reversal film

Filmmaker Jon Jost, who was the project’s cinematographer, loaned the production his 16mm camera and donated a stash of high-contrast reversal film stock he had bought on sale at a steep discount, helping give the film its distinctively unreal look.

But he and his cinematographer, Matthew Libatique, soon realized that 16 millimeter — especially the high-contrast stock they used called reversal film — emphasized the hallucinatory style of “Pi,” a black-and-white psychological thriller that delves into the obsessions of a paranoid number theorist.

News crews of that era used photographic processes designed for speed and convenience: 16mm film, which used smaller and more portable cameras, and reversal film stocks, which don’t require a positive print be made from the negative, and could thus be developed and prepped for TV use quickly and cheaply.

Reversal film produces a positive rather than negative image: when you look at a piece of footage, you see what is projected.

She turned to Rymsza and asked, “Did you ever find out why Orson used reversal film?”