D.I. mixing 35mm with RED footage a problem?

[cineguy]

I have created a short film at just about under 20 minutes long, and will be taking it to a digital intermediate for basic coloring and then taking it out to HDV tape for showing.

 

I would say that 90% of the film is 35mm while 10% has been shot on the RED for some special sequences.

 

Therefore if I have one full day in the D.I., about 8 hours, then does anyone see this as a problem as far as conforming, coloring, both the 35mm and RED footage together?

 

Too short of D.I. time? Any foreseeable problems with mixing these two formats?

 

Any thoughts would be helpful because this will be the first time I have dealt with a Digital Intermediate and the RED footage.

 

Thank you.

[David Mullen ASC]

First of all, you need to register for this forum under a real first and last name. You can go to My Controls and change your User Name to that.

 

Anyway, I think an 8-hour session should be fine for a 20 minute movie. The 35mm and Red should intercut fine, especially if the end product is only HDV tape.

 

Technically, "digital intermediate" used to mean "film-to-digital-to-film" for taking a project shot on film through a digital stage (scanning, conforming, color-correction) before recording it back to film again -- as opposed to a traditional photochemical finish to print. Though now the term has been greatly extended to include digitally-shot material at one end... and digital cinema projection at the other.

 

But what you are describing is more of a traditional transfer and color-correction for video distribution.

[Elliot Rudmann]

Any good post production house should be able to mix together those formats (35mm+RED) with no problem. Depending on what color correction system they're using, they should be able to "map in" different resolutions (of the RED r3d files and the 35mm dpx scans) so they mix together in what will be your final output resolution (HD, 2k, or 4k).

 

8 hours should be plenty. Are you sure you're going to HDV tape and not HDCam or HDCam SR? I ask because you'll lose a lot of quality if you only go to an HDV source. Unless of course that's your only option with which to screen your film. Either way I'd strongly advise you get a higher quality master of your film.

Edited May 27, 2010 by Elliot Rudmann