Our philosophy here is simple – we want to make shooting Super 8 as easy and fun as it was back in the 70s – when you could shoot a cartridge of Kodachrome, process it at a drug store, then take it home and spool it up on your projector.
To achieve this simplicity, we have done away with the hourly rates, minimum fees and other annoying charges that other transfer houses impose and created a simple per-roll pricing structure (based on 50-ft rolls):
One Light Transfer (not available for negative film): $25/roll
Scene to Scene Color Balance: $35/roll
Shot by Shot Secondary Color Correction: $40/roll
Just because we have simplified the process doesn’t mean that we have cut any corners. Our transfer process has been designed to create a high quality image that rivals the best transfer houses, for a fraction of the price:
- Super 8, Regular 8, Double 8, Split 8, we can do it all
- single frame scanning, no flicker or blurring frames
- Wide-gate design allows capturing beyond the film frame, great for Max8 shooting
- 1920×1080 HD capture at Uncompressed 10-bit 4:2:2 color
- Secondary 3-way color correction at 10-bit 4:2:2
- Image Stabilization
- Dirt and scratch removal on old or damaged footage (additional charge) – see example here
To keep our costs down, we have adopted Quicktime files as our primary delivery method. If you would like, you can preview and approve the transfer on our website. After you’ve approved the look of the transfer, we can send you your footage on a hard drive, data DVDs, or you can even download directly from our website. We can send you just about any format you would like from 1920×1080 HD for Broadcast, down to little clips you can email around. But if you still prefer miniDV or DVD, we can do that too (additional charge).
Most 8mm and Super 8 film was/is shot at 18fps. We can give you your files at 18fps if you like, but most edit systems won’t like this and will add duplicate frames to compensate. We can speed up the frame rate to 23.98, add a pulldown for 60i, or use Twixtor to create 23.98 fps footage from 18 by creating new in-between frames. See my Twixtor demo on Vimeo
We also have multiple options for formatting since Super 8 film has a 4:3 aspect ratio and HD is 16:9 -
Raw film in telecine - notice sprocket hole
Cropped to 4:3 aspect ratio for HD
Zoomed in to fill HD frame