Film scanning/processing process?

Liam Howlett · October 1, 2010

Can anyone give me an in depth description of what the process is like in a professional production?

When film reels are shot - where do they go for scanning/development, and how do they digitize them for editors to edit on NLE's ? That is assuming an editor is editing the film on AVID or Final Cut, or just an NLE. I want to know the process. I kind of have my own guess, but I want to hear it from someone who knows the process, or saw it.

Also, if an editor is editing on a Moviola or a Steenbeck - what's the process for them? Is the film reel/canister scanned/developed and sent to him? That would be my guess.

Liam Howlett · October 1, 2010

Didn;t want to create another thread either, so I'll just ask this here

I wanted to know if there are any major differences between the various non-linear editing softwares

For example AVID, Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro, and Sony Vegas...

do professional editors prefer certain NLE's because one of them has something the other one doesn't ? Or are the ones I've listed, or in general all NLE's are basically the same?

If I'm not being clear, what I mean is; will any of these will do, for example, in order to edit a Hollywood film for a studio like WB, or Universal. Or is there an industry standard. For instance I heard that AVID and Final Cut are more preferred in the film industry - but it's never mentioned the reasons behind that preference. Is it because it's more equipped as opposed to, say Premiere Pro and Sony Vegas - or what?

Thanks

Liam Howlett · October 1, 2010

Please can anybody answer at least one of the questions?

Phil Rhodes · October 1, 2010

Smells like... homework question.

You might start here, or better yet here.

P

Paco Sweetman · October 1, 2010

Also, if an editor is editing on a Moviola or a Steenbeck - what's the process for them? Is the film reel/canister scanned/developed and sent to him? That would be my guess.

To be honest I don't think that this really happens very much anymore, if at all. The cost + pain in the ass = slower work ratio and more cost additions. I couldn't bare to have to go back to using a steenbeck.

Good luck with the rest of the answer for the other stuff...it's quite a text book long answer.

Liam Howlett · October 2, 2010

That's what I thought too, I was just wondering how they did it in the old days. I think it's common sense though that the developed film reel was brought to an editor and he just ran it through a thread on a Moviola and started editing.

Thanks for Googling that for me Phil, but I've already tried that, which brought me here. The post production thing seems common sense to me too as I have described above I just thought some pros and industry people would give me a more concrete answer that didn't rely on Google but more on personal knowledge. I've seen from pictures the post production factories, with that in mind plus some guesses I was able to put down an own opinion on how the process was done. Oh well. Maybe someone knows though and is willing to summarize the process. Really interested. And has nothing to do with homework just for your info - I just had a sudden outburst of "I need to know" so I posted it, as I would most likely forget about it.

Edited October 2, 2010 by Liam Howlett

Phil Rhodes · October 2, 2010

The thing is, you're asking for "in depth". Any discussion of motion picture postproduction which could be described as such would be thousands and thousands of words. A forum like this is not a great place for very general questions; the best thing to do is to go away and read up on it, then ask here about anything that didn't make sense.

P

October 2, 2010

Phil be nice to the poor guy. :D

Liam, I have shot and edited two features on 35mm so I can tell you about my post process.

1) Neg is processed and transfered to HDSR in 4:4:4 at Deluxe Toronto. I do the dailies in HD and they do a pretty good job on the colour correction although it is not meant to be perfect. They also synch all the audio to the dailies.

2) Each shot on the HDSR's is made into a 720X480 quick time file .mov. These shots are labelled by Deluxe as to their scene and take and placed onto a 500GB hard drive. There are two of these drives and they rotate between the set and Deluxe daily. (Yes Phil, I'm not working with HD dailies so shoot me, yes I know I should work in HD ApplePro Res at least.)

3) The assistant editor cuts the dailies as per the script so I can get an idea how the film is coming together, I will watch his cut each night. We are cutting with Final Cut Pro on a MacBook Pro.

4) Upon wrap I will start from the top and re-edit the entire show in FCP.

5) Once the picture is locked I will output an EDL. The EDL will be loaded into the edit system at Deluxe and the entire show will be on-lined in HDSR 4:4:4.

6) The on-lined show will be sent to tape and then I will do a final, tape-to-tape, colour correction with a top colourist in the Da Vinci suite.

That's it really, done.

I use FCP, I believe I'm still the only director/editor delivering my EDLs to Deluxe from FCP while shooting my original on 35mm. Most other shows use the Avid. In the end a CMX 3600 EDL is a CMX 3600 EDL. In my view any way.

R,

Joseph Arch · October 6, 2010

Thanks for the detailed explanation, Richard.

Ravi Kiran · October 7, 2010

When transferring film to DPX for DI, what kind of latitude is retained in the transition? If footage was overexposed by half a stop, is the image brought back to normal exposure during the scan or in the DI suite? Is the scan to DPX a straight, untouched scan or are adjustments to the image made during the scan? And what are the benefits of linear vs. log?