Transferring Vision 200T at Home (Adobe Premiere plug-in?)

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Sep 17, 2002 4:03 pm

Has anyone thought about or even tried transferring/digitizing Vision 200T at home? The problem, when compared to transfering Kodachrome or other reversal films, is of course that Vision 200T is a negative film stock. Being a negative film stock, it has that pesky orange mask that would need to be removed in order to produce a proper image (in other words, it isn't just a matter of using the "invert" filter in a program like Adobe Premiere). Does anyone know how to create a decent-looking result with a program like Premiere, or is there even some type of plug-in for Premiere that would properly invert the image?

At the same time, does anyone know any details of the process that color correction units (used with telecines) use to digitally invert negative film stock?

Thanks!

Post by **MovieStuff** » Tue Sep 17, 2002 8:30 pm

This subject comes up time to time. There are basically two ways to do it and the results are about the same.

One way requires a camera with manual white balance. Put some unexposed, processed negative in the gate of the projector and white balance to that. This will negate the orange masking and leave you with only negative color. Transfer the footage and then invert in Premier or what ever edit program you are using.

The other way is to transfer the picture with the orange masking and then filter it out in Premier. Here is how you do it. Export a single frame from the timeline that is nothing but orange masking (again, some unexposed processed negative). Rack it out of focus using the gaussian blur filter and invert using the inversion filter. The blur will get rid of any impurities or specs in the frame (if any) as well as any grain (of which there will be alot). Inverting the frame will result in a blue frame that is the exact color opposite of the orange masking.

Export that as a new still frame and stretch it out over the original footage using one of the overlay tracks. Apply the "screen" transparency filter. The blue will negate the orange masking, again leaving you with just negative colors. Export that entire clip as a new movie and place the new clip on the timeline and invert. The result will be a positive image with normal color.

Roger
http://www.moviestuff.tv

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Sep 18, 2002 3:10 am

Thanks for the reply, Roger! Have you ever tried either of these two methods, and if so, does the resulting image look decent, or are there often still probems with the image (contrast, overall tint of the image, etc.)?

Thanks again!

Post by **MovieStuff** » Wed Sep 18, 2002 3:45 am

I've done it both ways. The end results are about the same but using a camera with manual white balance is much easier. In fact, if you have a negative switch on your camera, then that makes it ever easier. Just white balance and then hit the negative switch. If you don't have a negative switch, you can buy a cheap Videonics Video Equalizer which has a negative function. It isn't good enough to record off of but it IS good enough to put between the camera and a video monitor so that you can see a positive image while transfering your negative image to the computer. This is important so that you can set your exposure, which is tricky to do if only looking at a negative image. So the computer is still recording a negative image but you are judging your exposure based on a positive image that you are seeing on a monitor.

Roger