editing w/ 16mm

What is the best way to proceed with editing a film on FCP which was originally shot on 16mm? I have approximately 20 reels.

Thanks

That really depends:

1. Who's your editor? Have you asked him/her about specs and preferences? Does s/he come with an editing system?
2. What kind of editing system will you be using? How powerful is it? How much storage will you have?
3. Are you finishing on film (cut negative)? Or are you finishing on High Definition, or even Standard Def video?
4. How high a quality do you need your dailies to be?


www.derekmok.com

If you need a neg. cut, please make sure you are fluent with Cinema Tools or have access to an assistant that knows it. It is a database that will help you track timecode, keycodes, and ink numbers, vital for you negative cut.

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You'll need to send those reels to a lab to be telecine'd to something like DVCAM or MiniDV with an accompanying Flexfile or other shot log, which you can import through CineTools and build your master codebook there.

As mentioned, talk to an editor who's done it. I used to cut 16mm all the time but managed to avoid this annoying interlude of film matchback.

Best, as always,
Loren S. Miller
www.neotrondesign.com
Home of KeyGuide Central

Hi, Derek,

Would you mind elaborating on much of this?

I have a client who is seasoned in using 16mm, but not on FCP, and i am the editor. I'm not seasoned in 16mm.

The first questions are:

- what is the recommended codec? in the past, we have transferred to miniDV, but I'm thinking we can get a big quality jump if we go to something else, maybe even 10bit. what about DVCPROHD? your thoughts?

- of course, this will all end up on DVD at the end, so I'm not sure transferring to an HD format would even be worth it. but my experience has been that it ends up with a better looking SD DVD if the original footage is the highest quality.

thanks,

hd

HarryD

> - what is the recommended codec? in the past, we have transferred to miniDV, but I'm
> thinking we can get a big quality jump if we go to something else, maybe even 10bit. what
> about DVCPROHD? your thoughts?

Same questions! Are you cutting negative? Is this an offline or online?

> - of course, this will all end up on DVD at the end, so I'm not sure transferring to an HD
> format would even be worth it. but my experience has been that it ends up with a better
> looking SD DVD if the original footage is the highest quality.

Absolutely. Not to mention if you want to re-transfer back to film, or make web versions, or leave room for future Blu-Ray copies, or extract production stills. Remember, there are many, many outlets for distribution at the end of production now, and even web movies (including YouTube, which transitioned less than a week ago) are now often shown in an HD frame size.

However, the question isn't as simple as "HD is better". How much footage do you have? How much of that will you need in editing? How much of that will you need in HD? Do you have "behind-the-scenes"-type footage that you may not use in the actual cut, but will need? And do you need that in HD? How much storage will you have, how fast is it? How powerful is your editing system?

The most economical approach would probably be to transfer all your dailies to DV. Do an offline edit on all the projects you need for the show, then online only the selects to HD. But even that is a generalization. For example, if your show only has 30 minutes of footage and you will be using 15 minutes of it for various needs, then you might as well transfer all your daillies to HD to avoid the offline-online headache, and multiple visits to the lab.


www.derekmok.com

I've done a lot of editing s16mm footage over the years on many formats using many CODECs.

Super 16mm doesn't really have a "clean" resolution due to the grain noise you get. This is one reason the BBC don't consider s16mm as a viable source for an HD production and broadcast.

I however disagree somewhat with this as many an HD production have film grain or deliberate noise added for effect in post!

On a s16mm to 1080 HD transfer you can see the grain very easily and it usually requires a clean up which you can do either in telecine or in FCP with plugins from The Foundry's Furnace plugins [www.thefoundry.co.uk] (the only for film plugins I would recommend for this as they are seriously good if not a little slow).

My suggestion would be (if you have the kit to cut it) get your rushes transferred as 1920x1080 ProRes HQ then go this route.

If you go down the DVCproHD route then you will still get a nice transfer but it won't be as nice as they will only be 8bit and the horizontal resolution will be 1440px (in 1080i50) or 1280px (in 1080i60).

If you have to do Standard Definition then a minimum of DV50/DVCpro50 files. Better would be 10bit uncompressed (you could use ProRes HQ in SD as well) - the improvement in quality over DV25 is noticeable.

As far as the TK transfer is concerned...

Pay for a Best-light grade/colour correction at the TK and get the footage in a form that will respond well to grading in FCP/Color.

If you get a one-light it may mean you end up with either under or over exposed scenes that you cannot do anything with. Avoid if you are not going back to the film rushes to master.

I wouldn't even consider Standard Definition if you have the budget for HD as the future is on us now and HD will give you much more room to play even if you only make SD DVD or SD master.



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

Hi, Thanks a ton for this. Very helpful!

hd

HarryD