Robert Houllahan

In general, as Justin said, the best policy with Super8 is to make sure it is clean from the drybox on the film processor and then keep it clean through all of it's handling steps. You can use a anti static lint free "handy" wipe to hand clean the film but this will meet with limited success, especially if the dirt is stuck in the emulsion. There are really only two good ways to clean super 8 thoroughly one is a Lipsner ultrasonic cleaner, the other is to "re-wash" the film, i.e. run it through the film processor again this will soften the emulsion, let any dirt go free in the turbulation of the processor and remove any residual water and kill any growing mold if the film is older. -Rob-

I have done some work at Post Logic NY and while we were there the second room was working on mastering several films for video. The workflow was Spirit/DaVinci 2k or Spirit/Pogle to D5 and then dust busting and general cleanup of prints in a single link hd enviornment. D5 is a nice video format but as David says it's not real restoration as it's still video. hooligan

Steven, 1. There is nothing on your original order form about PC or MAC, I can post a copy of it if there is any doubt. 2. The original drive reads fine on both the G5 mac and the Dual Xenon WinXP Avid system, are we responsible for your computer problems too? The drive is formatted MacOS (extended, Journaled) the second drive we sent is NTFS. 3. We sent the drive as we said we would for Saturday delivery and UPS screwed it up, I can post the tracking number for all to see, are we responsible for UPS do you want me to call them incompetent? 4. We sometimes are delayed getting film out and sometimes smaller jobs like tests get caught in the volume we do, we need to add staff to help us expedite jobs I am doing this right now. 5. Steven your insulting tone and statements are unjustified grow up. -Rob-

We would be happy to do this for you for a bench fee (probably $75) and we would be happy to supply you with 100' daylight spools and boxes for free plus the shipping cost. -Rob-

I think you can do very well with a newer LCD projector which will not have flicker issues and with rear projection it will look cleaner than a post production insert. I would say any newer high brightness LCD projector will work, I don't know about DLP as many projectors have color wheels and may have slight flicker issues (or they may not) you can adjust projector brightness with the internal controls and or ND in front of the lens. -Rob-

Things you hear around a film lab: "My film is jumping you guys did not bolt your film processor down right" "You intentionally processed my film out of focus" or Student: "there is nothing on my film" Bob Hume: "did you shoot it on a bolex maybe the shutter was not open" Student: "that's impossible! Where's the shutter?" We really do try to do things right and we always admit to our mistakes and even if the mistake was not our's we try to help out. Here are some samples of recent telecine and they will be available on our website in full res to pick at. Logon is: User: guest Password: guest We have 2 telecine suites both are full proper suites with realtime all SDI digital color correctors (a System Copernicus on room 1 and a DaVinci888 going into room 2) both suites have AAton keylink keycode readers and a both Ranks have Dave walker upgrades and Quattroscan 10bit framestores. Pretty good for a bunch of old junk and improving all the time, when I go to NYC and sit in a Spirit/Davinci or a DSX/Pogle room is the pic better? yes do I come back and hate my machines? No they are good proper mid grade suites and priced at $175/hr now. Stu Debenham at 3516.com does a good job with a different approach i have sent him home movie work when we were too busy and could not get everything done. Myron at Cinepost in ATL does good work too we have processed film for both they have both transfered stuff for us at times, like a nice happy distant cousin's relations here on the east coast. -Rob- Top row Super8, Middle row Super16, last row Super35

I think the biggest problem with this format is the issue with scratching the film inside the perf area. It is easy to modify the gate of a camera or telecine, etc however to modify the complete film path may be difficult or in some cases impossible depending on the mechanics of the camera. I feel that this is a low end modification and I personally think that there is no reason to consider it over Super16 if any real money will be spent as there is too much risk of damaging the negative. It is easy to machine a gate on a camera or TK and cheap too on an older TK for example a spirit is another matter. Modding a older 16mm gate is probably the extent of support I will give this format as other mods get very expensive and do not equally compete with all of the excellent Super16 equipment out there. -Rob-

I do not see why Arri would care about Ultra16 when they are selling the super nice 416 I would think that they would not consider it to be a "proper" or professional format and I can not see them supporting it with the Arriscan. I think Ultra16 is a possible way for low budget film people to sort of breathe new life into STD16 cameras and that is about it. -Rob-

Here is the opinion from another irish film lab guy <_< We had been hearing about Ultra16 like everyone else but I have not had more than 2 or 3 people inquire about the process in the last 2 years, and we run allot of 16mm it's really our bread and butter. Processing Ultra16 is not a problem and bench handling is no problem either if you use Super16 handling techniques, i.e. tight winds, etc. I have a STD 16mm gate for our rank suites (BTW Suite #2 is getting a DaVinci888 right now) and I have a plan to machine the skid plate to Ultra16 dimensions so we can safely run it on our Telecines and extract keycode, etc. with our Aaton Keylink systems. I am looking at several scanners and I am sure the one I like will be able to scan Ultra16 to 2K. To me it would not be so much work to support and I would like to support it like I would like to support 2perf 35mm it's just a matter of when some would show up. I will re visit the modification to one of our gates as it is a fairly simple mod for our CnC machine shop to do. -Rob-

