Alternative Developers
During October I did a residency in Latvia at the Baltic Analogue Lab. Getting the time and space to try out something that I have always wanted to try and do, develop 16mm film with seaweed. Something that I have been thinking and reading about for some time but never actually had the nerve to try for a project for the worry that it just simply wouldn't work.
An alternative developing process that uses the same principles of caffinol development, a more eco-friendly alternative to traditional development that was invented in the mid 90s by a group of students in Rochester Institute of Technology. A process that uses household items to replace the more harsh chemicals used in film development.
One thing to flag off the bat, film itself is incredibly un environmentally friendly to make so although all these processes are a more eco friendly method to use, it is by no means a perfect circle. Although any less toxic chemicals being used the better and I have always been fascinated that you can use natural ingredients for this process.
1. Compost
I had a roll of super8 film that I shot as a test the few weeks before with the statement to myself that it will probably come out blank but that I will be able to figure the rest from there.
Recipe:
Using food waste for dinner we cooked for four of us staying at the residency that evening, I covered it with 1 litre of water at 100 degrees and let it soak overnight. The next day I strained it and had 750ml of a sweet smelling, bin juice as Michelle called it and brought it into the darkroom. I used the following measurements and time for it the process:
Soup at 30 Degrees
Sodium Carbonate 52g
Vitamin C 15.6g
This gave a PH of 10
Dev time 15 minutes
Fix 4 minutes
Wash 20 minutes
Dried film overnight
I started with a small test strip of the super8 and went through the process in a small jobo tank, a small 35mm tank for processing. I probably washed for about 5 minutes as I was too anxious to see and ran outside to hold up the film. It had worked straight off the bat, a surprising looking nice negative staring back at me.
Next step was to load the Lomo tank with the full roll of super8. Something that I had practiced in the daylight numerous times but doing so in a pitch black room with an exposed roll of film is a different story completely. A few nerve wracking minutes later the film was loaded and I realized a slight snag in my plan. I hadn't enough liquid to cover the film in the tank completely. The new plan was to hold the tank at an angle and constantly spin for the developing times.
Forty or so minutes later, I took out the roll to see a completely black series frame around the outside. Like someone whos 99 icecream falls on the ground after buying it, I walked outside to see what damage I had done.
As I started to unravel, I realized it was just the first few frames, the rest of the roll had come out the same as the test strip. I don't know if I even really looked at what was on the roll, the feeling of contentment was incredible.
Notes: From the first test.
The main takeaway was the excitement what this process could allow. Using natural ingredients that could tie into the story and themes of a film is nearly this whole other layer of storytelling.
2. Seaweed
This is the one I have always been interested in. For this, I wanted to get as fresh seaweed as possible so we headed three hours to the town Liepāja. I had seen images of old soviet forts that are being reclaimed by the sea so it wasn't a very hard decision on where to go.
For this we shot it on Tri-x 16mm and shot a series of images along the coastline. Collecting two handfuls of seaweed on the same beach when we finished.
On getting back to the accommodation I covered the seaweed using 2.1 litres of water at 100 degrees and let stew for the night. The next morning, strained and headed into the darkroom with it.
Soup at 30 Degrees
Soup at 30 Degrees
Seaweed water: 1850ml
Sodium Carbonate: 148g
Vitamin C: 44.4g
This gave a PH of 10
Dev time 15 minutes
Fix 4 minutes
Wash 20 minutes
Dried film overnight
16mm has to be loaded into the lomo tank on two layers so with zero confidence in myself I cut the film in half and developed twice.
The main takeaway being that similar to the compost tests, it worked. There was an image staring back at me. The negative was slightly more flogged than the other roll, when speaking to other people at BAL they reckon it might be due to the iron content in the seaweed so although I would need to do some further tests into this to get a cleaner image, I couldn't be happier with it all.
Letting the film dry overnight and running it through the steenback was incredible. There was a lot more artifacts on the film itself which I adore.
Main takeaways from this being along with retesting the ingredients measurements, that I would need to be adjusting developing times if doing two batches of film again as there is a significant difference in clarity in the first and second batch.
The timing of all of this is something that I have been saying to anyone who will listen. How we shot something on a Sunday, developed Monday and watched it on Tuesday. Similar with the compost, the most interesting thing being the endless possibilities in regards to storytelling that this could be used for.
Couldnt recommend the residency enough for anyone interested - https://www.balticanaloglab.lv/
Resources that I had been reading/watching and got different tips and techniques from:
Experimental Filmmaking: BREAK THE MACHINE - kathryn Ramey
https://vimeo.com/284344043?fl=pl&fe=sh
https://sustainabledarkroom.com/