Hello, I’m looking for access to a darkroom. I have 35mm original camera negatives and I need to unwind a reel to see if the sound ‘line’ is on the tape. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
David Visser
Amazing Media Group
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I suggest one of the smaller family restrooms.
The men’s room off the wet classroom is what printmaking uses for screen exposure.
Hold up a sec.
Are you trying to look (with your eyes) at some 35mm cinema film that is unexposed to see if there is a sound track on it? You can’t do that as any amount of light in any color will cause the film to be useless, so you won’t be able to see it.
If it’s exposed (run through the camera) already, but undeveloped - see above
If it’s exposed AND developed - you don’t need a dark room, as it’s done with everything.
Or am I just mis-understanding your question?
I don’t deal with 35mm cinema film. If it’s something that you can feel with your fingers, then you can do it in a closet (at home or wherever) that’s perfectly dark, anywhere.
Thanks Adam. The problem is I don’t quite know exactly what I have. It says to load in complete darkness so best guess is unexposed?
Can you send a picture?
There is no way to tell whether celluloid film has been exposed or not, other than just sending it in to be developed. If it comes back as blank, then it wasn’t used. On old 35mm film cameras, if the little tail was sticking out of the cartridge, then it generally wasn’t used. If it was rolled back inside of the cartridge, then it was.
Movie film is a different story. It must be tracked manually with writing on the canister.
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It’s all written on the canister. All tracked so to speak. OCN Original camera negatives. I have 10 reels all labeled. I’m just not sure if it was shot w sound on the film itself. Trying to figure out before I send away for development.
The question is a Heisenberg; you don’t know the information state of the film, but by assessing it, you will change it.
You may have to cut off a sample and develop it.
If you find;
- yes, there are images and sound, you can develop the rest of the roll.
- there is nothing, you can curse the goof who labelled the rolls.
- there are images but no sound, you can’t exactly record a sound track because you have no idea where the images are, so you can’t sync the soundtrack on this film. You could digitize the roll after developing, then sync the sound later.
Thanks. Yes, these are my issues. I would be willing to send in a can for development but can’t find any company local that can convert 35mm into 4k. Suggestions?
Ultimate goal is to have the film converted into 4K. I can’t locate any local company and am trying to avoid sending through the mail.
Need 35mm conversion. Can’t find in Dallas area.
It’s probably worth a phone call into them anyway? Maybe they’ll have some specific advice…
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Sounds like an opportunity to me…
Nobody in DFW does 35mm to HD video conversion; this is an untapped market. I’m thinking that all you would need is a 35mm projector, and a way to sync the frame advance to trigger a 4K camera. not rocket science
Try fort worth camera
They have a service for this & I know one of their photographer sponsored pro guys or what not
What ever you dump in a box they digitize from what I heard.
It’s certainly worth trying, but I’ll bet that 99% of places that do video transfer don’t have a 35mm setup.
I’ve reached out to a colleague who used to run the big telecine house in Dallas to see where he recommends.
They used to have a really nice one, but I very much doubt that it’s even HD let alone 4K. The majority of the older machines that are out there are going to be Standard Def (640x480) so that they can do an offline cut, that will create an EDL for an actual film splice, to then be optically printed off to a master reel for distribution copies. Finding a 4K rig will likely be something that you’d have to go to one of the places like FotoKem or some such place out in the Hollywood area.
Fair warning: this isn’t going to be a cheap project.
I’m still unclear as to whether the film is developed or not. I’ll say that the concept of cutting off a chunk to see if it’s developed is a good idea! It could literally be a couple inches off the front of a reel, and you’d likely just be into the leader anyway. If it’s developed, then you don’t need a darkroom at all.
I can sell you the entire rig to actually scan as opposed to this slightly ghetto way of doing it. Spitball price for an out-the-door rig will be ~$100k. SKILLED operator not included.
There’s not a lot of business to be had here for 35mm ‘film’ anymore, as all the benefits of film have long been surpassed by current digital technology. I have a VaricamLT sitting in my warehouse that will (with a good operator) best just about anything that film can do. I can bring it to the Makerspace sometime if anyone is interested in seeing it.
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I’ve found a guy in town and will private message to @visserfund as I’m not actually sure if the guy wants his info posted publicly or not. Comes recommended by the best film colorist in DFW.
He can do 8, super8, 16 & 35mm scans at up to 5k here locally.
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Thanks Adam. I sent him an email. I expect the project to run over 9k…
Adam, Jeremy should work out great. Thanks again!
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