Yeah.  Also, is it just me, or does it seem slightly cropped? At least in the second to last shot.

bkev said:

is it just me, or does it seem slightly cropped? At least in the second to last shot.

Yeah, I'm finding this film is harder to grab the complete frame from other films I've done.  I need to take a close look at this one side-by-side with some other regular 16mm films.

I'm not using the sniper, I'm using the WorkPrinter-16.  Regarding the cropping, I just traded a couple of emails with Roger at moviestuff, and it would appear that I may need to get a larger gate for the unit for the anamorphic film.  It's a wee bit costly if they install it - I will first do some research to see if I can construct (and install) it myself.

By the way, I prepared a film clip of the first 15 or so minutes of the film, with better aspect ratio and some other minor correction.  It came out great, but the cropping is now bugging me enough that I'm going to get this gate thing resolved before proceeding.  Then I'll start over and recapture everything again. I'll post my progress as I learn more...

Large amounts of cropping aside, I'd be interested in seeing how the raw capture turned out.  Can you still post that clip?

fantastic stuff.  I am so excited about this Puggo.

bkev said:

Large amounts of cropping aside, I'd be interested in seeing how the raw capture turned out.  Can you still post that clip?

Sure, I suppose I could.  Give me something to do while I'm awaiting resolution on the gate.  Of course I'm not going to post an uncompressed .avi on my web server.  So, y'all prefer .wmv, mpeg-2, or ?

mpeg personally.

I use mpeg-4 compressed avis myself, but it don't matter to me.

animated gif!

Ok, it seems there's no getting around having the upgrade done to the workprinter.  It means a delay (and another chunk of change), but without it the cropping is too severe.  I'll keep everyone posted.

In the meantime, any suggestions for free tool(s) for converting .avi to mpeg4?

Bobocop said:

animated gif!

 *snort!*

Funny!

Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:

In the meantime, any suggestions for free tool(s) for converting .avi to mpeg4?

Strictly, AVI is a container format, MPEG-4 is a compression standard. You cannot convert one to the other.

What exactly did you want to do? Put MPEG-4 compressed video into an AVI file?

Moth3r said:

What exactly did you want to do? Put MPEG-4 compressed video into an AVI file?

No. I would like to post a compressed 10-minute video in a reasonably high-quality format of the readers' preference.

So at the moment you have uncompressed video in AVI format?

My suggestion: get VirtualDub, Xvid (which is an MPEG-4 codec) and the LAME ACM Codec. Load your original AVI into VirtualDub. Set video -> compression -> Xvid and set to a single pass, target quantizer of around 4 (?) (lower quantizer = better quality/larger size). Set audio -> compression > LAME abr around 192kbps.

Now save out a new AVI.

can't wait to see it...

anticipation!!!!!!!!!!!!!

later

-1

Ok!  Thanks Moth3r... I did it according to your instructions:

http://www.hardbat.com/puggo/grandePics.html

The video clip listed at the top of the page is the first 11 minutes of my first stab at a capture.  Please, right-click and save a copy, rather than downloading over and over... I'd rather not pay extra by exceeding bandwidth limits on my account.

You'll notice it's cropped, especially at the top and bottom.

Roger at moviestuff walked me through the process of removing the gate and pressure plate on my workprinter.  Now I'll send it to them so they can grind it out larger.  As a result, I won't be doing any more scanning for a couple of weeks, until I get it back from them.  Then I'll start all over with the larger gate.

Heh, I just noticed it's got the burn marks!

awesome !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

can't wait to see it...

funny, i was just putting up scans from the 35mm version,

and was thinking about this....

excellent work......and when its uncropped...watch out!

later

-1

more, more... i want to watch more.. the whole thing !!!!!!!!!!!!

yeah, i know... we have to wait..

i can't believe you have made this much progress so quickly...

i'm sure the cleaning up portion will take time....

but its cool to see it in its raw form..

later

-1

Have you physically cleaned the film because it looks scratched to hell like it was played in a misaligned projector thirty times.  I wonder what your friend paid for this print, probably thousands of dollars.  I have seen screen grabs from the derann 8mm scope that looked in better shape.  Too bad they don't make it anymore since their negative broke and their license expired.  Your print looks about on par in sharpness and colors with your super8mm project.  Great Quality for a fan project.  But not near gout quality as you have said previously.  The only thing that will put it above the gout to me is the mono mix and anamorphic not letterbox.  and letterbox prints do exist out there.

So is this like a Military or hospital print or a very bad 16mm dupe off the 35mm?

Some of those foreign markets back in the day had 16mm bootleg prints.

Anyhow not to discourage you keep up the good work!

Too bad the Film Telecine Labs would not touch this and if they did it would be expensive as hell.  Still would a rank wetgate transfer get finer detail, i'm not sure.

Damn Lucas, warner bros developed a process To restore Technicolor films as seen on their breakthrough robin hood transfer.  If Lucas would only do that for star wars i was born in 1978 so i have never been able to see star wars in true technicolor.  I have read about the beautiful dye transfer technicolor prints in 70mm with six track sound and baby boom.  I wish i had a time machine.

One of the VistaVision cameras used on star wars was actually used on the ten commandments.  Supposedly it gives a negative area bigger than traditional 35mm.

Back in the seventies they were not able to ulilize all the sharpness and detail that was in the camera negative and that could be done with modern tech but Lucas is to cheap to pay for it or prefers videogame cutscene like cgi graphics.

The original star wars and Indiana Jones trilogy were so Lovingly created as can be seen in the cinematography, i mean real cinematography not video but film.

skyjedi2005 said:

I wonder what your friend paid for this print, probably thousands of dollars.  I have seen screen grabs from the derann 8mm scope that looked in better shape. 

Your print looks about on par in sharpness and colors with your super8mm project.  Great Quality for a fan project.  But not near gout quality as you have said previously.

Too bad the Film Telecine Labs would not touch this and if they did it would be expensive as hell.  Still would a rank wetgate transfer get finer detail, i'm not sure.

To answer some of your questions...

- I don't think he paid anything for the print(s).  I think he is borrowing them from a friend of his who has had them for a long time.

- The film IS scratched, particularly at the beginning, and as I warned everyone all along there's no way it was going to compete with the GOUT.  I can't imagine anyone would seriously think that a Workprinter dub of a used 16mm could on any level approach a high-end transfer of a pristine 35mm film, which is what the GOUT is (despite the problems piled on later).

- A wetgate transfer would surely help with the scratches, but it's not going to improve the sharpness, color, or fading in the film.  And reel 2 is even more faded.

- Despite its flaws, I do think it looks considerably better than the 8mm scans.  A clean, new Derann print might be better, I don't know because I've never seen one. Rather I should clarify, a Derann print might look better projected - but scanned probably not.  Live projections generally always look better than telecine grabs.

- I have not yet cleaned the film.  Will do that before making the final scan.  I may also clean the Swedish print and recapture the audio.  But you know, there's only so much that can be coaxed out of an older 16mm film.  If nothing else, hopefully this 11-minute preview is helping to keep expectations in check.