Bad experiences with Pro8mm

Freya Black · July 28, 2012

Thanks for the link, it's good to know i-lab is still doing their thing!

I should point out, it's not ilab. Ilab got bought out by reliance and was completely shut down. This is some ex-people from Ilab starting a new lab.

It'll be interesting to see to what extent they will be able to support super8. I sat in on a big super8 archive telecine there a few years ago; the operator said they needed to rent a super8 gate at great expense as the lab didn't own one themselves.

Well as I say it's not actually ilab so maybe the new lab does have a S8 gate. Who knows!

P.s As crap as Stanly's can no doubt be I must admit I'm quite fond of their weird '1970's Post Office' decor :lol:

Ha hah! Yes 70's Post Office might be another way to describe it. Definitely an air of brown bureaucracy. Very Brazil.

love

Freya

Freya Black · July 28, 2012

That's interesting, their lab services page states they process all formats including 35mm, std16mm, S16mm and s8mm. They also state that all film processed is transferred using their Spirit Datacine... so it sounds as if there is a super-8 facility in London again, possibly even with a Spirit Tk!

Wow! Well spotted Ian! Have to point out tho that it is a dallies service and to the best of my knowledge they ONLY do one light transfers. I actually just contacted them about processing originally but it kinda became clear they were only interested in selling it me with telecine. Of course telecine is a much more complicated proposition so they started to lose interest when I started to question them about things. For me it's not so great as I want the film processed but I don't just want a one light, I want a proper grade, so I'd probably end up having to pay for telecine there I would never use!

So maybe they can do a scene to scene but I wasn't able to find out.

Anyway it's interesting at the very least!!

love

Freya

Andries Molenaar · July 28, 2012

On filmshooting.com two persons from UK have stated they have a small-scale labservice running. One is the grainy user and the other pj.

Grainy is also active on ebay and sells S8 films and equipment too. Pj hardly posts after milking all information.

So quite easy you could have the filns processed and scanned somewhere else.

Good luck.

Pavan Deep · July 29, 2012

Hi

What do you mean by "Pj hardly posts after milking all information."?

It's a bit negative! If you mean by learning and trying to understand the whole nature of processing and scanning Super 8 from these forums, well these forums are very, very helpful, but to do things right and to really understand you have to do more research, ask people, read and experiment, which all takes time, there's nothing wrong with that. Many people from these forums have helped and I have travelled across Europe to see some of these people for advice and guidance, I've been grateful to them. Setting up a Super 8 lab has been very difficult especially for a very small market. I am a lecturer and don't always have time to come and post, but I always share ideas and information when someone emails me and asks me somethiing I always respond and try to give as much useful information, when someone posts a queery on forums I respond if I can help. I really don't understand your 'issue'. I operate a small lab which I originally started for own students. I just don't have a lot of time to enter into the many great debates and discussions here.

P

Matt Stevens · July 31, 2012

Is anyone really surprised by this? I have talked to a number of people who were royally screwed by Pro8mm.

Pro8 caters to the rich Hollywood set. Everyone else is meaningless to them. They screw you over and you complain... Whatever. They couldn't care less. It's just the way it is it seems.

They did a decent job for me when I used them earlier this year, but they sent me a transfer in a codec not usable on a PC. Despite all my explanations to them on what works for me, they still messed up and I had to take my footage to someone with a MAC to convert it for my use. That was extraordinarily cumbersome to finishing the job.

Alessandro Machi · August 12, 2012

Is Phil Vigeant aware of this?

Personally, I wouldn't write-off Pro8mm even though these are terribly unfortunate and avoidable circumstances.

Best thing is to realise the importance of attending the actual scanning session.

In the case of Pro8mm it's unfortunate you didn't have a representative, somebody like Phil Vigeant himself to ensure absolute satisfaction, especially considering the first encounter.

Would be interesting if there was a way to have lab transfer reps that were actual outsiders with a vested interest. What if people from this site offered to rep a transfer done for a filmmaker from another part of the world? Could be problematical I suppose.

Richard Horn · August 31, 2012

The Deluxe bit is still there but even they outsource all the processing to essex or somewhere apparently. No London processing from them. I think soho images is still around too but now they just do telecine and will send you to deluxe for processing.

Yes but Stanleys are dodgy as hell as you must have worked out if you actually went into the "shop". Kinda time machine thing. Outside looks like a big shop, inside there is a small area for the customer to walk in and all these people and 70's looking furniture. Brown is the theme. Completely bizzare place. Kind of a cross between the movie Brazil, a warehouse, and something else I can't put my finger on right now.

