RE: [AV Media Matters] Tape to Film

[russm@idirect.com]

You knew this was coming didn't you Jim?

OK, I can't in good conscience recommend video-film transfers for
preservation (although I like the idea).  Of course the image will
last much longer than it will on a tape but as you say, the original
vision will be lost. Peter Amsden mentions that a bad film image is
better than no video image however, even the cheapest video-film
transfer is more expensive than the most expensive video-video
transfer.  You neglected to mention the fabulous job available from
the National Film Board of Canada (16mm only).  The cost 2 years ago
when I worked there was CDN$75 per MINUTE of runtime.  I arranged
many of them.  If you extended the process to include optical snd
and answerprints the cost for a TV hour was about CDN$6,000.

I can't believe I'm saying this but your money is probably better
put into a trust account and used to migrate the video for the next
dozen years or so until a good video format is invented (sorry, I
couldn't resist a shot).

Of course, as also indicated by Peter, the reverse is also true.
film-video is not an answer to film preservation either.

Russ M.

On Thursday, March 09, 2000 8:33 AM, Jim Lindner [SMTP:jim@vidipax.com]
wrote:
>I wanted to get to this earlier but have been a bit swamped. There are
>several companies that provide tape to film transfer services. All of
>them concentrate on providing this service for theatrical distribution
>purposes. Several films have recently been shot on DV and transferred to
>film with good results. Two companies come to mind - one is Swiss
>Effects (In Switzerland) and the other is 4MC which is in LA. 4MC is a
>media conglomerate these days, but one of the companies that they
>swallowed a long time ago was Image Transform which was known for this
>type of work. They used to use an old 3m beam recorder that they had
>heavily modified, and the results were better then the norm. I was very
>impressed with some work I saw of Swiss Effects and I know some of the
>people there and I believe that they are doing some good work.There are
>other companies too that do different levels of work - here is a list of
>names and telephone numbers in no particular order. I know people in
>virtually all of these companies, so I am not making a particular
>recommendation - and of course the results vary very considerably
>depending on the original. With the original on VHS - I think that in
>general one would say that you are starting with the lowest possible
>quality and the end result on film will probably not be nearly as good
>as if you had a good master.
>
>Tape House Digital Film 212-319-5084
>Cineric 212-586-4822
>Colorlab 301-770-2128
>DuArt 212-757-4580
>4 Media 818-840-7000
>Magno 212-302-2505
>Sony Pictures High Definition Ctr. 310-280-7311
>Swiss Effects (nyc number) 212-727-3695
>
>Having given you all this information though - I think that I have to
>seriously question whether film is the way to preserve video. This is a
>very old arguement and I sort of thought it had been put to rest, but
>the answer is that video is video and film is film - they are very
>different media types in virtually EVERY way. IF you record video on
>film - do NOT think that you are preserving it. You are changing it into
>something else quite different - sort of something between film and
>video, and the look is totally different then the video was. The whole
>idea behind many of these processes is to try to get the video to NOT
>look like video, but look like it was shot on film in the first place.
>In any event, I think that it is fair to say that even the most ardent
>supporter of tape to film will (maybe in a quiet corner) tell you that
>while pictures can look very good, they do not look as good as if you
>shot film in the first place, and they no longer look like the video
>does either.
>
>In the tape to film process - virtually everything that makes video look
>like video is changed.  You can start at the frame rate which goes from
>30 to 24 - color space is radically different - and the whole color
>system is really different - not to mention grain structure and MANY
>other aspects that will dramatically change the look.  So while you most
>certainly CAN record video to film, please do not confuse that process
>with preserving video because you most certainly are not preserving it.
>
>And finally - it is VERY expensive.
>
>
>Jim Lindner - President
>VidiPax - The Magnetic Media and Information Migration Full Services
>Company
>Telephone 212-563-1999
>www.vidipax.com
>Moderator of A/V Media Matters@topica.com