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A visitor examines a film camera body up close on a stand at the BSC Expo.

Learn · Shooting on film · Development

On film, the script gets read for how many times you can do it.

In development the format decision becomes structural, because everything downstream is priced off it.

What has to be decided before anyone can cost it?

Decision What it sets
Gauge and perf Super 16, 35mm or 65mm; on 35mm, 4-, 3- or 2-perf. Sets the lens package, the recorded frame, what every department composes for and the footage (3-perf runs about a third longer per roll). Not a post decision.
Stock and speed Faster stock buys low light and costs fineness of grain. It changes the lighting plan and the electrical package: a budget decision in a creative costume.
The scenes that fight you Children and animals, weather-dependent exteriors, one-time stunts, long takes that outrun a magazine. Mark them now or meet them on the day.
Who loads and pulls focus Name the clapper loader and focus puller in development. Bringing someone through for the first time is a deliberate decision, with supervision.
A developed strip of Kodak Ektachrome 100D colour reversal film held up to the light, positive frames visible.
Kodak Ektachrome 100D, one of the reversal stocks in the table below, after processing. Reversal gives a positive image straight off the roll, with no print stage. Motion picture stock, shot and processed by the photographer. Photo: Wiley.andrew.r, Wikimedia Commons, CC0.

The numbers (checked November 2026)

Kodak's current camera negative and reversal stocks. The number is the exposure index; D is daylight, T is tungsten. Codes starting 52 are 35mm, 72 are 16mm.

Stock Code Type
VISION3 50D 5203 / 7203 Colour negative, daylight
VERITA 200D 5206 / 7206 Colour negative, daylight; new in April 2026, specialty stock by request
VISION3 200T 5213 / 7213 Colour negative, tungsten
VISION3 250D 5207 / 7207 Colour negative, daylight
VISION3 500T 5219 / 7219 Colour negative, tungsten; fastest in the range
EASTMAN DOUBLE-X 5222 / 7222 Black and white negative
EKTACHROME 100D 5294 / 7294 Colour reversal
TRI-X 7266 Black and white reversal, 16mm

Sources: Kodak camera films; VERITA 200D announced 10 April 2026, in 16mm, 35mm and 65mm, through a Kodak sales representative (Newsshooter).

A technician handles a 35mm film camera at a bench lined with film cameras in the test room.
35mm cameras on the bench in the test room. Gauge and perf decide the whole package.

Why say the ratio out loud?

The shooting ratio is stock exposed against what ends up in the film. It decides whether a film shoot is calm or frightening, and it usually goes unspoken until week one.

Agree it in development, write it down and let every department plan against it. A director who knows the ratio can design around it.

How it is costedThe lines that only exist on a film shoot. OpeningStory to ScreenOur development programme with Screen Sisters CIC.

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Last reviewed 9 November 2026