Originally posted by: mcfly89
Good ol' fashioned telecine:
Get a Sony Z1 HDV camera ($5,000), a good computer with an HD card, RAID, and a couple terabytes (several thousand $). Set up the camera on a tripod, project the print on a small, clear screen, run component HD out of the camera (uncompressed) into the computer, and then do cleanup in post.
Cheaper version:
If you can't do uncompressed, you can record in HDV mode (25 Mb/s MPEG2 in HD) and it'll only take up less than 30 GB and still look great. This doesn't need to cost a lot--I'm sure we could find someone with a 35mm print and coerce him or her into letting us shoot it.
I must have overlooked something, so feel free to put your two cents in. I don't think we'll get the OOT in HD, and the longer we wait, the longer the prints will deteriorate. I think a solid bootleg with a 3-chip HD camera and some fixes in post would look fantastic. Especially compared to laserdisc.
Good ol' fashioned telecine:
Get a Sony Z1 HDV camera ($5,000), a good computer with an HD card, RAID, and a couple terabytes (several thousand $). Set up the camera on a tripod, project the print on a small, clear screen, run component HD out of the camera (uncompressed) into the computer, and then do cleanup in post.
Cheaper version:
If you can't do uncompressed, you can record in HDV mode (25 Mb/s MPEG2 in HD) and it'll only take up less than 30 GB and still look great. This doesn't need to cost a lot--I'm sure we could find someone with a 35mm print and coerce him or her into letting us shoot it.
I must have overlooked something, so feel free to put your two cents in. I don't think we'll get the OOT in HD, and the longer we wait, the longer the prints will deteriorate. I think a solid bootleg with a 3-chip HD camera and some fixes in post would look fantastic. Especially compared to laserdisc.
Couple of problems.
1) Finiding a 35mm projector that you can fire onto a small screen.
2) Your ANSI Contrast Ratio drops through the floor by filming the projected image, so a *lot* of detail is completely lost.
3) The Sony records an interlaced image, the film moves in the gate between fields so every frame will have interlace 'stepping' problems. You will need to re-align all of the fields in post. Not impossible but problematic. You will also need to stabilise the footage unless using a pin registered projector.
4) You could use a Decklink HD card - does the sony actually put out 4:4:4 uncompressed via RGB or component? I really didn't think it did.
5) You will get a turdload of frames with the shutter in shot - you would have to replace or remove the shutter in the projector - you would still get thousands of frames that are 'inbetween' frames.
6) "Do a cleanup in post." Sounds easy when it is put that way, but cleaning up 170,000 frames of HD takes a bit of work. Film is *dirty* and even if professionally cleaned is still *dirty* and pretty much unwatchable on TV, especially in HD. Once again, can be done, but is a hell of a lot of work.
7) Exposure. This is the biggy, there is no way to capture anywhere near the full exposure range in a single pass using a projector and a camera, multiple passes would have to be shot, aligned and merged (similar to the HDR process used by photographers) to get an even remotely acceptable exposure.
8) The projector will also need the gate widened if it isn't already.
You could end up with something usable, it may be better than the OUT release even, but this method would be unlikely to even come close to the official DVD release.
But hey, if you can find someone with the projection equipment and a good print, give it a go with HDV, there is nothing to lose except buckets of time if you already have the camera.