VIDEO POST PRODUCTION OF A MOVIE TO BE TRANSFERRED TO FILM

TRANSFFERRING DIGITAL OR ANALOGUE VIDEO TO FILM
ICON PLUS transfers digital or analogue PAL video to 35 mm film.

EDITING DIGITAL OR ANALOGUE VIDEO AND PRODUCING A MASTER
It is recommended that digital video be edited in its native digital format. E.g. there is nothing to gain in editing DV footage in a highly sophisticated and expensive non linear editing system. In the case of digital video footage, the master should come out at the footages' digital native format if it is DV, DVCAM or DVCPRO format, otherwise in Digital Betacam.

In the case of analogue video footage, it is highly recommended that the final edited master be edited and produced at the best image quality of a digital non linear editing system, (if possible uncompressed). The master should come out in the best possible digital video format. (E.g. Digital Betacam).

Short video productions such as TV Adverts, parts of a movie comprising special effects, titles, 2D or 3D animation or graphics, can be delivered to ICON PLUS on data CD or DVD as a sequence of 24 bit uncompressed images as follows:

N.B. In all cases the material should be edited at a rate of 25 frames / sec. For feature films, It is recommended you divide them into acts when editing and producing the final master video tapes.

THE DURATION OF A VIDEO MOVIE WHEN TRANSFERRED TO 35 mm FILM
The duration of a movie edited in video (25 frames / sec) will increase when first transferred and then projected as a 35mm film (24 frames / sec). i.e. a video movie of 90 min in duration comes out as a 93 min 45 sec film.

FIELDS OPTION
It is recommended that once the movie is finally edited it be rendered into frames (not in fields). All sequences comprising 2D or 3D animation, graphics, titles and/or special effects should also be rendered in frames.

COLOUR CORRECTION, BLACK LEVEL
The ICON PLUS transfer procedure can reproduce the colours and shade the contrast of the movie, in practice, very close to the digital video master's image quality. Therefore, while editing, color correction and black level adjustments should be maneuvered towards keeping the information and all intermediate shades of the images' black areas.

Ablest is the video to film transfer system that provides the simplest answer to the question:
" What should the chroma and tone balance of my video's image be to get the best results when transferring it to 35mm film?"

The answer is simple. You deliver a video that meets your aesthetic approach when seen on a reference monitor (during post production). We do the rest.

We believe that the most reliable base reference for the image's quality is the image you see on a reference monitor. Icon Plus does not follow the procedure of other studios requesting you to create a "peculiar image" during shooting or post production, or even via software that primes your video for their systems.

To transfer using Icon Plus' Ablest system, our advice and pre-processing requirements are simple: focus on creating an excellent image, satisfying and meeting your needs when seen on a reference monitor.

SOUND
The synchronization of the sound and the images of the movie should be anticipated at the post-production stage while editing - in acts - the master video tapes.
A synch marker both for sound and for the images should be edited. An optical synch of 1 frame in duration, such as a BEEP image and a synch BEEP sound should be edited at exactly the same frame.

These synch markers should be recorded at least 50 frames ahead the first frame of each act. The same optical synch will be transferred on the negative 35 mm film and will be a guide for the synch of the optical print.

As ICON PLUS - unless otherwise arranged- will provide you with a developed negative 35 mm film to be processed by a film developing laboratory of your choice, you should have anticipated the final mix of the movie's sound.

You should have recorded the final mix either on DAT or DVD-CDROM and possibly each and every one of the sound channels with a BEEP synch at the exact position in each and every channel. Finally, at the sound developing laboratory you could either print the final sound mix or further process the movie's sound mix by re-editing sound effects and all sound channels to a new final mix, if needed, to enhance the production's cinematographic appeal (For example, DTS or Dolby Digital).