S16mm Telecine and sound sync

[Pritesh Chheda]

Hello:

 

We plan to scan our S16mm feature to HD D5 on Spirit 2K. The post house recommends that we also do the sound sync for the entire feature so the HD D5 would essentially be the master copy. The transfer ratio with sound sync is 5:1 while w/o sound is 3:1. In other words, the cost increases substantially for us. What are the pros and cons of not syncing the sound? The route we plan to take was to get the downconverted footage from DVCAM and match the sound during offline FCP editing. Please advise.

 

Pritesh

[David Mullen ASC]

You want your HD master to have the sound on it, otherwise every submaster you make will have to have the sound added to it. Maybe you can take the silent HD master to some other cheaper facility with an HD-D5 deck to laydown the soundtrack?

 

I don't see how you add much telecine room time to lay down the sound in the telecine bay. If it's an edited master, you're just syncing the head of the reel with the audio master and then running the reel with the programmed color-corrections.

 

Or are these unedited camera rolls being transferred to HD for offline editing, not mastering a finished edited movie to HD? In that case, yes, you can sync your sound later in the editing room using the downconversion, since you are going to cutting and mixing the sound separately anyway in the SD realm, and then later combining it with the HD footage in the online session to create an HD master.

[Pritesh Chheda]

Thanks David.

 

The post house is recommending syncing sound for the entire S16 footage (20,000'). Not the final edited ones. I just think it's an over kill since most of that sound will be unused. Unless there is a technical reason for syncing sound for ALL the footage.

 

Our workflow is as follows:

 

We plan to transfer the entire S16 footage to HD D5, downconvert it to DVCAM, firewire the footage to FCP, sync production sound from DAT (time-code slated), get final cut with picture lock, add foleys and music, do studio sound mix, generate EDL and go back for online editing, lay sound, add titles, do tape-to-tape CC and get the final HD D5 copy.

 

If there is something we missed, please advise. We are getting a great deal for HD D5 telecine. Will use Spirit 2K telecine with 16:9 ratio. Is there any advice for telecine? I am assuming it would be 1080p.

 

Pritesh

Edited November 12, 2004 by Pritesh Chheda

[David Mullen ASC]

Then it's probably OK to not sync your footage in the telecine.

 

No advice, other than transfer 16x9 full-frame, don't letterbox it to 1.85 or anything like that. You'll be trimming the 1.68 negative to 1.78, just remember, so frame with that in mind (and if a 1.85 projection is every planned, keep that in mind too when framing.)

 

You'll probably be transferring to 1080/23.98P HD-D5. Unless you are shooting at 25 fps and posting using PAL downconversions. You didn't say whether you were in a PAL country or not.

[Pritesh Chheda]

David:

 

We met in Austin at Katz with my associate producer Jenny;-) Did you get a chance to watch "The Package".

 

Regards,

Pritesh

[David Mullen ASC]

Sorry I didn't recognize the name (I find Indian names hard to remember...). Yes, I saw your short and it was good, creepy.

 

I don't understand why it has a "this edit does not represent the intent of the director" warning at the head of it. Seems odd for a short film -- you don't expect the director to lose control over the editing on something 7 minutes long, whatever it was. I don't know if you want people to see that warning because it implies you couldn't retain control over a very small project. It would be better to let people think you had complete control if even if you didn't.