From: Anna Biller (email suppressed)
Date: Thu Apr 07 2005 - 13:29:22 PDT
I did subtitles on a 16mm 25 minute film. It was expensive! I did it
the traditional way, as an optical. I made the subtitles on a computer,
black titles on white, then shot them on black film with transparent
lettering (I forget what those are called. The film is big, each sheet
is like 9" x 12"- I think it's called line film?), then shot those on
an an optical printer, made the subtitles a c-roll, and had to get an
interpositive and an internegative in order to print the film.
The two really big bummers were, the student that I hired to help me
shoot on the optical printer reversed the order of some of the cards
because I think he was stoned or something, and I went ahead and paid
the lab for an interpositive and an internegative for the whole film
with the wrong titles. I hadn't ordered a check print because I was
trying to save money. Then I had to reshoot them and pay for it again,
plus pay the loser student again. The second big bummer was, the loss
of generation really showed up in the final print, so much so that I
thought it ruined the whole quality of the print. So, since only the
first 5 minutes or so needed subtitles, I re-cut the negative so that
the interpositive and internegative were only functional for the first
5 minutes, then had the rest printed from the original neg.
I'm working on a film now where I was looking into doing some special
effects digitally, and the cost of a high resolution scan to digital
and back to film, even with my discount at the lab, was staggering.
They told me that an optical is still the cheapest way to go.
I was a student when I went through this harrowing subtitle experience,
and one of my teachers was furious at me for writing something that had
to have subtitles, because he said I didn't realize what I was getting
into. But in the end, I took out more student loans, finished the film,
and never looked back. I think it's possible to do it affordably, if
you are able to beg for favors and discounts from labs, and not make a
lot of mistakes like I did.
On Apr 7, 2005, at 12:30 PM, ev petrol wrote:
> I've a 25 min 16mm flick that needs subtitling - any advice on how to
> go about it? laser / abc rolling / optix ... anyone have good/bad
> experience to share?
>
> thanks! moira t
>
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