tip of the screw bottomspiral. Put the upperreel nr.6 On top time that the two spindles revolve in opposite 12. Head of the screw with the raised border downwards and screw directions. The loading is performed in this the head of the screw (nr.12) In (not to tight). manner so that the film will be wound emul- Turn clockwise till all film is in the spiral.