Transfering for 35mm television spot

[Dan Stone]

Still kinda new to the whole 35mm thing, so please forgive me if I say something really stupid.

 

I'm getting ready to shoot a television spot on 35mm and I need to decide on a digital medium. I suppose things work a little differently when you're not going back to film? Would it be okay to have the film transfered to DVCPRO 50 and edit in Uncompressed HD?

 

Again, sorry if I sound stupid -- I'm an HD guy who really wants to get into film.

[Stephen Williams]

Still kinda new to the whole 35mm thing, so please forgive me if I say something really stupid.

 

I'm getting ready to shoot a television spot on 35mm and I need to decide on a digital medium. I suppose things work a little differently when you're not going back to film? Would it be okay to have the film transfered to DVCPRO 50 and edit in Uncompressed HD?

 

Again, sorry if I sound stupid -- I'm an HD guy who really wants to get into film.

 

Hi,

 

You might want to return to telecine for a final grade from the original negative after the edit has established the takes. Doing a final grade from compressed tape is a comprimise.

 

Stephen

[Dan Stone]

Hi,

 

You might want to return to telecine for a final grade from the original negative after the edit has established the takes. Doing a final grade from compressed tape is a comprimise.

 

Stephen

 

Thanks for the reply!

 

I'm confused, though. What do you mean by "final grade"?

 

Here's what I understand so far:

 

So I edit using DVCPRO 50 footage, send the EDL to my telecine company who will place only those bits of footage onto... what?

 

And then I dump that back into FCP as uncompressed to add audio/titles, color it and finalize it? And then put it onto BetaSP to distribute?

[Chris_Burket]

Are you finishing HD or SD? What tape format? If you are finishing in HD, you could transfer to HDCAM SR in 4:4:4 which would be perfectly fine to use as a sourse for a tape to tape final timing. D5 would also work well.

[Dan Stone]

Are you finishing HD or SD? What tape format? If you are finishing in HD, you could transfer to HDCAM SR in 4:4:4 which would be perfectly fine to use as a sourse for a tape to tape final timing. D5 would also work well.

 

We'll be finishing in SD. Our stations will only take BetaSP, unfortunately.

 

Would it be worthwhile to have my telecine company put it onto a hardrive as a 10-bit uncompressed QT file?

[Stephen Williams]

Thanks for the reply!

 

I'm confused, though. What do you mean by "final grade"?

 

And then I dump that back into FCP as uncompressed to add audio/titles, color it and finalize it? And then put it onto BetaSP to distribute?

 

Hi,

 

When I shoot a lot of film, I make a cheaper one light telecine first. Then after 'offline editing' go to a Spirit or other high end telecine and do a very good color grade of the selected takes. Then re-edit the pictures and add titles etc for distribution on DigiBeta (for SD).

 

A Spirit telecine is very expensive, this workflow saves money. On smaller productions I would do a Best Light attended telecine session of all the material. Its not the perfect soloution but works well when the budget is tight. Regrading from compressed tape is a destructive process and should be avoided if possible IMHO.

 

Stephen

[Chris_Burket]

Hi,

 

When I shoot a lot of film, I make a cheaper one light telecine first. Then after 'offline editing' go to a Spirit or other high end telecine and do a very good color grade of the selected takes. Then re-edit the pictures and add titles etc for distribution on DigiBeta (for SD).

 

A Spirit telecine is very expensive, this workflow saves money. On smaller productions I would do a Best Light attended telecine session of all the material. Its not the perfect soloution but works well when the budget is tight. Regrading from compressed tape is a destructive process and should be avoided if possible IMHO.

 

Stephen

 

Well put.

 

Ya, and since you are finishing on Beta SP, my HDCAM SR suggestion probably wouldn't be the way to go, especially since attaching SR deck to a spirit in 4:4:4 is probably the most expensive telecine you can do.

[Dan Goulder]

Still kinda new to the whole 35mm thing, so please forgive me if I say something really stupid.

 

I'm getting ready to shoot a television spot on 35mm and I need to decide on a digital medium. I suppose things work a little differently when you're not going back to film? Would it be okay to have the film transfered to DVCPRO 50 and edit in Uncompressed HD?

 

Again, sorry if I sound stupid -- I'm an HD guy who really wants to get into film.

Since your final output will be BetaSP, you may actually get satisfactory (and cost effective) results by transferring all footage best light directly to the DVCPro 50 format, since it looks like you're already set up to edit in that format. Digibeta might look a little bit better, but would require extra steps and expense. HD would probably be overkill.