What does all this stuff mean? (Internegative, masterpositive, etc.) (1 Viewer)

[JJR512]

I've been seeing these terms from time to time here and in some other places, and have always wondered what, exactly, they mean. I guess asking this question might mean I'm in for a complete lesson in the the technical process of making a film, in terms of what happens to the light after it goes through the lens of a camera, until it comes out of the lens of the projector in a theater, but I'm up for it.
Here are some of the terms I'm wondering about, and besides these, I'd like to know what other similar/related terms I don't have listed, and what they mean, too:
composite fine-grain master
color reversal internegative
fine-grain master made from the original negative
interpositive
fine-grain masterpositive
internegative
Thanks!

 

[Paul W]

Time to take a photography class. I can guess at most of these. I believe that an interpositive is used to duplicate negatives and an internegative is used duplicate positive prints (i.e. film stock).

When I see 'fine-grain master made from original negative', I would imagine this is a master film (created from an interpositive) that would be used to mass-produce copies of a film for distribution.

 

[Chad R]

Well, it's been years since film school but here ya go. The film that runs through the actual camera is the negative. After the film has been edited (mostly on AVID computers systems nowadays) the negative is spliced together by a negative cutter. From here an interpositive is made. This would be the cleanest version of the movie. Then to make release prints several internegatives are made which the release prints are made off of. They do this so the original negative doesn't have to run through the printing machine and possibly destroy it.

The others you mention are for video mastering I suspect, but we didn't concern ourselves with that in editing class. But I would assume the best print available from which to strike a video master is an interpositive using high grain film (thus the fine-grain master made from the original negative).