Fullcoat?

[stanley k]

What exactly is it and can it still be used in this day and age? Thanks in advance for any replies, Stanley

[rollemfilm]

Fullcoat is magnetic film used when you edit on
a flatbed, 16mm or 35mm. super8 fullcoat was used
for awhile but I'm not sure you can buy new stock.

Buy a copy of:
The Filmmakers Handbook by, S. Ascher & E. Pincus.
Published by: Plume

[Konton]

The Mag Super8mm Fullcoat stock was used on Super8 Sound Recorders. They are four models of these recorders. They have both the option of Crystal Sync, Pilotone Sync, or the 1/f Sync from the flash socket on a super 8 camera. Thus they are used for double sync sound. I have a broken one and a Mag IV. The Mag Super8mm Fullcoat stock is very hard to come by unless you know people. Actually, even if you know people it's still hard to come by.

[#Pedro]

As far as I am understanding this specific expressions in English, I also think that fullcoat is what is called "Magnetfilm" (magnetic film) in German. Simply a tape which looks exactly like the film, to edit sound in parallel.
Nowadays there is used another type of tape for linear editing. I don?t know the correct word in English, maybe anybody can help. Actualy available is a magnetic tape in 1/4" and 1/2" with perforation notches exaclty in the middle of it. The tape not looks like any film format and the use of it doesn?t depend on any film format. There are several types of perforations available, only depending on the pretended tape speed (9,5 or 19 cm/sec) and the pretended framrate (18 or 24 frps). Gebuhr (oh! not again!) has all 4 types in his catalouge (18 frps/9,5, 18 frps/19, 24 frps/9,5, 24 frps/19) and (in Germany) it is actually used to edit/transfer film sound by proffessionals and advanced amateurs.

The normal process is, that the field recordings are transferded to this perfo tape and the speed of the perfo tape machine is controled by the pilot tone or the sync pulses. An optical scanner senses the notches and reports the actual speed of the machine which is compared to the master speed of the tape player. One notch of the perfotape is equivalent on notch of the original film, so editing in parallel is possible. For S8 there are editors for sale, which run syncron to the perfo tape, backwards and forwards, picture and sound in sync all the time. And on the perfo tape the final sound mixing is done (4 tracks).
Afterwards, the soundtrack can be transfered to the films sound stripes, the recording projector controlling the perfo tapes speed to hold sync.

Pedro

[Nigel]

To get to your second question--"Does it have any use in this day and age?"

In my opinion NO. Super8 Fullcoat went out with the dinosaurs.

Good Luck

[#Pedro]

Nigel is 100% right! I?ve never seen either fullcoat stock around, neither machines. And if you can get some, it?s only an historic solution.
But very helpful for editing (Target = film, not a video tape) is perforated tape, as I mentioned. Can be run at any reel-to-reel tape recorder, the notches are located between the middle tracks. The reading head can be attached to any machine, too, inside or outside without modification.
Pedro

[Actor]

I saw a super8 fullcoat recorder/player on eBay about a year ago. I eMailed the seller and asked about a source for the tape. He replied that he did not know.

I then eMailed WideScreen in England. They said that super8 fullcoat was an idea that just never caught on.

Needless to say, I did not bid on the recorder.

It is theoretically possible to edit sound on 16mm fullcoat and picture on super8. You need a synchronizer that has both gages on the same shaft. You also need a lab that can marry the two.

You are probably better off to get your super8 reversal blown up to a 16mm internegative. Treat the interneg as though it were camera original and go from there. However, the expecse of blowing up your super8 is such that you may as well shoot 16mm camera original.

BTW, not all "magnetic film" is full coat. There is also edge coat, center coat, double coat, etc.



[This message has been edited by Actor (edited January 10, 2001).]

[#Pedro]

Actor:
how do you call the mentioned perforated
tape in English? It looks like a very normal tape, but has in it?s middle, between track 2 and track 4 a small line of rectangular, relativly long notches.
Here it?s an actual method for editing soundtracks.
Pedro

[Konton]

Fullcoat may be a historic solution, but if you have it and the recorder, it's worth using. I decided I'd try to find one last year. I managed to locate a guy who lived in San Francisco who had one in his basement (the main band was missing and had to be replaced). He sold it to me for $100 and 15 reels (400ft each) of Fullcoat for $10 each. I'm using it only for recording and synching to my Nizo 6080. Then I'm transfering both the Fullcoat and my Film to a digital medium using a Goko TC-20. This was I can keep using the Fullcoat again and again. Not the most practicle solution, but it works.

[Alex]

One other issue about full coat to consider is it's actually expensive, and there were two types of full coat...one was really thin and gave a much nicer fidelity of sound...but it was fragile.

Because it was thin, you could fit a lot more on the standard reel than the regular fullcoat.

Because of the thinness of the higher quality fullcoat you were charged more not only for it being a higher quality audio tape, but also because more of it fit onto the standard reel !!!

Alex


[This message has been edited by Alex (edited January 12, 2001).]