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A.

• You need a final video master or a hard drive of your project that has been color corrected. We suggest you minimize the use of any image enhancement when you have your color correction work done. We also suggest that you be rigorous in ensuring that levels and colors match from scene to scene during the process. The final image is going to be seen on a screen many times larger than the TV screen. Color effects that are dramatic on a television set often look over the top on a movie screen. Try to use a colorist who has experience having his or her work transferred to film. Also, deliver your audio as a magneto optical (M.O.) disk for Dolby 5.1 or as AIFF or WAV file on CD.
• Check you final master very carefully for scenes with subtle focus problems (this is the most frequent problem we encounter with digital to film transfers.) Check and recheck focus when you are shooting. Replace any out of focus shots when you are editing.
• Use the highest resolution and least compressed format you can afford for mastering. There are no free lunches.
• Lay back final mixed down audio on the digital audio tracks of the master. This is a good time to ensure audio is in synch throughout the film.

A.

• We strongly recommend testing before embarking on a digital to film transfer. Let us test various approaches to contrast, color, noise reduction and other artifact removal. This is the best way to gauge how your project will look on film, and we can work with you on establishing the settings and procedures we will use.
• The video master needs to be broken down into film projection length reels (approximately 20 minutes). Be sure to properly place a 2 pop on the video and audio for sound synch. Click here for our reel breakdown info sheet. We suggest you do this (although our staff can do it for you for a small fee). The reels should have the final mixed down audio laid back with whatever audio encoding is being used.
• We create audio CDs from each of the broken down reels and prepare them for use in the creation of the optical sound track, unless you are planning an SRD track.
• We include the cost of creating the 35mm optical sound track (not the SRD Magneto Optical) in our quote, along with the 35mm negative and 35mm composite best-light print. Be sure you ask about how your audio should be prepared for a digital to film transfer. It is best to work with an audio post production company that has experience creating film sound tracks. And make certain that your audio house coordinates with the digital to film transfer house.
• Alpha Cine will capture each reel of you production into our Quantel system. At this point we convert standard definition video to high definition video, de-interlace video that is interlaced, and perform a reverse 3:2 pulldown on video that is mastered at 30 fps.
• Once the footage is in the computer we apply whatever additional noise reduction and artifact removal necessary, to keep the show consistent with what we have agreed on during the test phase, as well as making limited color and contrast corrections.
• The frames and the corrections are then rendered and sent one frame at a time to the Arrilaser Film Recorder where they are re rendered to 4000 lines resolution, and then printed to a negative film stock at a rate of approximately 3-1/2 seconds per frame.
• The film negative is processed.
• A composite (with sound) print is made from the negative and screened for the client. At this time, any back timing decisions are made.
• A color timed composite (includes the audio) answer print is made and screened for final approval.

A. Alpha Cine uses Kodak 5242 (acetate negative) or Kodak 2242 Estar negative. Both are intermediate stocks that have sharper resolution than camera original negative, and are also better suited to printing a large number of release prints. (If using an acetate negative for more than ten prints, we recommend the creation of an IP and Dupe Negative.)

A. Alpha Cine will print on either Kodak or Fuji print stock depending on the customers wishes. You should discuss which type of stock you want as they each look different, and each manufacturer makes several types of stock with different characteristics.

A. By careful and constant calibration of the film recorder directly with our lab, the first print you will see is a composite best-light answer print. Generally, there is little need for additional color timing with a digital to film transfer because we are working from an already color corrected source.

However, often times when the filmmaker sees his film on the big screen for the first time, he may notice inconsistencies in his tape to tape color correction and will want to go back and make adjustments. This process is called back-timing the first answer print. The filmmaker will have the opportunity to screen the answer print with our color timer, record notes on the color density changes and review a second answer print after the color timer has incorporated their changes. This is an extra step in the process and is an additional cost.

A. Alpha Cine uses a large complement of hardware and software tools in its digital to film process and that complement is constantly changing.

We currently use the Teranex Video computer system to convert video frame rates, change resolution, and reduce noise and grain.

We use the Quantel computer system to capture and process the video or data.

We have a variety of off the shelf and proprietary software that we use in various stages of our process.

A. Some clients use PAL as an originating and mastering format because in standard definition it has 625 lines of video resolution and runs at 25 frames a second. If this footage is transferred frame for frame to film, the final production will run 4% longer than the original version. If you want to do this consider making a scoring dub with the 25 fps video slowed down 4% so the composer can get a feel for the slower cadence of the film.

A. A standard 35mm film frame has an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, the same ratio as your TV set at home (unless you have HD). In most theaters, the projector crops or masks the 35mm frame at the top and bottom. This cropping results in a 1.85 aspect ratio wide-screen frame.

If you shot video in 4:3 (1.33 ratio) and want to transfer to 35mm, you have three choices:

1. Do nothing, and hope your film is screened without any projector lens masking (a good possibility, but not a sure thing).
2. Alpha Cine can shrink the video frame so that nothing gets cropped, and you retain your original 4:3 aspect (pillar box).
3. Opt for the wide-screen 1.85 look. In your online video edit, preview each shot with black letterbox bars on the top and bottom, keeping in mind that the film projector crops in that amount. Remember not to actually record the black letterbox onto your video master. If you shot in a 16x9 format we will crop the image about 2% top and bottom.

A. Titles on your video master may not look as sharp when transferred to film, especially if your master is not on HD. We recommend that you deliver to us both a textless (untitled version) and texted (version with titles) of the film. We also ask that you specify the font used in your titles. Alpha Cine will then composite your high-resolution titles directly onto your final film negative for an additional fee. If your titles are animated or high-resolution files, we request that you deliver them on a CD in TIFF, TARGA or EPS file format.

If you need subtitles, you may get away with creating them in video. However, if you create subtitles in video, they will be permanently part of your film negative. If you plan to distribute in multiple languages using only a few prints, you would be smarter to laser-burn subtitles into each print.

End-credit rolls require special care: Avoid delicate serifs and extremely small fonts. For each title try to allow at least seven seconds of a single line of type to travel from the bottom to the top of the screen.