I think the show is great makes me want to have 2 or 3 girlfriends! :blink: -Rob-

Thats a good guess it also might be a light pressure mark caused by any number of things including something in the mag or loading/bench handling. -Rob-

This may be a bit true but the supposition of file format cannot be separated from the physical media entirely either. Todays USB or SATA bus will be possibly completely unknown in the future as has happened time and again with computer hardware. Then you have "finagling" with the file format and it becomes work and effort every 15 or 20 years to maintain data which means in the real world much of this will be lost due to the inherent complexity of the system. -Rob-

I think it should be fine, any digital recorder will keep an acceptable consistent timebase to sync with film or video. -Rob-

I can attest to the tape issues right now, we took on an archival job for a US Senators library this year which consisted of a large volume of 16mm film from the 50's to the 80's and an even larger volume of all types of tape formats from 1" to VHS. Migrating all of the tape to DVCams was the solution, and a less than ideal one at that IMO, but the cost factors weighed in heavily on this job. Two copies made and then one copy held and digitized onto a server at the library and the other copy sent for proper storage but no funding for any real data migration schedule although we all talked about and were soberly aware of the issues. Much of the videotape had degredation and especially the vhs which I do not think will last all that much longer. We do archival jobs for 16mm all the time and had a large collection come in about a year and a half ago with footage dating back as early as 1907 or so. The film was in surprisingly excellent condition proper storage and chemical sieves from Kodak and back to the library for another 100 or more and a D-Beta copy for access. I think there is a strong desire to believe that the digital information generated these days will last forever, as the marketers have advertised, this is just not a sober look at the reality of data IMO. Digital data is highly ordered and highly complex and the mechanisms which it is stored on are of an exotic and complex nature I do not think it should be surprising that they are ripe for entropy and degrade quickly. Furthermore the issues of material and energy expenditure to keep this form of information alive into the future are a real problem with no good current solutions. -Rob-

Check out pixelharvest.com in LA they can do real 2K scans for a reasonable number. And give us a call if you want a 16mm dupe to archive. -Rob-

As if to prove my point the USB backup drive I use to "archive" all the stuff I have on my laptop has just failed to spin up. This is a 120G laptop drive in a little USB2 enclosure and about 10 mo. old. Just sitting there on the shelf at my house doin' nothin' and now dead. -Rob-

Hate to be a spoiler here but there is no digital medium which will last even a fraction as long as the original 16mm film if stored properly. Tapes don't last as well, drives fail to re start and the many many digital formats and codec's interfaces etc. mean loss of technology and difficulty accessing data later on. Try to buy a floppy disk now they were ubiquitous just a few years ago. As for the work printer I would not try to do an archival process on a clearly consumer system get it scanned on a real telecine or scanner which will capture the range and color of the original properly and try DLT tape but just do not expect there to be a working tape mechanism in 40 years. If you really want to preserve the film have a Dupe made in 16mm and send it to a real cold archival storage facility like Iron mountain where it has the potential to last for a millenia. -Rob-

Looks cool I'll have to build one for mine :rolleyes: -Rob-

I just did my first real timelapse gig with this camera, came out great, considering it was raining :-( I will see if I can post a clip. So far I am very happy with the NCS motor. Steel_Yard.mov

The age and type of stock should survive a mere 3 years in the fridge I would think it would be fine too. -Rob-

Have your lab run a short "clip" test and put it on the densitometer to get an idea of base fog / aging, etc. and then make a judgment on the pull. -Rob-

I read the following and I have to say that loss of quality from a D-beta to DV dub has never been a problem for me if there is any issue it is so minor as to be negligible. Making DVD's from D-Beta has been a A #1 workflow for years now. My 0.02c -Rob-

More than possible, both Arri B-mount and Arri std mount adapters are available and many people with Aatons (like me) have arri B-mount glass that they use on a LTR, etc. -Rob-

Hmmm I have a DXC537 with clearscan which I was not able to get to be flicker free even at 75hz maybe it had something to do with the projector I was using and its shutter angle. I stopped trying to get a film chain working after we built gates for Super8 and Reg8 for our Ranks which do allot better job at this work. Do the HDV cams have clearscan? -Rob-

In my experience with film chain experiments you really need to get a 5-blade projector to eliminate flicker there is no real way around it when going to 60i video. The 5 blade shutter does not spin faster it just presents the video camera more frames which replicate a 3;2 sequence. -Rob-