choosing a film stock?

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PDX_DVX

Veteran
I was wondering what type of thing I need to look for when choosing a film stock. I will primarily be shooting out doors, usually in full light, and will also be shooting some slow motion. I will be using a Bolex rx camera. In general, is kodak a better choice than Fuji? Also, is it better to shoot negative or positive stock? are there any good places online where I can find 100' daylight reels for a good price? This is probably a pretty lame question, but film shooting is new to me, and I want to do as much research and preperation as I can so I don't shoot a bunch of wasted footage. Thanks in advance!
 
try something in the 100 asa neighborhood. you'll need either daylight balanced stock or an 85 filter for the bolex. (it might come with one of those built-in filters, but those can get grody so you may need to buy a lens filter.) prefer to usually use tungsten stock and filter when necessary with a good quality (B+W) filter. that's just for versatility sake. there are many more stocks available tungsten-balanced than daylight. reversal film is also harder to come by, and less forgiving of exposure mistakes. if it's getting telecined to video anyhow, get the neg.

maybe start with a 200asa stock. the 85 daylight filter will change your effective asa to 125. that should be fine all around. also bear in mind the relationship between fps and shutter speed. normal bolex shutter speed is about 1/80. so if you shoot at 48 for slomo, you need to change your shutter speed to 1/160 (1/150 is close enough.) or you just open up a stop.
 
If you're shooting in daylight, start with Kodak 7245 on a daylight spool. It's 50ASA, and that's all you need for most daylight shooting. (er, I'm an old-timer -- does Kodak still even make 7245? Or is it all Vision2 now?)

Kodak also makes a 250-speed daylight stock (is it 7246?) That was my favorite stock, but for outdoors you really need ND filters, as 250 is just too fast for sunlight.

Or, if you want to go Fuji, they make a 64-ASA daylight stock.

If you want reversal, Kodak now offers 5285 in 16mm (I believe they call it 7285) and it's a wonderful super-saturated color color color stock. You could shoot it, process it, and then direcly project it if you wanted to. Fuji makes Velvia, a similar stock, but last I checked Velvia was 35mm-only.

Reversal costs more to process than negative does. If you're transferring to video, just go with negative -- 99% of movies on film are shot on color negative stock.
 
To be perfectly honest with you it all depends on what your going for, but with telecine these days it doesnt really matter KODAK or FUJI. Ive shot on both and had great results. For an example of FUJI 64D you can check out my film at www.demobrianthompson.com/PREMONITION
I also shot FUJI 500D as well. All the indoors was the 500D outdoors was 64D. Fuji is cheaper than Kodak so from a price stand point you may want to go Fuji.
 
If you are not positive that you will be in full sunlight all day, then a 50 speed film could be a little too slow for slow motion work. It is plenty fast for full sun, but with cloud cover, etc. it gets to be border line.

I shoot 5246 (or 7246 in your case) all the time. It is my favorite outdoor stock. It is real fine grained, snappy, and flexible. Kodak has the new Vision 2 5205 which I shot some of a while ago. I liked it, but I still like '46 better. The '05 is a little truer in color rendition, and slightly lower in contrast.

If your project is just going to be telecined, then there is no real reason to shoot reversal. If you were going to print, and wanted to cross process it, then it could be a different story.

I really like Fuji stocks, but I have mostly only shot 8572 (500T). It is comparable to Kodak's 5279.


Kevin Zanit
 
I am deffinetly going to telecine all of the footage. For the most part, I am certain that most of my stuff will be shot late this summer in full daylight situations. However, filming will probably go into the fall, and here in Portland it can get pretty drab come October and November. I'll look into the stocks that you mentioned. Being a cinematographer, is there any place online that you recommend buying stock? Also, if I am at a shoot on a hot day, what is the best way to store the stock until I am ready to shoot, and what is the best way to store it at my house before I shoot? We're not talking long term storage, but maybe a week or two after it arrives at my house, and then maybe a few days to a week until it gets sent for processing?
 
I usually have it ordered direct from Kodak, but sometimes production gets better deals from resellers.

This all assumes factory fresh stock. There are companies that sell short ends.

If you are dealing with factory sealed stock, storing it in the closet of your air conditioned home is fine (I used to have thousands of feet in my closet). For the location work, I would just put the film in a large cooler (with NO ice), and then keep that in as much shade as possible. Do not keep it your car.

Once it is shot, try to get processed as quickly as possible. Exposed film is far more unstable and fragile than unexposed film.


Kevin Zanit
 
You could try www.thedrgroup.com. When I was looking for Fuji (500D and 250T), they had the best price around at .29 cents a foot for factory fresh. I never actually ordered from them because the project got put on hold, but just for price they seemed to be the best. Good luck.
 
Kodak also makes a 250-speed daylight stock (is it 7246?) That was my favorite stock, but for outdoors you really need ND filters, as 250 is just too fast for sunlight.
Click to expand...

Kodak's new 250 Vision2 (7205) is excellent. I am really starting to favour it. You should choose film stock according to ASA. The lower the ASA, less grain, but less sensitivity. Kinda like using gain on the DVX. Then, as you get your eye tuned, you'll start to see each stock's peculiarities in highlight rendering, color rendering, etc... (I'm also not in that level yet, and quite frankly, that will all change after the telecine)

Barry is right that 250 ASA is a little too hot for outside work (you'd probably have to shoot F11or F22 in sunlight, so some ND filters would be good), but if you will be shooting slow motion, every time you double the FPS you will loose one stop, so shooting at 48fps would rate your film back to 125 ASA, wich is more pretty adequate for exteriors. I'd say shoot the 250 through NDs (maybe a ND.6 is good enough) and take it off for the highspeed work. 500 ASA Daylight is not a good choice for exteriors. And tungsten balanced film is kind of pointless, if you know you'll be shooting natural daylight.

If you are after sunlight for the slow motion stuff, you can get a slower stock, around 100 ASA daylight, and rate it around 50 ASA for the HS work.

Either Kodak or Fuji have excellent film stocks, but I think the vision2 daylight series from Kodak really has an edge IMHO...
 
testing stocks

testing stocks

PDX_DVX said:
I was wondering what type of thing I need to look for when choosing a film stock. I will primarily be shooting out doors, usually in full light, and will also be shooting some slow motion. I will be using a Bolex rx camera. In general, is kodak a better choice than Fuji? Also, is it better to shoot negative or positive stock? are there any good places online where I can find 100' daylight reels for a good price? This is probably a pretty lame question, but film shooting is new to me, and I want to do as much research and preperation as I can so I don't shoot a bunch of wasted footage. Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
:thumbsup: Hello
The filmstock on line idea is great for the tech side of your shot .Will you mix window day light with indoor tungsten ?etc .
Two very subjective remarks on my experience with stocks in 35mm.
in my 30years of shoting film ,i have never seen a film stock(when screened in a theater) for ext daylight,, to match the stong contrast and the fine grain of 5245 by Kodak
.Example: I met the gaffer on"pulp fiction " who told me they used 5245 even for the night shots .The saturation is almost in the realm of techincolor .
Now in 16mm this stock would be 7245 ,if they still offer this via Kodak .
if you are going to dvd or tv this high contrast may be ok OR counter productive since often they make a low contrast print before going to television .Therefore your presentation venue is the king issue .
The other stock is 5277 by Kodak this stock has wide latitude and when shoting moody " Godfather 1 " type look it grabs alot of good detail in the shadow areas .One producer told me that this film stock was made to copy the preformance of the no longer available stock by Agfa called "agfa 320"
example there would be "out of africa "
Good luck with your filmmaking
Bruce :thumbsup:
 
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