Inside the PictureBox.: Research

Preliminary research
I had a lot of difficulty obtaining any books directly relating to cine/motion film processing. Luckily despite this stumbling block, the internet has a healthy population of enthusiasts both cine and stills all doing or wanting to do the same as me.

I started reading books about stills darkroom standard Black and white practices, processes and conventions, figuring that these must basically apply to myself also. These made short reads as the books quickly moved onto other more stills related factors, whilst not really answering all my ‘basic’ questions.

Black and White film development
I went back to the internet starting where I had left off with Caffenol. I was very interested in this process, I liked the idea of being able to manufacture your own chemicals too. However further investigation made me think that it was probably a step for an experienced enthusiast to take on involving lots of experimentation and not one for a rank amateur (like me) to begin with. I also found out that a homemade fixative was really out of the question. The only links that I could find regarding this talked of using concentrated salt water (so concentrated that it left a thick crusty layer on the outside of the tank) and leaving the film immersed for a week or so, not a quick turnaround learning experience. It was kindly being called ‘Sea water’ however water needs to be heated to make the concentrated saturated solutions that they talked of until the salt remains undissolved in the solution, and so natural sea water is inappropriate. Maybe if you are holidaying near the Dead Sea…perhaps you could use Redbull and citric fruit juice to develop.
I had already discovered that all film could be developed to B+W, This made me turn to standard darkroom chemistry, for guaranteed better results, standardised practices, processes and predictable results.

The major photographic manufacturers have their own B+W starter guides available online which contain lots of valuable information (about how to use their chemistry) which can be directly applied to motion film development.
http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/200629163442455.pdf
http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/aj3/aj3.pdf
I wanted to hear ordinary people’s experiences of using these techniques and the problems and pitfalls of doing so and so hit the forums, blogs, Vimeo and YouTube, all valuable sources of information.

http://www.filmshooting.com/scripts/forum/viewforum.php?f=1&sid=d5f37bad680becfe6721b0d1f5d1b6d
Example, a great resource.

A major problem with motion film is the black anti-halation backing on the film used to prevent light being able to penetrate through the film and fogging the unexposed film underneath on the reel. This coating is often referred to simply as remjet, due to the commercial process to remove it (remove with water jet). Once again the internet enthusiasts come to the rescue with solutions for removal. Many recipes exist for softening soaks for the film that must be washed by hand at the end of the process before drying.

Reversal film
I discovered that the revesal process involves exposing the film to light twice in order to process it. Expose the film once to capture shots with the camera. This is then developed to a negative before being exposed to light once again on the tank reel with a light bulb (this is why the Lomo tank reels are clear) before going back into the tank and being developed for a second time. I have a Super 8 Tri-X B+W reversal film which I wish to develop as part of the project but I found that the film must be bleached also during the process. The bleach is made up of ingredients including sulphuric acid (D9 bleach). I researched further and found recipes not using acid but other equally nasty chemicals, but I could not buy them in small quantities, I have left reversal as a stumbling block to go back to whilst I concentrate on other processes. I will come back to this as subject, as somehow I will process this film myself.

Lomo tank insructions/manual
No manual came with my Lomo tank, they are all in Russian anyway. I found a seller in Russia called Andrey Ostapenco who offers his translation of the original using the original images found in the Russian manual. This helped but I had already worked out most of what I needed to know about the tank before the booklet arrived, some of the translations are a bit curious but the information is there to be found or translated from the translation. Again YouTube and Vimeo helped a lot here with visual demos of loading the tank and in use processing.

Colour process development
The colour film that I will be processing is Kodak Vision3 250D. Basic Black and White development is a relatively simple process relying on only two necessary active chemicals (some contempory B+W films utilise modern film development techniques like C41 chemistry). It is following the prescribed process accurately that will provide good results. All information regarding colour process suggests processing with B+W chemistry first to familiarise yourself with the basics of film development.
Colour film processing is process specific eg C41, E6 or the Vision3 250D process which is ECN (Eastman Corporation Negative).
ECN is a commercial process and the chemicals are provided by Kodak in bulk quantities to the labs. Purchase of these chemicals for domestic use is nigh on impossible.
With research into the ECN specification I found that a major component of it is the remjet removal, further research found that the C41 colour development process will process the ECN negative with great results, but it does not include provision for remjet removal. Most of this information came from still photographers who wish to use motion films in their stills cameras filling 35mm cartridges from bulk loaders (and to great effect). This as with black and white has the same work arounds using soaks and washing which are performed DURING the development process.
C41 as with all colour processes is a lot more complicated than B+W, involving more chemicals and tighter controls including higher chemical working temperatures (using heated water baths). My understanding is that processing can be problematic if procedure is not exactingly adhered too.

I realised that I would need some way of checking the accuracy of the colours that I intend to develop and learned of colour charts commonly known as Macbeth colour checker boards. Modern variants exist made by companies such as Xright. I looked into making a board but accurate colour representation is important, if your printer colours are just out it throws out any usefull reference that it could have provided. Due to this I acquired a Xright colour checker passport.

Vintage books

Since there are no books immediately available regarding motion film development, I looked online for second hand books for sale regarding Cinematography and in particular cine film development. Although difficult to trace particularly about film development, a few weeks later I had a handful of stinky old books dating from the fifties to the seventies. Two of the books had information directly relating to film development, although most of the information provided is outdated even for my antiquated equipment. They are still good reference material.