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Kev Franzi's Journeys in Time –

Celebrating a Century
of 16mm Film

Introduction:
16mm sound motion picture film has had a huge impact
on my life as a documentary film maker. However in the
first decade of my experience I had spent most of my time
working with 35mm film in both production and
exhibition and it was always as an employee with
someone else paying the big bucks to work in that field.
Another problem was that as a documentary cameraman
you had to be able to pick-up a fully dressed 35mm
Mitchell or Bell & Howell 2709 camera on a tripod and
walk or run with it to the next location – without
dropping it! I realized that with my lightweight physique
– the task was beyond me – so I became a film editor 16mm Kodak Safety Film introduced
instead wielding a savage pair of scissors – snip snip! In
in the famous red and yellow box
those days working with 35mm was definitely working would become a vital tool in
in the big league – and still is.
education, entertainment and the
recording of our history.
In the 1950s I discovered the potential of 16mm film
production using a delightful lightweight camera and tripod and colour film with processing that
I could afford – just. Supported by that decade of production experience – a whole new era of
16mm production lay ahead for me just as it had done for many others. Now I could shoot, edit
and project my own productions – as “a one man band” it was a far cry from today’s documentary
filmmaking – but so exciting.
Now let’s go back and explore the beginnings of –

The Saga of 16mm - A Celebration.
As covered in my previous article “Substandard” a number of problems had to be overcome
before the full potential of the educational and “Non Theatrical” market could be achieved. These
included a non flammable film base, a cheaper standard format for the film was needed together
with new lightweight equipment to use it. This was achieved by the vision and enterprise of five
men.

The first three men of vision were associated with the Eastman Kodak Co. with the owner George
Eastman being the driving force and the staff of Kodak Research Laboratory creating a new
16mm format Safety Film using a cellulose acetate base coated with G.J. Capstaff’s high quality
B&W Reversal emulsion that captured a direct positive image in the camera suitable for projection.

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