Shooting Super-16mm On A Low Budget - Page 2
| Author: | Jack |
| Date: | Sun, 02/04/2006 - 11:32 |
| Category: | Filmmaking > Cinematography |
Shooting super-16mm for the least money
It is possible to shoot on super-16mm for a lot less money than many people believe. The rest of this article will consider some ways of getting the most filmmaking for your money.
1,000 foot of developed super-16mm in a can, prepped for telecine
Preface: finding companies
During pre-production you'll have to spend a lot of time phoning round various companies. For this you'll need two things: a budget for your phone bill and a list of companies. Two excellent websites for finding film companies are:
How much stock do you need?
A 400" can will last about 11 minutes at 25fps. So, for example, if you were shooting a 10-minute short film and you estimate that you'll be running at a 10:1 shooting ratio then you'll need 100 minutes' of stock so you should aim to find 10 cans of stock (it's always best to have too much stock rather than to run out of stock before getting vital shots and hence not be able to finish your film).
A very quick note about your shooting ratio: remember that your shooting ratio has to take into account three things: 1) Your final running time, 2) how many takes you expect to need and 3) how many times you'll cover each bit of action. Some people forget the last point!
Stock
You have two options for getting your hands on stock: either buy it new or get short ends. A new 400" can of 16mm will cost between £60 - £95. If you're buying new then shop around and always mention that you're on a low budget - some suppliers have "low budget / student" prices. Also you make sure you try phoning both Kodak and Fuji directly to see if they can do you a good price.
A much more cost-effective way of acquiring stock is to get short ends and re-cans. Re-cans are full 400" rolls of unexposed negative film which have been loaded into a magazine, not exposed and then put back into the can. Short ends are what is left after a full can of film has been loaded into a camera but only part of that film has been exposed (obviously, the short end is the part of the film that hasn't been exposed!).
You can find short ends by spending about five hours on the phone ringing round as many production companies as you can and saying "Hi, my name's Fred Blogs and I'm producing a low budget film. Please may I ask if you happen to have any 16mm short-ends in your fridge?". The vast majority of people will say "no, sorry, we only shoot on tape now". Some people will say "what's a short end?". And about 1% will say "er, yeah - we've got a few cans. When would you like to come and pick them up?". As long as you're polite and don't waste anyone's time, you'll never get an unpleasant response. Just remember to be courteous and thankful - and always give those who helped you a credit on your film. Always ask roughly how many cans of film they have. Occasionally you'll come across so much stock that you'll need to recruit a friend to help you carry it home!
Why do production companies give away free film? Probably the biggest reason is that there's a long-standing and really quite heart-warming "group mentality" in the film industry. Filmmakers, as a breed, love to help out other filmmakers, especially those less fortunate than themselves. A more concrete reason for giving away short ends is insurance: most film shoots get negative insurance which will pay for a re-shoot if dodgy stock ruins a shoot. It's only possible to get negative insurance if you're shooting on brand-new stock.
Finally, if you get short ends and re-cans then you must get the stock dip-tested before you shoot on it. Most labs will run dip tests for you. The price varies from about £5 - £2 per test. Some labs will even do your dip tests for free if you promise to use that lab for your developing. Leave plenty of time for your dip tests - they can take about a week because labs will fit the tests around whatever "proper" work they're doing at the time.
