16mm telecine options

[Jason Debus]

I'm going to be doing my first 16mm telecine and I'd like some advice on what exactly I need to ask for. It's only about 200 feet of 7285. I know there are many 16mm to Mini-DV options out there, but I would like a couple of things in addition to the 16mm to Mini-DV that not all labs can handle:

 

1. Hi res stills of all of the frames, 2K if possible. Should I skip the Mini-DV and just ask for DPX files? I use Adobe Premiere Pro for editing which I'm pretty sure can handle still sequences. I'm thinking this would be a direct to hard-drive option?

 

2. Backup - Should I ask for a tape based intermediate so I can have a backup?

 

Also if anyone has any suggestions on post houses around LA that are student friendly. I'm planning on calling Entertainment Post & Able Cine Tech, but I'm still not sure what I need to be asking for.

 

Thanks for any advice!

[ross e lea]

depends on what your project is for.

 

 

But the minimum acceptable standard is a transfer to Digibeta tape, then just ask for the footage to be digitized to a hard drive as Uncompressed .avi or .mov (whichever format you prefer)

 

if you want good quality after color correction and other post work....DV formats are not an option unless you go with DVC Pro50.....either way...you're going to have to transfer (digitize) from

 

a tape source regardless.

[Chris Burke]

I'm going to be doing my first 16mm telecine and I'd like some advice on what exactly I need to ask for. It's only about 200 feet of 7285. I know there are many 16mm to Mini-DV options out there, but I would like a couple of things in addition to the 16mm to Mini-DV that not all labs can handle:

 

1. Hi res stills of all of the frames, 2K if possible. Should I skip the Mini-DV and just ask for DPX files? I use Adobe Premiere Pro for editing which I'm pretty sure can handle still sequences. I'm thinking this would be a direct to hard-drive option?

 

2. Backup - Should I ask for a tape based intermediate so I can have a backup?

 

Also if anyone has any suggestions on post houses around LA that are student friendly. I'm planning on calling Entertainment Post & Able Cine Tech, but I'm still not sure what I need to be asking for.

 

Thanks for any advice!

 

 

 

Yes, for such a small amount of film, and if you can afford it. Get DPX 2k files on a hard drive. About 5 minutes of film will run you less than 90 gigs as 2k files. Why not do that if you can afford it and your system can handle it. Be sure to shoot a framing chart and at least a gray card for the scanning session. For such little storage space, you do triple redundancy back ups, with one or more of the back ups being off site.

 

In terms of price, who knows, some place's book rate could be rather pricey, but for 200' of film, you might get it squeezed in at the tale end of a session for small money. To keep the cost down and maximize results, it is very important to have that framing chart and gray scale. Of course, your in camera exposure has to be right on as well.

 

chris

[Jason Debus]

Thanks for the replies. I ended up doing a mini-DV transfer at Yale Film Labs in Burbank where I got the film developed. They have a Rank Cintel with Da Vinci color corrector and a supervised transfer was no extra cost. I was pleased with the results but would have liked a 2K scan with DPX files.

 

I never did find somewhere that would do a 2K scan for students with a small amount of film like this. I'm sure there's got to be some lab in LA that would do it but I haven't found it yet, so if anyone knows of one let me know. It would feel wierd to send it off to a place like Bonolabs when there's so many labs here.

[Mark Dunn]

What about film?

You know, workprints, Steenbeck, splicer, all that sort of thing. Look at the prices before you decide.