<VV> Corvair Video to DVD Project

[Tony]

At 1132 02/25/2004 -0500, Wrsssatty@aol.com wrote:
>In a message dated 2/25/2004 10:45:12 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
>>tonyu@roava.net writes:
>>The ideal way to do this is via scanning the original MP film
>
>Well, I'm no expert and you, Tony, are obviously more knowledgeable than I, 

Well... that's a relative sort of thing. ;)   If I knew as much as I
thought I did, I'd know as much as I pretend to think I actually know. 


>but when these were originally "transferred" to VHS, that was accomplished 
>merely by projecting the film onto a screen and aiming a VHS camera at the
screen 
>(I realize that there is special equipment for this but, basically, that is 
>the process).  What I'm wondering is whether the same thing could be done
but 
>using instead a digital video camera.  Could the resulting digital video
tape be 
>directly fed into a computer with a DVD burner?

The serious folks used to transfer film to video with a film chain.  This
was a setup which used a video camera mounted in a fixture which was aimed
at the film gate of a projector.  Film ran through the projector and the
camera looked directly at the film as it passed through the projector gate,
no screens.   SOme chains used a camera fitted with a special lens, some
chains used a special camera with no lens and the projector used a specific
lens to project the image directly onto the pickup (usually a later tech
CCD pickup) of he camera which then outputted hard NTSC video to the
recording media of choice, in most instances Back When, this would be
either 3/4" U-Matic cassette video (got a couple of those) or 2" Quad
videotape.   Or, if you got tricky, 1" RR video.  Whatever.   These days
the 1/2" Betacart seems to be pretty prolific with 8mm digital video making
some inroads among the smaller more economically minded production houses.
Digital video tape is available in a variety of commercial formats, pick
and choose.   Pay the man.  Experience perfect transfers... if everything
works as it should.  

The old film chains were capable of making some pretty decent videotapes if
they were up to snuff... but if the cameras got old, mounts vibrated and
loosened, projectors wore and film gates began to rattle, lenses clouded
(especially when in close proximity of the rather dusty and oily environmet
of a film projector) and any other of a variety of woes happpened,
obviously the output suffered.  And of course the very best video produced
was no better than the quality of the original source film... and there
were a number of stepping stones along the way between that piece of film
and the video output jack on the camera, all of which could add their own
bit of degradation along the way.       

Then came scanning rather than projecting... initially called flying spot
scanners, they were self-contained and they eliminated the need for a large
bulky film chain, although they remained analog devices and would still be
subject to many of the potential wos that film chains experienced.   But
they did produce a superior product;  a LOT of prime time network
programming shot on film was scanned to videotape using flying spot
scanning and it looked great.  No more film chains with their rattling
projectors and war-weary video cameras...   

Now scanning has advanced to digitizing the film image and storing it on
digital media which makes it MUCH easier to color correct, retouch,
enhance, etc. as well as adapting the output video to different formats
like NTSC, PAL, SECAM, and even HD 16x9, all from the same source scan.
It's a far cry from the original film chains... 

There are a couple of guys in here who have some film chain experience from
those days who could probably tell more stories about them than I can...
;)   Feel free to speak up!    

Now:  

It's relaively inexpensive these days to pick up a digital-8 camcorder.
And there are "tabletop" film chain kits available which use a pretty
decent high-rez rear projection screen/mirror and mounts which can be used
with most home movie projectors to transfer 8mm or Super-8 film onto tape.
These tabletop chains can even accomodate a 16mm projector if you wanna get
tricky... and they don't cost a lot.  They're available from most larger
camera stores... eBay has them on occasion.   

These tabletop film chains are also subject to the same problems (and then
some) that the commercial film chains experienced.  Ad of course, the final
result will be no better than the source film.   If one were to attempt to
transfer an old 16mm film to tape for eventual transfer to disk, the tape
would also have to be of the best quality possible to prevent any
additional losses during the 2nd transfer... this is where digital tape
shines; no losses.   

Burning your own DVD is another matter...  there's a lot of room to
experience problems and most of them are gonna be with the inputted video.
If you can manage a direct digital input, use it.  If not, the analog video
inputs can work well, and when all is said and done these analog inputs
will still be capable of better resolution than the vast majority of the
films one is likely to run across to transfer.   But if the capability of
feeding a DVD burner with raw digital video exists, by all means use it.   



All this is moot if the best source material (film) you can get your hands
on is faded, scratched, worn, oxidized, or likewise suffering from a wide
range of ills, especially some of the earlier transparancy color films such
as the earlier Ektachromes which would fade and discolor so badly
especially if not stored correctly.  These are easily identified by the
reddish low contrast images they produce, with little color variation...
there's not a lot you can do to correct this sort of degradation; try to
locate a better print or if possible research the source and try to find
someone somewhere who has access to perhaps an original 35mm master such as
what was used to make the 16mm prints which got sent out to outsourced
locations like affiliate TV stations etc (such as the car material
discussed) or dealerships.   Many of the car commercials etc intended for
network airing were shot on professional/commercial 35mm motion picture
film and knocked down to 16mm for distribution.   The 35mm masters for
these works would likely look as good today as they did when first
developed IF they'd been stored correctly.   Of course, finding a 35mm
projector is another matter.   

In the case of productions like road tests and Daring the Darian etc the
masters would be 16mm, seeing as how these were "field productions" and
size and portability were the issues to address rather than absolute
big-screen film quality, since these productions were intended to be TV
fodder and budget restrictions favored 16mm film.   35mm film production is
expensive and the hardware is not light nor small.  Projection facilities
also get expensive.   

So, most automotive historical documentary material likely to still exist
is gonna be on 16mm.   Finding a well cared for print that still looks good
is the trick here.   

I would imagine that GM has a film archive which would likely include a LOT
of very interesting stuff.   Anybody know anybody...?   


tony..