Motion Picture Printers

[Troy Grilli]

Hey there, friends of analog photography. I've been looking around, just out of curiosity, to find out about motion picture film. I'm going to see Dunkirk in 70mm and so I've been doing some research so as to understand how the film went from camera to projector. I understand the process, but since I'm I nerd, I want specifics. I've found all the specifics I wanted except one: What does the printing back to film after a digital post-process? As I understand it, the process goes:
Shoot Film > Develop Negatives > Scan via TeleCine > process digitally > Print onto film > Project in theatre.
My question lies mostly in the physical device that prints the image onto film. Back in the day, I know we used High-Res CRTs to print slide film for presentations, is it the same idea?
I'm not sure if this is the proper place for this post, sorry if it is not. Just try as I might, I can't find this information myself and I reckon someone on here knows!

 

[MattKing]

You are talking about film recorders.
Here is a page from Imapro, a Canadian manufacturer who has been out of business for a while, but was in both the still and movie film business: http://www.imapro.com/filmrecorders.htm

 

[AgX]

This article lists the principle technologies better than I could do...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_recorder

 

[tedr1]

Regarding the final projected image, it would be unusual today for this to be projection of film, most movies today are digital files sent to the theater which uses a digital high resolution projector for the show.

(The change from film projection to digital projection was, I understand, one of the final nails in Kodak's coffin because it deprived them of the business of making projection films for theaters. I think the changeover happened quite fast once it began.)

 

[AgX]

Regarding the final projected image, it would be unusual today for this to be projection of film, most movies today are digital files sent to the theater which uses a digital high resolution projector for the show.

1) Some movies will no longer be printed as projection copy.
2) Some movies still have to be printed so as there are still some film-based cinemas.
3) For some movies there still is no digital projection means at all.
4) Printing on film is important as archival means (not intended as projection copy).

5) There is a non-cinematic need for data-to-film printing too.

 

[Kino]

We use a Arri Laser Film recorder. Wildly expensive, maintenance is very expensive, records to a limited number of filmstocks and ONLY within the Cineon Specified 0 to 2.4 dmin to dmax range (i.e., designed for color negative stocks; b&w output is limited to green channel only). Others such as the Lasergraphics (no longer offered on their website) could record up to 4.0 dmax, based on a CRT target.

You could, in theory, use any 2K capable display to build a real-time film recorder; the Cinevator being a very early, commercial variant that ran only at HD resolution, but with the decline of film projection, there hasn't been much or any advance in that area in some time. I used a Cinevator via the LA Technicolor Lab to output short sections of a film I digitally restored, and it looked pretty good, but no where near the quality of a 2/4K dedicated film recorder. The advantage of the Cinevator was direct output to positive film (print) AND the ability to record the sound track simultaneously. A sad case of technology arriving too late to fill a need gap in the production pipeline...

Its a rabbit-hole many a enthusiast has dropped-down, but few have ever made it to the finish line...

 

[AgX]

Yes, that Wikipeda article is quite outdated concerning offers of such recorders.
Even the photochemical industry lost interest on the data-to-film issue.