Motion Picture Film Scanning System
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Telecine vs. Scanning |
Telecine is Dead! |
“Film is alive and well but traditional telecine is dead!”
— Blackmagic Design
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Moore's law in computing performance and storage capacity has made the traditional
telecine model obsolete and is quickly being replaced by the file-based workflow.
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Telecine
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Slow:
- Multiple passes (lo-res for dailies, hi-res for final edit, grading and effects).
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Fast:
- Single hi-res pass for HD dailies, final edit, grading and effects.
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Marginal Quality:
- Film handled twice, increasing chance of damage.
- Poor film alignment (edge-guided).
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Best Quality:
- Film handled once, reducing chance of damage.
- Precision pin-registered film alignment.
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Expensive:
- Complex and costly video equipment, operators and gurus.
- Linear workflow wastes resources and time.
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Inexpensive:
- Easy-to-use, low-cost, off-the-shelf PC equipment without need for experienced operators or gurus.
- Non-linear workflow maximizes resources and saves time.
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Real-time vs. Reel-time
The real-time or near real-time speeds of telecine equipment do not compensate for the actual time spent grading, which requires constant starting, stopping, and rewinding — effectively marrying the colorist to the telecine.
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Scanning the film once to high resolution files divorces the colorist from the ingest device allowing the grading to occur in "reel-time" (offline and concurrently). In this regard, scanning is faster than telecine.
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