Here is some information on the actual costs of film. For a comparison of film and high end digital costs please see “Film or Digital”

Film and processing is normally charged by the foot. Super 16 film is just single perf 16mm film and costs the same to buy, process and transfer.

A standard roll of 16mm film is 400′ long and runs for about 11 min. at 24fps.

A standard roll of 35mm is 1000′ long and runs for about 11 min at 24fps. 400′ rolls are also available.

Buy your film directly from Kodak. This is the only way to insure that your film is fresh and will perform as intended. I know of no reliable film resellers anymore. Film slowly exposes itself over time. This starts out as a slight fogging of shadow areas but gets worse as time goes on creating greyish blacks, lowering color saturation and contrast and greatly increasing grain in the entire image, eventually making the image unusable. As you would expect high speed stock exposes itself faster than lower speed stock. Any high speed stock over 2 years old should be tested prior to use and any lower speed stock over 4 years old should be tested. Keeping film in the fridge slows down but does not stop the aging process.

Kodak currently makes 4 color negatives 7203 / 5203 50D, 7207 / 5207 250D, 7213 / 5213 200T and 7219 / 5219 500T. These have been in production for over a decade. There are many people selling old film stock on Ebay often at prices approaching new film from Kodak. This stock is often decades old and completely unusable for anything except testing cameras. Don’t even consider buying anything other than the current stocks and only if the seller can provide a Kodak receipt proving the stock is under 2 years old. I would test it anyway. Do not compromise the look of your project by shooting old film. You will regret it.

Approximate film prices follow. To figure out your film stock price you need to decide how many rolls you are going to need. A good way to estimate this is by deciding on a shooting ratio (the amount you shoot compared to the amount in the final project) I have found that commercials generally take 1-2 rolls. For independent films a good shooting ratio is 4 to 1 or 5 to 1. A 90 minute movie shot at a ratio of 4 to 1 would need about 45 rolls of film. At 5 to1 the same movie would need about 54 rolls of film. Since time is precious on a independent film (there never seem to be enough shooting days) keeping the ratio low really helps keep the days reasonable and costs down. Actors seem to like not having to do lots of takes too.

Here are some approximate film prices for color negative as of 2-14-26.
16mm Color Negative
New from Kodak $248 per 400′ roll (11 minutes). Kodak gives a good student discount on 16mm. Film will have to be ordered by someone with a student ID.

A good estimate for a 90 minute movie shot on Super 16 at a 4-1 ratio would be $11,160 for film stock.

35mm
New from Kodak $890 per 1000′ roll (11 minutes)

A 90 minute movie shot on 35mm at a 4-1 ratio would cost about $40,050 for film stock.

Now lets consider processing (developing the negative)

Processing and video prep (leadering and cleaning) at the labs I use usually costs about $0.18-$0.25 per ft. This can often be negotiated down if you give them a large quantity.

For the feature example above processing would cost about $3,600.00 for 16mm or $9,000.00 for 35mm at $0.20 per ft.

For a typical commercial that shoots about 1000′ of 35mm processing would cost about $250.00

To get your film onto video for editing you will need to do a film to digital transfer. If you want dailies as we shoot the film lab can do a one light transfer for about $0.16 per foot. However I generally prefer to do a supervised transfer on the off days of a shoot. This costs a little more but insures that everything looks the way I intended it and is usually cheaper in the long run because you don’t need to transfer again.

Supervised transfer is billed by the hour so the cost is the same for 16mm and 35mm. Cost can vary a lot here too with prices ranging from $200-$500 per hour. You can transfer to 1080P at most facilities. 2k, 4k or even higher resolution film scans are available at some postproduction houses at additional charge. Most transfers are done directly to your hard drive. Data scans are also available where the color timing will be handled later.

Supervised transfer typically takes about twice the running time of the film so in the feature example above transfer would cost about $4,125 at $250 per hour.

Most commercials can be transferred in ½ to 1 hour for about $250-$500

Remember that you can transfer to any format so you can use your existing postproduction workflow. If you are making a theatrical feature and want to make film prints, shooting 16mm or 35mm lets you make prints directly from the original negative saving many thousands in digital intermediate and digital to film transfer costs.

Typically on low budget productions (Under $500,000) film stock, processing and transfer cost is about 10-20% of a films budget. This is usually made up for in equipment savings, shorter days, less overtime and meal costs and post production savings. For bigger budgets, film stock, processing and transfer is an even lower percentage of total costs. Shooting film will give you the beautiful look of film too, even if you just complete you project on digital.

I have shot low budget 16mm features with budgets under $60,000. If you want to shoot film I will do everything I can to make it work for you. I can help you do a complete budget for your film at no charge if I am shooting the movie.