Laser Etched 16mm Film

As students studying film-making technologies, 16mm film is attractive because of its tactile, physical, and hands-on nature. We are directly connected to and present for the technological (and artistic) process of the medium.

A barrier to these up-sides is the traditional need for a film camera and darkroom setup. This tutorial side-steps those obstacles and presents some methods for putting images directly to film

• Black emulsion film leader.
• A means by which to engrave your film.
  • This could be a CO2 laser cutter, or a smaller desktop laser engraver.
  • It is also possible to produce "scratch film" by hand engraving film leader.
• A film projector.

You need an animation to play back on your film. You produce a sequence of frames with conventional animation techniques, or even make use of the fact that we are "drawing" onto the film strip as a whole (i.e. we are not confined to a single frame) and produce patterns and images that span multiple frames. A geometric or sequential pattern works well for this approach.

My own technique was slightly different, in that I used p5.js to produce a looping optical illusion. I like the blending of art that is generative and pixel precise with an analog format like 16mm film.

My p5.js sketch lives here.

Feel free to check it out and make it your own by extending it (my own implementation is just 40 lines of code)!

Size and place your animation frames such that they fit on your film strip (and possibly even accommodate an audio track)

• The aspect ratio for 16mm Single Perf film is 4:3 or 1.37.
• The space between frames has a pitch of 7.6mm or 7.62mm (for short and long pitch film types respectively)
• A typical framerate for 16mm film projection is 24fps
• With approximately 40 frames per foot of film, this means that a 3 foot long film loop is about 5 seconds of animation.

Next up, you need to put the frames of your animation onto the black leader film. In general we are going to do this by removing lines and shapes from the opaque black emulsion that coats one side of the film, thereby allowing light to project through the film and illuminate our images.

The emulsion can be identified as the rougher, matte side of the film and any sharp engraving implement should work to etch out some transparent details.

If you have access to a laser engraving system you can raster or vector your digital designs onto the film as well.

For reference, a 60W CO2 laser system etches the film well at a power setting of 10% at 100% speed. Use the highest DPI setting you have available for raster content for the best effect.

Load your spliced loop of film into your projector. Make sure the sprocket holes are aligned and the projector is setup correctly. Dim the room and project onto a blank and flat surface. Enjoy the film you crafted coming to life!