Film Chain

Information about Film Chain

Type of Film island - Film chain

A Film chain or Film island is a television - TV camera with one or more projectors aligned into the lens of the camera. With two or more projectors a system of front-surface mirrors that can pop-up are used in a multiplexer. These mirrors switch different projectors into the camera lens. The camera could be fed live to air for Broadcasting through a vision mixer or recorded to a VTR for post-production or later broadcast.

Projectors

The projectors often are: 16mm Film Movie projector, a 35mm Slide projector and a 35 mm film Movie Projector. In low-end use the motion picture 35mm projector would be replaced by a second 16mm projector or 8 mm film, or Super 8 mm film or Single-8 projector. The multiplexer with the camera and projectors surrounding it would often be called a Film island. The optical or Mag or Magnetic strip sound track on the motion picture would be picked up by the projector and would be fed to an audio sound Mixing console or to the VTR. See: Sound-on-film, Film Sound and 35mm Sound.

The Slide projector at a TV station would be used for the TV Station’s Logo, the famous “Please Stand By” Slide and some test patterns. Some used a dual-rotating drum slide projector that would have its own mirrors to switch between the drums.

The film Projectors used in a Film chain are not standard. They had special five-blade shutter that is used convert the film’s 24 frames per second into NTSC’s 30 frame per second Video. If this was not used the video would have major flicker problems. This process is called a "3:2" pull down. Modern telecines use the same process, but it is done electronically, not with a five-blade shutter. "3:2" pull down means that a film frame is shown for three TV fields. The next Film Frame is shown for 2 TV fields. The add field in the “3” is used to convert the 24 frames per second to 30 frames per second. A normal projector has a 2 bladed shutter that shows the same frame twice. Before modern continuous motion Telecines, Film chains were sometime referred to as telecines.

All film projectors use sprocket rollers to move the film and a pull-down claws to move and stop the film in the gate. The film is moved in the gate while the shutter blocks the light.

In PAL, SECAM and other 25 frames per systems the film projector is speeded up one Frame per Second to 25 fps. This gives a one-to-one film to video frame transfer ratio. Thus a standard 2 bladed shutter can be used.

See Frame rate differences for more info.

The Camera

A Film chain usually used a video camera tube as this reduced flicker. vidicon image pick up tube were the preferred pick up for Film chains as these gave the least amount of flicker. When CCD-charge-coupled device cameras were introduced these were also used in a Film chain. CCD cameras often gave a sharper picture, but with more flicker.

Early Film chains had Black and White (B&W) cameras and many were later replaced with Color. The camera could be a standard studio camera, but most often was a camera designed for the purpose of film transfer.

Originally only Print Positive film as used. Later cameras that could invert and color correct color negative film were used.

Professional video cameras made for Film chains were used for Broadcast use.

A scene-by-scene color correction option was later added to film chains. This was first done by notching the edge of the film where a color change was wanted. Later, machines that counted the sprocket holes were used. At the mark (the notch or the electronic sprocket-count number) the next stored color correction would occur. See color grading for more information.

Products

RCA was by far the largest maker of Film chains with the high end TK-26, TK-27 and TK28. RCA made both the cameras and projectors like the early TP6.
TeleMation Inc. made B&W and Color Film chains like the TMM-203 Multiplexer and TMU-100 Uniplexers. TeleMation cameras and later Film chain camera rack were used for the pick up. These often used Bell & Howell projectors, like the B&H 379. Bell & Howell later purchased Telemation.

Also See

Ext. Links

Television (often abbreviated to TV, T.V., or more recently, tv; sometimes called telly, the tube, boob tube, or idiot box in British English) is a widely used telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures
..... Click the link for more information.

Professional video camera (often called a Television camera even though the use has spread) is a high-end device for recording electronic moving images (as opposed to a movie camera, that records the images on film).
..... Click the link for more information.

photographic lens (also known as objective lens or photographic objective) is an optical lens or assembly of lenses used in conjunction with a camera body and mechanism to make images of objects either on photographic film or on other media capable of storing an image
..... Click the link for more information.

Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and/or video signals which transmit programs to an audience. The audience may be the general public or a relatively large sub-audience, such as children or young adults.
..... Click the link for more information.

A vision mixer (also called video switcher, video mixer or production switcher) is a device used to select between several different video sources and in some cases composite (mix) video sources together and add special effects.
..... Click the link for more information.

