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Author Topic: Were all TV Episodes pritned on 16mm?
Winbert Hutahaean
Film God

Posts: 5468
From: Nouméa, New Caledonia
Registered: Jun 2003


 - posted March 26, 2009 10:08 PM      Profile for Winbert Hutahaean     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Hi all,

I am not really into collecting 16mm, but the question is triggered after seeing a lot of TV Episodes auctioned on Ebay, eg MASH, Mission Impossible, etc

I was then thinking that before the digital era, it was indeed the only way to make a movie by using celluloid apart for a few TV shows shot with electronic camera (with tapes). That can be seen that in every end credit title there will be a notation to Technicolor (Lab) or Panavision (Camera) or Kodak (film stock).

Some TV Episodes were sold for quite cheap, and some were also on LPP (I love he quality).

So my questions are:

1. Were all TV episodes (pre 1980s) printed on 16mm? If yes, so there will be a big chance for me to have a particular Lucy shows episodes, The Six Million Dollar Man or A Little House on the Prairie.

2. What about for the TV Episodes after 1980s, like Dynasty, Dallas, A Team or the latter recent like Mad About You, Friends, ?

3. If they were printed on 16mm, how many copies were made? It is only one or two and then transferred to tape for distribution?

4. I saw that particular series are quite abundant, like MASH but why not the other series that easy?

cheers,

--------------------
Winbert

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Steven Sigel
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 701
From: Massachusetts
Registered: Jun 2003


 - posted March 26, 2009 11:10 PM      Profile for Steven Sigel   Email Steven Sigel   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
1) Not all TV shows were printed on film, some were videotaped. However kinescopes exists for some videotaped shows.
The shows you mention - Lucy, Six Million $ Man, and Little House on the Prairie were all syndicated on 16mm film, so prints exist of all of those

2) The latest TV shows I've run across were from the late 80s - about 88 is the latest I've ever seen... Some shows ended earlier. Nothing after 88 is on film for distribution (even if it was shot on film)

3) If a show was syndicated on film then there would be lots of prints. If a show was syndicated on VT, then there are probably no prints - in general they took the raw film and edited it (for the most part) on video. There are also network prints of TV episodes as they were originally aired on the network - these are far more rare and only a handful of copies were made. (One exception to this - some shows that were distributed on VT were printed on film for international use - so there may be prints around - shows like "Battlestar Galactica", "V" or "Hardy Boys/ Nancy Drew" come to mind - these were all on film in Austrailia, but not the USA.

4) Some shows are more common because of two reasons - 1) some shows were syndicated a lot more than others, and 2) in the late 80s/ early 90s the bonded film warehouses were bought out and liquidated to collectors - shows that they had are therefore very common. I was told, for instance, that there were 9000 prints of MASH episodes....

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Bill Brandenstein
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1632
From: California
Registered: Aug 2007


 - posted March 26, 2009 11:13 PM      Profile for Bill Brandenstein   Email Bill Brandenstein   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I'm no expert, Winbert, but any show that went into syndication prior to the mid-80s or thereabouts was printed in 16mm in sufficient quantity to cover quite a few TV markets simultaneously. So "Mad About You" and "Friends," no, but all those others should be possible given time to stumble across them.

These films can hold a pretty high value, so I would expect them to cost more than low-budget features.

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Winbert Hutahaean
Film God

Posts: 5468
From: Nouméa, New Caledonia
Registered: Jun 2003


 - posted March 26, 2009 11:32 PM      Profile for Winbert Hutahaean     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote:
The latest TV shows I've run across were from the late 80s - about 88 is the latest
Steven, can you mention what is the latest print for TV shows?

--------------------
Winbert

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Steven Sigel
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 701
From: Massachusetts
Registered: Jun 2003


 - posted March 27, 2009 12:00 AM      Profile for Steven Sigel   Email Steven Sigel   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
As I said - the latest TV shows I've seen on 16mm film are from 1988.

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Winbert Hutahaean
Film God

Posts: 5468
From: Nouméa, New Caledonia
Registered: Jun 2003


 - posted March 27, 2009 02:50 AM      Profile for Winbert Hutahaean     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Yes I mean what is the title of 16mm TV shows from 1988 releases.

cheers,

--------------------
Winbert

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Darren Payne
Film Handler

Posts: 46
From: Bournemouth
Registered: Mar 2009


 - posted March 27, 2009 02:45 PM      Profile for Darren Payne   Email Darren Payne   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I have come across a 16mm X-Files 1st season episode with Spanish sub-titles. (Circa 1990?)

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Jose Artiles
Master Film Handler

Posts: 357
From: Spain
Registered: Oct 2005


 - posted April 19, 2009 04:10 PM      Profile for Jose Artiles   Email Jose Artiles   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
"friends" was filmed in 16mm and 35mm.

--------------------
As Steven Spielberg says....
Nothing beats old school projection. Digital is just an imitation.

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John Whittle
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 791
From: Northridge, CA USA
Registered: Jun 2003


 - posted May 01, 2009 03:45 PM      Profile for John Whittle   Email John Whittle       Edit/Delete Post 
Actually most network film shows were shot on 35mm (there were a few 16mm shows like ABC Afterschool Specials and shows on some "new networks" back in the 1980-90s.).

Even when shows were just telecined from the negative and cut electronically, the negative was often conformed for foreign syndication since many countries wouldn't accepts NTSC conversions to PAL for example.

In these cases, just as in the past, the 35mm negative was reduction printed to a 16mm negative (first with a 16mm CRI and then later as in the past with a 16mm reduction interpostive and then internegative) and 16mm prints were struck.

The foreign market lastest several years beyond the domestic US market which had gone over to tape and satellite distribution. Some stations even went to Super VHS to cut costs.

John

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