Old Film

alexw · Apr 25, 2007

Mr. Mullen, I saw that in a previous post you discussed that when old film is exposed the blacks can go blueish or muddy and to compensate for that it is recommended that you over expose a stop or so. Does this over exposure serve merely to compensate for the degeneration of the film sensitivity hence rendering the blacks as they would be if the film were fresh (more or less)? Or, does the over exposure actually add the extra density to the negative similar to that of over exposing fresh film and it is only the added density that puts the black back into the blacks? I ask because I have a re-can that has been in my fridge for 9ish months now and I'm wondering if it still worth shooting (I loaded it and re-canned it myself so I know so I know that it has not mistreated). Why I ask about the over exposure is that I want to shoot a soft, low contrast scene and was planning on over exposing a stop then pulling a stop. The film is old so the over exposure part fits but I was wondering if you knew (or at least had a good guess) if pulling the old film would reintroduce the blueish blacks or anything like that? Your words of wisdom would be much appreciated.

David Mullen ASC · Apr 25, 2007

I've heard that both sensitivity drops over time and base fogging goes up. I haven't tested it enough myself to know which is the worse problem, but overexposing helps either.

Pulling, which will lower contrast, may not mask the base fogging as well, but you'd have to test.

If this is for telecine transfer only, it's not so much of an issue, you can tweak the blacks.

alexw · Apr 25, 2007

Thanks for your quick reply. I think I will probably just have the film printed so I can project it. This is just learning/practice for me so I'm not too worried about it. Plus, I like finding "Well, I'll never do that agains" on the big screen, they seem to stick better that way. Since I will most likely be printing it would you recommend maybe over exposing a stop and half if I will be pulling one stop?

Also, in your opinion, is 9 months in a fridge really that old? The scene I want to shoot is a night interior so I would rather not over expose at all but what can you do, free film has to be shot, right?