There's Room for Both 16mm and 35mm

The author — with extensive direct editing experience in both 16mm and 35mm — believes that neither medium provides the whole answer to TV program production. The 16mm medium is very well suited for documentaries, but shooting feature or TV films on location on 16mm becomes a matter of compromises, trade-offs and some frustration. Dealing with noise interference by laying in a wild line or loop line seems almost to require flexibility that is not there in 16mm. Synchronization problems and film tears abound when a 35mm soundtrack is used to run with a 16mm picture. Perhaps one of the biggest difficulties is for a professional 35mm editor to become a professional 16mm editor, but with pride and care and hard work the adjustment can be made. If the producer, director, production manager and editor cover all the pros and cons in advance, there will be fewer 16mm pictures that for specific quality requirements should have been shot in 35mm and there will be few shot in 35mm and less money wasted compared with 16mm when that meets the use and quality needed.

Print ISSN

0361-4573

Published

1973-06

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/J08863