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As we all know, cinema is based on reproduction, in other words on the possibility to produce multiple copies of a given work, a film. And the whole activity of film preservation and restoration is centred on the necessity to transfer the information (image and sound) from one support to another, either to allow image and sound to be reproduced onto modern equipment, or to guarantee their long term conservation. If all of this is true, it is evident how printing is, and has always been, the very heart of laboratory work, either if we work in a modern film production or in the preservation activity.
It is quite evident that all phases of the work of preservation contribute
to the final quality of the result. From identification to repair, from
film treatments to processing and obviously sensitometric and densitometric
control of the process, together with correct grading procedures is of
major importance. Most of the work can be completely spoiled by an incorrect
handling in printing stage, or by the use of printing equipment, which
is not suitable for the material or for the results we are aiming at.
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A Debrie Matipo from the 20's: one of the most commercially successful printers ever |
This is particularly true when we are dealing with archival films. In
facts, modern production processes and procedures can be highly standardised,
because the materials we are working on (originals and raw stock) are strictly
coherent and perfectly standardised. But this of course cannot be true
for archival materials which can date from 1895 to the 40’s or the 60’s,
and which can be affected by all sort of conservation problems, requiring
great care and attention when we work with them, together with a lot more
of adjustments and controls, simply because we cannot rely on a standardised
procedure. Printing must guarantee the best possible results in terms of
photographic and mechanical characteristics (resolution, grain, focus,
steadiness, density) even if we are working on materials that present all
sort of defects or of non- standard characteristics. Finally, we must consider
that we are often working with materials that are unique, and we must never
forget that all sorts of damages can occur if we use a printer, which is
unsuitable for a certain type of materials, or if the printer is not set
up correctly. The film can be scratched or torn, perforations can be torn,
printer’s sprockets can produce all sorts of damage to the original material.
 A
modern continuous contact printer.
The principles are still unchanged. |
Motion picture film equipment for printing consists of a means of transporting an original (negative or positive) processed film and an unexposed film (positive or negative). The film travels emulsion facing emulsion, past an illuminated aperture or "gate", where the exposure to light, whether through a lens or by contact, can be precisely varied to print the image of the original onto the print film at a desired printing exposure.
This definition disguises the great range of technology that covers this subject. The earliest printers were contact printers whereby the original camera film after processing and the unexposed film were driven together by either sprocketed rollers or transport pins. The transport was continuous, or intermittent and frame-by-frame, and the image of the original was contact printed onto the unexposed film. Step printers, which exposed the frames one at a time, may have been the most commonly used for the first 40 years of the cinema, but continuous contact printers were also used. They were more flexible as they could handle a wider range of frame positions (we must not forget that there were no standards for frame line position until the late 1920’s).
Within a few years of the beginnings of cinema a wide range of different
printers were in use and modern printers are sophisticated developments
of the principles that were established at the turn of the century.
Transferring
images from one film to another
Practical
Procedures: