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Author Topic: Why in mm ?
Dominique De Bast
Film God

Posts: 4486
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Jun 2013

- posted October 19, 2013 01:01 PM      Profile for Dominique De Bast   Email Dominique De Bast   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I wonder why the metric system was adopted to refer to the width of the film ? Is it because the cinema was invented in France that countries like the US and the UK are also using the mm as reference or is there another reason ?

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Dominique

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Steve Klare
Film Guy

Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

- posted October 19, 2013 01:18 PM      Profile for Steve Klare   Email Steve Klare   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
What I find funny is how freely the systems are mixed in film. A Super-8 cartidge contains 8mm wide film, but it's 50 feet in length!

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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

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Dominique De Bast
Film God

Posts: 4486
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Jun 2013

- posted October 19, 2013 03:59 PM      Profile for Dominique De Bast   Email Dominique De Bast   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Yes, Steve, it is mixed in anglo-saxons countries. Otherwise, a super 8 cartridge contains 15 meters of film :-) What is strange is that with the new tv sets, computer and phone screen, you get now in France and Belgium the size in inches (and no longer in centimeters) which are not supposed to tell us anything. Another mystery.

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Dominique

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Fabrizio Mosca
Master Film Handler

Posts: 346
From: Milano, Italy
Registered: Jan 2004

- posted October 19, 2013 04:32 PM      Profile for Fabrizio Mosca   Email Fabrizio Mosca   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
On the contrary, in Italy the size of TVs and monitors has always been in inches and when I was a little child i tried to measure the size of the tv putting one thumb after the other! (in Italy the translation for "thumb" is the same of the one for "inch" )

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Maurice Leakey
Film God

Posts: 5895
From: Bristol. United Kingdom
Registered: Oct 2007

- posted October 20, 2013 12:42 AM      Profile for Maurice Leakey   Email Maurice Leakey   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
In 1892 Edison and his prime assistant, William Dickson, asked George Eastman for film 1.375 inches in width. perhaps 35mm was easier to say and print (and remember!)

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Maurice

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