For the Pro shooters - where do you telecine?

Post by **woods01** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 9:51 pm

I've been satisfied with my DIY camera and projector telecine. But for those
of you that have been shooting S8 for a client or other professional situation,
where do you get your transfer done? Are you all using workprinters or
one of the pro rank transfer companies?

Post by **Dre** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 10:49 pm

The best place for super 8 transfer in my opinion is Flying spot film transfer. Have look at their super8 demo. They also just put a new super 8 clip on their site. Amazing!

Post by **Nigel** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 12:29 am

I think it depends on time, effort, and budget.

CinePost in Atlanta does a great job and they put the customer at the center of their work. If you are going to DigiBeta then you really don't gain all that much from a Shadow. CinePost's machine will handle DigiBeta just fine and they are half the price.

http://www.posthouse.com

FSFT does some great work and they have a nice machine. However, unless you are going to HD they may not give you anything that you otherwise could get for half the price.

99% of the people on this board I suspect are going to MiniDV...So are you going to spend 300+ per hour for a MiniDV quality image or 150??

The 16 and 35 I shoot gets transfered at other places.

Good Luck

Post by **Paul L.** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 5:28 am

I'm no pro, but Flying Spot does excellent work. I've been very impressed with their transfers, having done about eight rolls with them.

Post by **Nigel** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 6:24 am

It's a matter of customer service and value.

When I know that I am getting a timed Xfer based on my notes and conversation for a great rate then it is good Xfer.

When I feel like they are putting my shots on the back burner or between other work then it doesn't seem like a good Xfer.

CinePost puts their Super8 clients at the center of their work and they give great results for half the price. FSFT has a great thing going with HD however--Who here is putting their S8 on HD?? If youu are then you should be looking at shooting S16 or 35.

Good Luck

Post by **shralp** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 7:38 pm

I'm putting my S8 on HD......

I've done over 30 rolls of it at Flying Spot and I've got another 35 rolls, (Vision2 200T) to shoot for a client over the next 3 weeks. We don't want to shoot 16 or 35. Its not the look we're after for this particular project
-Eric

Post by **Dre** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 10:19 pm

Nigel wrote: FSFT has a great thing going with HD however--Who here is putting their S8 on HD?? If youu are then you should be looking at shooting S16 or 35.

Well, I do. :? ThatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a strange comment. I want to get the most out of my super 8 film. I think their prices are reasonable for the high quality work they do.

Post by **steve hyde** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 10:40 pm

....I've seen a lot of back and forth on the HD - S8 question on this board. I have yet to hear anyone make an evidence-based argument that making an S8 xfer to HD offers any bennefit over DigiBeta at all...

Eric Rosen, the colorist at FSFT told me himself, based on tests he conducted that there isn't any good reason to xfer S8 to HD since DigiBeta can handle all of the color information on an S8 negative...

Why put one pound of flour in a ten pound sack, when a one pound sack will do the job??........and an HD xfer costs +100.00 USD at FSFT....

Steve

Alex · Post by **Alex** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 10:56 pm

I think Film and Video Transfers has hit the top of the charts.

A really wise move by the rest of the Super-8 Rank places would be to each put up ten grand, come up with a hundred grand in total, and bribe Film and Video transfers on everything they know about ranking Super-8.

I know the owner and he started with 35mm and 16mm ranking, and then took all of that knowledge and ADDED TO IT when he got involved with Super-8. I think it's been three years now that they have offered Super-8 rank and the quality has just gotten steadily better.

I think they've really reached the pinnacle of quality now.

Other places make an initial investment in Ranking Super-8, are told that's the best it can look by the engineers, and then they accept that.

But Super-8 is actually HARDER to rank than 16mm or 35mm, and it takes lots and lots of research to really get it right.

Post by **shralp** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 11:17 pm

Guys,
The reason that I'm getting this Vision2 xfered to HD is because I'm shooting it for a Hi Def network, (Rush HD)....

Make sense now?

As for various Xfer houses putting together tens of thousands of dollars to bribe a supposed "holy grail" super 8 transfer facility, Oh I get it...like humor... but different.

Alex · Post by **Alex** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 11:51 pm

No, the owner has been at it for over 25 years, has 10 years of rank experience, and most importantly, handles each and every upgrade himself.

