Lab
Work
Film
to Video
There are many
ways of transferring film to video. The most popular method is to project
the video onto a screen and then shoot the projection with a video camera.
This can be on a large screen or a small mirrored transfer unit. This
method has two major problems with it. First, the color of the film is
diluted but even more importantly, the resulting video will be very "jumpy".
This is because there is a difference in film and video speeds. Film is
shown at 24 frames per second and video is shown at 30 frames per second.
The better way
to do the transfer is with a direct transfer unit, also called an Elmo
Transfer Unit. We only use Elmo Transfer Units which means that the speed
difference is smoothly handled by automatic frame replication and the
color intensity is maintained by the use of a direct projection of the
film image into a minature video camera.
Before you bring your film to our studio, you should first be sure that
it is a film format that we support. Below is a graphic that shows the
three formats that we transfer to video.
Next, you need to estimate the total footage of film that you have. The
three reels shown in the graphic below show you the sizes of each in feet.
It is important to note that these are estimates only and in some cases
the film will be wound tighter or looser or on a custom reel (that may
or may not have the number of feet printed on the reel). You should also
know that we have a MINIMUM OF 400 FEET for any given transfer.
To estimate the
total time that a given amount of film will be when transferred to video
tape, use the following schedule.
| Film
Footage |
16mm |
8mm |
Super
8mm |
Super
8mm with sound |
| 100 |
4 |
7 |
7 |
5 |
| 200 |
7 |
15 |
13 |
10 |
| 300 |
11 |
22 |
20 |
15 |
| 400 |
15 |
30 |
27 |
20 |
| 500 |
19 |
37 |
33 |
25 |
| 600 |
22 |
44 |
40 |
30 |
| 700 |
26 |
52 |
47 |
35 |
| 800 |
30 |
59 |
53 |
40 |
| 900 |
33 |
67 |
60 |
45 |
| 1000 |
37 |
74 |
67 |
50 |
| 1100 |
41 |
81 |
73 |
55 |
| 1200 |
44 |
89 |
80 |
60 |
| 1300 |
48 |
96 |
87 |
65 |
| 1400 |
52 |
104 |
93 |
70 |
| 1500 |
55 |
111 |
100 |
75 |
| 1600 |
59 |
119 |
107 |
80 |
| 2000 |
74 |
148 |
133 |
100 |
|
The following
table shows our current price list for film-to-video transfer services.
|
VHS |
SVHS |
3/4" |
DVCam |
BetacamSP |
| Charge
per foot of film |
$
0.15 |
$
0.25 |
$
0.30 |
$
0.40 |
$
0.45 |
| Blank
VHS 120 min. tape |
$
7.00 |
|
|
|
|
| Time-coded
SVHS 30 min. tape |
|
$
20.00 |
|
|
|
| Time-coded
SVHS 120 min. tape |
|
$
35.00 |
|
|
|
| Blank
3/4" tape 60 min. tape" |
|
|
$
25.00 |
|
|
| Time-coded
DVCam 124 min. tape |
|
|
|
$
45.00 |
|
| BetacamSP
Time-Coded 30 min. Tape |
|
|
|
|
$
35.00 |
| BetacamSP
Time-Coded 60 min. Tape |
|
|
|
|
$
55.00 |
| BetacamSP
Time-Coded 90 min. Tape |
|
|
|
|
$
80.00 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| Background
Music (from our music) |
$8.50/hr |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| Format
Change |
$
5.00 |
$
5.00 |
$
5.00 |
$
5.00 |
$
5.00 |
| Titles |
$
5.00 |
$
5.00 |
$
5.00 |
$
5.00 |
$
5.00 |
| Splices |
$
1.00 |
$
1.00 |
$
1.00 |
$
1.00 |
$
1.00 |
|
|
