35mm A/B rolls for telecine & interlock

[Timothy Gassen]

Hi,

 

I have a couple unusual telecine needs & questions:

 

I have 20-year old cut 35mm negative A/B rolls. I once had a 35mm print, but it is missing (along with the timing sheets from the A/B rolls). So I was wondering if I can have the A/B rolls transferred to video? I have heard that, unlike an optical printer which the rolls were designed for, the traditional telecine won't transfer the cut negs smoothly. True?

 

I don't want to have to strike another print just to transfer to video, and I don't have the timing sheets for fades/dissolves anyway!

 

Also, I'd like to transfer some original fullcoat mag track in interlcok for better sound quality. Of original material, all I found was a 16mm fullcoat mix (though I do have the separate 35mm optical track)!

 

I also want to transfer some positive 16m prints along with their mag track in interlock -- any telecine recommendation for the west coast/ LA?

 

Thanks for any help! :)

[Stephen Williams]

Hi,

 

I have 20-year old cut 35mm negative A/B rolls. I once had a 35mm print, but it is missing (along with the timing sheets from the A/B rolls). So I was wondering if I can have the A/B rolls transferred to video? I have heard that, unlike an optical printer which the rolls were designed for, the traditional telecine won't transfer the cut negs smoothly. True?

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Hi,

 

Telecine's will jump slightly at a neg join. 20+ years ago all news was shoot on reversal and telecined live with joins. As the material is A/B cut you may be lucky in that the handles on each scene will be long enough, so as not to be a problem. You will have to try it out!

 

Stephen Williams Lighting Cameraman

 

www.stephenw.om

[Dirk DeJonghe]

A worse problem might be that the negative may be notched. A small shape may be cut out on the side of the film to trigger the scene-to-scene correction on the printer. This practice was later (mid 1970'ies) replaced by metallic foil patches and still later (1980'ies) with FCC ( computerized frame count cueing). When this notch passes the telecine gate it will give a noticeable sideways jump.

 

Easiest but not cheapest would be to strike a low contrast 35mm print and transfer this to video. You could even do a separate print from the A and B-roll, transfer to video and make the final color correction and dissolves on a digital color grading system such as Baselight.