Theo Lipfert

Good point. I remember seeing some examples of X-ray'ed film on Kodak's site, and there was variation depending, I'm guessing, on which point of the roll was closest to the source of radiation. It should be pointed out that since 9/11 the "rules" for airport security have been constantly changing -- so don't believe what you read if it was written pre-2001. Theo

I just faced these X-ray issues while shooting Super 16 in Seoul, Korea. Here is what I learned: Buy your film from a Kodak rep in the foreign country -- Kodak's Korea office was very helpful in ordering A-minima film for me and having it waiting when I arrived in Seoul. I just had my bank wire transfer payment to their account. Obviously Kodak knows how to ship their film without ruining it. They also provided a list of labs in Seoul -- and this would be rule number 2: have your film processed before you fly home. I had a bunch of unexposed film to bring back -- so I checked with FedEx and DHL and both claimed that there was no way NOT to X-ray it. This is not true for shipping film within the US. I do this all the time, and FedEx for instance, has told me that they do not X-ray domestic shipments. To travel with unexposed film do not put it in your checked baggage, as the previous poster correctly indicated, since checked baggage is thoroughly nuked with very strong X-rays. I packed the unexposed film, with a changing bag, into a carry-on. I had the guy at the lab write out, in Korean, a note explaining that I had raw stock that could not be X-rayed. At Korean security they hand inspected (but did not open) each can of film. They did that test where they wipe something and do a test. At US customs/security they also did a hand-check. This was a very thorough "wipe" test of each can. The TSA people were very courteous and suggested if there was any doubt from the wipe test, that they would use the changing bag to hand-inspect the film. They also indicated if they were at all unsure then they would have to send it through the machine. They also told me the "safe up to 800 asa" line, but were not sure if that applied to 16mm motion picture film or just still film. (I can't imagine there is a difference.) They also told me the carry-on machine is varaible strength, so it would be possible that one airport's machine could be cranked up, another, not. I also brought back miniDV tapes. There are no known issues with X-ray, but to be safe from wierd magnetic fields that might exist in the cargo hold of a commercial jet, I would always carry these on as well. Hope this helps. Theo Bozeman, MT

And either way, look at third-party plug-ins for the greenscreening task. Almost all have demo versions (with watermark) that allow you to try out each tool to see which works best with your footage. Theo Bozeman, MT

After you select the clone tool from the paint palette, you need to select the area on your footage you want to clone FROM by clicking while holding down the "alt/option" key. The cursor will change to a crosshair (I don't have the program running in front of me, so it is possible you need to hold down the ctrl key instead -- just try both to see which makes the cursor change!) While holding the key down, drag the crosshair on a similar looking part of your footage. Release the alt (or ctrl) key then drag the mouse over the scratch to paint it out. Here is the tricky part. If you twirl down the effects line of your timeline, you will see your paint has a duration of some length that most likely is not exactly what you want. You can just drag the effect shorter or longer on the timeline to fix. Or, you can set the length (in time) on the paint palette. This will change the time on the next paint stroke you make. Post again if this doesnt answer your question. There are other ways to fix scratches and muck (like by using layers and masks) so if this doesn't help, be really specific about what is going wrong. Good luck. Theo Bozeman, MT

Try FilmworksFX in Santa Monica. Here is their address: http://www.filmworksfx.com/ Best, Theo Bozeman, MT

To "reverse telecine" for Premiere you could run your clips through After Effects (assuming you have it) and have AE guess the pulldown pattern. From the browser, right click and choose "interpret footage > main". Once it is removed, render out your file at 23.976 and import into Premiere. Don't export an already cut sequence from Premiere to AE because the pull down pattern will change clip to clip. Do the AE part on your raw captures. --Theo Bozeman, MT

I am planning to shoot some B-roll of neon-lit street scenes in Seoul on Kodak 500T. I may try to shoot during magic hour, or possibly just as the sky gets black. I am trying to capture people walking around, general urban ambience, so facial expressions etc. are not really important. Can anyone suggest a strategy for metering? Anyone have any advice? Thanks for any help. Theo Bozeman, MT

Hi: I just got 5 rolls of 50D processed and transferred to DVCam, shot on my A-minima. Here were the costs: Raw stock: $65 per 200 ft roll (approx, and that includes an academic discount from Kodak). Processing: 10 cents per foot. Telecine: $175 per hour (of their time, NOT the run time of my film). Total processing, telecine, tape, FedEx, etc. was about $550 for the 1,000 feet. Hope that helps. Theo Bozeman, MT Oh -- and the total length is about 28 minutes, including about 1 minute of leader. You can get almost 5 1/2 minutes from a 200 ft. roll, helps if load in almost darkness.

