Film stocks

Gencer Hassan · May 16, 2007

Hi, mostly a question for people in UK.

Is it worth importing film from the USA with process paid and telecine vs the same in the UK ?

I have noticed that Spectra do film packs with all these services and it looks quite cost effective especially if you go for the reversal films.

After i converted the price from dollars to pounds and did a comparison with UK suppliers it did look to be the better option. However i hadn't factored in the cost of postage and the possible customs charges.

Anyone out there able to shed some light on this ?

Patrick Cooper · May 16, 2007

If the customs and postage charges turn out to be reasonable, I guess the only other deciding factor is whether these transfer houses in the US are able to do PAL transfers.

Mike Crane · May 16, 2007

You can always have a look at Spectra's order page to get a very basic idea of shipping rates.

However, I doubt anyone could easily enlighten you as to cost of tax/duty for customs. I can only advise that you ask Spectra to assign a lower value for customs paperwork.

Gencer Hassan · May 16, 2007

$20 doesn't seem that bad for shipping. I've had many items sent to me via USPS Global Priority Mail and not had any problems. I did however forget that the USA uses ntsc. Which normally isn't a problem, however in this case it would prove to be a problems as i dont have an ntsc compatible dv deck or camcorder.

Where do most of you guys get your film, processing and telecine done ?

Raz Birger · May 16, 2007

Spectra bought a miniDV PAL deck not so long ago, so PAL is not a problem :) , you can also send an e-mail to them if you have any questions, they usually answer very quickly and always very nice. I am going to order the "6 Pack" they offer, hopefully the next week and I live in Israel so I need PAL too.

Matthew Buick · May 16, 2007

I always thought Israel was NTSC. That's a good thing, PAL is much nicer. :lol:

Chris Burke · May 16, 2007

Hi, mostly a question for people in UK.

Is it worth importing film from the USA with process paid and telecine vs the same in the UK ?

I have noticed that Spectra do film packs with all these services and it looks quite cost effective especially if you go for the reversal films.

After i converted the price from dollars to pounds and did a comparison with UK suppliers it did look to be the better option. However i hadn't factored in the cost of postage and the possible customs charges.

Anyone out there able to shed some light on this ?

check out www.cinelab.com, they have specials for Super 8 that include stock, processing and PAL telecine direct to hard drive in 10 bit. Prices are cheaper than Spectra by a substantial margin. I think for a four cart minimum at $43 USD per cart, you get it all, compare that to Spectra pricing.

Gencer Hassan · May 17, 2007

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll be looking into the options mentioned.

Alessandro Machi · May 17, 2007

Any HI-QUALITY Super-8 transfer that is recorded on a HI-QUALITY videotape format can also then be transcoded to 10 bit afterwards and I doubt it will look different than a straight 10 bit transfer. In regards to a direct to harddrive transfer, what you should ask yourself is, will you actually store your hardrive the way you store a videotape? If your answer is yes, fine, and go direct to hard drive, if your answer is no, then consider the potential foolhardiness of spending money on a direct to harddrive transfer if the day may come where the original hardrive no longer works, or is accidentally erased or "converted" to a different file structure which inevitably will have compression.

A betacam sp transfer of a Super-8 film and then encoding the betacam sp at 10 bit to harddrive should match in quality a straight 10 bit harddrive transfer plus you have a videotape back-up. I'm not sure if mini-dv outputted as a component signal and transcoded to 10 bit will be as good as betacam sp or going 10 bit direct, but the mini-dv should still look perfectly fine and it too will give you the additional flexibility to either go firewire or 10 bit uncompressed.

In my opinion 10 bit uncompressed makes the most sense for those that as soon as they finish a product will not look back under any circumstance and don't want the possible clutter that storing tape transfers can bring, but beware, it is possible that down the road a distributor that want to rep or sell your production may care more about your TAPE edit master than anything else.

Raz Birger · May 18, 2007

I always thought Israel was NTSC. That's a good thing, PAL is much nicer. :lol:

I don't think we were able participate in the Eurovision Song Contest and host it two times if we were NTSC Matt :)

And yes, I think PAL is much nicer too :)

Matthew Buick · May 19, 2007

HEHE! Yeah, I see your point. ;)

Britian got toasted this year in Eurovision. They reckon there was an alliance between the Eastern-Bloc nations. Sad, isn't it, when even the most silly little festival gets corrupted by politics. :(

Buy the way, Raz. I'm planning to buy that same Spectra package as you. I'm going to Paris in a couple of months, you see...and I want to make a cheesy promo. :ph34r:

;) ;) ;) ;) ;)