Curiously, it's the only one of the 9 film stocks in the ad that mentions Super 35. Yet it's a fast film; I was under the impression that all the issues with grain in Super 35 meant that you wanted to use slower stocks, not faster ones. So, John, why is Kodak promoting Super 35 with Vision 800T?

Sure, VISION 200T will have finer grain. But if the situation demands, the 5289 can yield remarkable images for being such a fast film.

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
e-mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

I guess I find myself wondering what sort of negative film tends to be used on the Super 35 films that we do see as looking grainy. Thanks for the snappy response., btw.
--jhawk

As you can see, it is up in the frame...it seems that the bottom of the 'printed' frameline sits on the actual frameline and thus gives the illusion you need to frame down. But don't or you will ACTUALLY be out of frame.

Is every print like this?

John

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Too much of the rest of the film is given over to a romance between Padme and Anakin in which they're incapable of uttering anything other than the most basic and weary romantic cliches, while regarding each other as if love was something to be endured rather than cherished. There is not a romantic word they exchange that has not long since been reduced to cliche.

No, wait: Anakin tells Padme at one point: "I don't like the sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating--not like you. You're soft and smooth." I hadn't heard that before.

- Roger Ebert reviewing Episode 2.

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Having looked at MANY movies in my career, my own feeling is that underexposure is the most frequent culprit in "grainy" pictures. An underexposed negative will print with low density shadow areas ("smoky blacks"), so the fast negative grains that capture shadow detail will be printed light enough to be easily seen on the print. A "richer" exposure pushes the image further up the negative's characteristic curve, onto the finer grained emulsion components, and even the grainer fast components are printed to a "rich" solid black that minimizes the grain.

If I had a limited amount of light, I would choose to use a film that was a stop faster, rather than be forced to underexpose by one stop.

I do not dispute that all things being equal, the larger image area of 2.39:1 anamorphic will yield lower graininess than 2.39:1 Super 35. But the excellent sharpness and low graininess of the KODAK VISION family of films allows Super 35 "Done Right" to look very good:
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/products/negative/

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
e-mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

That Dreamworks title is either a CGI or optical element. Someone erred on the vertical positioning when it was made. It would affect ALL prints.

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Could be many reasons:

They wanted a grainy/"gritty" look
They couldn't get enough light to avoid underexposure
They preferred the "look" or flexibility of a faster film stock
A proprietary (non-standard) "silver retention" or "bleach bypass" process was used

It can be "done right":
http://www.theasc.com/magazine/dec97/titanic/pgs35/pg1.htm
http://www.cameraguild.com/interviews/chat_carpenter/carpenter_titanic.htm
http://www.cinesite.com/core/press/articles/1998/01_00_98-titanic.html
http://www.cinesite.com/core/press/articles/1998/02_00_98-digital_revolutn.html

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
e-mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion