negative conforming

[J.M. O'Malley]

Does anybody have experience with conforming their own negative? Is it realistic for someone to learn how to do this? I have seen places around town which rent out editing suites.

[Kevin Zanit]

I suppose you could do it if you had big enough balls/ patience.

 

If you are working in 16 it would be a lot easier to get a hold of the splicing blocks, etc, etc.

 

I would highly NOT recommend doing this. You run the very likely risk of destroying your negative, not to mention scratching and getting it dirty.

 

Doing the negative conform is a pretty tricky process and should only be done by someone who really knows what they are doing.

 

You not only have to carefully handle your original negative, but make your cuts exactly conformed to the EDL. This sounds simple, but when you are in there dealing with your film it is not. Then you will need to break your stuff down into A and B rolls, so you are also splicing black leader into your project while being perfect with your EDL (this assumes you plan to do A & B rolls).

 

There is more to it than this, but hopefully this will sufficiently scare you away :blink:

 

That said, if you are pretty experienced cutting film, and the savings is worth it for you, by all means go for it. Just beware of what an error will entail for your project.

 

 

Kevin Zanit

[Justin Hayward]

It was required for your first 16mm film when I attended Southern Illinois University in 2000-01.

 

If you?re provided the tools and accessories, it's possible?but I don?t recommend it. A mistake in cutting is irreversible.

[John Pytlak RIP]

As others have said, it can be a good learning tool. But leave anything valuable in the hands of an experienced cutter.

 

The ACVL Handbook specifies cutting procedures:

 

http://www.acvl.org/handbook/chap3.htm

[Sam Wells]

You can learn it (anyone who does it had to, right ?) but practice practice practice on non-critical stuff (absolutely ng outtakes etc).

 

Negative is especially tricky. I'd be cautious to recomend DIY here if you have no previous experience and you have a project you really care about (hopefully you do).

 

An "editing suite" may not be a clean enough environment..

 

-Sam

[Dirk DeJonghe]

I think professional negative cutters are some of the least appreciated jobs in the industry with a very high responsibility.

 

I know that producers pay more per hour for labor to get their kitchen painted than to cut their precious negative that may be worth ten times their entire house.

 

It is a job with no glory if all goes well but with plenty of room for errors if it doesn't.

[L K Keerthi Basu]

It is appreciated to learn as a student but not as a professional. I think that you know the importance of the negative. As others said 16mm negative cutting is really a headache,only experience professionals are recommended for this work.

 

L.K.Keerthibasu

[Marty Hamrick]

Does anybody have experience with conforming their own negative? Is it realistic for someone to learn how to do this? I have seen places around town which rent out editing suites.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I conformed my own negative for about five years.I'm not counting the news film I shot and cut or any other projects where the original was cut and projected.My first job out of high scholl was negative cutter in a 16mm lab.When I started doing freelance projects,I already had experience cutting other people's neg and I access to cutting tables.I was already comfortable with it.When the lab bellied up,my business partner and I built a clean cutting table with a continous airflow and dust guard systems and I continued to cut my own and a select few side client's neg.I stopped around 1984 as most of the projects we were doing by then were video.