Analog Video Workflow for a DI

[Eduardo Mayen]

I'm shooting a film in various formats: surveillance cameras, vhs, mini dv etc. Anyone have any experience in what kind of workflow i need to have to eventually go to a 35mm print from a DI? more especifically how do i create an online master? should it all come from my computer after it's been digitized at high res?

[Alain J Francois]

I'm shooting a film in various formats: surveillance cameras, vhs, mini dv etc. Anyone have any experience in what kind of workflow i need to have to eventually go to a 35mm print from a DI? more especifically how do i create an online master? should it all come from my computer after it's been digitized at high res?

Hi, I have just had to quote on a job to go to a 35mm print from DI.

Once you have processed your negative, you will need to go to a post production facility and request a 'Technical best light', which should translate to an HD Cam SR copy. (this is a high res 4:4:4 copy). From this you will need a copy on DV cam or other format that will allow you to edit. Once you have locked off your edit, gather your EDLS and go back to the post production house where they will then produce a DI from your HD Cam SR copy. Then it's just a question of doing the 35mm print. Hope that helps and I hope i haven't left anything out.

Cheers, Alain.

[John Brawley]

I'm shooting a film in various formats: surveillance cameras, vhs, mini dv etc. Anyone have any experience in what kind of workflow i need to have to eventually go to a 35mm print from a DI? more especifically how do i create an online master? should it all come from my computer after it's been digitized at high res?

 

 

I shot a film called Lake Mungo that used more than 40 different cameras from mobile phones all the way up to 35mm.

 

The easiest thing to do is to convert everything to the framerate you want to edit at. We actually wanted everything to go into an older AVID the editor wanted to use because he wanted to cut at 24FPS.

 

The easiest thing to do was to DUB everything to HDCAM @24FPS. He could then digitise from the HDCAM tape and offline the film at 24 FPS and we knew that there would always be an easy matchback. I also created a lot of the effects which were meant to be old copies of VHS footage. I'd dub a VHS tape through 10 or more generations and then *handle* the tape to make sure i had plenty of dropouts. These shots were then re-captured AFTER we did the online and eye matched back in. But it was the only way we could get the degraded effect we wanted.

 

Once the film was re-conformed with what were essentially VFX shots, it was very simple to then create a DPX sequence that could be graded and then printed off to 35mm.

 

So I'd say you should make sure you have the right destination frame rate (presumably 24 FPS for cinema) and then you should be fine.

 

jb