Film, Video, and Digital Video question . . .

Factual Questions
1

Thanks for looking. A few quick questions:

What are some cheaper alternatives to filming a movie/video/etc. on film, while still capturing a good (decent?) picture quality?

Is it possible to tranfer video to film? How expensive is it? How good is the picture quality? Does it still look like video, after being put on film?

What about transferring digital video to film? Same deal?

Any info, input, or links would be greatly appreciated.

Best,

TGD

2

This is the first time I’ve ever heard of someone wanting to transfer video to film. Why on earth would you want to do that?

What size film? 16mm? 35mm? Super8? What about a soundtrack, does that need transferring too?

Hollywood occasionally does this for technical reasons. They will shoot original material on film, digitize it to do computerized special effects, and later transfer it back to film.

So yes, the technology definitely exists. I can’t point you to a vendor, however.

The vast majority of transfers, however, go the other way. Shoot on film for highest resolution, then transfer to video for ease of distribution.

3

There are some labs that will do it but it is pretty expensive, and if you shoot on video, it will still look like it. Film can’t change that.

4

It’s done quite a lot. For example, The Celebration (a DOGME film) was shot on a single-chip DVD camera and was transferred to 35mm film for release. Since it was a single-chip camera and DOGME rules forbid additional lighting, you could tell it was video in some places; but the story and the acting soon made the audience forget the format. (I assume most people knew going in that it was shot on video. If they didn’t know, they may not have noticed."

Why do it? Because it’s cheaper to film on digital video. Why not do it? Because the image quality of film is still superior to video.

Of course, all CGI is generated on video.

5

Re: What ArchiveGuy said.

It’s cheaper to shoot on video; but as he said, transferring to film is expensive.

6

The latest digital cameras are designed to be at least a match for 35mm film when it comes to quality and they offer several advantages.

  1. You get 50 minutes of record time on digital video versus 11 minutes for a roll of film.
  2. Reloading takes less time.
  3. You can check your shots immediately, (no need to wait for it to be developed)
  4. It is much cheaper.
  5. Post production is faster, easier, and cheaper.

As HDTV is rolling out, I can tell you this… stuff shot digitally looks better than stuff that is shot on film and transferred. HDTV has enough resolution to see all the little imperfections in grain and contamination on the film used for the transfer.