I loaded this roll of film back in 2014 into a 16mm camera I'd just bought, a Keystone A-9 Criterion. I'd shot still photography film, but never movie film, so I was excited. The thing is, for some reason, I just didn't shoot much. I was likely turned off by the fact that the Keystone isn't a reflex camera. I later bought a Bolex, so my use for the Keystone was limited.
So over the course of a little less than a year, I shot 70 feet of the 100 foot roll, set the camera down, and completely forgot about it.
Finally, this year, I finished the roll and sent it to be developed and scanned. I'd completely forgotten what was on it! What was supposed to be just a camera test ended up mostly being footage of my dog who, at the time of posting this video, is getting rather old. I'm so, so glad I shot this footage.
I used a bunch of lenses and I don't remember which ones correspond to which shots, but I do know the end of the video starting with the footage of the chicken was all shot on the lens the camera came with, which is a Wollensak Cine-Raptar 1-inch F/2.5 fixed-focus lens. Stopped down, it actually ended up being pretty sharp! Other lenses used were Nikkor 28mm and 50mm lenses mounted via an F-mount to C-mount adapter. I think I also used a lens I had lying around from the 1930s, which would explain why certain shots have weird vignetting.
All footage was shot at 24fps apart from the two shots of my dog playing fetch, which were shot at the camera's maximum frame rate, 64fps.
Any time I left the camera to sit for long periods of time, the frame seems to jump around. You'll see it twice, once on the shot of the bridge and again on the shot of the chicken. The film must move slightly in the camera if it sits too long while wound. Keep in mind, the shot of the chicken was made about five years after the previous shot. What a testament to the longevity and robustness of film!
The film was scanned at 2K by Midwest Film Co. on their Blackmagic Cintel scanner. My first experience with them was incredible and I'd highly recommend anyone looking for a film lab to use their services.
I upscaled the footage to 4K to avoid nasty video compression issues. Tri-X is a pretty grainy film, so YouTube's compression would make it look smeary. For the best experience, watch at 4K.
