Grain Reduction Service for Super-8 Film to Video

[Alex]

I was reading a response post from Nigel under the "Resolution" thread......and it reminded me....

I offer a grain reduction service for any super-8 film transfer to BetaCam SP....

So I'd like to make a special offer to anyone who posts on this site (minimum one post qualifies)

If you have had super-8 footage transferred via rank cintel technology to Beta-Cam Sp, and the footage came out grainer than you wanted....

send me the Original Betacam SP transfer videotape and a NEW piece of Betacam SP stock that is the same length...and I'll send you back a grain-reduced version on the NEW piece of BetaCam SP, along with your original transfer tape.

The first person who responds to this post will get it for free! (up to 30 minutes) as long as you critique the difference between the two on this site.

For purposes of this offer, DO NOT SEND AN EDITED MASTER TAPE...those have to be corrected in a different manner and it takes significantly longer...

Alex

[Nigel]

How much is the grain actually "reduced"? Does it effect the overall quality of the work in any adverse ways? Such as a softening?

[Alex]

I believe there is no softening whatsoever. The "amount" of grain reduced is
variable.

Usually, I find an optimal range somewhere in the middle of the range I have available to me.

Alex



[This message has been edited by Alex (edited January 14, 2001).]

[Matt Pacini]

How exactly do you do this?
I would like to see samples of before & after.
I can't imaging this is possible, unless you're doing a Guassian blur in After FX.
Please explain.

Matt Pacini

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[mattias]

there are several ways of removing grain that don't involve blur, and some that use blur, but carefully choose which areas can be safely blurred without loss of detail. look for names such as median, smart blur and temporal noise reduction in your nle or effects package. these filters work best with video noise and small grain though. i've never been able to successfully remove grain that was larger than the details, common in tri-x and vnf footage.

/matt

[Alex]

Well I found this post from about 7 months ago....thought I'd bring it back to the front.

-Alex

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[Alex]

Roger is correct, it is actually "older" technology.

The reason I don't want to say what it is is because it is completely hardware based, so I am easily replaceable.

However, Nobody else I know has ever saw the value of it and tried it for the purpose of grain reduction for film transfers to video.

So if I am guilty of "painting it yellow"...

.....it's just that when you have spent well over a 100,000 dollars in video gear, and well over a thousand hours of unpaid personal time learning the in's and outs of what various video gear can do, (plus dealing with repair facilities has probably cost me OVER a 1/2 year of my life in terms of time dealing with video repair facilities and the avoidable mistakes that have been made that caused me to go back for redo's....) any little niche you get, you don't necessarily want to just give it away for free.

There was a huge cost of time for me to learn what amounts to a "simple thing".

Because it is almost a real time effect, I would never misrepresent that it takes longer to do the magic, it doesn't.

and frankly, it may not be good enough.

I've done it three times for DP's, twice they were very happy with the result, the third time the contrast range was so huge on the film original, that even though it "looked" better with the grain reduction, he wasn't sure he liked it because ultimately the lighting was not to his liking on the original, so reducing grain on a scene that is ultimately too contrasty becomes a moot point.

Anyway, at this point it's all about feedback anyway.

I'd rather people like what I do first.

If I just tell someone else, and they don't excecute it the way I do, so their result isn't as good, than the concept may get unfairly panned.

-Alex



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[MovieStuff]

Sorry, Alex. I wasn't dissing or trying to devalue your service. I was just trying to point out to Matt that it can be done and that it is a known science; not something you simply made up out of thin air. I re-read my post and it seemed critical, I guess. My apologies. Wasn't meant that way.

Grain reduction is a good thing to have, regardless of how you are doing it. I just was curious what you were using to do it on tape after the fact. I've always employed some amount of grain reduction in my Rank transfers, but not afterward.

Roger

[MovieStuff]

Actually, Rank houses offer grain reduction as a normal part of the transfer process. Old technology and very do-able. The image never looks as sharp to me afterwords, though. Alex, what are you using to process the footage, if you don't mind me asking? Is it real time or does it have to be rendered? Also, some before and after images would be nice to see.

Roger

[Scott Nocella]

This is a nice interaction of personal truths and the reality of spending thousands of dollars on technology to accomplish finished projects. Empathy is an important feeling here since experiencing the pitfalls and triumphs of learning a process on your system is beyond words for those joys and pains.

Sharing and doing financial transactions with one another is do-able, and I feel I would like to see more of it. I see it in communities that I feel are successful in getting beyond it all and respecting each others prices and quality. It can only happen through trying.....when I need something done I will be looking somebody from this forum up. I will need a rank transfer soon enough and want to encourage doing business with one another. It can only strengthen the community when resources are recycled with one another. People need to enjoy the whole interaction. It's a good time for this.

Scott

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