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Another advantage to importing telecine logs is that other logging information, such as
film type, camera roll, telecine speed, and sometimes even the script supervisor’s notes
from the shoot, is included. Ask the facility doing the transfer what options are available.
Backup and Archiving Considerations
One of the nice things about videotape formats is that the source tapes are their own
backup. Some producers also opt to clone the source tapes for offsite storage for an
added level of security. If you do this, make sure the timecode is accurately cloned and
the reel numbers are accurately and physically marked on each tape.
Of greater importance is the careful storage and preservation of the original camera
negative. If you have questions, discuss them with your lab or transfer facility.
Common Offline/Online Strategies
If you’re capturing film that was transferred at the best possible quality (a best-light or
safety transfer) for a project that’s being mastered to videotape, you can work as you
would with any other program using videotape source media. When you complete editing,
you can finish using the transferred media as is.
If you’re planning to retransfer the selects used in your edited sequence after the offline
edit is complete, you use the Export Cinema Tools Film Lists command to export the
information that will be used to retransfer the shots used in the edit. Give this information
to the transfer facility, which can do a best-light or safety transfer of your selects onto
new tapes with matching timecode. You’ll then reingest your program’s final media from
tape for finishing.
Ingesting Film Transferred as DPX or Cineon Image Sequences
If you’re working on a project that was shot on film, you need to transfer the camera
negative to a video format suitable for your workflow. If you want to finish your program
using a digital intermediate workflow, this is typically done using a film scanner, or
datacine. Unlike a telecine (see “Ingesting Film Transferred to Video”), a datacine does a
slower, high-resolution, frame-by-frame scan of the camera negative, which is not usually
done in real time.
The result is usually a series of uncompressed DPX- or Cineon-formatted image sequences
at 2K or 4K resolution. Datacine transfers are typically done as neutrally as possible, with
an emphasis on maximizing the amount of color and contrast within the available dynamic
range of the image format and avoiding clipping in the highlights and shadows. Creative
adjustments are not usually made. The resulting scanned image often looks a bit dull but
has the maximum amount of image data for doing high-quality color correction later.
Image sequences cannot be used directly with Final Cut Pro but can be converted to
either online or offline media that can be matched back to the original media using Color.
38 Chapter 2 Ingesting and Organizing Your Media