Who says the camera doesn’t lie?!
Andy Martin took this film of Chaloner at work last Saturday on his iPhone, using a superb ‘app’ which gives several options for levels of ‘age’ that can be applied to the film. Here is Chaloner as it might have looked in the 1920s/30s and the 1960s… The low evening sunlight has also enhanced the effect and the result is, to me at least, utterly convincing!
Quite obviously “present” with a questionable video ‘filter’ applied. The really annoying edge of the frame shrinking & growing is something that simply doesn’t happen with motion picture film of any age. At least not unless done on purpose as a rather slow and time consuming operation during an optical step-printing stage during post production.
For the edge of the frame to grown & shrink like that would mean the projector being carried towards & away from the screen very rapidly whilst playing, together with perfect refocussing to keep the main image focus the same (but it can’t be that, because that would make the whole picture grow/shrink, not just the frame edge which is happening here with the image remaining the same size).
If the film lifted off the gate either in the camera or projector (which does happen, especially in older or less well maintained equipment) then the image will briefly go out of focus and alter in size for a frame or so until it returns back to where it should be, but in all cases the black edge surrounding the image stays resolutely still, as that is produced by the gate in the camera/projector/telecine, which is always stationary.
If the camera/projector skips a perf then you’ll see the image roll up across the screen and see the frame line go past between the two frames, but again the outer black mask of the image stays still, it will just be the image inside it which rolls.
If the camera/projector has less than perfect registration you’ll see the image jiggle up and down slightly, or weave left and right slightly as it moves in the gate… but once again the outer black mask/border of the image will alway be fixed.
As a second more minor indicator, when the camera is carried sideways to the right there is evidence of rolling shutter artefacts, this is something which only happens with CMOS imaging sensors. Whilst shutter artefacts are possible with the mechanical rotary shutters found on motion picture cameras, they take a totally different form (think in terms of stage coach wheels turning backwards as the coach moves forwards).
Personally I think the clip would look infinately better and be much less annoying if it was posted ‘straight’ without the awful filter. Sorry Paul, nothing convincing about it all to me, a perfectly good clip ruined IMHO. :o)
Hi Ian – it is just meant as a bit of fun! We’re not out to fake the historical record and most viewers accessing our web features appreciate the odd thing which a littel out of the ordinary. Points taken though, and Andy does have plans to shoot some film on super 8, as well as working hard on his wet-plate set up for stills photography which should yield some results on the blog at some point.