film transfer in Australia

[martin]

Hi all

I need to transfer some super8 film I got back from Kodak, but am not sure who to use. So I was wondering if any of you aussies have any recommendations. Preferably Melbourne, but if they're good I'll send it almost anywhere.

cheers
Martin

[Scotness]

Video 8 Broadcast in Aartarmon in Sydney can do it with a Rank Cintel - though it is expensive - I got In My Image done there in 2001 I think it was at $250 per hour - don't know what it would be now. The results are pretty good though - check some of the
stills on my web site for more examples - but here's one




If you don't want that there'll be a few Workprinter's around in the country - I know this bloke at Caboolture has one
http://www.maxrescue.com/
I don't know what kind of camera he uses with it though.\\good luck

Scot

[richard p. t.]

There are really only 3 commercial set ups worth mentioning (asside from the workprinters):
As Scot said, Video 8 Broadcast has the only rank with a super8 gate that is in use (Lemac in Richmond have one, but won't put the super8 gate in!!). They are priced for the proffessional, but they will bargin - ask.
Pro8mm have a 'frame by frame' set up they claim is the best. Its drawback is that it involves a transfer using an 'auto iris' camera. This can cause problems with white objects moving in and out of frame etc.. They are expensive too, but work out a lot cheaper the more you send.
In Melb the only transfer worth talking about is Cineclair Productions in Illowa st Malvern. They use a traditional airial image telecine set up using a gs1200 projector and a sony 3ccd industrial camera. They do good work, but definitely provide a lower grade transfer than the other two. Still worth considering and economical. Don't go to Film Plus for telecine.

[Blin]

I rang DVD Infinity in Crows Nest (Sydney) yesterday to get a quote. They quoted me $55.00 to transfer one 50 foot roll to minidv. I think I'll wait and do a whole bunch at once at Video-8. I've seen some of the other work they've done and it looks good like Scot says and they'll transfer to other formats such as DVCPRO and Digital Betacam.

When I rang Video-8 about a month ago they quoted me $200/hr + $20.00 "set up" fee.

[martin]

Im thinking I might go the professional one, but I'll sus out the prices.

I filmed the first scene to my movie about a month ago, due to the expiration of the kodak lab in Switzerland. Overall I was wrapped when I got them back but sad to see that a few of the roles were a bit dark.

So question 2, should I ask the transfer lab to make the films that are darkm brighter or would I be better off doing this myself once it is in digital format i.e. Adobe premier?

Another annoying thing I got were the blue streaks of death on a couple of my films, though I think it could be the camera because the other camera had no streaks at all.

martin

[martin]

OK

I called Video-8 BroadCast and spoke to a guy named Darren. He didnt seem to helpful but that might be accounted since I was calling at 8:30am.

But like Scot said 250 an hour, minimum is 125 per half hour of setup time. So in reality its about 15mins of footage for $125, and that does include the media.

So I might time my footage and only send what really needs to be telecine.


Martin

[Scotness]

I sent in heaps of footage when we did In My Image and i think they averaged 40 mins transferred per hour.

Scot

[Mr Blackstock]

i get all my work done through film plus of melbourne, i do not know of any reason why they would not be good, i have had good experiences with them. i have a link to where i have some pics on the net. they charge around $90 to transfer 400ft to mini-dv.

they might be the go, also it may be cheaper to lighten or darken using a editing program rather than pushing or pulling, i do not know much about this aspect though.

http://public.fotki.com/caspin-films/

[Patrick]

Out of curiosity, what equipment does Film Plus use for their telecine service?

[richard p. t.]

Film Plus have one of those single chip elmo machines I believe - looks just like a projector but with no lens and no external camera.

[JohnB]

Does anyone know what process DVD Infinity use for their transfers?

I have around 2000 foot of S8 K40 that I want to transfer to digital.

At this stage I am deciding between Video-8 and DVD-Infinity. Video-8 has a Rank, but DVD infinity only say they have a "...proprietry process...the highest quality cinefilm transfer on the planet...".

It would be interesting to see a comparison between the processes of the two vendors.

Cheers,
John B.

[pbrstreetgang]

Does anyone know what process DVD Infinity use for their transfers?

They won't say but I think it's workprinters which is great if that's the case, I've got one on order. What gets me is they claim to be offering the world's best transfers without saying how. Hmmmm :? I wonder how... just a little too pretentious for me

A...

[Plastik]

DVD Infinity told me the same thing when I rang them a couple of years ago. I've never used them. I bought my own Workprinter XP and will be offering the service soon
I'm in the process of setting up the business at the moment.

I will keep you guys up to posted - I'm in the middle of sorting everything out. Still haven't decided on the camera yet.

[JohnB]

On the DVD Infinity web site, they claim to scan each frame "digitally... at above broadcast quality... using... unique technology, software...". They imply that no projector is involved.

This suggests to me that they may be scanning each frame by moving the film across a CCD, then assembling all the scanned images into an AVI file using a program similar to 8mm2avi. In theory this should work very well depending on the CCD, registration etc.

I think I might start by sending one of my shorts (around 200ft) to both Video-8 and DVD-Infinity, and then see which I prefer before I transfer anything else.

I'll post some frames when I have it done (next month some time).

Cheers.
John B

[bakanosaru]

I also found the DVD Infinity website a few weeks back and emailed to see if they would say what method they were actually using and asked if they could transfer negative film (which I hoped would shed some light on the matter if they were only as forthcoming as they are on their site). This is the response I got:

Jacob,

It is called a DVD Infinity scanning system.

Yes. We can handle negative film provided you can provide something to
colour match the colours.

Regards
Bruce Josephs
Director
DVD Infinity
+61 2 9906 6383 office
+61 2 9966 4138 fax
+61 4 1201 6568 mobile
http://www.dvdinfinity.com.au

In the end I decided they looked too flakey, and Scotness told me there was someone in NZ with a workprinter, who I'm going to use instead.