[Konvas] 2 perf labs .....

[Adam Frey]

Every once in a while we discuss the crazy ideas of telecine 
alternatives. Now may be a good time to talk about those crazy ideas 
once more, especially for people like Olivier, who live a little too far 
from proper telecine facilities.

Just so that I don't sound like a crazy person, let me just say that 
this would most likely ONLY be a good alternative for very small 
projects - like a 15 to 30 second commercials. With that said, it may be 
faster (or cheaper, or easier) for someone to buy a digital scanner and 
go about scanning at home. For a 30 second, 10:1 ratio, commercial 
shoot, we're talking, roughly, about 7200 frames.

For the mid-to-high end scanners (like the new Super Coolscan 5000 - 
which will be selling for around $1100 US), they can do about 20 seconds 
per scan and can also do roll film (but apparently limited to 40 
successive images). Which means that if you're not worried about keeping 
your film as an archived negative roll, then you can cut it, digitize 
it, and chuck it. 40 frames at 20 seconds each is going to be, roughly, 
14 minutes per 40 frames (including loading times).

There are other cheaper scanners, but the less they cost, the more time 
they add to the scan or the less their quality will be (btw: scan time, 
quality, price - you can have only two).

Added to that, since the average 35mm Cinema film frame is half the size 
of a 135 Negative (still photography 35mm), then you will be importing 
two frames per scan, which would mean 1/2 as many scans for the same 
amount of frames (in theory, you should be able to cut them apart with a 
program like Photoshop). Of course, 2-perf could do four frames per 
scan, which would mean only 1/4 the amount of scans and 1/4 the time to 
scan them. Thus 2-perf film could be scanning 160 frames every 14 
minutes, which does not sound too shabby.

I know certain additional settings can raise the time (for instance, 
using software like ICE [Image Correction and Enhancement] may 
significantly increase the scan time - might be worth the additional 
time, but then again, it might not). I'm wondering if it would even be 
all that necessary for motion picture, since you only see each frame for 
1/24th of a second - would anyone really notice dust on one frame?

Or, even more, do the big telecine companies use a program like ICE? I 
know I've seen dust on my negative that definitely came from the 
telecine transfer and not from dust that was in my camera (since it was 
white, versus the in-camera dust which would be black, it means the dust 
was there during the telecine transfer and not there during actual 
shooting), which leads me to believe that not many do.

As for price, the scanner would most likely pay for itself by the second 
or third commercial. Let's face it - telecine charges are an expensive 
part of our 35mm process, so this part of the pricetag shouldn't be a 
big issue.

The prices for fast enough computers to do the job and high-enough 
quality scanners are actually affordable enough to purchase them now, so 
could this be an alternative to telecine for smaller projects, or is it 
STILL just a pipe dream?


Adam Frey
Director/Cinematographer
Crimson Chain Productions
http://crimsonchain.com

Crimson Chain Productions
PO Box 35
Libertytown, MD 21762