16mm film
George Bishop and Jordan Weber
What is 16mm film?
• 16 mm film refers to a gauge of film used for
industrial and educational film making.
• 16mm refers to the width of film.
• 16mm can be used for TV production and for low
budget films that can’t afford 35mm film e.g.
Kevin Smith’s 1994 film “Clerks” was shot using
16mm film as the film cost under $30’000.
• 16mm film has perforations down both sides at
every frame line. When loading the film, the reel
would get attached to the perforations to move it
along easily.
Super 16mm
• As you can tell from the diagram below, the
super 16 has an expanded picture area and a
higher aspect ratio compared to the standard
16mm film. Some higher budget shows use
super 16 such as BBC1’s Merlin.
Loading the film
• This is fairly similar to processing film in photography.
• The film must be loaded in perfect darkness.
• You insert the film into a black tent along with the
magazine and load the film inside there. Remember,
the film must not be exposed to any light.
• Your hands are the only thing to enter into the tent, so
you essentially go through the loading process without
being able to see. You need to be able to do this with
your eyes closed.
• First you practice loading 16mm film magazines using a
dummy roll of used 16mm film over and over again
until you have mastered the technique.
16mm film canisters
• When using several cans of 16mm film stock, it
can get rather confusing as to what string of film
was exposed and what is fresh.
• There is a standard colour coding system for
16mm film stock that you can use to identify
them on set.
• If there is black tape on a film canister that means
it has been exposed and you should not load it.
Those with white tape are unexposed and ready
to be loaded into a 16mm film magazine. Never
deviate from this formula.
Editing 16mm film
• First you need to make sure you have developed your film to that you can
see what you are editing, second so that it doesn’t get overexposed.
• Lace the film through the machine, this way you can use some knobs to
twiddle around with to either fast forward or rewinding the film, the
selected frame of the film will appear on the screen to show you which
parts you’re editing.
• You can either also do some fast motion or slow motion in your film with
some of the standard effects.
How to project a 16mm film
Directors still use 16mm film today
and films shot in 16mm film
• Darren Aronofsky has directed well received films using
16mm film such as a remake of the film “Black Swan”
(2010) and “The Wrestler” (2008). Both these films
have won many academy awards.
• In 2006, Stephen Fears directed “The Queen” which
was also shot in 16mm film and was also very well
received.
• In 2007, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo directed the sequel “28
Weeks Later” using 16mm film. The original film “28
Days Later” (2002), was directed by Danny Boyle and
was shot entirely on digital video.
Difference between shooting digitally
and on 16mm film
• 16mm film has a much crisper image than on
digital.
• Digital is much more portable than 16mm film
meaning that it’s much smaller than 16mm.