For Sale: low mileage XL-1 body -- add the lens of your choice. Only Panasonic tapes were run through this camera -- one owner, well maintained, great condition. Comes with standard stereo mic, battery and charger. $950 plus shipping (shipping at cost) Contact: theo(at)singingpictures.com Note: this camera is only for sale here!

Rent a Marantz compact flash recorder and a shotgun mic. The marantz connects to your computer via USB, and it sits on your desktop like a hard drive. Then all you do is drag the Wav files over, and drop them into Premiere, FCP, Avid -- whatever you are using to edit. Good luck. Theo Bozeman, MT

To learn about some of the workflow issues using FCP to cut telecine'd film, then generating a keycode based EDL, you may want to buy the Apple Pro Training Advanced FCP book -- the one with Digital Film Tree as one of the authors. There are tutorials on using Cinema Tools -- the database for relating the timecode of your video to the original keycode of the film. The book may be the best $30 you will ever spend. My workflow is to have the telecine house make two copies of my transferred film on video -- one with a window burn of the timecode and keycode, the other clean. The tapes must be identical in every other respect for this to work. Then I log the window burn copy in Cinema tools, substitute in the clean copy, and edit in FCP on the clean version. That way, I can use the clean one for festival apps, and use the window burn footage to verify my cut list is accurate. I don't use a flex file, because with this workflow, I don't need one. Good luck. Theo Bozeman, MT

Colorlab can make a blow-down from S16 to 16. Here is some info from their website: http://www.colorlab.com/services/blowup.html Has anyone done this? --Theo Bozeman, MT

Robert, Just for my own ya ya's -- what would be the process to go from a WAV file, for instance, to full coat sound film. How would that work? If you were working this way, how might you compress the audio to get a clean transfer. Just curious! Theo

I have a low-mileage Canon XL1 (not the "S") body for sale. Find a lens on ebay and you are good to go. Also, have a new, never installed Canopus DV Storm 2 capture board with break out box etc. for PC plus new, uninstalled copy of Adobe Premiere Pro. Bought them just before I got hired by a Mac only school and switched to FCP. Software has license etc. but was purchased as "Educational." I don't know if that makes any difference for upgrades. No reasonable offer refused for either or both. Theo Bozeman, MT

Hi again, The new marantz records at 96k 24 bit, which is nice, but in all honesty I don't think you need it. There are a bunch of new models out, specifically some very nice Sound Devices models, so check ebay etc. for the orignal marantz flash recorder. Sound doesn't have a frame rate, and since there are no moving parts (weird, huh?) it will synch with any device that is itself running at a constant speed. I can't quite wrap my brain around how you would go from a flash recorder back to film -- since the whole appeal of the flash recorder is to not have to mess with physical tape -- just drag your files onto your computer and drop them into Final Cut or Pro Tools or whatever. You definately want to figure out your entire workflow before you start buying stuff. For my two cents, even though staying in a "pure" film world sounds appealing, the reality of festivals and most opportunities to exhibit your work are, for better or worse, in the land of video. Most people will watch your work either on a TV or via video projection regardless of the format (video, 16, S16, 35) you originate on. Personally, I shoot on S16 and edit on FCP and Pro Tools, and dream of the day when I have a feature length project that can go back to the original source footage and blow to 35. Re: the new projects -- yes, am editing a dance / opera / prison short right now that I will send to festivals this fall, plus starting a feature length doc project that will probably run the next two years. Also, I am adapting a short story into a short film, also with the idea of festival distribution. If you are into writing, I would highly recommend writing, directing and shooting a short -- doesn't take that long, cost too much, and if it works out, can be seen by thousands of festival goers. Just won't make you any money. Good luck, Theo

You might try filmworks FX in Santa Monica -- boutique lab, very friendly, great service and quality. I don't know if they do HD, but you should ask. They are at: 310-395-5595. Ask for Heidi. Theo Bozeman, MT

Re: AE or Final Cut -- I can use either AE or Final Cut. I have experimented with Key Light in AE, but still get really crunchy, blocky aliasing around people's heads. I guess my question is really whether there are settings on the XL2 that will help minimize problems with keying. Thanks for the suggestion about working with uncompressed footage -- I will test that as well. --Theo Bozeman, MT

