16mm capture of an crt or LCD monitor - Cheap Negative recorder

M

mohanohi

New member
Hi,
I am planning to record my Digital 2 hr movie into an 16mm negative. My Digital movie is shot at 24fps. I have very little budget to go for DI route, where it costs around 8lakhs / $15000 to get my film on negative. I don't mind the quality.

Thanks and regards

mohan
Low budget filmmaker
 
LCD over CRT for sure for flicker/roll bar issues. You'll want to be in a dark room for no screen reflection. If using computer playback/monitor, test different refresh rates for flicker issues. Definitely test before committing to burning 2 hrs of film stock, see if you can get a deal from the lab you'll be using.

Remember that 400ft camera rolls are roughly 10minutes, so you'll need to master the film in sections to corresponds to that. You'll also need to sync back the sound to prepare everything for a final print. I assume you are in a part of the world that still screens 16mm prints, but given how fast they wear out vs the cost would it not be more cost effective to just invest in a digital projector.
 
dop16mm :
Thank you very much for your answer.

And another query.
1) If i am shooting from LCD of about 21 inch monitor how much distance should i maintain.
2) Which stock would be better for this purpose if i am going to do a 35mm blowup finally.
3) And yes i will divide my rushes at 9 minutes 20 secs before run out and will maintain sound sync afterwards.
4) As my digital movie is kind of letterboxed 2.35 ratio, how could i attain the same ratio at final 35mm blowup?

Thanks and regards

mohan
Low budget filmmaker
 
Last edited:
Use Daylight balanced stock and set your monitor as close to 5600k as possible, the default is often much higher, more blue.

Distance to camera will be dependent on lens, but never be closer than can be focused, often 5 feet on older zooms.

If you will ultimately need 35mm, why not shoot to 35mm, a blow up is nearly as much as the transfer from digital.

As for wide screen, why not shoot with an anamorphic lens and get maximum negative area, or squeeze the image 2 to 1 so that it would be correctly resolved with anamorphic projection.

If you have a digital camera that meters in iso you could shoot the screen to get an idea of exposure needed relative to film stock rating. Again test small bits before committing to the whole thing.
 
Dop16mm:
Thank you very much for the answer. Blowup doesn't cost much about for me. For transfer and blowup to 35mm i would be shelling around 2lakh ($3700) only. Hence this route is lot cheaper than shooting entire in 35mm. Is it possible to shoot with anamorphic adapters with 16mm camera? Isn't the aspect ratio too much for 2.35 final ratio? Or will it be better if i shoot in Super 16?
Yup, i was thinking of the same using my digital camera to meter to get exact exposure or my sekonic spot meter would do the trick i guess.
And for the stock which one you prefer. More dynamic range 250d or high contrast stock?

Regards

mohan
 
I'd probably just go with 250D stock. True 35mm scope is 2.40, full gate 16mm is 2.66 at a full 2x squeeze. What I would do is prepare the squeeze in the digital master. Take your 2.40:1 Cropped HD and Stretch it up by a factor of 2 in after effects or something similar so that your final image is nearly square, 1.2:1. Make sure the remaining area of the monitor is black. If you can use a monitor that is higher than full HD resolution it would be good, but probably not a big deal when going to 16mm. Shoot with a standard lens, centered on the gate, there will be a slight amount of black at the sides, but will conform to scope. This will give you the option of making a 16mm print with sound that could be shown with an anamorphic lens, or do the blow-up to standard 35mm anamorphic full gate.

Good luck, and let us know if it works out.
 
Celco flm recorders use a CRT and a Mitchel - they get very good resualts... they expose red then green then blue, advance a frame, expose again... 144,000 times... we had constant mantainince issues with ours, keeping the CRT alligned is a constant battle, the Arri Lazer is very popular in ppart due to it's stability and speed, there is little to give between a neg shot with Celco and a lazer when seen back to back, i have AB'd them

CRT has advantages over LCD, mainly in displaying blacks accuratly, all LCD's have very poor contrast, the reusalting print would be pretty poor quality

Can you beg, borrow, or steal an OLED?
 
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