The “Bande-Cache,” or: The Material Art of Light Filters

This chapter focuses on what French literature calls the “bande-cache”: a punched-tape that operates as a light filter and colour grader during film printing. This tape strip allows a better control of the amount of light filter- ing through smaller or bigger holes. It also makes colour-timing possible, in black-and-white film, simply via a variation of the hole size and, in colour film, by covering these holes with primary colour filters (yellow, magenta and cyan). This device is discussed as a minor medium, and its creative pos- sibilities are stretched by way of an experimental exploration.