Editing Film stock (section)

==History==

===1888–1899: Before standardization===
Early motion picture experiments in the 1880s were performed using a fragile [[paper]] roll film, with which it was difficult to view a single, continuously moving image without a complex apparatus. The first transparent and flexible [[film base]] material was [[celluloid]], which was discovered and refined for photographic use by [[John Carbutt]], [[Hannibal Goodwin]], and [[George Eastman]]. [[Eastman Kodak]] made celluloid film commercially available in 1889; Thomas Henry Blair, in 1891, was his first competitor. The stock had a frosted base to facilitate easier viewing by transmitted light. Emulsions were [[orthochromatic]]. By November 1891 [[William Kennedy Dickson|William Dickson]], at [[Thomas Edison|Edison]]'s laboratory, was using Blair's stock for [[Kinetoscope]] experiments. Blair's company supplied film to Edison for five years. Between 1892 and 1893, Eastman experienced problems with production. Because of patent lawsuits in 1893, Blair left his American company and established another in Britain. Eastman became Edison's supplier of film.{{source needed|date=April 2024}}

Blair's new company supplied European filmmaking pioneers, including [[Birt Acres]], [[Robert W. Paul|Robert Paul]], [[George Albert Smith (film pioneer)|George Albert Smith]], [[Charles Urban]], and the [[Lumière Brothers]]. By 1896, the new [[movie projector]] required a fully transparent film base that Blair's American operation could not supply. Eastman shortly thereafter bought the company out and became the leading supplier of film stock. [[Louis Lumière]] worked with [[Victor Planchon]] to adapt the Lumière "Blue Label" (Etiquette Bleue) photographic plate emulsion for use on celluloid roll film, which began in early 1896.{{source needed|date=April 2024}}

Eastman's first motion picture film stock was offered in 1889.<ref name="aipcinema.com">{{Cite web|url=http://www.aipcinema.com/ficheiros/Conteudos/KODAK_FILM_HISTORY.pdf|title=KODAK FILM HISTORY Chronology of Motion Picture Films - 1889 to 1939|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130515033307/http://www.aipcinema.com/ficheiros/Conteudos/KODAK_FILM_HISTORY.pdf|archive-date=15 May 2013|access-date=2 February 2013}}</ref> At first the film was the same as photographic film. By 1916, separate "Cine Type" films were offered.<ref name="aipcinema.com"/> From 1895, Eastman supplied their motion picture roll film in rolls of 65 feet, while Blair's rolls were 75 feet. If longer lengths were needed, the unexposed negative rolls could be cemented in a [[darkroom]], but this was largely undesirable by most narrative filmmakers. The makers of [[Actuality film]]s were much more eager to undertake this method, however, in order to depict longer actions. They created cemented rolls as long as 1,000 feet. [[American Mutoscope and Biograph]] was the first known company to use such film for the [[James J. Jeffries|Jeffries]]-[[Tom Sharkey|Sharkey]] fight on 3 November 1899.

===1900–1919: Toward the standard picture film===
As the quantity of film and filmmakers grew, the demand for standardization increased. Between 1900 and 1910, [[list of film formats|film formats]] gradually became [[standardization|standardized]] and film stocks improved. A number of [[film gauge]]s were made. Eastman increased the length of rolls to 200 feet without major adjustments to the emulsion, retaining a large market share. Lumière reformulated its stock to match the speed of Eastman film, naming it 'Etiquette Violette' (Violet Label). Blair sold his English company to [[Pathé]] in 1907 and retired to the US. Pathé began to supplement its operation in 1910 by purchasing film prints, stripping the emulsion from the film base and re-coating it. [[35 mm movie film|35mm film]] began to become the dominant gauge because of the commonality of Edison's and Lumière's [[cameras]]. Consumers usually purchased unperforated film and had to punch it by perforators that were often imprecise, causing difficulty in making prints for the opposite perforation format. In 1908, the perforators began to be made by [[Bell and Howell]]. Eastman Kodak used the Bell and Howell machine to perforate its films. In 1909, Edison's organization of the [[Edison Trust|Motion Picture Patents Trust]] agreed to what would become the standard: 35&nbsp;mm gauge, with Edison perforations and a 1.33 [[aspect ratio (image)|aspect ratio]].<ref>The gauge and perforations are almost identical to modern film stock; the full silent ratio is also used as the [[film gate]] in movie cameras, although portions of the image (excluding those shot with an [[anamorphic]] lens) are later cropped out in post-production and projection.</ref>
[[Image:16mmBWrevDP.png|thumb|A silent home movie on [[16 mm film|16mm]] [[black-and-white]] reversal double-perforation film stock]]
[[Agfa]] began to produce motion picture film in 1913, but remained a largely local supplier until World War I boycotts of popular French, American and Italian film stocks allowed the [[Universum Film AG|UFA]] film studio to flourish, boosting Agfa's orders. All film stocks were manufactured on a [[Nitrate film|nitrate film base]], which is highly flammable. Nitrate film fires were virtually impossible to extinguish. A significant number of fatal accidents occurred in theatrical projection booths, where the heat of the projector lamp made ignition a possibility. Amateur [[filmmaking]] ([[home movies]]) slowly developed during this period. Kodak developed a heat-resistant 'safety base' for home projection.

