Contact printing is one of the most essential parts in the moving image production chain of creating images to be used as the projection medium in E.C.A. projects. The original idea of a contact printer is to make positives from a negative (cine) image. Yet contact printing is capable of so much more than that. It can be an important tool for creative and extraordinary image compositing. But original industrial contact printers are rare and complex machines. Many artists in the field of E.C.A. struggle with the lack of such a device and are looking for technical solutions. This research aims at the development of various DIY solutions in order to encourage E.C.A. artists worldwide to build their own contact printing devices.

This is the method used by the lab to make a film print suitable to project. A contact print is made on a machine called (sensibly enough) a Contact Printer, in which the original film and unexposed print stock are sandwiched together, emulsion against emulsion, and are run at a constant speed past a light which shines through the original, exposing the print stock with the same image. A lens is not necessary, and there is always a magnification of 1. The film format cannot change, 16mm stays 16mm.

Basically all work prints, answer prints and release prints are contact prints. The only other type of printing is Optical Printing, which is usually done to add an effect or to blow up or make a reduction print.

• inventory of existing industrial contact printer machines
• possibilities to upgrade & modify existing machines
• inventory of DIY options to create contact prints
• special effects & unique outcomes

• designing & creating a contact printer prototype

- small, portable
- electrical/battery driven, hand cranked
- RGB light / light control
- LED light, intensity control
- programmable and cue reading
- constancy and stability
- various gate options (composite, picture, sound)

SPECTRAL is co-funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Commission.