Ektachrome Rank Transfer Observations...

[Alex]

I was recently able to observe the rank transfer of Ektachrome 160 at Film and Video Transfers of Northridge, California.

The Ektachrome film appeared to be out of date...I'm not completely sure it was out of date, but Kodak has been making the new Ektachrome 125 for a couple of years now, and this definitely looked like the older Ektachrome 160.

The Ektachrome film had a yellow cast to it. Perhaps this was because the film was outdated or because the filter was left in?

What made the rank transfer process fascinating was that as the yellow was taken out of the film and the blue color added, additional grain was induced into the picture.

The reason? The ample yellow and minimal blue that resided in the developed Ektachrome film had MINIMIZED the perceived amount of grain because the different colors of grain were not strongly clashing with each other. If the grain is all the same color, the grain won't be as apparent as if there is an equivalent amount of yellow/orange and blue/green grain clashing with each other.

I asked Doug (the Film and Video Transfer Specialist) to make the color less yellow and as close to what might be viewed as normal. Doug has huge adjusting capablilities, which can be both a blessing and a HUGE curse.

The more choice in adjustments you have, the longer it takes, and the greater the possibility that the picture may not be what the client wanted.

As the film regained the normal color spectrum via Doug's sophisticated color-correction, the introduction of the blue color into the Ektachrome image INCREASED the overall perceived grain in the film transfer!

Although there were less yellow tones in the color corrected picture, the newly enhanced blue grainules was now battling the yellow grain, and the result was a noticeable increase in overall grain as the blue and yellow grains swarmed over each other.

I loved the new look, the colors looked real and well balanced, and the grain, in my opinion, enhanced the look. But the client, (who was halfway across the country) had mentioned they didn't want too much grain in their transfer.

So what is a colorist to do?

By making the film accurate from an overall color point of view, the blue gamma will be increased, and the blue grain will be much more noticeable as it clashes against the yellow grain. If the film is kept more yellow, the colorist hasn't really done that much to the picture, but the grain will be less.

Without the client being there, it's a guess.
A terrible way to have do a transfer, and one that usually leads to either the rank colorist or the far away client being unhappy.

[Greg Crawford]

I could not tell if your post is regarding your "All in camera," project done a couple months ago or the New project you were considering doing???

Also Yale offers both a Rank and a cheaper telecine transfer with many of the same color and contrast controls. Which type of transfer did you do?

[Alex]

Neither. I compromised on that one. I re-edited it and have sent it off to various super-8 film festivals.

The Ektachrome was from a fellow forum member.

[Alex]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="verdana, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><font size=2 face="verdana, sans-serif">Originally posted by MikeyB:
Has anyone used this facility for transfers? The Transfer Station the price says only 120/hour for rank transfer of Super 8, which appears to be much less than most of the other labs..doesn't pro8mm charge about 300/hour? Isn't this lab out in your neck of the woods, Alex? Have you ever used them, and was that the price you paid? It seems very affordable..</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

Just thought I'd bump this for Mikey B.

Yes, I consider the price to be an excellent deal.