Best practices with the Video WorkPrinter

[Andreas Wideroe]

To all the owners of the great WorkPrinters:

I'd like to discuss with you some best practises concerning the WorkPrinters. I've recently transferred a whole lot of films and I have noticed that underexposed films tend to be redish on skin colours and other colours are more absent (bleak/greyish) than what they normally would be.

How do you guys set your whitebalance? So far I've got the best results whitebalancing my 3CCD videocamera on the light from the bulb; before film is inserted. I belive this must be the most correct way of doing this. Let me know how you get best results!

Another thing I'd like to talk to you about is some sort of automatic film cleaning device attached to the WorkPrinter. I was thinking about making a small device which could hold a soft rubber sponge or a soft piece of cotton which the film must run through. Maybe with a drop of filmcleaner dripping once in a while. Anyone done this?

And last, but not least: Anyone built a closet or a cover for the WorkPrinter and aligned the condensor lense vertically?

Have fun!
/Andreas

[studiocarter]

My camera sits on a pile of books to align it to the mirror. some extra papers are stuffed under one end to point it to the exact spot. Black drapes cover the windows. A box woundn't do as I need to get to the speed dial to adjust it. I'd like to have a permanent setup nailed down tight. Alternately, an adjustable tripod is used for the camera; the tripod has a screw column that raises and lowers the camera tiny amounts and the head may be tilted a little more precisely than the papers allow. Even so, it is easy to bump it out of alignment.

Single frames may be captured in several ways here; Premiere does it; Vid Cap does, too; and the tv card has a snapshot gallery that saves bmps numbered sequentially; I don't know how fast or which is the fastest. avi-io will only capture one single frame then over writes it with the second; VirtualDub doesn't capture single frames. Since this outfit uses Win98SE I can't use the program Jeff Dobson wrote.

How do you capture single frames and how fast does it go?

Michael

[Andreas Wideroe]

My WorkPrinter is placed on a bench I made a few weeks ago and the camera is on a tripod about 1m away from the condensor lense. I'll post a picture later! My windows are covered by a dark grey bed sheet and the WorkPrinter and camera is in another room than my computer, though they are only 1m away from each other. However, this is nice since the WorkPrinter makes a little noise, especially when you're trying to sleep.

I currently capture single frames through Adobe Premiere. I've got Dodcap too and will start experimenting with it soon. I have the WorkPrinter 3 so a 50ft roll takes about 1.5 hours to complete (aprox. 3600 frames) and the filesize I end up with is about 500MB.

/Andreas

[focusgroup]

I have found all underexposed film to be grey and muddy due to loss of detail during exposure.

Re: color issues. I try and time the color balance through commotion or after effects. I dont believe there is a way to get perfect balance on the original telecine. I think thats why the big boys and girls (super 16, 35 etc) hire a good colorist to adjust in post. Actually I do exactly what you have suggested only I use the white leader at the beginning of a roll to white balance adjust.

[Andreas Wideroe]

Yes, that's what I thought. There is one possibilty to alter the colours while WorkPrinting: Putting some sort of a filter infront of the lense of the projector. Don't know how much it will help in either direction, but I'm currently finishing a 35mm still DIAS film that I will try out as filters. I've shot quite a few extreme closeups of different colours. I'm gonna play around with those later.

Actually, what I meant about the whitebalance is not that I whitebalance the white leader, but the light directly from the bulb. Before the White leader or even before the film is inserted. I mean, this is the "light/colour" temperature the film will have, I think. This light projects each frame and should be correct.

I also whitebalanced on the leader in the beginning, but I found much more satisfying results when whitebalancing from the bulb.

[focusgroup]

Interesting - Ill try white balancing to the bulb and see how that works. Actually a slight modification. Perhaps capture a few still frames of the white bulb. Then color correct those first few frames to white in post.

[studiocarter]

Mine has auto white balance so I take what I get. I just let it look at a still frame for a while.
My work printer has a variable speed dial on it. I just counted the clicks in 4 second intervals and got 5 frame captures a second consistantly without any frame smears!!! WOO WOO.
What I did was to capture to the computer and capture on tape at the same time. When the taped capture was played in Premiere I was able to count the clicks in exactly timed cuts. Jumping back and forth to the staart and end cuts, I played the cuts over and over and counted the clicks the work printer made. Finally. A way has been found to count how many frames a second this thing works at.
The computer captured file, showing the same images, had all clear images.
That was not the case before this new mother board and specific configuration. I couldn't get 3 frames clear a second. Now I get 5 and I bet it'll go faster yet!

[focusgroup]

Andreas

An excellent site for all things telecine - http://www.alegria.com/tig3/ (Telecine internet users group)

[Andreas Wideroe]

Thanks for the link. By the way, here is the link to my "WP3" business:

http://www.smalfilm.no (if you press the link "Eksempler" you'll find some still images of transferred film. Currently there's only one, but more will come!)

[MovieStuff]

Wow. Never thought I'd see the day there was a WorkPrinter discussion board. I'm not worthy.

Michael, if you've installed a RAID configuration in your computer, you should be able to capture at the full 6fps speed. However, I really don't know what effect using Win98 will have on your system in terms of speed. Virtually all my clients with RAIDs are using 2000 or XP. Let me know how it goes or if you need any assistance fine tuning the timing on your unit.

As far as dealing with the reflections in the lens, many of my clients will use a mailing tube between the condenser lens and the camera. Some velcro is used at the condenser lens houseing to attach one end of the tube and the other end is sealed on the camera lens using a tube sock with the end cut off. I've never done it but I would imagine it works just great.

If you are inclined to point your condenser lens up, just make sure that you take some new measurements AFTER mounting the condenser lens vertically. Set the entire unit on the floor with your camera mounted on a tripod pointing down. Get perfect aligment and then take your measurements. Usually some wood can be used to make a convenient bracket for the camera mounted to the wall above the unit. In many ways, mounting the camera above is easier as you can scoot the WorkPrinter around for alignment in all directions. Opens up floor space, too. And using the mailing tube is much easier, I hear, if the camera is above pointing down since the tube can just sit on the condenser lens with minimal support.

Keep it up guys! Email me if you need anything.

Roger

[studiocarter]

Yep! It does work at 6 frames per second. It was cranked up all the way the dial goes and not so much as a hick-up. Every frame was clear.

I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo happy.



this system uses a Hi-8 mm video camera, the AIW 128 PRO 32 MB video capture card, Win 98 SE, a KT&A-RAID Athalon 1050 AT 1050, two 7200 30GB hard drives for capture and one more for the programs that is not part of the raid,

Analog at 6 fps

The thing that makes it work is msconfig from Start and Run.
Under Win.ini the last programs like WinZip and below are unchecked, and under Startup everything BUT ScanRegistry, System Tray, and the two Power things are uncheked. That is what makes it work. Also, I right click at the bottom and turn off the clock.

[studiocarter]

Oh, VidCap was used for the frames capture. I found that it was faster than Premiere in previous tests, so it is the first one I used this go round.
It was a free download.

Now, the resulting avi plays too slow. How do I get it to play at the correct speed and not loose any frames?

Michael

[Pedro]

White balance:
for white balance adjustment I would not use the white leader, but a totally overexposed K40 footage, totally transparent. That´s why K40 tends to a slight tone of rose. I don´t know this appears in the result, but I think it is correct to add this to the lamp characteristic rather than the white leader.
Pedro

[Guest]

I've just ordered a Workprinter and so all this is very interesting to me. I've yet to get a camcorder and wondered if anyone has any advice on whether the Sony trv240 would be OK with the Workprinter. I need digita8 as I also have a load of Sony 8 tapes that I also want to edit and put on DVD over time. One thing I'm not sure about is setting the 'exposure' on a camcorder like this. Do you have control or is it totally automatic, and if it is automatic, is this ideal for use with the Workprinter?
Thanks in advance,
Barry.

[focusgroup]

Re: white balance

Respectfully, Im not sure if I totally agree with the white balance suggestion. I have always used white balance in the manner the manufacture has specified. Usually I take a piece of white copy paper with me for reference.

For the heck of it I pointed my dv cam at a light and white balanced. After this adjustment I shot a sheet of white paper and looked at the image through the monitor. It most certainly was not white. White balancing to a piece of paper seemed to give a more accurate rendition. Perhaps its my camera. The closest thing to pure opaque white on the film seems to be the pure white opaque leader.

I guess the bottom line is use your eyes. Sometimes the mood of the film may not call for a "pure white anyhow". Actually I love the look that Woody Allen seems to use in many of his films. Kind of a creamy ochre white balance.