Movies for TV - Early Television Foundation

TITLES AND SPECIAL EFFECTS 205
Fig. 10-2. Acme Contact Printer for 35 mm film. A 16 mm
model is also available. The unexposed film is contained in the
upper magazine. As the processed stock and the raw stock pass
in front of the printing light the two emulsions are in contact.
Notches in the processed film control the light intensity to
correct for exposure variations. Up to forty feet of film a minute
can be printed.
Why, then, call it positive film and why use it? The print
dch is exhibited at theatres and used on television stations must
have very fine grain because it is going to be magnified so many
times to get a large picture. For this reason, a very fine-grain
emulsion is used. As we have already seen fine grain and high
speeds do not go together but that is not at all important since we
can obtain all the light we need from the light source of the optical
printer. This is the device shown in Figure 10-2 which makes