Motion Picture Printing

[Paramvir Singh]

Motion Picture Printing
Printers
Continuous-Contact Printer.
In its simplest form, printing consists of exposing the raw stock from an“original” or “printing master” to form the image using a light source to produce the exposure. When the image size of the print is the same as that of the original (i.e., 35 mm to 35 mm, 16 mm to 16 mm), the printing is usually done in a continuous-contact printer. The large printing sprocket advances both the original and the print film at a constant rate past the light source. The original and print films are usually positioned emulsion-to-emulsion with the light passing through the original
and exposing the stock to be printed. Depending on the application, these contact printers may operate up to thousands of feet per minute.


Step-Contact Printer.
Step-contact printers advance both negative and print films through the printer gate with an intermittent motion and shutter similar to that of a camera. Close-fitting register pins position the two films with extreme accuracy during exposure, and a pressure plate at the printing gate assures film flatness. Because of the complexity of the machine and the precision of film registration achieved, the speed of a step-contact printer is relatively low(21?2to 40 feet per minute). Step- contact printers are precision instruments used for making color sepa- rations and special-effects printing that may require several passes of the raw stock through the printer (for traveling mattes, master positives, and color intermediates, etc.). Generally, they are designed for roomlight operation to make the necessary operator control easier.

more details in attached pdf