The ECN-2, or Eastman Colour Negative-2 process is particular set of chemicals and insturctions for processing the colour negative films used in motion pictures, including:

• Eastman Colour Negative Films
• Fuji Colour Negative Films
• Gevaert Colour Negative Films
• Eastman Colour Intermediate Film

A similar processes that one may come across is the ECP–2 (Eastman Colour Print) process that is followed to when developing print films such as the following:

• Eastman Colour SP Print Film
• Some Fuji Print Films
• Some Gevaert Print Films
• Eastman Colour lnternegative

One probably won’t come across these in the dark room as short ends are not as easily obtainable.

My first encounter with motion picture (or M.P.) film was with a Super 8mm film I was creating for a university project. I had originally intended to have the film developed professionally, but after finding out that I would be looking at a 4–6 week turn-around, I took matteres into my own hands and bought an E6 developing kit. At the time, I knew nothing about reversal film (positive image) or M.P. developing, which left me a bit in the dark.

My concern from the meterial that I had read was the precence of the antihalation layer; an opaque black backing to the film that would have the be remved. In stills cameras, the film moves through the camera at a relitivly slow pace. In movie cameras the film is being advanced at 24 times/second for prolonged periods. This movement would create a lot of friction against the presure plate in a stills camera, so in move cameras, the plate is smooth metal. This has the benefit of reducing friction, but the drawback of intoducing the risk of light reflecting back through the film and re-expose the emulsion. This is where the antihalation backing comes in. Its opaque nature makes it useful for blocking the light that makes it way through the emulsion, and its carbon makeup means it lubricates its passage through the mechanism without scratching the negative.

So the antihalation layer is very useful, but also (as I found out) very hard to remove if you don”t know what you”re doing. When I was making my little film, I didn”t know what I was doing. After the long process of putting it through all the chemical baths required for transparancy developing at what I though was the right temperature, the moment of truth came. I removed the film from the developing tank—it was black. Comepleatly black. I neede some finial product to hand in, and desperate times call for desperate measures. I submerged the whole lot in bleach to try and get the backing off; weak at first, but gradually adding more and more of the concentrated stuff. It wasn”t working in the traditional sense of the word, but I was gradually getting an image as I washed away what may have been the antihalation backing or possible the upper layers of poorly developed emulsion, but was most likely a mixture of the two. The image was blue, very blue, as you can see in the video, but I had footage to work with!

With visible images on the film and hand sticking of bleach, I was able to start cutting on an old 8mm editor and present to you what I was able to create with my first attempt at reveral processing.