Some disturbing news concerning 16mm in the UK....

[Nicholas_C]

Some disturbing news concerning 16mm prints in the UK....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/ ... f-comments

[beamascope]

I actually assumed that probably nobody did this anymore. I figured everyone just transferred film to video and edited on a computer. I did it a few time in college and enjoyed it but that's been 25 years or so. It would be nice if this didn't happen but at this point I'm just hoping film itself sticks around for many more years.

[carllooper]

A little disturbing.

Should an artist blame their tools? Or lack of them?

This idea, of not blaming one's tools, emerged at a time when artists built their own tools. Blaming your tools, was akin to blaming your own work. Which you wouldn't normally want to do in public.

But in the age of industrial arts such as filmmaking, industry plays a role in the production of art. Industry isn't under the control of artists. It's under the control of completely mindless economic forces.

The great thing is that the artist in question is fighting back.

And I expect that the 16mm printing equipment could be easily made available to willing and able volunteers in the respective countries, who are capable of preserving the equipment and printing 16mm film with such.

Industry can donate their "old" technology to the arts community.

Carl

[Nicholas_C]

Yes I think that should happen also, that in the U.K anyway, the Arts council/BFI and film schools should help finance some kind of 16mm film printing facility.

its part of a global cultural heritage, there are many artists working with 16mm who want to project (this includes me) and if you have to send film abroad it becomes more expensive than it already is. This will prevent new artists from using the medium.

There is a small 16mm lab in London's Bethnal Green, called No.w.here. i'm not sure if they do 16mm prints (I've had neg processed there) but they do run workshops on the JK optical printer.

I saw Black Swan recently and it looked great on super 16, (think there were some digital in there too) so at least the 16mm medium itself lives on strong for now.

[Will2]

I have just recently made a few prints from 16mm negative and I'm blown away by the projected print. It is certainly a luxury for me as everything I do is transferred to digital and the negative put on a shelf, but I'm very glad the possibility exists.

I use AlphaCine in Seattle for prints and most non-color negative processing (I have a great local lab in Dallas for 35mm and 16mm negative.)

Real color timers are a rare breed these days and it is a very specialized job.

If you shoot 16mm and haven't made a print I suggest you try it while you can to see your work on a real projector; the color and sharpness are amazing.

I saw Black Swan recently and it looked great on super 16, (think there were some digital in there too) so at least the 16mm medium itself lives on strong for now.

Shot on Super 16 but the print you viewed was probably 35mm right? 35mm printing will be around for a while but I totally get why 16mm printing is going away since most festivals seem to be going to digital once you go below 35mm and hobbyists just aren't going to carry the expense of keeping a 16mm printing operation going.

[CinemanUK]

There is a small 16mm lab in London's Bethnal Green, called No.w.here. i'm not sure if they do 16mm prints (I've had neg processed there) but they do run workshops on the JK optical printer.

All of my 16mm filming is processed for projection and much of it is in B&W. I believe that B&W has a quality which is often overlooked, and it certainly has a place in this colour conscious world we seem to focus on today. That is not to say that I don't use colour, because I do.

I shoot B&W using Kodak 7222 and no.w.here process it for me. I can say that they will develop B&W Kodak 7222 as a negative and, I believe, will digitise it. They will also produce a positive for projection, and that what they do for me.

Their services are open to anybody, and their charges are very reasonable. They will also supply B&W filmstock.

They are a very friendly group of people, and I would strongly say to anybody who wants B&W 16mm processing that they should contact no.w.here and explore the mutual benefits which using them can deliver. We as cinematographers should support no.w.here so that this resource which is available to us now continues to be available.

Take a look at their web site. You will see that they are a "not for profit" organsation which provides excellent and broadly based opportunities (including training) for those interested in the world of cinematography.

[Nicholas_C]

Yes I hope n.o.w.here continue to be successful, they are indeed a friendly bunch of people. I've been to a few of their workshops and I also highly recommend them to anyone in the U.K. They offer very reasonable prices for 16mm developing.

[BAC]

According to their web site Alpha Cine in Seattle is still doing prints.

http://alphacine.com/services/printing.php

[Nicholas_C]

To update this thread for people in the U.k, here is a quote from no.w.here:

"This also means that no.w.here is, to our knowledge, the only UK space now available to make B/W 16mm prints. To raise the level of our service we will soon be taking on an additional lab processor from Soho Labs to support this way of working"

[CinemanUK]

It appears that Mike Sperlinger at lux(dot)org(dot)uk is co-ordinating arrangements for a meeting of interested parties to discuss the decision of Delux to stop printing 16mm film at Deluxe Soho (as it is known known), and initially it seems there is to be an on-line petition which is calling on Delux to reverse their decision.

Certainly Deluxe's decision is quite dreadful for cinematographers who prefer to project film. It never ceases to amaze me when a company chooses to take over another company which is providing a service and the first thing they do is to cease providing the service they have taken over. One might just wonder why they took over a company which offers a print service only to close down the print service. I guess the answer is that they saw an advantage in taking over only certain of Soho's services, but had to take over the lot on the basis that they could drop those services they were not interested in. So much for the ethics of big business! It is clear that they do not understand that loyalty is something which flows in both directions.

This might make some sense to Deluxe, but it represents an absolute failure of service to those cinematographers who have come to rely on the print service provided by Soho.

We should all do our best to support no.w.here in the future to try to ensure that it survives the present cuts in public funding, and it is to be hoped that there will be lots of support for the on-line petition to Deluxe Soho in an endeavour to get them to think again.

Mike Sperlinger (mike@lux(dot)org(dot)uk) will provide details of the online petition and other action to anybody who is supportive.

[Chris-B]

One of the responses below the article advices that PresTech still do 16mm printing.
They are based in london.
Here is their website.
http://www.prestech.biz/

This is from the PresTech site-

Printing
We are optical printer specialists, as such we offer composite printing, tri-strip re-combining works, black and white colour separation.
We are equipped with liquid gates for all formats and we are able to print most of the obsolete formats:
Single 8
16mm
35mm
70mm
Our equipment has been custom designed to allow us to run safely any degree of shrinkage.