I stood there while a guy was supposed to give me a quote. Giving me a quote involved ringing someone else up who wasn't really interested in giving a quote. I'm stood there while he is on hold for ages. A guy comes in and explains that he just bought a 100ft roll of Kodak film there but the seal is already broken on it. The guy I'm dealing with explains that it's probably just fine anyway. The customer then explains that it makes him feel uncomfortable as he can't be sure what has happened to it, eventually he has to point out that he would really like a replacement. This involves calling up someone else to go fetch a replacement. A replacement eventually comes with this guy from where-ever all the stuff is stored. Quite rightly the customer looks slightly narked that he has had to push so hard for a replacement but he has one and is happy and goes away. The guy I'm supposed to be dealing with then has a conversation with the guy from the other department as the other guy is a bit like "well what am I supposed to do with this" "just sell it to someone else" "but no-one is going to want this are they" my guy makes it clear it's not his problem.

Eventually my man at stanleys admits he isn't going to be able to give me a quote but he can phone me up with one. I suggest he can email me. I seems very reluctant at this idea. I give him my phone number and email and he seems happy. I leave after a very interesting experience.

I'd be careful about using Stanleys for the processing but on the upside they don't actually do it themselves! ;)

That might be because I made the name up! lol!

They are actually called i-dallies:

http://www.i-dailies.co.uk/

iRushes would probably cause too much confusion and might even get them sued! ;)

From what I can tell, it's an all in one service with processing and a one light direct to hard disk on their spirit. That's not clear from their website but that seems to be how it works. I think that's why they are called i-dailies because that is the concept.

love

Freya

Hi Freya, I just came across this when I was browsing the site today.

Your post made me laugh because…. I was that customer!

Its a funny experience having it told from a third party point of view. I always try to be polite, however there was no way I was going to go away with a roll that might have been opened. I know all about Stanleys from years of experience, but I didn't have any choice as I needed some stock for the next day.

It had to be a slow daylight stock and it had to be in 100ft daylight loading rolls for my Bolex RX5.

I always used to get all my stock direct from the motion picture sales team at Kodak in Hemel Hempstead, they delivered it to my door, gave me a great discount, and were a pleasure to deal with. All that changed a few months ago, now they say they will only sell to companies and only for orders of £1,000 plus.

Of course there is Fuji, around the corner from Stanleys in Soho Square, but I had already been there on that day and they were all out of their 64D in 100ft rolls and the next shipment from Japan wasn't due for a month. And while I have used the 64D and it is a great stock, it is very different from 7203.

So, does anyone have any recommendations of where to get 100ft rolls of Kodak 7203 from? In London there is the Widescreen Centre and Stanleys and I think that is it. Both charge full price, no discount, which is a lot more than Kodak used to charge me.

Such a shame about Kodak, I have been buying stock from them for years and years, going back to the awesome 25ASA 16mm Kodachrome, and then 7245. Even back then everyone was telling me film was dead… never believed it, but now I am starting to wonder when even Kodak are losing interest.

Finally, to be fair to Stanleys, I think it was just that the sealing tab had come open, I don't think the can had been opened, but I didn't want to take the risk as I was filming something that I wouldn't be able to get again.

And in case you were wondering everything I shot with the other cans came out great!

Rick Palidwor · October 2, 2012

Hello,

I am a filmmaker of Super-8mm short films, from the UK, and I'd like to share a few experiences that I've had with Pro8mm.

My first encounter with Pro8mm was in 2010 after winning a jury prize at a festival here in England in 2009. The prize was 4 films from Pro8mm, with developing and HD scanning included. These films, once shot and sent to them, were destroyed by their developing tanks, during a power cut. I had paid $50 in push process fees, as well as almost $150 in postage costs (due to their insistence on using Fedex, despite there being a USPS post office 100 metres from their office). The shooting of these rolls however, cost me an awful lot more.

...

My second encounter with Pro8mm was earlier this year, after winning another Jury prize with the same festival in 2011. On this occasion, I was awarded HD scanning time on their Millenium II scanner. I had to pay $50 in prep and cleaning fees, but that seems reasonable when one considers that the scanning time would have cost over $500. Anyway, in order to avoid the expensive Fedex service, I planned to email Pro8mm a pre-paid USPS label. Apparently the 3 minute walk to the post office was still too much to ask.

...

Funny how so many of the comments veer off into "why send it from UK to LA?" and "find local services" when clearly Naren has alternate and perhaps local services. How else could Naren make award winning films? The only time Naren used Pro8 was when Naren thought he/she had received a "prize".

Alessandro Machi · October 19, 2012

Funny how so many of the comments veer off into "why send it from UK to LA?" and "find local services" when clearly Naren has alternate and perhaps local services. How else could Naren make award winning films? The only time Naren used Pro8 was when Naren thought he/she had received a "prize".

Probably because there was more than one encounter, no?

Andries Molenaar · October 30, 2012

Funny how so many of the comments veer off into "why send it from UK to LA?" and "find local services" when clearly Naren has alternate and perhaps local services. How else could Naren make award winning films? The only time Naren used Pro8 was when Naren thought he/she had received a "prize".

Yep, it you get it given as a price/reward it might work. But at the extra costs and offense you get nobody should choose to use these as free choice.

OP and winner better reports matters to the jury and organisation. Such that find a price which is more of a reward. I.e. a stack of film including processing at a local address.

Edited October 30, 2012 by Andries Molenaar