Film Language Tag: optical printer

A device used to produce an optical print, usually reserved for the production of special film effects: blow-ups, reductions, dissolves, wipes, traveling mattes, etc. There are two types of optical printers: step or intermittent (the most common type) and continuous (generally limited to film gauge reductions and blow-ups). The device is an interlocked projector and camera with the projector facing directly into the camera's lens. The printer is mounted to a very strong table with a heavy base so stray vibrations do not affect the re-photographing process. The same raw film stock may be run through the optical printer's camera more than once as part of the printing process, each time recording a new layer or component of the final image. An optical printer is much more versatile than a contact printer, but an optical print is also more expensive and, due to slight imperfections in the optics of projector and camera, may not be as sharp as a contact print. At Kinolab, we apply the optical printer tag to highlight the use of a particular technology in creating an optical effect, a specific subset of visual effects. In other words, this tag is not to note the effect created on screen, but instead the actual technology used to create it. Kroon, R. W. A/V a to z: An encyclopedic dictionary of media, entertainment and other Audiovisual terms. McFarland, 2014.