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Monday, April 12, 2010

green slime film

At last year's Pink Pistols bout, Millie told me she liked the green photos from the bout between Silicon Valley Dot.Kamikazes and Santa Cruz Boardwalk Bombshells. At first I was a bit confused.  The bout took place at San Jose Skate, a venue with slightly green linoleum-tile floor dimly lit by fluorescent lights.  Most of the photos have a green tinge to them, because it's a green place.  But then I realized she was talking about the cross processed film I shot, like this shot here

Shamrock puts the hurt on Terribelle
 Shamrock puts the hurt on Terribelle by nocklebeast

All film needs to be dunked in chemicals to realize the image on the film.  Different kinds of film require different kinds of chemicals.  When film of one type gets dunked in the wrong type of chemicals, that's called cross processing.  When cross processing, often people will shoot color slide film (E6) and develop it in color print film chemicals (C41), but you can do it the other way around or use even wronger chemicals like salt water or bleach.

Now, if you look at various flickr groups dedicated to cross processed film, you'll see lots of sunny happy outdoor scenes of dogs walking and bicycles cycling

Walkin' the dog
Walkin' the dog by nocklebeast

or of fun rides

taking a ride
taking a ride by nocklebeast

or maybe of stray shopping carts

urban myth
urban myth by nocklebeast

I particularly like Ursula Pfitzer's shots of alternatively processed abandoned buildings. But it's croctommy who's led the way with cross processed shots of, you guessed it, roller derby!

Valtron Got A Penaltyr
 Valtron Got A Penalty by croctommy

When shooting roller derby with the goal of cross processing the film, I'll typically shoot 400 speed fujichrome at f4 with flash, which tends to yield somewhat grainy, super contrasty, and of course oddly color shifted results

Zootown sneaks by
Zootown sneaks by by nocklebeast

it only takes one bout to get hooked on roller derby

Hellga Bent and a pink obstacle
  Hellga Bent and a pink obstacle by nocklebeast

Someday, I'd love to shoot roller derby outdoors with out the need for flash.