Internegative

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An internegative also referred to as Color reversal internegative, or CRI, is motion picture film duplication process designed by Kodak in the 1970s as a workaround for the existing processes of creating film duplicates. Originally intended for the faster pace of the television commercial industry, it began to see use in major motion pictures of the mid 1970s. It is the color counterpart to a fine grain positive, in which a low-contrast color image is used as the positive between an original camera negative and a duplicate negative.

Because CRIs are considered a temporary negative, their chemistry is not meant to be as stable as prints, and because of this, they are prone to rapid fading, usually on an average of within five to seven years. As a result, new masters have had to be created from the original camera negative accordingly.

After a film is shot, the original negatives - taken directly from the camera equipment - are edited into correct sequence and printed onto fresh stock as a cohesive film, creating an interpositive print used for color timing. From the interpositive, answer prints, which include the color-corrected imagery and a properly synced sound track are made. Once approved by the studio, the final answer print is made into an internegative used for striking copies that will be delivered to theaters for viewing.

Overview

The internegatives are the workhorses of the film industry.

Internegatives are made on the exact same stock as interpositives. The film processes usually go from one polarity to another, that is:

1. the camera operator shoots a positive image and the film ends up as a negative;
2. the original negative is printed onto stock that comes out as an interpositive;
3. the interpositive is color timed (to balance the scenes) into the internegative, and finally
4. the internegative makes the positive release print.

When an internegative wears out during printing, a new internegative is made from the interpositive and release printing resumes. There are some films (reversal films) that can go from positive to positive or negative to negative but are not used very often so are not included in this discussion.

The question comes up as to why the original camera negative are not used to make the release prints. Each time the camera negative is run through the printing machine there is a hazard that the film could be damaged. Since the camera negative is the only zero-generation source, that risk would be unacceptable.

Printing release prints from the composited camera negative was more-or-less standard until about 1969. Thereafter, most printing was indeed done from internegatives which were made from an interpositive.

Usually, two interpositives were made, one for archival purposes and one for making printing internegatives.

Prints are still being made from the composited camera negative. Usually such a print run is limited to a few or perhaps five prints. These are variously called "EKs" (derived from the name Eastman Kodak) or "Showprints" and are generally reserved for the producer and also for exhibition in first-run engagements in Los Angeles and New York.

Other than first-run and Academy consideration engagements, exhibitors will almost always receive conventional prints made from internegatives.

For quality and safety reasons, video transfers are almost always made from an interpositive. An internegative is a less desirable alternate. On rare occasions, the composited camera negative may be used for video transfers, but it will have to be carefully retimed for color.

Positive-positive color process was abandoned in the mid-1950s, and even then it was restricted to 16mm.

With very few exceptions, 35mm has always been a negative-positive color process.

External links

• National Film Preservation Board
• The Film Foundation
• Article on CRI and other film decomposition problems

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