Negative matching dilemma

GeorgeSelinsky · February 1, 2007

Hello folks,

Back when I was shooting my 35mm feature we had little money, and one person at the lab advised us that keycode "is a waste of money". Back in the late 90's when I was learning this stuff, keycode was brand spanking new and negative cutters charged $7 a cut to go off an avid output with 30 FPS TC burnt in, and $3 a cut off a workprint. Today negative cutters demand keycode and flexfiles, I had two prominent neg cutters in the city refuse to take on my job because I didn't have keycode. They didn't care if I didn't hold them up to a guarantee for sync, one kindly said "Wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole, do it yourself". Thanks, but I'm not about to spend a month doing this...

Retransferring all our footage is going to cost us over $6K, plus time to redigitize and reassemble the edit. A cheaper option is to scroll through each flat on rewinds and a synchronizer, note the key numbers beginning on each new lab splice, then burn in the keycode manually on the video dailies files (it's basically a frame timer that can be done in Virtual Dub), reassemble the cut (easier this way) and pass that off to a neg cutter. A final option is to find someone who still does "match by eye", but so far I've found only one place in Seattle and that's an awful far way to drive your negative (I'm in NYC).

Also, I just discovered these cats in Jersey who seem to have some interesting "digital matchback" system:

http://www.diligentsystems.com/ I wrote them an email, I'll see what they say, but I was interested if anyone here has any experience with them or has any ideas about this altogether?

As always a big thank you in advance,

- George.

Robert Houllahan · February 2, 2007

I had two prominent neg cutters in the city refuse to take on my job because I didn't have keycode. They didn't care if I didn't hold them up to a guarantee for sync, one kindly said "Wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole, do it yourself". Thanks, but I'm not about to spend a month doing this...

As always a big thank you in advance,

- George.

George,

Give Matthew Wagenecht a call he is a very experienced and meticulous negative cutter here in Massachusetts, he also has 35mm and 16mm camera gear and shoots a fair bit. I think he would at least consider taking the job and I know that if he did it would get done right.

Matt 617-244-6730

-Rob-

GeorgeSelinsky · February 7, 2007

George,

Give Matthew Wagenecht a call he is a very experienced and meticulous negative cutter here in Massachusetts, he also has 35mm and 16mm camera gear and shoots a fair bit. I think he would at least consider taking the job and I know that if he did it would get done right.

Matt 617-244-6730

-Rob-

Thanks Rob! I will give Matt a call.

I actually did a lot of investigation in the interim, I spoke to Andy Pratt negative cutting in Seattle and they basically ran down the numbers for me. The way it looks, it's pretty much the same to match by eye or to retransfer everything and reconform with keycode.

Anyway, we saved some money in the beginning but now have to shell out, so much for keycode being "a waste of money", lol.

- George.