We all love the cinema; the films, the emotion, the story. Trying to recreate that cinematic feel has been made easier by the crowd funded CineStill brand which removes the remjet layer from the original Kodak films for the film photography enthusiast to have fun with!
I am a big fan of futuristic type films such as Blade Runner but what drew me in more was the rendition of colours and light. I always wondered how the filmmakers were able to achieve such depth and unbeknownst to me it was this special cinematic film that was being used.
It was an absolutely delight when I heard that this film was available to shoot with and after making several calls to photography specialists around the UK, I landed my first few rolls that had literally just arrived at the wonderful Analogue Wonderland (www.analoguewonderland.co.uk) Their friendly service dispatched the films that very day and I was so excited start shooting with this film as soon as possible!
I decided to find an evening to shoot this roll in Central London, where I could find bright lights in to the late evening. For this walk, I took my Bronica Zenza ETRS medium format camera. Fifteen shots of high density cinematic film were about to be shot!
Wandering the streets, I took my time framing each shot, trying to capture scenes which afforded plenty of night light. This being a test roll, I wanted to see how these images would fair under relatively bright night conditions.
It wasn’t until many weeks later that I would find out from my developer that there was something seriously wrong with the images. Ricardo had seemed really worried when I initially spoke with him about the issue but he had taken the time to research the issue and postulated that the Remjet layer had not been fully removed properly. As such, when developed, it created this large orange haze across the whole image. Later, Magda emailed me some links to forums where this was being discussed in much detail. Turns out there was a whole batch of this film which CineStill was now recalling. I called up, Analogue Wonderland and as usual they took care of everything with ease.
Perhaps surprisingly, I am quite pleased with how the images have come out. The tungsten lighting has been amplified in deeper red/orange colours and in contrast with the black in the images, it gives a really apocalyptic feel to the set. Brighter white lights gave a bright yellow feel (the Waffle Cones image!) and it would have been interesting to see how other similar scenes may have come out too! My favourite image is right at the end of the selection, walking towards the West End theatres. The large lit billboards, street lamps and taxi headlights with the red sky and floor give a real feel the pandemic times we are all going through today.
What is the Remjet layer?
This is a black layer made from a coating of black particles that is found on motion picture Cine film.
What is its purpose?
The Remjet layer protects the film from static and halation of lights and is most commonly used on Kodak films.
What needs to be done in development?
The black layer must be carefully removed during the development process. If it is not properly removed it can lead to the images coming out with a dull orange complexion as you can see from the video.
How can I save time and money in development of motion picture film?
The easy answer is to use CineStill 800T. Their film removes the Remjet layer for you so you can process it with ease in C41 chemistry.
However, there are some downsides to pre-removal of the Remjet layer. It will lead to your images coming out with halation of any lights in low light conditions. If a subject and location is chosen appropriately the images have a great potential to the viewers delight!
Another advantage of using CineStill 800T is you can use develop this film from the comfort of your own home using C41 chemistry, or simply take it to your local developer!
No thank you, I want to use the original motion picture film! Where can I get that?
You can get Kodak Vision 3 200T and 500T Colour Negative Film from specialist film stockists. A simple search online will point you to a wide range of stockists closest to you.