Film to Video Transfer - the technical stuff

How do we do it?

Our telecine transfer method is basically very straightforward - we point a camera and a film projector at a screen and record the images projected! However there are a number of procedures and technical aids that we use in combination to maximise the quality of recording.

First we check all films prior to projection to ensure that any and all splices are adequate and that there is no potentially serious damage eg to sprocket holes. After inspection we then clean the film.

Second we record direct onto a hard disk (mounted on a professional 3-chip camera).

Third the professional 3-chip camera we use has the colour balance carefully set to retain the original film colours as faithfully as possible. The camera also has a synchro-scan shutter so that we can match this to the correct projection speed for the material (and to the range of two and three-bladed projectors that we use).

Fourth we use underscan monitors to ensure that we capture all of the film image, but no more, when transferring to video.