Robert Houllahan

My upstairs neighbor is going in for breast cancer in a few days, she's 33, cancer is a insidious and difficult to understand disease, it never seems fair. Modern meds have yielded some amazing results....Best wishes. Houllahan

As long as Dwane's got your film you should be ok, perhaps this was sent through the post in europe and again through the post in the US and I think both are slow. Dwaine's website is www.k14movies.com I would send them an email and I am sure they can figure out where your film is, they are a great lab. -Rob-

Don't let that negative, skip bleach, sit too long either it will change over time! you can bleach it later on though. 500.00? we are going to have to raise our prices! :D -Rob-

I think that there are two components to this, the first is that the sale would probably be at leas a five billion dollar transaction and thus completely out of any possible scope or direction of anybody who actually uses the products of the Kodak company. This is a kind of powerless position which is beyond frustration and thus ignored. The second component is probably a hope that if this happens that it will work out well for what we, as individuals, want the furtherance and advancement of our medium. I do not blame anyone intimately connected with this for not wanting to respond to the news because if it were to happen it would be a earthquake in the industry. -Rob-

Oh Boy. Well I think this is a great opportunity for a great US company to completely miss the boat on the future and the thought (mine) that Moore's law is on a collision course with energy supply and it's effect on the Bubble. I was listening to a PBS radio show in the car on the way home from the lab one night, a few months ago, and they were going on about the place of amateur digital photographers and their effect on photojournalism. At some point in the conversation some blissfully unawares person was going on about how once she had taker her digital photo and uploaded it to the interbleb it would stay perfectly unmolested for the rest of all time. Not to be a complete cynic of this rosy attitude but what if photoblucket.net.com.web goes out of business? I think that there is the blissful perception that didital things like the interweb, which is certainly interesting and unique by human standards, is nice and smooth and clean because it is a "new economy" thing. This wonderfullness we are all blabbing away nicely on does have a bit of a backside and that is tremendous energy usage mostly fueled by that most 18th century wonder good old coal. :blink: Back to that photo and digital media in general, how much energy does it take to make and store a traditional Silver-Halide photograph? and in correlation to that how much energy is put into the same digital photograph over the same 100 year period. I do not have the answer although I am guessing to make the digital photo survive the span of 100yrs. it probably has to have almost constant expenditure of energy (and effort) to make it last and taken into full account I think the total might be somewhat staggering. So Kodak sells it's film division to the lucky Chinese Lucky film co.? maybe they would take it and reap great rewards going into the future. We here in the USA can go on to the point where all we do is sit across from one another and sell insurance back and forth until the lights go out. Ouch! :o I personally think there is a grand place in the future for photochemical stuff and that it's environmental footprint has a potential to be quite small compared to what it gives humanity. There has been, what? 40yrs. now, of a juggernaut of growth and arrogance with the building of the computer industry and with that a view that digital technology should consume and "solve" all of human endeavor no matter whether the new technology under performs, makes vastly more complicated, and consumes much more that what it is replacing. So here is my contribution to (nobel prize worthy :P ) world economic theoryis that in the future economics will have to be closed loop instead of open ended. As we gather more information about our home this will become more apparent and easier to define, or we can blow the planet up, which is fine too! I will get back in my spaceship and me, Bibble Dave Chapelle and those cloned white chicks will just move on. :lol: The next 50 years will be interesting. -Rob-

I am planning to do the sound mixdown full bandwidth i.e. 24bit 96k and have my sound mixer apply a bandpass filter to it to check for compatibility with the 16mm optical track. That way I have a fuller soundtrack for the dvd and a good idea of the sound from the projector. -Rob-

I think Dirk is right here a good photochemical finish will look better than a hack DI. -Rob-

I have recently heard some 1/4" tape which when played back at my friends sound studio really struck me. The recording was of a piano concerto and I thought it was better than any such recording I have heard on CD. I have heard a lot of 16mm print soundtrack over the last 4 or 5 years here at Cinelab and I think that there is allot of sound you can stuff into that little squiggle. -rob-

