warning: kahl film

[mattias]

i'm so pissed off right now i can hardly type. got my transfer back from kahl film in germany today...

i payed for an "mk3 transfer with scene by scene color correction." what did i get? something that looks like a normal film chain transfer, complete with really bad latitude and *really* severe frame blending. and color correction? can you believe thay actually tweaked the color on the fly, often in the middle of the shots? and for several seconds back and forth, before they finally get it right just in time for the next shot to start.

and what's even worse, they apparently lost a loop or something on the last roll, because it's jumping and rolling all over the place. what the fuck? and i had to wait three weeks for this? i've written an angry letter already, and i assume they will give me a new transfer and/or my money back. idiots. if they only knew how much damage i can do to their business by simply posting stuff like this and just spreading the word among the dozens of filmmakers i hang out with...

/matt

[This message has been edited by mattias (edited November 07, 2001).]

[mattias]

by the way, does this sound normal to you? did i expect too much, considering they were rather inexpensive. still didn't sound too good to be true at $120 for 20 minutes though. they must have used the wrong scanner, right? they do offer a much cheaper telecine service too, called "optical transfer with simultaneous color correction." this must be what they've given me by mistake, right? i'm just really confused right now...

/matt

[Matt Pacini]

Yeah, I've had the same thing happen, though not with them.
It was a company in the Bay Area (Calif.)
But, in addition to what happened to you, they trimmed like 10-20 frames off the end of each of my 400ft rolls, spliced them onto a big reel to make it easier to transfer (I guess), then took them apart, and trashed the missing frames!
This, after I told them, and wrote on HUGE red letters on the work order to not do anything to the film in any way, even if the film broke, to NOT try to splice it, etc., because this was a feature film, not Uncle Joe's first communion home movie, or whatever, and that every frame counted, because the audio had to by synced, etc.
This was to be a "temp transfer" until I got money for a rank, so I could start editing.
(Kind of the scenario Roger invisioned for the Workprinter).
I was so pissed.
It's the only time in my life that I actually put a stop payment on a check.
I didn't know what happened until I got home.
Unbelievable.

Maybe it's the German's revenge for WWII


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[mattias]

> Maybe it's the German's revenge for WWII

it's actually soccer these days. swedish coach + english players = worst german embarrasment ever. anyway, they haven't replied to my email yet, and they usually reply to everything within a couple of hours. great problem solver: ignore and it will go away?

/matt

[Prop]

..thats bad stuff, planned to use these gyes...do they manage to develop proparly?

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[mattias]

> thats bad stuff, planned to use these gyes...

don't. definitely don't. they haven't replied to my emails *yet*. i'm giving them another day before i call them. i'm a bit hesitant though, since i did call them once before all this and got the feeling their english isn't good enough to handle a complicated discussion like this, and neither is my german. well, we'll see what happens.

> do they manage to develop proparly?

probably. i'm sure they usually do great work, since they have (had?) a good reputation. the problem here is that they won't admit they made a mistake, or reply to my letters at all for that matter...

/matt