Shooting a short with 16mm Ektachrome film. Any Advice?

[mwarner]

Hey Roger,

I am about to start pre-production on a 25 page short film which we have decided will be shot in super 16. I've been interested in using reversal film as opposed to negative for a while now and with this project (a stark melodrama about divorce) I believe it will really give it a unique look. I have been pulling up reference material of others who have shot on reversal and I could only find two or three stills that are similar to what I want, which make me feel it might be very difficult to get what I want. I was wondering if you had any advice to give about using reversal film. I can tell you I am going to be very conscious of the colors on set because of reversal's high saturation quality. I want to stick to beige's and deep pastels as the color palette. Is there any other advice you can give me about using reversal film? My main concern is that I don't want the film to distract from the story, but to enhance it. Anything will be helpful because I have never used this type of film before.

And If anyone else has advice as well it will be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Mackenzie.

[Satsuki Murashige]

Hello,

I'm not Roger obviously but I would like to respond. I would recommend shooting a test with Ektachrome and taking it all the way thru to telecine or film scan before you commit to a stock. You may find that it won't work for you in some situations. Ektachrome has high saturation especially in the reds and very little shadow detail, so you will have to nail your exposures. Not to mention it is 100ASA and Daylight balanced, so if you need to shoot interiors and night scenes that could be an issue. You may need to push the stock in those cases if you don't have enough light, that would be good to test.

Also, I'm not sure if you are aware but Kodak has recently discontinued Ektachrome, so you should make sure you can purchase enough stock ahead of time to complete your film if you decide to go the reversal route. I don't know if you can still get it in 400' rolls at this point, but B&H still has 100' loads last I checked. All that said, Ektachrome is a beautiful stock and I am stockpiling 100' rolls in my freezer to shoot on my Scoopic someday. Maybe if I have kids, I'll shoot some footage and project it for them when they're older.

P.S. This board needs a "handcranked filming" emoticon!