Film to Digital to Film

[Valon Jakupaj]

Hello there !

 

I have been asked to edit a short film which at the moment is in production.

The film is being shot on 35mm and will be edited on my Premier workstation. I did film editng before but that was in

traditional way where I used steenback the do the cutting. Since the technology is moving forward I thought I ask if there was a new

and easy ways of editing.

 

What do we need to ask the lab when we send the fotage to be developed and transfared to tape?

Bare in mind that we have to send the edited version to the lab for neg cutting.

 

I would apertiate if somebody can sare their step by step workflow.

 

Very best regards

Valon

[Paul Bruening]

PM Phil Rhodes. He's got a deep head-pool on Premiere.

[Dominic Case]

You must ask the lab to provide FLeX files with the transfer. These relate the Keykode edge numbers on the negative to the timecode on the video.

I don't know if Premiere handles FLeX files (if it does it well or at all). If it does, then you load the FLeX data into Premiere along with the images, and it will spit out a cutting list at when you are done editing. You send this, along with an offline version of the image, to the neg matcher.

 

Alternatively, you get an EDL out of Premiere, which goes to the neg matcher along with the FLeX files, and the neg matcher should have software that will translate the EDL into a cutting list (or KDL).

 

What is VITAL is that you talk to the lab, especially their telecine people, AND the neg matcher, AND you check what your workstation can do, BEFORE you start. Take notice of what they say.

 

Please excuse the capitals in the last sentence, but don't overlook them. Read it again. Really. It is the only sentence in this reply that you can absolutely rely on.

 

You will need to look into what transfer speed you should ask for at telecine, and what framerate of timecode, and then what speed yor Premiere system should be set to. If you choose anything that interpolates frames or fields in the transfer, then you will have headaches getting a perfect neg match.

 

Oh, and then there is the matter of syncing sound. Talk to the sound dept of the lab too.

 

Don't forget when you are editing, that however easy and tempting all those effects are on the workstation (eg speed changes, freezes, dissolves, fades) they are all much more complex on film, and will have to be catered for separately. Putting a speed change into an EDL will almost certainly screw things up for the neg matcher unless the EDL is cleaned up first.