Ellen Kuras: Kodak 5017

From American Cinematographer, Psycho Killer by Andrew O. Thompson (June 1999)

For all intents and purposes, 5017 is a still photographers’ stock; the emulsion therefore had to be reperforated so that it could be run through Kuras’s Arriflex cameras. In order to do this work, Kodak required a month’s worth of advance notice, along with a minimum order of 14,000’.

"I really like what Malik Sayeed did with 5017 in He Got Game—he’s a very innovative cinematographer. There was one beautifully shot scene where some guys dressed in fluorescent orange and yellow came into a green room and threw a pair of red dice on the floor. The colors were supersaturated and had a lot of black in the shadow areas. I was struck by the way the colors were rendered, particularly the greens... 5017 is a stock to be reckoned with. The shadow areas will go very black unless there is enough fill. Without the ability to hide big lights in a small location, 5017 is a struggle because of the extreme contrast and slow ASA, especially for night exteriors. We tried to use it effectively, as in the scene where Vinny and Dionna are dancing in the Virgo Club. We used [strobing] Lightning Strikes units as our keys, along with some backlights and a couple of hard sidelights. A few years ago, I did something similar on a music video for the band Lush with director Mark Pellington, but I was using 5245, which is a very slow [50 ASA] stock. I just put in a few effects lights and then used the Lightning Strikes units to reveal what was in the shadow areas."

- Ellen Kuras, ASC

Lance Acord: Danger of Using Rare/Old Stocks

From American Cinematographer, Playing a Risky Stock on Buffalo 66, by Jean Oppenheimer (July 1998)

The problem of processing the 5239 {160 Ektachrome} still lurked, however. Bono Film and Video's idea of modifying a 16mm reversal machine sounded great in theory, but the reality of completing such a task proved to be complicated. Reversal stock has a thick anti-halation backing that sloughs off during processing, clogging filters and preventing the chemistry tanks from agitating properly. To solve this problem, bigger filters and pumps were installed to compensate for the 35mm stock's additional waste.

"We found that if we had to pull the film at all-- which involves running it through the chemicals more quickly-- the drying cabinets were no longer sufficient in size or blower power to dry the film."

- Lance Acord, ASC

Furthermore, when film is wet, it gets very heavy, increasing the amount of tension it takes to pull it through the processing machine; the 35mm stock demanded more constant torque than the converted 16mm processor could initially handle.

"At one point we stretched some perfs on a roll. In fact, in terms of damaging the film, that was one of the bigger [dangers]. The Bonos caught it really quickly; only about 100 feet was affected. But at that point they had to stop the run, go back in, pull the rollers, readjust the tension and start all over again. We weren't able to run film for another two days."

- Lance Acord, ASC

(While 5239 had recently been used extensively on such films as Clockers and U-Turn, those pictures' respective directors of photography, Malik Sayeed and Robert Richardson, ASC, had elected to cross-process their footage in negative chemistry, thus eliminating the need for reversal processing machines.)

Lance Acord: Clip Tests

From American Cinematographer, Playing a Risky Stock on Buffalo 66, by Jean Oppenheimer (July 1998)

"When you shoot 'chrome and use the E6 process, you do film clip tests. On each roll of film, you clip either the front or the end of the roll to gauge the exposure on the roll, and then you can push- or pull-process to adjust for the exposure you want. For each scene in Buffalo 66 we would do a clip test. We'd shoot about 40 feet of film- often with stand-ins-- and then log that with a scene number and a clip number. In the script notes we would identify which camera roll corresponded to each clip test for each scene, at which point we would know whether we wanted to push or pull the film to adjust for exposure. They could then process the rolls accordingly."

- Lance Acord, ASC