Recording Film on Video

Many 16mm films are destined to be shown on video. If you have to prepare video copies of a film you have cut, how should you go about it? If you have finished cutting and the master film has been matched to your edited cutting copy, you can ask the laboratory to print the master on a low-contrast telecine stock. That print and your master magnetic final mix recording can then be laced up on a telecine projector and recorded on videotape. If you only want one cassette copy, the image from the telecine machine can be recorded directly on to it. If you are likely to require a number of copies it is best to make a video master on broadcast quality tape. That tape can then be used for making subsequent video copies, which will be cheaper than having to pay for telecine time whenever you want a video copy. Asking for a low-contrast copy is quite important. Video equipment does not like extreme contrasts, and if you use a contrasty print designed for optical projection on a telecine machine the resulting tape will not look as good as it will if the film original is printed on a low-contrast stock designed for telecine use.

Videos from 16mm negatives

It is equally practicable to record a video copy directly from a 16mm negative. If the negative is of good quality the resulting video image should be superb, and for that reason many television programmes and documentaries are now produced in this way. When it has been processed, the 16mm original negative is laced up on telecine and projected on to a master videotape. That tape can then be edited with the aid of either a 16mm cutting copy or a video cassette. When editing has been completed the tape master can be electronically matched to the edited copy using a process known as Electronic Film Conforming (EFC).

Recording film on video
16 mm positive (A) or negative (B) can be recorded with master magnetic sound (J) via telecine (C) on to a master videotape (D). Titles or special effects can be added electronically to the master tape (E). From the master video copies can be made either on one-inch broadcast quality videotape (F) or on high-band cassette (G) or low-band cassette (H).