colour grading and neg telecine

[Richard Tuohy]

Hello all,

Richard here in Aus. We currently don't have a facility for transfering super 8 neg stocks to video (there are rank machines and super8 gates, but no will!). There is, however, a facility in Sydney that claims very good results from reversal (or positive) stocks using a device that scans the film at a rate of about 1 frame per second (and they claim results superior to those possible with a rank transfer - which is a frequently heard mantra). While they are capable of making the gamma and positivising adjustments required for negative telecine, at the very slow transfer speed grading is not really viable. There set up works well for positives only aparantly.

But how much can be done using a program like final cut pro? This program offers grading and contrast controll etc.. Could good results be obtained by transfering neg using a 'one light' kind of transfer with a fairly low gamma setting on the transfer machine, and then adjusting this to a normal contrast slowly (and on my time!) on my computer?

Any input here would be apreciated.

Richard

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

> But how much can be done using a program like final cut pro?

 

Final Cut and similar stuff - there are now dedicated desktop grading tools - is capable of considerably more than the average realtime hardware grading suite. It's just slower. Whether this matters to you is often a budgetary but also a creative concern.

 

> Could good results be obtained by transfering neg using a 'one light' kind of transfer [...] then adjusting this

> [...] (and on my time!) on my computer?

 

Probably. You must ensure that the transfer you are getting is uncompressed, and very preferably at a higher bit depth than the 8-bit video you're used to. 16-bit linear DPX or 10-bit log is usual, although ensure your software supports these formats. There is an uncompressed 16-bit codec for Quicktime. 8-bit isn't disastrous, but you will see banding if you try to push it too far.

 

The question is whether you're enough of a colourist to do the job yourself. Personally I think most directors of photography should have enough of an eye to not make a complete botch job of it, so it's just a case of learning the tools.

 

Phil

[Sean Morris]

Hi Richard,

 

Have you tried Video 8 Broadcast, speak to Dominic in telecine'

 

http://www.video-8.com/page2.html

 

Cheers

Sean

[Richard Tuohy]

Thanks Sean!

Yes, they do super8 neg! Problem solved.

Richard

[Guest stoop]

I have been wondering this question myself. Whats the point in colour correcting during Telecine when you can do it in Post. Is there any advantages in quality. I guess there must be which is why people do it - just wondering what they are.

 

Thanks