I am shooting some blue-screen interviews with an XL2 and the Reflectmedia light-ring blue screen. In my tests, the light ring produces a nice, even blue (bouncing off their special material) but when keying I get some horrendous aliasing on my test subjects' ears and shoulders. I know that DV 4:1:1 is problematic -- but does anyone have any suggestions for getting usable results? Turn down sharpness? Use Ultimatte Advant-edge? All suggestions welcome. Theo Bozeman, MT

Kodak has a student discount of 20% for film (but not processing) and Fuji has a program with specific labs such as FilmWorksFX in Santa Monica where you buy the film from them and they process for free. If you are using student actors you may want to shoot a thorough rehearsal on MiniDV, edit your program, then make a really tight shot list. You may be able to shoot less film when you shoot for real. Last idea: have a party and charge admission. Good luck. Theo Lipfert Dept. Media and Theater Arts Montana State University

Thanks for the info -- I haven't used Combustion -- but I will check it out. No wonder Adobe added SA's Color Finesse and a suite of grain tools (bought from Grain Surgery, I believe) as free plug ins. Keeping up with the competition, I guess. I have been projecting some telecined super16, transfered to DV, color corrected and manipulated in AE, with some grain reduction as well. (I am simulating the projection that my work usually is subjected to at festivals) While not ideal conditions, this combo looks pretty good -- certainly better than DV -- and retains most of the "film" quality. I have found it better to have a "light hand" when manipulating film -- or else the manipulation calls attention to itself. Thanks again. Theo Bozeman, MT

Look at a plug-in called Twixtor made by re:vision. If you google it, you can find their site. Might be one solution. I think it may only run in After Effects. Theo Bozeman, MT

There is a book -- Color Correction for DV published by CMP Press -- and the author does training. I spoke to him recently, asking the same question as you -- and his reply was that in addition to him (who trains mostly corporate clients, etc.) DaVinci does training at their location in Florida. I also found Digitial Film Tree in L.A. that does training for color correction on final cut. Look into getting Synthetic Aperature's Color Finesse as well -- kind of a poor man's DaVinci for video -- but way better than 3-way color corrector and other FCP tools. Comes free with After Effects Pro 6.5 -- but that version only runs on AE, not FCP. If you can't weasel your way into a facility, I would try to learn by doing, and find some low-rent docs or something other projects that could use some color correction work. Good luck Theo Bozeman, MT

Personally, I wouldn't use them, regaredless of whether I needed keycode or not. I have had students pick the low bidder for transfer work and get back miniDV tapes that were clearly shot with a camera pointed at a screen, their film just projected and shot. They re-transfered at a reputable place, and we compared the difference. On the cheap transfer, you could literally see the dv camera's auto iris kick in (with slight delay) as scenes changed from dark to light. That place was called A1 or something like that. If you are a student, most good transfer places will give a discount. If not, it is still worth using a place that comes recommended. You can search on this forum for places in NYC (like DuArt) or you can send out of town -- check out www.posthouse.com in atlanta, or www.filmfx.com in Santa Monica, or Colorlab -- which has an NYC office but does their work in Maryland. You can also ask for a discount, worse case they say no. If the cost is less that $175 per hour (with a discount) I would be very suspicious. Theo Bozeman, MT

Just wondering if anyone has been using After Effects to manipulate telecined footage -- specifically, is anyone using the grain reduction effect to clean-up miniDV or other low-end video formats? Anyone using Color Finesse to color correct? I am just starting to test some of these things, being very new to shooting Super16, but not so new to working with DV and AE. I would love to hear from anyone else poking around in this direction... Theo Bozeman, MT

Most festivals (with some notable exceptions) will only project BetaSP video for shorts. Super 16 tansfered the cheapest way --to miniDV or DVCam -- edited in FCP or Premiere then dubbed to BetaSP and projected STILL looks better (or at least more film-like) than projects originating in video. Especially if done widescreen (16 x 9). Since there is no money in shorts (but, hey, who needs money?) my thinking is to go this route, then if you get into a big festival that actually will project a short in 35mm, you can scramble to do a blow up directly or from a fresh HD conversion. The money you save by not transferring might pay for an entire new short! Almost all festivals want you to submit a VHS for consideration. Check out www.withoutabox.com to make your festival life a ton easier. Just my opinion, for what its worth. Theo Bozeman, MT