Slide animation is an in camera double exposure process I have been working on to create special sequences for films since 2000. Maybe it was the impending millennium that made me want to go old school, who knows? But I was doing a lot of 35mm photography at the time, especially on slides and one day I just kind of figured this out...

STEP 1. All images originate on 35mm Slides.

I start by photographing first and second (and in some cases third) unit images onto 35mm slides. I prefer 64T, 160T and 320T stocks for interior photography and 50D and 100D for exteriors. My ABSOLUTE fave for black and white was Scala Slide, super yummy, but they don't make it anymore! I have mostly worked with Kodak films for color. Fuji films have greater sensitivity in the 550-650 nanometer color temperature range, which is problematic for my uses: I frequently cross process my films and color temp. is volatile enough!

STEP 2. Making the Mattes

So two images are getting merged into one through double exposure, so the first decision is where one image begins and the other ends. Usually I have already decided this by the time I take the pictures. You might be doing something simple, like segregating a subject from a background, (like in a blue screen technique) to do something more interesting with the background. Or you might be doing something more specialized, like what I am working on now, actually having a second unit image come in on very special areas of the first unit photography, the shadows for example.

In my college days I was pretty broke and didn't have too much equipment. I did all my original matte work with acrylic paint onto clear sheets of acetate on a light box, using the 1st unit photography as a guide for the matte work. With paint brushes, oi! Hundreds of hours and a couple gallons of Liquitex later I realized there had to be a better way.

Recently I am working with a slide mount lense (A specialized lense that houses a slide and has a translucent backing that faces a light source) is mounted to my Canon 35mm (which utilizes an internal light meter). I use hi contrast black and white negative and use my first unit image from which to derive a spotless seamless matte right on film. (Remember in a negative white is black, so exposed areas of my first unit image which I want to preserve are rendered as black on the negative, masking the second unit image from double exposing the areas of the unit 1 photography I am attempting to keep in tact. Meanwhile, the dark areas, (the shadows) are rendered as transparent and allow the second unit image through at those areas, where I want it to be.

I use modeling glue to glue the negative matte to the second unit image. Now I am ready for Step 3.

STEP 3. ANIMANIA!!!

OK, here is where it gets interesting, or at least closer to being done! I use a Bolex H16 EL camera which incorporates an internal light meter and has single frame and rewind capabilities. You need a Duplikin III slide mount lense as well. This is a C-Mount lense and like the slide mount 35mm lense, has a translucent back. It has F stops that range between f2.5 to f16. You first want to determine the rate of speed at which you want to render your image. For an approximation of regular movement, I duplicate each slide at a rate of eight frames per slide. You can adjust for faster transitions by using less frames per slide and increase duration by adding frames. After exposing the first unit image, rewind to the start point and expose your second unit.

Remember you must adjust exposure for both first and second unit elements especially if they are disparate in their exposures. Color temperatures can be modified by using filtration behind the lense. Sometimes an eigth or a sixteenth of straw or CTB is all you need to resolve a CT conflict and make two images seamless!

I also recommend working at more than one stop. Chrome stocks are particularly picky about exposure and a half stop is literally the difference between day and night. Give yourself options!

Bring your film for processing and watch the results. This RARELY works out right the first time. Keep faith, evaluate your results and modify your procedure as required. This is called Experimental for a reason.

If you wanted to get clever you can do all kinds of crazy stuff with this technique. Here are some ideas I have done or wanted to do, but never had the money or time to get to yet: (let me know how it turns out!)

1. Cross process to cross process. For this one I cross process my slides into negatives using a C-41 bath, instead of regular E-6. I use the negatives as I would my regular slides and cross my second unit elements as well. When I get to Step 3, I use a positive 16mm film stock and CROSS PROCESS it. The result is a positive image, cos the slides were negatives, (just like in math: negative plus negative = positive.) I have never tried regular color neg to color neg, though I imagine it would be pretty interesting....
2. Variable Formats I have long considered adding Super 8 frames into the 35mm slide frames, filming a Super 8 movie, and a secondary montage onto 35mm, then splicing the individual Super 8 frames into their own panel within the 35mm panel. This would not require two exposures, I guess you could tape in the 8mm panel, but masking the area and double exposing would make for a much cleaner image. You could do one in black and white and one in color, possibly intercahangeably.... the possibilities are really limitless.
3. Variable Media Why just use film? You can cut up color gels, use combinations of solarized stock, painted acetate, charcoals on vellum, watercolors on tracing paper, WOW! Only your limitless imagination and creativity is the boundary! I have used color gels succesfully, as well as glitter, nail polish, and a bevy of other substaces....