I've done a bit of research on the use of safety film by the Nazis for distributing propaganda material to non-theatrical venues, and virtually every German technical standard I've come across was in some way different from (and surprise surprise, incompatible with) its SMPE counterpart.

There was of course Cinecolor which had the emulsion on both sides, I projected many of these colour prints and I also remember the cyan soundtrack that long ago.

Perhaps John Pytlak could kindly tell us how a print would be struck for a re-issue today from an old Cinecolor original negative(s). I have often wondered.

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For 35mm, the system evolved as a camera negative contact printed onto a print film. In the camera, the negative film emulsion faces the lens. When a contact print is made of that negative, the image orientation is "flipped", so the emulsion side of a print faces AWAY from the lens of the projector (towards the lamp).

For 16mm, the system started out with the the same piece of film (reversal camera original) being projected, so 16mm prints made from an internegative often had the emulsion facing the lens, although direct prints from a camera original could have the emulsion facing away from the lens. Some 16mm projectors have easy adjustment of optical sound focus to accomodate the fact that 16mm prints could be oriented either way.

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

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So I can tell to my apprentice that:

1. On "regular" commercial films the emulsion will faces the lamp
2. There are however the possibility that emultion will faces the lens, but just with old movies, 16mm movies, pirated movies or for a lab mistake.

Right?

A camera-original film shot on reversal stock will project properly with the emulsion oriented toward the lens.

A contact-dupe made on reversal stock from a release print will have the emulsion reversed as well. I understand that this is/was sometimes done legitimately in order to make a one-off copy of a film without the expense of making a new negative and soundtrack. I would imagine that the sound quality on such a dupe would be pretty bad ...

Yes. Normal 35mm release print orientation is that the emulsion faces the lamp. This is standard SMPTE 194. Anything else is non-standard and very uncommon.

16mm reversal camera originals have the emulsion facing the lens, as do 16mm prints made from an internegative. 16mm prints may also have emulsion facing the lamp if they are contact prints of the original, or from a Negative --> IP --> DN --> Print system. You may need to refocus picture and optical sound between prints if the orientation changes.

I've shot several thousand miles of 16mm and 35mm film and the emulsion orientation all depends on how many generations are involved before the final print is released. John is absolutely right about 35mm emulsion being specified as faced away from the lens. I know that seems weird since one would think that the image would be sharper/clearer to resolve directly on the emulsion without going through the base. Oh, Well.... I guess some(?) are smarter than the rest of us.....

>>> Phil

As I noted, camera original negative always has the emulsion towards the lens of the camera. Can't be otherwise with color negative film because of the anti-halation black rem-jet coating on the unprocessed film. Make a contact print, and the orientation is flipped. Likewise go through the normal duplicating system of Neg --> IP --> DN --> Print, and the orientation is emulsion towards the lamp.

The polyester base used for KODAK VISION Color Print Film is really quite transparent and has high optical quality, so light scatter and distortion are minimal, even when the image has to go through the base.

WTF?

>>> Phil