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UK Film Labs 2013


Guest Stephen Murphy

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Guest Stephen Murphy

So with Technicolor having effectively closed its lab I need to find another lab in the UK to faciliate a couple of jobs i have coming up over the next few months.

From what i understand Bucks and I-dailies are the last two labs processing 35mm negative, with Bucks apparently having recently invested in new machinery.

 

I know I-dailies handled Tinker Tailor and a few other recent jobs, and the one brief experience i had with them was fine, bt im also aware that Bucks has the Kodak Imagecare standard and they've been around for quite some time, so im really hoping to hear from anyone who has had any recent experiences with either lab, good or bad?

 

Message me offlist if thats more appropriate.

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I just sent some film for processing to Technicolor and spoke to them, they didn't say their labs are closed or do they send them to another lab?

 

P

 

<This Link> states they're planning to fully close the lab by the end of May. So not closed yet, but imminent.

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Guest Stephen Murphy

So after spending the day speaking to dozens of DP's and vendors the general consensus seems to be that iDailies gives the best service. Ill find out soon enough I guess.

 

Re. Technicolor - I have a job going through them shooting 35mm, and even though we would have finished all our processing well before their closing date they're still not able to facilitate the front end dailies. At this point they can't even confirm if they'll even be able to scan the neg even if we process elsewhere. I suspect the may 31st date is just to facilitate finishing existing jobs.

 

I should also mention that I've heard from several people the rumour that deluxe may reopen the uk lab. I really hope that's the case.

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I dallies is also the lab I've been most impressed with of the surviving labs in this country.

They have also just invested in new equipment so are clearly commited to film.

 

I'm with Rob on this that at this point it's better to support the smaller labs who are actually interested in your business.

 

iDallies also don't seem to suffer so badly from the "wardour thing" and are able to deal with such revolutionary ideas as email.

 

I question also how much the ImageCare standard isn't just one of those things like ISO900. Just a lot of meaningless paperwork and promises.

 

Hope it works out whatever you decide. It's all so fast moving right now.

 

So are you shooting a new film Stephen?!! :)

 

Freya

Edited by Freya Black
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Guest Stephen Murphy

I recommend Bucks. Our producer liaised with Keith who offered a great service for a recent 2-perf project. It was essentially test footage but they did a great job and, in this case, had no issues handling 2-perf whatsoever.

Thanks David thats good to know. How clean was the processed footage? and did you have the neg scanned at Bucks or somewhere else?

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Thanks David thats good to know. How clean was the processed footage? and did you have the neg scanned at Bucks or somewhere else?

Just a tiny speck or two, minimal really, and you have to look very hard to notice. It was a fast turnaround, at short notice, so I'm fairly certain they scanned it.

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Guest Stephen Murphy

Just a tiny speck or two, minimal really, and you have to look very hard to notice. It was a fast turnaround, at short notice, so I'm fairly certain they scanned it.

Thanks again David.

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  • 5 months later...
  • 3 months later...

A quick update on this.

 

It would appear that i-dallies have taken on the staff from the Technicolor lab at Pinewood, so they seem to be fairly serious about pushing for high quality results. They are also doing the processing on the latest movie Chris Doyle is working on here in the UK!

 

 

From 1st August 2013, i-dailies (Park Royal) will be able process 100,000 feet a night with its installation of a second Photomec film processing machine and additional film cleaners.

i-dailies has also obtained the services of the Technicolor negative developing team that was formally based at Technicolor's laboratory at Pinewood studios.

 

 

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

 

Freya

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  • 2 months later...

Spoke to John at idallies yesterday they have a 35mm printer and grading kit in now as well as a B/W developer so looks like they are going to offer a full service print service too on 35mm.

 

I hope they will do the same on 16mm as well.

 

Its good news for me if they will print from cut negs, I most of my cut negatives (16mm and 35mm) go to DeJonghe in Belgium or Tacita Dean's last 35mm A & B cut neg project went to Arri in Germany for printing.

 

Steve@negcut.com

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