Re: Hand coloring on 35 mm film

From: Pablo Marin (email suppressed)
Date: Fri Feb 24 2006 - 13:34:48 PST


Doug,

from what i read, you´re planing to paint in
differents colours each of your 7000 frames (not tint
whole sections with one colour).

i´ve done some painting on 35mm and had really good
results with permanent markers. (sharpies are not
available here, i use Edding 400 and Staedler´s. ) the
thing is that if you paint directly with your marker
(the tip onto celluloid) you will not do it quickly
and things will get messy. in my case, i removed that
fiber part in which all the ink is store (i don´t know
the english word for it) and then put it in a jar
recipient with some liquid alcohol. after you shake it
enough, you will have some liquid permanent ink. then
you can apply it to film with any kind of brushes (you
can get them as small and sharp as you like). alcohol
based permanent ink dryes completely in about 10-15
minutes.

as for setting up a workstation you could check Norman
Mclaren´s "How To Make Animated Movies Without a
Camera," included in Russett-Starr´s "Experimental
Animation: Origins of a New Art".

good luck and all the best for your operation,
Pablo Marin
Buenos Aires.

--- Doug Williams <email suppressed> wrote:

> Hello. This is my first post here. I'm writing
> because I am planning to hand color film which I
> have never tried before and I was hoping to get the
> benefit of everyone's experience. I'll be as
> detailed as possible:
> I am planning to shoot 2 rolls of black and white
> 35mm film. Then I will get a work print made and
> take it home. Then I have to have some surgery and I
> want to spend my recovery time hand coloring in the
> parts of the work print which will appear in the
> final film. Then I will get the colored work print
> transferred to digital files so I can put it on my
> computer to finish the editing. I have many
> questions about the process. First of all does that
> sound like a reasonable workflow? Does anybody have
> good suggestions about the mechanics of setting up a
> workstation to move efficiently through the coloring
> process while allowing enough time for drying etc.?
>
> I want the color to be translucent so that the
> images will be colored without losing any of the
> detail of the film. Of course I want it to look as
> good as it can but I also want to move quickly and
> efficiently and hopefully without getting cancer
> from toxins. I will have a lot of recovery time to
> work with and I'm actually looking forward to it as
> a sort of therapy but at the same time there will be
> a LOT of frames to color so I do want to be able to
> move fast so I can finish it in this lifetime. The
> finished film I hope will be about 5 minutes long
> which I believe means I will be coloring a little
> over 7,000 individual frames of film. I'm up for it
> as long as it takes but I want to make sure I have a
> good plan first. I have heard of using food color,
> water color, stained glass paints, and even
> sharpies. The sharpies sound like a good option just
> because it seems quick and non toxic and not too
> messy. It also seems though that it would be
> difficult to blend colors much with
> sharpies or other felt tip pens so you would be
> pretty much stuck with the colors you can buy. This
> might be okay with me but it's good to have options.
> Has anyone used sharpies for hand coloring film? Do
> they actually work transparently and without
> smearing? Is there a way to blend them if you want?
> What is the drying time like? Any other similar but
> better options for moving fast and getting good
> results? I have found a little informationin the
> archives but I really want to hear more about
> specific techniques and mediums people have tried.
> Any tips or comments would be greatly appreciated.
> Thank you very much!
> -Doug
>
>
>
__________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at
> <email suppressed>.
>
>

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__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.