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8mm film edit?
Hey fellow COW,
I am interested in getting some of my great granparents 8mm film digitized so I can edit in final cut pro and do some colour correctio using Color and all that fun stuff. I was wondering what I should ask the company that is transferring it; such as codec, and even the frame size. Keeping in mind that it is only a family project so a SD Dvd will be the final output.I am totally lost on this subject as I have never worked with film before. Any help is greatly appreciated 🙂
Trent Whittington – Currently studying Associate Degree in Digital Television
iMsc – 24inch 3.06Ghz, FC STUDIO 2, Adobe Production Premium CS4.
Asus eee – 8.9inch 1.6Ghz 1Gb Ram, Windows XP -
4 Replies
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Tony
Unless you are dealing with a commercial film-to-tape transfer facility, which does 35 and 16 mm transfers for tv spots and shows, you will find that most places that do 8mm “home movies” usually go directly to whatever format consumers use, ie DVD (as a Video DVD) VHS, or DV.
The best format you can get out of that kind of facility is DV, on a mini DV tape, which is just fine for a Standard Def DVD.
I would stay away from vhs or dvd, as its going to be more work for you.
also, most super 8 cameras run at 18 frames per second, instead of 24, so to make a clean transfer to 30 fps video, the film is usually sped up to 20 fps. as such you may want to slow it back down in editing.
however, between you and me, most home movies are better when they run faster, as it makes watching them shorter 😉
hope this helps
“I like video because its so fast!”
Bob Flood
Greer & Associates, Inc. -
Thankyou Bob for all your advice 🙂
The place that is doing it isn’t a full blown film house it is just a small company. They advertise going to dvd but like I said because I wanted to edit it and play around with it it would of been even worse ripping from a dvd, also its quite a lot cheaper getting it as data.Thanks again
Trent Whittington – Currently studying Associate Degree in Digital Television
iMsc – 24inch 3.06Ghz, FC STUDIO 2, Adobe Production Premium CS4.
Asus eee – 8.9inch 1.6Ghz 1Gb Ram, Windows XP -
Trent
SO they can do transfers to digital file formats? they will digitize or capture the video from a telecine or film to tape camera/scanner into a computer, and subsequently put in on a hard drive? thats sweet!
Without knowing more I would say DV25 as a digital format/codec will give you good results, and wont eat up a lot of drive space.
It would be helpful to know what kind of computer and capture card they are using. PC? Apple/Mac? QT Capable? DVCPRo50 Capable?
there is one transfer system i have heard of that does it single frame, and scans full aperture. It connects to a computer and creates a series of still frames, which you cna then convert to wahtever flavor you like.
Supposedly its the best super 8 transfers out there, supposedly.
hope this helps
“I like video because its so fast!”
Bob Flood
Greer & Associates, Inc. -
I would definitely spend some time researching telecine/transfer options. The onsuper8.orgwebsite has tons of links (and in general it’s a great site for 8mm/super8mm info!) to telecine services.
As has already been mentioned, avoid going to DVD if possible. Its inconvenient to convert a dvd to editable footage and its quality will suffer from the uncessary compression. Look for a place that will tranfer to MiniDV at a minimum. There are many places now that will transfer straight to Hard disk. If you go to one of these, a DV codec is still an acceptable choice. However, if the company is more technically savvy and offer direct-to-disk, you could probably ask for Apple ProRes.
Even though your project is only a personal one, I strongly recommend going to a professional transfer facility. You don’t have to go in person, you can send them your film. Some place will even let you supervise the transfer via live internet feed.
With cheaper transfer services the quality is so variable. And it is often REALLY REALLY BAD – I can personally attest to that! So for you family memories I think its worth the extra coin.
Why not see if your family can all contribute to the cost? After all, your creating an heirloom for everyone!
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