Transfering my short to video: Super16 to HD; I'm lost, need advice

[msp1518]

Greetings all. Nearly ten years ago I wrote and directed (and financed) a short film that played some festivals and won me a couple of awards. Yipyahoo.

It was shot on Super16 and I had a 35mm blowup print. The length of the film is just under 16 minutes.

My only video copy is from AVID and looks like crap. Barely SD resolution, it's just horrid. 1.85:1 and letterboxed (non anamoprhic) it's painful to view on a widescreen TV (zooming kills the resolution, looks like puke).

What I would like to do is have a proper transfer of my film, in High Definition, but one that looks the way I want. I really do want to play with the color, zoom in a few shots, mess with contrast, etc. I want to add grain in shots, do things I was unable to back in the day.

But I can't bust my bank. I know hourly rates are insane, so I am assuming I would need to have everything scanned to a hard disk so I could then play with it on my own time or something???

What I am looking for here is advice. What are my options?

My 35mm blowup would be perfect for a transfer, but there is one tiny problem. The blowup has a flaw that goes through the entire run time. It's basically a tiny little blemish that was on the lens in the blowup and so it can be seen when projected (most would never notice, but I do). On a large screen it just looked like a flaw of the screen it was projected on. At home it will likely look like a dot that doesn't move. That would be painfully distracting.

My Super16 negatives are in an A B C cut. Because of a few complexities an A B didn't cut it (pardon the pun) so it was A b C.

Of course I have all of the film in my possession.

Sound is an issue. Some of the sound elements are not labeled and it has been so long that I don't recall the specs on my sound at all, other than it was stereo. Again, I have everything with me.

I imagine some sound flaws I had (background noise and bumps) could be cleaned up using today's tools.

So I will stop jabbering and let the experts chime in. I'm happy to answer questions. What should I do here?

 

[directorik]

So let me know if I’m understanding correctly.

You can’t use the 35mm print to do the transfer because of the
flaw. And you don’t have a 16mm print - only the negative.

Seems to me you’ll have to either run a 16mm print or do a
transfer from the A-B-C roll negative. Either will be expensive.

Is your final audio mix on 16mm fullcoat? Or on 1/4 inch tape?

Are you asking for ideas on how to do a transfer yourself - without
going to a lab?

 

[msp1518]

So let me know if I’m understanding correctly.

You can’t use the 35mm print to do the transfer because of the
flaw. And you don’t have a 16mm print - only the negative.

Seems to me you’ll have to either run a 16mm print or do a
transfer from the A-B-C roll negative. Either will be expensive.

Is your final audio mix on 16mm fullcoat? Or on 1/4 inch tape?

Are you asking for ideas on how to do a transfer yourself - without
going to a lab?

Ok, I am not asking how to do a transfer myself. I just have no idea what my options are for transferring my film. I do not have a 16mm print. Just the negatives, the A B C cut and the 35mm print, which I think might not work.

My audio mix? I've no idea. It's been so long that I just do not remember. In my collection of stuff I have what appears to be a 1/4 tape, but there is no label. My thinking is that is the sound master.

 

[directorik]

It seems to me your only option it to transfer from the negative
ABC roll. It would be rare for the final mix to be on 1/4 inch
tape. That, typically, would be the production audio. Typically
when shooting 16mm you would do the final mix to 16mm fullcoat. I
don’t know if you did that or did the final mix to 1/4 inch.

There are plenty of labs in NYC that will do the transfer, allow
you to play with the color, zoom in a few shots, mess with the
contrast, add grain in the shots, etc. Hourly rates are what they
are. What you want to do is very time intensive, it’s gonna cost.
And the ABC roll will add to the cost. You might want to check
into the cost of making a 16mm print and then transferring that. I
suspect it will balance out, but that’s something I’ve never done.

But you can just have a HD scan with no correction at all which
will be cheaper.

 

[msp1518]

Without color correction, etc. I will only be doing it half-ass. I never was happy even with my print. It would be a dream to play with it now and make it what I wanted.

it Is it possible to have an HD scan done and the data put to an HD for me to play with on my own via some sort of software? Say in Final Cut Pro? In the end it might be cheaper for me to just buy software play with it on my own, learn, etc. but I am not sure about any of that.

 

[directorik]

Yes, you can just have a HD scan with no correction at all which
will be cheaper than doing everything during the transfer.

 

[msp1518]

OK, so that's progress. Thank you. I recall a friend saying he played around with an SD transfer in whatever version of Final Cut he had so is there software that would allow me to do the same with an HD transfer?

My PC is pretty robust and my wife has a Mac Air. I have a friend who can get my Final Cut discounted.

UPDATE:Wife's Mac Air has OS10.5.6, 1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB 1067 MHz DDR3 ram. HD has nearly 93gig free out of 111. NVIDIA GeForce 9400M 256MB, 1280x800 (she has a monitor that's 16**x something or other. Just below full HD).

UPDATE 2: Looks like a Mac Air will not come close to supporting Final Cut Pro/Studio/HD. Express only.

Then there is the question of 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 etc. That stuff makes my head hurt, but I assume I really want to go for 4:4:4 if at all possible?

Would it be wiser to do the HD, then have a downconverted 16X9 SD master to play with, requiring less horsepower on a computer?

Then there is the question of using the 16mm elements or my 35mm print. Wish there was a way to get that 35mm print looked at. I'm in NYC. Anyone have aces to a projection room?!