In 1909, tests showed [[cellulose diacetate]] to be a viable replacement base, and Kodak began selling acetate-base films the following year in 22&nbsp;mm widths for Edison's work on the Home Kinetoscope, which was commercially released in 1912. Eastman Kodak introduced a non-flammable 35&nbsp;mm film stock in 1909. The [[plasticizer]]s used to make the film flexible evaporated quickly, making the film dry and brittle, causing splices to part and perforations to tear. In 1911 the major American film studios returned to using nitrate stock.<ref>Eileen Bowser, ''The Transformation of Cinema 1907–1915'', Charles Scribner's Sons, 1990, p. 74–75. {{ISBN|0-684-18414-1}}.</ref> More amateur formats began to use acetate-based film, and several, including Kodak's own [[16 mm]] format, were designed specifically to be manufactured with safety base. Kodak released Cine Negative Film Type E in 1916 and Type F (later known as Negative Film Par Speed Type 1201) in 1917. As both of these orthochromatic films were no faster than previous offerings, the improvements were in granularity and sharpness.

===1920s: Diversification of film sensitivity===
Film stock manufacturers began to diversify their products. Each manufacturer had previously offered one negative stock (usually orthochromatic) and one print stock. In 1920, a variant of Type F film known as X-back was introduced to counteract the effects of static electricity on the film, which can cause [[Electric spark|sparking]] and create odd exposure patterns on the film. A resin backing was used on the film, which rendered the film too opaque to allow focusing through the back of the film, a common technique for many cameras of that era. The X-back stock was popular on the east coast of the US. Other manufacturers were established in the 1920s, including American [[E.I. Dupont de Nemours]] in 1926 and Belgian [[Agfa-Gevaert|Gevaert]] in 1925. [[Panchromatic]] film stock became more common. Created in 1913 for use in early color film processes such as [[Kinemacolor]], panchromatic was first used in a black-and-white film for exterior sequences in ''[[Queen of the Sea (film)|Queen of the Sea]]'' (1918) and originally available as a special order product.<ref>Koszarski (1994). p. 140.</ref> The stock's increased sensitivity to red light made it an attractive option for [[day for night]] shooting. Kodak financed a feature in 1922, shot entirely with panchromatic stock, ''[[The Headless Horseman (1922 film)|The Headless Horseman]]'', to promote the film when Kodak introduced it as a standard option. Panchromatic film stock increased costs and no motion pictures were produced on it in their entirety for several years. The cross-cutting between panchromatic and orthochromatic stocks caused continuity problems with costume tones and [[panchromatic film]] was often avoided.

Orthochromatic film remained dominant until the mid-1920s due to Kodak's lack of competition in the panchromatic market. In 1925, Gevaert introduced an orthochromatic stock with limited color sensitivity and a fully panchromatic stock, Pan-23. In 1926, Kodak lowered the price of panchromatic stock to parity with its orthochromatic offering and the panchromatic stock began to overtake the orthochromatic stock's market share within a few years.<ref>Salt (1992). p. 179. "There was apparently some question as to differences in relative contrast between the two stocks. As Barry Salt notes, "this claim is almost impossible to substantiate now, given the extreme difficulty there is in seeing a reasonable number of original prints of films shot on both stocks."</ref> As similar panchromatic film stocks were also manufactured by Agfa and Pathé, making the shift to panchromatic stocks largely complete by 1928, Kodak discontinued orthochromatic stock in 1930.<ref>[https://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/about/chronology_of_film/index.htm# Kodak: Chronology of Motion Picture Films, 1889 to 1939].</ref>

===Color films===
{{further|Color motion picture film}}
Experiments with color films were made as early as the late 19th century, but practical color film was not commercially viable until 1908, and for amateur use when Kodak introduced [[Kodachrome]] for 16&nbsp;mm in 1935 and [[8 mm film|8&nbsp;mm]] in 1936. Commercially successful color processes used special cameras loaded with black-and-white separation stocks rather than color negative. [[Kinemacolor]] (1908–1914), [[Technicolor]] processes 1 through 4 (1917–1954), and [[Cinecolor]] used one, two or three strips of monochrome film stock sensitized to certain primary colors or exposed behind color filters in special cameras. Technicolor introduced a color [[reversal film|reversal]] stock, called Monopack, for location shooting in 1941; it was ultimately a 35&nbsp;mm version of Kodachrome that could be used in standard motion picture cameras.

Eastman Kodak introduced their first [[35 mm movie film|35mm]] color negative stock, Eastman Color Negative film 5247, in 1950.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.kodak.com/gb/en/motion/About/Chronology_Of_Film/1940-1959/default.htm|title=1940 - 1959 {{!}} Motion Picture Film|website=www.kodak.com|access-date=12 December 2019}}</ref> A higher quality version in 1952, Eastman Color Negative film 5248, was quickly adopted by Hollywood for color motion picture production, replacing both the expensive three-strip Technicolor process and Monopack.<ref name=":0" />
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