I am a student filmmaker and was thinking about shooting a short film all on 16mm BW film and having all of it digitally transferred so I could edit it on Final Cut Pro later. I've never done this before and wanted to know potetntial problems, perks, etc. For a 5 minute film, how much should something like this cost, assuming a 4-1 shooting ratio?
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Shooting film and editing digitally
- Thread starter SDBenassi
- Start date
Once it's on digital, then it's just like any other digital footage and you edit it as such. As long as you're not going back to conform back to film, then no worries.
As for costs, you'll have to ask around about current raw stock and lab rates. Raw stock and processing are priced by the foot or roll, and transferring to digital is priced by the hour.
As for costs, you'll have to ask around about current raw stock and lab rates. Raw stock and processing are priced by the foot or roll, and transferring to digital is priced by the hour.
I think 16mm film is running about $200 give or take for a 400' roll (which is about 10 minutes). Then there is processing (developing the negative and printing the positive, unless you shoot reversal stock) which is another cost you have to factor in. And finally like the other post said telecine is charged by the hour. You can get a one light transfer done (no color correction) which is going to be your cheapest route or do a color graded transfer (color correction is done). I think a good ballpark estimate is one light transfers run at about a 2:1 telecine to runtime rate and color graded at about 3-4:1. And as far as cost about $200-250 an hour I think. For a 5 minute film on 16mm I'd expect to pay probably $1000, maybe more maybe less, but I think that's a pretty good rough estimate. It all depends on your shooting ratio, what type of telecine you do and how much time you spend on color correction. Hope that helps.
Potential problems = none really, unless you consider interlacing a problem (interlacing will occur when they transfer the 24fps to 30fps for video and apply the 3:2 pulldown). But I recently read that some DVD players can deinterlace and play progressively, which is super awesome if its true.
Perks = you shot on film
Shoot on film, its an amazing experience
Perks = you shot on film
Shoot on film, its an amazing experience
I imagine you could avoid interlaced footage at certain telecine houses.. I'm pretty sure it's possible to get a disk full of image sequences for each reel, and any NLE should be able to handle an image sequence. That would let you get a true 24fps progressive image. 