Film Stocks

[temerson]

I've been watching several movies in classes lately, and I've been wondering what exactly are the main variety of film stocks to choose from, and what they do for the look of a movie. I just watched the original footage for Dazed and Confused and, while the final was a color-corrected reel, I noticed how different they are exactly. WHich film stocks are best for saturated and desaturated color, as well as the different types of black and white stocks. If anybody knows a website where it explains all of these, or has any advice, I would welcome the help.

 

[Lazlo]

The kodak website should have everything you could want to know about filmstocks. They give a very detailed but interesting explantation of different film stocks, and also have a multitude of other resources you might be interested in. The website provides far more than anyone could put as an answer to that broad question.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Modern color negative stocks are fairly well-matched to each other, so you might be disappointed if you think there is a high-saturation stock and a low-saturation stock, etc. Most in a line-up (like Vision-2) are meant to match each other so you can intercut stocks of different speeds. There are slight variations, like the lower-contrast stocks that have mildly softer colors and less deep blacks, like Expression 500T and Fuji F-400T. And the old EXR and Vision stocks are slightly more saturated & contrasty than Vision-2 stocks.

More extreme changes in color saturation or contrast requires non-standard procedures, like using E6 color reversal (like 5285) for that slide-film look, or cross-processing it for more extreme color & contrast, or doing a silver retention process to a color negative for a contrasty but desaturated look, using filters, etc.

Or any digital method since once you scan color negative into the digital realm, you can alter its look very easily in terms of color and contrast.