New: Speed Accurate Movie Film Transfers

 

You probably know, movie film is simply a strip of film with hundreds (thousands) of tiny still pictures called frames. In a projector those pictures are magnified on the screen in quick succession, creating the illusion of motion, and the faster they run, the more lifelike it seems. When we digitize movie film, we're converting all that into a series of digital pictures that play over time, aka video.

A primary issue when transferring movie film is frame rate. Video typically runs at 30fps (frames per second), but...

• 16mm and Super 8 sound films run at 24 fps
• Silent Super 8 runs at 18fps
• Regular 8 and Silent 16mm run at16fps

When transferring film to video, none of these rates are multiples of each other.

Some transfer machines will shoot "frame by frame," taking a picture of each frame of film, then they translate it frame-by-frame 30fps for video. This leads to fast-animated motion, looking like Keystone Cops.

For 24fps film the "3-2 pulldown" method has been used forever using interlaced video. Interlacing divides film frames into two "fields," so a cadence of 2 fields followed by 3 fields yields accurate speed. This takes special equipment. On video it yields what is called the "film look," because it lacks the smooth fluid motion of live video.

In the past, to keep near-accurate speed for silent 8mm and 16mm, we would slow them down to 15fps using the "2-2 pulldown" method and motion blur to eliminate frame rate mismatch artifacts.

But now, thanks to a software improvements, we're able to deliver 16, 18 and 24fps digital video, frame by frame, without having to convert it to 30fps!  You will get truly frame accurate MP4 or AVI (source) files to preserve your memories as they were intended to be seen.*

And don't forget the other Advent Digitizing advantages:

• You get the compressed HD MP4 file for use in your media player PLUS a robust frame-by-frame SOURCE file to future-proof your investment
• Your films do NOT go through a projector.** Our optical transfer machine can't jam, tear or burn film, even if there are bad splices or torn sprocket holes.
• Your films are transferred in HD or 2K resolution 
• We can capture images "between the sprockets" if the camera exposed the entire film width
• You have the option for letterboxed 4:3 or cropped full-screen 16:9 aspect ratios.
• And we transfer sound films, both optical and magnetic.

Get an estimate today!

*Excluding transfers to optical disc for playback on set-top disc players. DVD is 30fps interlaced SD. Blu-Ray may be HD at 30 or 24fps..
**Magnetic sound film requires a pass through a projector to extract sound. Optical sound can be extracted digitally.

---

---