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Film Transfer

Make Way for a Smooth Transition.

Film has always been a top imaging choice for all kind of moviemakers for a good reason. It has wide contrast latitude, excellent color tonal range, and versatility. But a lot can happen to that image between the video tape at the end of a film camera and the video tape at the end of a telecine. The film transfer session is where the wide range image capture abilities of film meet artistic expression. Even though film images sometimes seem magical, there is no magic in how they got that way.  It takes the right technology, hard work and lots of experience.

It Starts In The Camera

So, film is not magic. You may know that already if you have ever had a film shoot turn out poorly. Film represents possibilities, not a sure thing. It is a sophisticated high-technology tool system that the filmmaker must learn how to use. As with all skilled crafts, the basics are very important.

  • Learn about the film. Make sure you are using the right film stock for your situation.
  • Use fresh film, especially if it is high speed. (It might be time to give away all those short ends in the freezer.)
  • Protect the film. Remember, film is sensitive to more of the energy spectrum than just the visible part. This includes heat and x-rays.
  • Use proper exposures. One of the best things about film is its ability to hold image detail in bright things and dark things at the same time. This gives the photographer some margin for error making it possible to save a shot that would be unusable if it were shot in video. However, the only way to consistently get stunning pictures is to use consistently accurate exposure settings; neither too dark, nor too light. (If you think we just said, “Using accurate exposures will get you stunning pictures,” re-read the last sentence. Exposure is one of many things that need to be just right for images to be just right.)

Spirit DataCine to the market, the first ever available to Archive customers.  This sought after technology has significantly improved the gentle film handling and clean, high resolution transfers Archive customers require, especially in HD.  Together with our DaVinci 2K- plus color correctors, the Spirit DataCine is the latest example of our long history of commitment to providing world-class technology and service to the users of archival film.

Film-to-Tape Transfer: The Great Partnership.

Film transfer equipment is complicated, and it takes years to learn how to operate it…years more to learn what makes a great picture…and years more to become an artist. This operator/artist is called a “colorist,” and their one job is to make your pictures look as good as they can. A good partnership between the colorist and the photographer always produces great results. Knowing what to expect in the session helps develop that partnership.

Framing. Framing options are predetermined by what you start with and where you want to end up. For example, if you start with super 16mm (15X9) and you are transferring to HD (16X9) the formats are close enough so the choice is simple: 16X9 with a slight crop on the top or bottom. If you have regular 16mm going to SD both are 4X3 so no problem. If you are mixing 4X3 and 16X9 it gets a little tricky but usually 16X9 to SD goes anamorphic (sides squeezed in) or letterbox (bars top and bottom). 4X3 to HD usually goes fat (sides stretched out) or pillarbox (side bars).

Grain. The new film stocks have very little grain, so this is not a problem like it used to be. But sometimes film is grainy so we have tools to remove it.

Formats. You will need to know what tape formats you need. Digital Betacam is among one of the best formats for final conforming in Standard Definition (SD). For High Definition (HD), we suggest either D5 or HDCam-SR. A step down in price and quality would be Betacam SP or DV for SD and DVCPRO-100 for High Definition. 

Metadata. Video time code, film keycode, audio time code and other information can be recorded invisibly on the tape or burned into the picture to aid logging or archiving. This is the kind of thing that should be worked out at a meeting before the session.

Mix It Up!

It is inevitable that one day you will have to use film and video together in the same project. If cutting between them seems jarring, there are a few things we can do to minimize it.
Color Correction. Matching the color, contrast and sharpness between video and film will help the edits flow better, but it’s usually not enough for a perfect match.

Conversion. The most noticeable difference between 30-frame video and 24-frame film is the way motion looks. With 24-frame film, extra frames are added to get to the 30 frames that video needs. This gives motion a non-smooth look that does not blend well with the smoother motion of 30-frame video. Our Snell & Wilcox Ukon universal format converter has many fantastic features; one is the ability to convert the motion of video to look like the motion of film, and it works very well.

Standards Conversions.

At Henninger, standards conversions (converting from NTSC to PAL and vice versa) are a daily task for our highly trained Duplication staff. Our Alchemist Ph.C-HD provides a smooth, motion-compensated conversion for both standard and high definition material. Our main goal when executing your program dub conversions is to ensure that your show is broadcast-ready when it ships either domestically or internationally. That means getting your program to hit on the hour mark and making sure your video and audio are within legal broadcast limits. With conversions, we recommend legalization of your video, which is also a feature in our Alchemist Ph.C-HD. We dub a wide variety HD tape formats, from HDV up to HDCAM-SR. So really, no matter where you start, we can get your program to the standard and tape format you need it in. Here, high definition needs no definition. The difference between the Ukon and the Alchemist is that the Ukon is a linear frame convert process and the Alchemist is a motion compensated frame convert process.

Frame blur. Because each film frame is exposed for a slightly longer time than a video frame, there is a bit more motion blur on each individual film frame. The Ukon universal format converter provides a very useful feature and allows us to slightly blur video frames to look like film frames.

Slow motion. If you cannot use the Ukon to convert your video, sometimes just slowing down the speed of the video a little will change the motion enough to make it blend better.