transfer dvx to film for features - can it be done?

T

tuinboy

Member
hi everyone,
i met a cameraman from a local station the other day who said that he had a dvx100 and that he bought it to shoot a feature.
he said that the way to shoot on a dvx if you want to make a feature and blow it up to show on a big movie screen is to do the following:
shoot the entire production on a dvx (or as many as you need) in 25p with no letterbox or squeeze, edit it all down so that you have a completed film, then transfer it to film (16mm or 35mm). i don't know enough about this stuff to know if this is even possible 'he kept saying, 'lay the completed film down on film stock'. then once the entire film has been 'laid down' on film stock it goes through the normal process of grading and then whatever it is that they do to a completed, graded film on 35 or 16mm to release it to the theatres.
he said that the quality will be fine and even give that beautiful, old film look with a bit of grain in it when shown on a big (movie) screen.
he reckons that one should spend money on lighting and follow the procedure above and you'll be fine.

IS THERE ANY TRUTH TO ANY OF THIS?

Thanks in advance and i apologise if this question has been asked before (i searched everywhere to try and find the answer).

cheers
tuinboy
 
Many films have been shot on the DVX and shown in the big screen. Two of them have won "Best Cinematography" awards at Sundance, and two of them have been nominated for Oscars in the "Best Documentary" category. So of course it can be done.

Won't looks as sharp as HD or 35mm but it'll most likely look plenty good enough for most folk.
 
If you want a better image then the Dvx id recommend a HVX200.
the hvx200 has 24fps as well as other frame rates. If your outside of the states then you'll find HVX202en and HVX200E these shoot 25fps.

I guess it truly depends on what it is your shooting and how you want to present it.
 
i looked into this a while back at a dv to film transfer house and they recommended shooting anamorphic footage for the best transfer to film. cuz they have to stretch the image anyway to fit it onto 35mm film. so squeeze would be the best way to shoot.
 
A friend of mine spent $20k on shooting a feature on a Varicam in 720p and spent an additional $60k to put it on 35mm film for Sundance. Believe me it's not worth the expense to put it on film. I recommend a uprez to HDCAM for festivals it'll save you lots of $$$$$.

DV to HDCAM - to create the Interpositive which creates internegative to get the final print. IF you poo poo up or don't like it you have to eat the cost of printing again. $$$$

I'd shoot the feature in SD and stay in SD and hope netflixs picks you up or stay on DVD.

If you haven't shot the feature yet I recommend the HVX 720p primarily because of its 100mbit record rate and which is awesome for uprez to 1080 for projection.
 
oh ya its expensive, i wouldnt pay for it, i would just shoot in a way that it could be done if it ended up being the next blair witch and were picked up by a big distributor. also, sundance uses digital projection now. so no need for film there.
 
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