Post-production occurs in the making of audio recordings, films/movies, photography and digital art, videos and television programs. It is the general term for all stages of production occurring after the actual recording and ending with the completed work.
..... Click the link for more information.

movie projector is an opto-mechanical device for displaying moving pictures by projecting them on a projection screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices, are present in movie cameras.
..... Click the link for more information.

slide projector is an opto-mechanical device to view photographic slides. It has four main elements: a fan-cooled electric light bulb or other light source, a reflector and "condensing" lens to direct the light to the slide, a holder for the slide and a focusing lens.
..... Click the link for more information.

35 mm film is the basic film gauge most commonly used for both still photography and motion pictures, and remains relatively unchanged since its introduction in 1892 by William Dickson and Thomas Edison, using film stock supplied by George Eastman.
..... Click the link for more information.

Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects.
..... Click the link for more information.

8mm film is a motion picture film format in which the filmstrip is eight millimeters wide. It exists in two main versions: regular, normal, or standard 8mm (also known as Double 8 Film) (the subject of this article) and Super 8.
..... Click the link for more information.

Super 8 mm film, also simply called Super 8, is a motion picture film format that was developed in the 1960s and released on the market in 1965 by Eastman Kodak as an improvement of the older 8mm home movie format, and the Cine 8 Format.
..... Click the link for more information.

Single-8 is a motion picture film format introduced by Fujifilm of Japan in 1965 as an alternative to the Kodak Super 8 format. The company Konan (that developed the Konan-16 subminiature camera) claims in its history page to have developed the Single-8 system in 1959.
..... Click the link for more information.

Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, usually used for the voice or for music.

The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording.
..... Click the link for more information.

Sound is a disturbance of mechanical energy that propagates through matter as a wave (through fluids as a compression wave, and through solids as both compression and shear waves).
..... Click the link for more information.

In professional audio, a mixing console, digital mixing console, mixing desk (Brit.), or audio mixer, also called a sound board or soundboard, is an electronic device for combining (also called "mixing"), routing, and changing the level, tonality and/or
..... Click the link for more information.

Sound-on-film refers to a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying picture is physically recorded onto photographic film, usually, but not always, the same strip of film carrying the picture.
..... Click the link for more information.

This article needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling.
You can assist by [ editing it] now. A how-to guide is available, as is general .
This article has been tagged since October 2007.
..... Click the link for more information.

Telecine (IPA pronunciation: [ˈtɛləˌsɪni] or [ˌtɛləˈsɪni]; [ˌtɛləˈsɪnə]; also [ˌtɛləˈsiːn].
..... Click the link for more information.

intermittent mechanism or intermittent movement is the device by which film is regularly advanced and then held in place for a brief duration of time in a movie camera or movie projector.
..... Click the link for more information.

PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is a colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in large parts of the world. Other common analogue television systems are SECAM and NTSC.
..... Click the link for more information.

SECAM, also written SÃ‰CAM (SÃ©quentiel couleur Ã mÃ©moire, French for "Sequential Color with Memory"), is an analog color television system first used in France.
..... Click the link for more information.

In older video cameras, before the 1990s, a video camera tube or pickup tube was used instead of a charge-coupled device (CCD). Several types were in use from the 1930s to the 1980s. These tubes are a type of cathode ray tube.
..... Click the link for more information.

charge-coupled device (CCD) is an analog shift register, enabling analog signals (electric charges) to be transported through successive stages (capacitors) controlled by a clock signal.
..... Click the link for more information.

Color grading is the process of altering and enhancing the color of a motion picture or television image, either electronically, photo-chemically or digitally. The photo-chemical process is also referred to as color timing
..... Click the link for more information.

RCA, formerly an acronym for the Radio Corporation of America, is now a trademark owned by Thomson SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Thomson.
..... Click the link for more information.

TeleMation Inc was a company specializing in products for the post production and Film industry. Was Located in Salt Lake City, UT. TeleMation started with a line of B&W video equipment and later manufactured Color Video Products.
..... Click the link for more information.

BÃ¶we Bell & Howell is a US-based former manufacturer of motion picture cameras and projectors.

According to its charter, Bell + Howell Company was incorporated February 17, 1907. It was duly recorded in the Cook County Record Book eight days later.
..... Click the link for more information.