Thanks Clive! This is about what I figured from what I hear in the lab but wanted a bit of a confirmation for working with my sound mixer. No Pipe Organs! Damn, well there is always the DVD! :lol: -Rob-

Well the film is a std.16 original which I just cut on a steenbeck and I had planned to make a print from the beginning so there is no avoiding the sound. We make allot of 16mm answer prints here at Cinelab and while I agree that 16mm optical is fairly lo-fi it can be tailored to be acceptable in it's own way. -Rob-

Does anyone know what the specs are for 16mm optical sound? Is there a Kodak paper? I was thinking a frequency response in the 200hz to 6khz range and 40db to 50db S/N is this about correct? Mixing my soundtrack and making a print :) -Rob-

There are some good deals to be had in pin registered scanning these days PM me off list and I can give you contact info for a really reasonably priced scan service in LA which does Super16 scans. -Rob-

George, Give Matthew Wagenecht a call he is a very experienced and meticulous negative cutter here in Massachusetts, he also has 35mm and 16mm camera gear and shoots a fair bit. I think he would at least consider taking the job and I know that if he did it would get done right. Matt 617-244-6730 -Rob-

I for one would like to know more about the technology used in this scanner, i.e. light source,kind of sensor, dmin/dmax calibrations, etc. I will plan to send a test in. -Rob-

It sounds like you think you want is to transfer your film to HDV (XpressHD??) I do not think this software will deal with a high quality HD format, furthermore I do not think anyone could/would transfer to HDV as no deck I have looked at has any real I/O on it. A better solution would be to get a Keycode transfer to Dvcam and make a neg cut list as Phil suggests which you can then have conformed and have an optical blowup done. For the sections of the film where you need Digital FX I would suggest creating those in the computer (AfterFX, Digital Fusion, Shake, etc) and then have them shot individually to 35mm neg on a film recorder. This was a typical workflow on a film like the original "Jurassic Park" (I believe) where the bulk of the film was a traditional neg cut and conform with color timing done in the printer. Dinosaur shots recorded to 35mm on a solitaire or similar were then cut in. I would think the advantage of this kind of workflow today would be cost i.e. you do not have to scan all the film and similarly you do not have to shoot everything out to 35mm either. -Rob-

Our slowest machine (an Allen Porducts we use for B+W Negative and Print) does 50fpm our Color print machine is up to 200fpm and machines for running 35mm print in large batches are 500fpm or faster I believe. The really fast print machines are sprocket drive. -Rob-

You might even want to think about building the exit end of your film processor (That Bray looks so small! to me how many feet /min is it supposed to run?) in a "clean" room with your assembly bench. Just go in there and as the film exits grab it and straight on the bench for assembly. Just a thought. -Rob-

I advise throwing your wet film in the cupboard!! :lol: NO No thats not right! :blink: Think about what is happening to film as it is being processed, it is in 100% humidity until it makes the transition from the last chemical or wash bath and goes into drying. Dust and dirt really do not have a chance to accumulate on the film in the wet stage of the process, in fact a good way of getting really stubborn dust out of the film is to "re-wash" it which warms and softens the film and emulsion and allows it to release lightly embedded particles which really get shaken out by the turbulation in the chem tanks. So you have clean, wet warm film which then has to make the transition to the drybox which has a set of heaters and blowers and this is the first spot where dust can be applied to the film. Every part in this stage has to be scrupulously clean, tack-cloth every surface again and again, the blowers must be absolutely clean and the air being drawn in must have enough flow volume and be very finely filtered through at least 2 if not 3 stages of filters with the last stage being very fine hospital grade Hepa filters which are sealed to the blower intakes. We also have Plexiglas boxes on hinges which cover the film on it's takeup reel and the dry film passes over a set of 3" PTR's as it exits the drybox. Once the processed film is tightwound on the flange there is no opportunity to get dust on it until you take it to the bench to prep it for transfer/print I would suggest building a dedicated room for bench handling because it does not sound as though you can control the total environment in your facility as well as you might like. Think about putting a bench in a sealed room with positive airflow and more Hepa filters, TACK CLOTH EVERYTHING! If you have a clean Drybox and a Clean handling area you will have generally clean film, oh and watch out for that static too. -Rob-

