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Telecine prices


Ryan Bates

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Also, even if your film is going through the spirit + Da Vinci, post houses also charge for the format your going to. $175 an hour sounds like beta or DVCAM. If its Digi-beta or HD, then its a great deal. If you've invested a lot of money into production, you may want to find the extra cash to go to HD. Probably lookin at $300-400 an hour.

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wow, where can I get HD for $400/hr?

In Atlanta it's $700-800 to go to DVCPro HD / or disk.

 

I'm not saying you are wrong, just wondering where it is. I bet the flight and hotel stay would still be less than the total cost in Atlanta. Might save me a bit. =)

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cheapest place I've found period is BonoLabs. They'll telecine your

16mm film to HD various forms and I've seen the footage first hand

and it looks good! It's a little cheaper because they only charge

for 'run time', not minimum charges like most posthouses do.

 

right now, I'm getting 500ft. transferred to HD on a hard drive in

QT or AVI....for about $280

 

 

 

www.bonolabs.com

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An aspect that I always have thought is significant to telecine quotes is the telecine 'ratio,' i.e. the number of hours it would take to telecine over the hours of film itself. Typically this ratio is 4:1, meaning 4 hours of telecine work to 1 hour of film. Some houses have condensed this ratio with turnkey solutions such as with MTI's Control Dailies. Overall, you will see a varying range of anywhere from as low as $75 to $1900 an hour for telecine work.

 

This sounds like a good deal to me. However, there are too many variables to determine the value you would be getting from Yale in this instance-- experience, the 'degree' of supervision, output, audio, etc.

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"Typically this ratio is 4:1, meaning 4 hours of telecine work to 1 hour of film."

 

I couldn't imagine going through a feature in 6 hours. Although I've never telecined a feature I did do a color correct for an HD feature and we spent three full 8 hour days and still felt like we were rushing. I just did a telecine for a 35MM 17 minute short that I thought needed very little work and it still took 2 1/2 hours and again I felt rushed.

 

Could you elaborate a bit on the "4:1 ratio"?

 

F

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"I couldn't imagine going through a feature in 6 hours. Although I've never telecined a feature I did do a color correct for an HD feature and we spent three full 8 hour days and still felt like we were rushing. I just did a telecine for a 35MM 17 minute short that I thought needed very little work and it still took 2 1/2 hours and again I felt rushed.

 

Could you elaborate a bit on the "4:1 ratio"?

 

He's talking about daily transfers (i.e., no cuts, no continuity to speak of), and that figure is quite standard for that type of work.

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In telecine, you kind of always get what you pay for. Even with a s**t-hot machine and 2K Da Vinci it can turn out terrible unless the guy is any good. I suppose you could get luckky and get an undiscovered whiz-kid colorist, but normally they're old lab rats that'll run the vectorscope as an approach to a night landing, basically.

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cheapest place I've found period is BonoLabs. They'll telecine your

16mm film to HD various forms and I've seen the footage first hand

and it looks good! It's a little cheaper because they only charge

for 'run time', not minimum charges like most posthouses do.

 

right now, I'm getting 500ft. transferred to HD on a hard drive in

QT or AVI....for about $280

www.bonolabs.com

 

I've done several HD transfers with Bonolabs. The files are of course HUGE, the cool thing is you can pull stills that look great since is a non-interlaced format and all the information to work with is great for post.

 

The downside is, you better be really good with your color correction on your editing software since they simply do the most neutral transfer possible.

 

For me, I'd much rather have a colorist fix color issues in the telecine process since the tools are so much more powerful than what's available in Avid or Final Cut. A talented colorist can make a WORLD of difference.

 

 

 

In telecine, you kind of always get what you pay for. Even with a s**t-hot machine and 2K Da Vinci it can turn out terrible unless the guy is any good. I suppose you could get luckky and get an undiscovered whiz-kid colorist, but normally they're old lab rats that'll run the vectorscope as an approach to a night landing, basically.

I 2nd this, and this describes Bonolabs. It may be a great approach for some people, just not for me.

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I think it all really boils down to what your footage is for!....

 

like me, I do mostly music videos...so I'm WANTING to

 

colorize myself for my own scene reasons and having

 

someone color it for me is a waste of my money. I just

 

want the raw footage.

 

But, if you're doing a film or documentary or commercial

 

for instance...maybe those-for the most part- need to

 

stay colored properly, then you'll gain results by letting

 

the telecine house use their powerful tools.

 

In the end, as long as you're a good colorist, spending

 

much more money on them to color it for you isn't

 

noticed enough in the final render. And you can save

 

a ton of money by just doing it yourself. Unless, you've

 

never done it before...then let them do it..and spend

 

the money.

 

good luck

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  • 3 months later...
At SpyPost here in San Francisco it's about $470 p/hr for an HD transfer, and their demo reel on their website is pretty convincing quality wise. I'd go with them anyday.

 

 

There are many places in LA that will do an HD transfer for less then 470/hr, many of them are pretty good also. A place called CCI will do it for 325/hr. I've done a dv transfer through them for 225/hr and they were very good. LaserPacific is also a great place to go, not sure on their rates though. in regards to the 175/hr. there is a place called "Magic" something that gives student rates of 150/hr. I have seen crap work come from there, whites are a pinkish hue, colors are all off. terrible. BUT i have also seen good work come from there. There is one colorist in particular that one person I know swears by. Good rates and a good colorist. Then again, i, personally, wouldnt risk it. I'd pay the 75/hr more and go to CCI with someone i trust. Its up to you.

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There are many places in LA that will do an HD transfer for less then 470/hr, many of them are pretty good also. A place called CCI will do it for 325/hr. I've done a dv transfer through them for 225/hr and they were very good. LaserPacific is also a great place to go, not sure on their rates though. in regards to the 175/hr. there is a place called "Magic" something that gives student rates of 150/hr. I have seen crap work come from there, whites are a pinkish hue, colors are all off. terrible. BUT i have also seen good work come from there. There is one colorist in particular that one person I know swears by. Good rates and a good colorist. Then again, i, personally, wouldnt risk it. I'd pay the 75/hr more and go to CCI with someone i trust. Its up to you.

 

The place is in Burbank, It's Magic Film & Video Works, ive seen good stuff and bad stuff come out of their myself. I think the colorist you refer to is Brian Leon, he's a good guy, i worked with him on a 16mm short i shot. Although i dont want to judge him off of that one experience but he was quick, he took direction well and seemed to know his stuff.

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