Many will rave about the new chotzke put out by microsoft, but mention you think someone has climbed a mountain and it's met with disdain.

Post by **GeneratriX** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 12:22 am

shralp wrote:Guys,
The reason that I'm getting this Vision2 xfered to HD is because I'm shooting it for a Hi Def network, (Rush HD)....

Hello Shralp;

I know that it could be difficult for you, because netwoks frequently are coyrighting their shoots; but...

could you post at least a really short Super8 clip (an HD transferred one) for us?

I'm trying to arrange a database of clips, condensing transfer method, film stock used, camera, light conditions, etc., and I could be very interested to see results on HD.

Even a REALLY short clip can do the job form me (three seconds of uncompressed stuff), and I have broadband, so, no problems for d/l.

Thanks in advance!
Cheers! ;)

Post by **steve hyde** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 12:54 am

shralp wrote:Guys,
The reason that I'm getting this Vision2 xfered to HD is because I'm shooting it for a Hi Def network, (Rush HD)....

Make sense now?

As for various Xfer houses putting together tens of thousands of dollars to bribe a supposed "holy grail" super 8 transfer facility, Oh I get it...like humor... but different.

Eric,

I hear you. Give the network what the network wants. But this thread was started by woods01 who might be funding his own projects. There are dozens of methods for putting S8 on tape. Choosing a method that fits the project requires talking to people who are doing it (like all of us)

With that in mind, look at the LIGHT OF EONS thread... Why transfer B&W to HD? ( I think they did it this way because they had an *IN* at a post house) These guys shot 125 carts of Tri-X. If you took those 125 carts to FSFT for xfer to HD you would spend 7K on tape and xfer (at the list price) If you went to Cinepost in Atlanta you would spend about 2.5K for DigiBeta. (list price)

Personally, I'm beginning to wonder why people shooting 8mm are abandoning a Beta SP workflow. A portable BetaSP deck can be had on Ebay for 2.5K. Do a Beta SP online in your own studio and connect your BetaSP deck to a Video projector and your film festival ready...

So the question at hand is when does the law of diminishing returns kick in?

I should also say, I use FSFT for DigiBeta /DVcam simul record transfers and I'm happy with the results. (to answer the original question) I should also say that I'm not a "professional" I'm a student filmmaker with a long list of unanswered questions.....

Cheers,

Steve

Post by **companyofquail** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 1:05 am

Alex,

Could you please post a link?

Alex · Post by **Alex** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 1:46 am

steve hyde wrote:
shralp wrote:Guys,
The reason that I'm getting this Vision2 xfered to HD is because I'm shooting it for a Hi Def network, (Rush HD)....

Make sense now?

As for various Xfer houses putting together tens of thousands of dollars to bribe a supposed "holy grail" super 8 transfer facility, Oh I get it...like humor... but different.

Eric,

Personally, I'm beginning to wonder why people shooting 8mm are abandoning a Beta SP workflow. A portable BetaSP deck can be had on Ebay for 2.5K. Do a Beta SP online in your own studio and connect your BetaSP deck to a Video projector and your film festival

Steve

Hi Steve, I agree a hundred million percent. BetaCam SP is the most incredible bargain going around these days. I bought a UVW-1600 on Ebay for a thousand bucks. I'll probably return it because the last two numbers of the serial number were the victim of what looks like a scraping that affected other various parts of the back of the deck, but I don't want to own equipment with missing serial numbers.

The BetaCam SP deck is actually in really good shape. You can probably pick up a player and recorder for around 6K total.

Sounds like a lot but the resale value should hold and your actual investment will be closer to 20% of the your initial cost.

The decks are broadcast quality and are frame accurate. When the Betacam Sp master is completed, Simply go to a Digibeta facility, put the BetaCam SP edit master in a DigitBeta Deck and make a digital to digital
copy onto an actual Digi Beta Tape.

From then on all copies of importance are made from the DigiBeta Master.

If your movie doesn't need compositing effects, NLE only becomes necessary for the audio only.

Filmshooting

For the Pro shooters - where do you telecine?

For the Pro shooters - where do you telecine?

Super8mm -> HD