Up until about a year ago I had a 3 CRT 8" Sony projector with a line tripler (I was living in an old mill) sort of the best of both worlds all the nice picture you get from a tube set and a large projected picture. Some of the nicest in home theatre pictures I have seen were with a 9" Sony G90 CRT projector and a high end scaler. The 9" crt's will do 1080p. I now live in a situation where a CRT (or any) projector is impractical so I scrounged up a 42" nec plasma on ebay for 200.00 with broken analog input. I got a Mac Mini and connected it to the plasma over DVI and it makes a acceptable picture, that is if you do not mind banding and the occasional solarization that you get from the display obviously not even being able to resolve 8 bits (probably more like 6bits) oh well. I do like the look of the newer plasma's more than the LCD's which I think for the most part are so flat and dull why bother? -Rob-

I think that under most conditions the difference would be night and day. I have seen good looking captures from single frame machines but they are not in the same league as a Telecine system for the following reasons. 1. Framing is arbitrary not necessarily registered by a precision mechanism and not adjustable while running. An example would be when transfering a 400' roll when you go from one 50' section to the next the vertical framing may be slightly different and there is no way to compensate for this in a single frame unit. Also a claw driven mechanism cannot compensate for older shrunken film and may ruin it. 2. The actual camera "head" or pickup is a common video camera and the light source can be anything but uniform. A telecine will have either a CRT with Photomultipliers or a set of very high precision CCD's and a highly uniform light source. Furthermore a great deal of electronics which ensure that the signals generated by whatever pickup system are delivered to the Color-Corrector in their best form. 3. A professional telecine is always attached to a real time uncompressed color corrector which allows the colorist to set a wide range of color settings by frame or have the color settings change by keyframe over transitions or scenes. A Film chain generally has no counter and color correction is usually either done on the fly or after the clip has been captured both are compromises. 4. A telecine suite will produce Uncompressed 10bit 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 with a real 1080by1440 (4:3 Super8) resolution not compressed and with a proper optical system which will actually resolve the full intended resolution. The proof is in the pictures made try both and see for yourself. -Rob-

I think you will find that Humidity will mostly affect the drying of the film in the drybox and you will need to add or subtract heat in this area to compensate for the humidity factor. You should vent the drybox seperately and don't forget those hepa filters on the intake. -Rob-

Hey if your film is short enough and it features something like detergent or it is super cool and nobody can tell what is featured I hear they pay pretty decent for it. :unsure: -Rob-

As far as I know there is only one source for Super8 cartridges (empty or filled) and it is in Rochester, NY. :D -Rob-

A bit of advice as someone who is routinely on both sides of this fence, getting a good relationship together with a colorist/TK house and being able to go in and work with someone is worth an awful lot. There is so much possibility in a Film / Telecine session sometimes getting what you want requires being there. -Rob-

I have not seen Casino Royale yet but that's cool they used 22 on it. I think that XX22 is a bit of a maligned stock and I know people who do not like it however I disagree with them. I just picture locked a 16mm short I am making which is probably 75% 7222 and 25% 7231 and I am cutting on a steenbeck. XX31 is a very beautiful stock with one of the lowest Dmin's in the catalog, I believe. I think it is very unfortunate that bigger productions who are planning a B+W finish do not go the full route and shoot on B+W instead of XX18 or something and Monochrome it in a DI. A little more brass downstairs with the money men might be needed here . Shindler's List is a great example it is very easy to tell when the few color originated sections show up with the little girl color stock just has that smooth look to it. -Rob-