prepare for film out?

[Shane Ross]

You have to contact the lab that will be doing the transfer and ask them.

Shane

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[Arnie Schlissel]

First, are you sure you need to go to film? Have you priced out going to film? The process is very expensive, easily $30k without CC, $45k with very basic CC at a smaller lab.

OTOH, most American festivals will screen from some sort of tape, (HDCam, DigiBeta, Beta, even Mini DV) and many smaller festivals will actually prefer to screen from DVD.

Secondly, and more important, every lab has it’s own way of doing things. How you prep and deliver for any one lab will be totally different from most others.

Some labs will gladly take a QT file on a hard drive, some will insist on a DPX or tiff sequence. Some labs will offer to take your FCP project file & source tapes & make the entire conform & color grade for you.

IOW, you need to ask each lab what they want from you, and what kind of options you’ll get for what price.

If you have not yet gotten any bids, work with the sales person at each lab to get a package that will best suit your needs at the price you can best afford.

If the lab offers color grading, take it. Their colorists will know almost exactly how the image on their monitor or projector will look in the answer print.

If you’re doing a surround mix, you can deliver in either Dolby or THX. It doesn’t matter which you use, every theater with surround is compatible with both.

Arnie
Now in post: Peristroika, a film by Slava Tsukerman
https://www.arniepix.com/blog

[Steven Gonzales]

I second Shane’s suggestion. Figure out your final product (will you cut negative? Will you create a digital intermediate? Will you online from a high quality telecine, such as HDCAM?)

Then find out what you have to deliver (including how sound will finish). Once you know what you have to deliver, then you can plan your workflow.

If you know where the finish line is, you can plan your racing strategy.

[Zhuang Mu]

Thanks Arnie,Steven, and Shane!

Maybe I didn’t make my question clear enough. I was assuming there are some established “Rules” on how to get a “Mast Copy”, you can tailor it later to suit your different purposes in the future (final goal is film).
Sure, there are a lot of “depends”…, but when we are talking about IRE7.5, we all know what than mean. Any common practice like that on Editing for Film Out?
If possible, I like to handle CC by ourself, don’t want to spend extra money on that if we can do it ourself, and it is also a lot of fun playing with color. I am asking is it “Legal” if we do it with fcp/color, for film out purpose? And how?
Specifically, I will start from a XDCAM HD project. Will it have to be 4:2;2, or 4:2;0 is fine? Sony claims its 4:2:0 can suffice a nice keying, how subtle the difference is? Will it matter film out? How much?
Yeah, a lot of stuff like that! There are some rules may just apply to Film out, not so much for TV screen. Then comes what Labs can do, and what they need from you. But first, what we can do with FCP? Maybe Coen brothers have some great tips after the success of “No country for old man”.

I am sure one can write a book for this one matter. I am just wildly thinking.

Cheers,

Zhuang

[Shane Ross]

[zhuang mu] “I was assuming there are some established “Rules” on how to get a “Mast Copy”, you can tailor it later to suit your different purposes in the future (final goal is film).
Sure, there are a lot of “depends”…, but when we are talking about IRE7.5, we all know what than mean. Any common practice like that on Editing for Film Out?”

There might be some general practices, but this is something you ask the place you will be outputting. Or you need to hire a consultant, like the great guy at http://www.hdforindies.com, Mike Curtis. There are several ways to approach a film out. ANd IRE is meaningless in film, but needs to be heeded on tape. And 7.5…that is old analog standards.

[zhuang mu] “If possible, I like to handle CC by ourself, don’t want to spend extra money on that if we can do it ourself, and it is also a lot of fun playing with color. I am asking is it “Legal” if we do it with fcp/color, for film out purpose? And how?”

Do you feel that you can get a good professional look? Have you done this? Trained at all? Color is an art and craft…and one that has people whose sole job is color correction. It is a career…separate from that of editing. If you feel qualified to do this…go for it. But if you don’t know what you are doing, or you are just starting out, doing it for something as expensive as a film intended for a FILM OUT is NOT the place to do it. Hire a professional…you’ll save money in the end. You might end up hiring someone to fix what you did wrong.

[zhuang mu] “But first, what we can do with FCP? Maybe Coen brothers have some great tips after the success of “No country for old man”.”

Shot on film…BTW. From what I understand. If not, then high end HD…and edited by professionals who have been working on film for years, post supervised by people who know what they are doing, and color corrected by a master. And their expertise was paid for. This isn’t something you’ll find for free on a forum…sorry.

Shane

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[Zhuang Mu]

OK, Shane, I’ll get my money ready to hire all the experts for my film; to get that money,I need to sell all my gears first, including FCP, ha ha ha!

Cheers,

Zhuang

[Steven Gonzales]

According to tech info on IMDB, No Country for Old Men was shot on 35mm film (Kodak Vision2 100T 5212, Vision2 200T 5217, Vision2 500T 5218) using Zeiss Master Prime lenses.

And most importantly, it was shot using Roger Deakins.

https://www.rogerdeakins.com/ has a forum where he posts frequently.

[Zhuang Mu]

Shot by film, yes, and edited with FCP and color.
Smart APPLE, has a great name for their editing software, and good promo here: Coen talks, https://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/action/?movie=coenbrothers

cheers,

Zhuang

[Zhuang Mu]

Thanks Steven, that is a great link to Roger’s world!

[Aaron Neitz]

End of day you can put ANYTHING on film. There aren’t a lot of fast rules – IRE and all that gets tossed to the wind. Get a lab lined up, have them help and consult on your project – that’s your best bet.

If you have something you shot in 1080 and are editing in 1080 – if it looks OK on your properly calibrated HD monitor, a decent lab will make it look OK on film.

And BTW, that Apple commercial is misleading. They played around with Color, but they certainly did not do the DI grading of Country with it.