Printer Lights + Telecine

[Nick Centera]

Hey, I am interested in using Printer Lights on my next project. It will be a low budget project so answer prints will not be an option. My question is, can you still use printer lights even though your not doing dallies? Can I still tell the timer in the telecine to time to X-X-X? Thanks

 

Nick

[Stephen Williams]

Hey, I am interested in using Printer Lights on my next project. It will be a low budget project so answer prints will not be an option. My question is, can you still use printer lights even though your not doing dallies? Can I still tell the timer in the telecine to time to X-X-X? Thanks

 

Nick

 

very unlikely, there is a very good chance that a telecine colorist would have no idea of what your talking about! I remember it being discussed 25 years ago, just never seen it working.

[Dominic Case]

Can I still tell the timer in the telecine to time to X-X-X?

Yes you can tell the timer whatever you want. But it won't make any sense to him or her. Telecine controls bear little or no relation to printer light corrections - and there is no standard reference point anyway.

 

It's possible to come closer to film timing in a full DI suite, working in log colour space. But you still don't have a reference point. Even for a film print, asking for light (say) 28-29-30 only has meaning in one specific lab: a different lab would likely give you a different result for the same printer points.

 

So it's not really clear what you would be expecting in asking the telecine timer for light X-X-X.

[Satsuki Murashige]

Hey, I am interested in using Printer Lights on my next project. It will be a low budget project so answer prints will not be an option. My question is, can you still use printer lights even though your not doing dallies? Can I still tell the timer in the telecine to time to X-X-X? Thanks

 

Nick

Short answer: no.

 

Why do you want to "use" printer lights if you're not printing anything? Sounds very counterproductive.

[Nick Centera]

Why do you want to "use" printer lights if you're not printing anything? Sounds very counterproductive.

 

Since I am a student, its pretty much a matter of money (less time in the telecine booth = less money spent). I understand what your saying though.

[Stephen Williams]

Why do you want to "use" printer lights if you're not printing anything? Sounds very counterproductive.

 

 

Since I am a student, its pretty much a matter of money (less time in the telecine booth = less money spent). I understand what your saying though.

 

 

Shoot a grey chart on the front of the roll & just let the telecine roll.

[Satsuki Murashige]

Since I am a student, its pretty much a matter of money (less time in the telecine booth = less money spent).

Sounds to me like you are mainly concerned about getting the right contrast and color in an unsupervised transfer, right? The best thing you can do is talk to the colorist before your project and establish communication with them about your intended look. You can even take digital stills, correct them in Photoshop, and send them to the colorist. It's all about the communication...