American Cinematographer - November 1998 - 85

Left: A normally
processed LAD
test showing

making the blacks blacker, and, since
you have increased contrast in the
shadows, you can see more detail.
The images will appear slightly
sharper because of the increased
contrast

even

and, because there is silver in

reproduction.
Right: The same

the film

physically, it gives you a little
bit of an edge-effect around the
image. Finally, by virtue of having
silver in the print, it will slightly
desaturate the colors, depending
upon the level of ENR used."
It is

refer

to

a

common

mistake

to

all of the various silver-reten¬

tion processes as

bleach-bypassing.
Although bypassing the bleaching
step may yield a similar result to
ENR, the two processes differ radi¬
cally in their approach to silver reten¬
tion. "Bleach-bypass will tend to
create

an

effect similar

to

that

achieved with ENR," Ricotta submits,
"because when you develop the print

LAD test with

Technicolor's

"Conversely," Ricotta expands,
film like Saving Private Ryan
[see AC August '98], Janusz Kamin¬
ski and Steven Spielberg were inter¬
ested in a higher contrast and a very
desaturated look, so we employed
one of the highest levels of ENR used
to date. That especially desaturated
the faces, which was something that
Janusz was very interested in doing."
Another frequent misconcep¬
"on

a

tion that

occurs

in discussions about

ENR is the

stock, you haven't developed a lot of
silver in the

to

"However,
much

we

feel that ENR is

finite a process because
infinitely adjust the intensity
of the effect by simply varying the
concentration of the chemistry.
Bleach-bypass means that you either
bypass most or all of the bleaching
function, so it's inherently less finite.
This is an important factor for those
films that want just a touch of ENR
more

we can

to

make the blacks blacker.

perfect example of

a

Jade is

a

film where

William Friedkin and director of

photography Andrzej Bartkowiak
[ASC] wanted just a little bit of ENR
make the blacks nice and firm and

filmmakers. In

tify

-

method

an

effort

to quan¬

not to mention establish a
control

to

-

the levels of

ENR, Technicolor utilizes

(IR) densitometer to

an

infrared
the

print. By
targeting a specific IR reading for the
a

filmmaker's desired effect, the labo¬

ratory can then set out to produce as
many prints as required by the
distributor with the exact level of
ENR

applied to each print.
"Many times, people are inter¬
ested in knowing what percentage' of
was

used

relates. "When

on

we

densitometer

a

read

Technicolor,

-

a

is

immaterial

their decision. When

value with the client,
to that densitometer

we

then control

value of .40, .60, .80 or whatever.
"It's like when people talk
about

of flashing," he
ask for a 10
percent flash. Well, what does that
mean? In the lab, a 10 percent flash is
the addition of a .10 density over a
simple D-min [or clear reading] in
each color. For instance, if you have a
D-min reading of .06, .06, .12 [R-GB], then a TO percent flash' would
result in subsequent readings of .16,
.16, .22 respectively."
a

percentage

ENR process

applied. Note
the increased
contrast in the
fleshtones and
added density in
the black and

deep gray
portions of the
image. (Images
courtesy of
Technicolor.)

elaborates. "A client may

It should also be noted that

since ENR is

applied to the positive
print, the shortest increment
of film that the process can be
applied to is one lab reel. Although
ENR is typically utilized on an entire
picture, some films have employed
the effect only on selected sequences
to visually distinguish them from the
release

rest

of the movie.
Deluxe's CCE/ACE

we

print we

show
say,

a

'This

Although mainstream audi¬
ences
may not be consciously aware
of the use of special processes when
they watch a film in a theater, they
certainly felt the effect while watch¬
ing David Fincher's horrific thriller
Seven

(AC Oct. '95), which

were

treated with Deluxe's Color

Contrast

mine whether

tonality.

or

they want a little more

was

photographed by Darius Khondji. A
number of the film's release prints

ing the colors.

60,

to

set an ENR

rich, without measurably desaturat-

a

of what

we

process to
and add

a

40, this

silver is

number off

say

when

customer an ENR

really
'percentage' of
retained, because it is really

terms

never

film," Ricotta

'60 IR' [a .60
density at lOOOnm] - people who
are less familiar with this type of
measurement may refer to that as '60
percent ENR.' Well, we haven't neces¬
sarily left 60 percent of the silver in
the film. It is simply a reading of
optical density in the infrared region
of the electromagnetic spectrum. At
a

talk in

measure

level of silver retained in

ENR

little less effect. We

or a

this is an 80.' Then
based on their reaction, we can deter¬

to

a

100 IR-level of

assignment of "percent¬
age" values as a way of labeling the
nearly infinite doses of ENR available

highlight areas where
you didn't have a lot of exposure. But
as
you get into the shadows, where
the majority of the exposure density
is on the print, you start to develop a
lot of silver and dye. So whether you
do a bleach-bypass or ENR, when
you leave silver in the film, it is
retained with less silver in the high¬
lights than in the shadows. The two
processes are not too different in that
regard.

contrast in

the fleshtones
and accurate
color

Enhancement

(CCE)

heighten the film's blacks
a
palpable texture and

American

Cinematographer 83
American Cinematographer - November 1998

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - November 1998
