Imagine if you would a movie or TV show on 35mm film....
The movie itself consists of the reel of film - a series of individual
frames of 35mm film that, when in motion, give the illusion of life
on the big screen. When stilled, however, a single frame of film
( in flat format ) looks like a slide transparency.
Now imagine if you could have a single frame of film featuring a great
character or scene from your favorite movie or TV series.....
35mm film cells (actual size is approximately 35mm x 20mm)
You now have a 35mm film cell. Film cells (also called film clips,
film frames, or film cels -- it's all the same thing) can be mounted
using single-frame 35mm slide mounts to make great quality color
(or black and white) slides of high image sharpness and clarity
(since film cells are taken from original 35mm film footage, the
image quality is excellent).
35mm film cell mounted as a slide
To give you an idea of how fine the image quality is with film cells,
I took the single film cell pictured above and enlarged it to many
times its original size. Below you can see the result:
As you can see, even at such extreme enlargement, the resulting image
is still crisp and clean without any muddiness or grainy appearance.
People collect 35mm film cells because they offer a way to acquire high
quality photographic material from their favorite movies or of their favorite
stars for much less than cost of photographs or slide duplicates ( which
may have been repeatedly copied resulting in poor image quality ).
How do I make slides from my film cells?
To make slides from your film cells is as simple as mounting them in a
35mm single-frame slide mount. Note that you need 35mm single-frame
slide mounts for mounting film cells. This is important - 35mm full-frame slide
mounts - are too large for use with film cells. Be sure when buying
mounts to specify that you require 35mm single-frame mounts.
How should I store my film cells?
No matter how you organize and file your film cells the most important
things to keep in mind ( as with all slides / transparencies and photos ) is to
keep them in a cool, dry, dark place. Excessive heat, humidity, and intense
light for long periods of time can damage your film cells.
Can I make photos from film cells?
Ok, this is a tricky question to give a straight answer on. When you've got your
film cells mounted as a standard 2x2 size slide you can manipulate it just like you
would any other slide. You can view them in a slide viewer, slide projector, file
them in slide boxes, and one could make prints from slides. However, film cells
are copyrighted material so making photographic prints from them is copyright
infringement. That said, there are a lot of fans/collectors who do just that -- make
photographs for their own collections and personal use. Is it possible to do it?
Yes. Are you supposed to be doing it? No.
Know what you are getting
When you are buying film cells from someone online be sure you read
carefully to know what you are getting. While this would seem to go without
saying, it's worth repeating. Here's why.....
to be great "deals" on film cells. However, as is usually the case, when
something seems too good to be true there is generally a reason. These
sellers are playing with the numbers by offering lots of filmstrips from a
movie and counting each frame in the strip as being one film cell. This
gives the shopper who is looking for a variety of different scenes an
inflated impression of what's being offered. Here is an illustration of
how this kind of thing goes:
Let's say that I'm offering 20 film cells from "Winnie the Pooh"
The person buying that lot would get this:
"Dealer X" also has listed 20 film cells from "Winnie the Pooh"
but the person buying that lot would receive this:
film cells, 20 different scenes from the movie. This gives the buyer
a good variety of scenes for their collection.
"Dealer X" sends sends 20 total film cells, but since it is in the form of
two strips of 10 film cells, the buyer is actually only getting two scenes
from the movie.
The customer who bought from me will have 20 different scenes to add
their collection. The customer who bought from "Dealer X" will have
but 2 scenes and lots of duplicate film cells. In both cases a buyer
is getting 20 film cells, but what the buyer gets from each dealer is
very different.
Compiling good quality sets of film cells for collectors is time consuming,
concentration intensive, and sometimes even tedious work. It requires
attention to detail to make sure the sets are composed give the buyer as
great a variety of good scenes as possible.
When browsing a listing offering film cells for sale, be sure to look for the
following information: Does the dealer specifically state how many DIFFERENT
scenes you will receive? Does the seller use terms like "strips" or "segments"
to describe the film cells being sold? Always ask if the description is vague
or you are unsure about anything. Collecting film cells is a great hobby, and
a lot of fun compiling a collection, but just make sure what it is you are being
sold before you buy.
FLAT OR SCOPE?
This is another problem that has been cropping up more and more --
dealers selling film cells taken from footage that is in cinemascope
format. The basic formats you find frames of film in are either "flat" or
"scope". A film cell in usable flat format will present an image to you
like looking at a slide. The film cell that is in scope format will present
a distorted, stretched out image. This is because footage that is in
cinemascope format was meant to be projected through an anamorphic
lens -- this lens will cause the image, when projected on screen, to look
"normal" -- but a film frame taken from such footage is useless when
viewed with the naked eye -- the images stretched out and distorted.
The two images shown above are from flat format film frames
The two images shown below are from 'scope' format film frames