Digital media storage and the rise in the popularity of high definition digital filmmaking, most filmmakers want to store their movies in a digital format. While shooting on film reels is an age old method that is still preferred by several renowned filmmakers, its advantages lie in its lack of stored data. Digital formats can store higher qualities of data with the advantage of quality and visual enhancements that can be done later during editing. Newer and more eager filmmakers often consider film transfers to be a task as easy as burning a disk, however the reality is the exact opposite. Thanks to modern technology, scanning the film to digital media is done entirely by high quality equipments and specialized machines that do a frame by frame conversion of physical film reels to digital media. Nevertheless, the whole conversion process is a complex process that requires detailed technical knowhow and acute skills and experience in media editing. Given below are the various steps that must be taken when converting media from Film to DVD.
Organizing the Reels
It is the work of an editing professional to properly organize the reel in order of appearance in a movie. While most boxes and reels are marked according to the dates they were processed, in worst case scenarios, it becomes impossible to organize the reels. One might need to take the reels and examine them closely with a magnifying glass in order to arrange the reels in order. Any wrongly marked and organized reel can result in a scene appear at an incorrect time on the DVD. Damaged reels also need to be cut and repaired by the editing personnel before marking it up for conversion.
Choosing The Film Process
Choosing the correct film process will determine the quality and sharpness of the picture in the movie. Due to the lack of professional equipment, DIY editors will always face problems with the expected picture quality. When working with professionals, it is wiser to choose the highest quality process to get the best looking DVD, Blu Ray or digital file. While the higher quality processes can be expensive, the quality of the film often exceeds the expectations of film makers.
Choosing The Correct Format
The various file formats for digital media are simply, different sized data containers that vary in their ability to contain the various data. Like the size of the reel is largely responsible for the quality of the shots, the format largely affects the quality of the movie. Simple storage format can contain basic data but can deprive the user from several navigational and seeking functions. There is a major difference between the amount of data stored in a DVD format and the data stored in a Blu Ray or other High Definition formats. The format must be carefully chosen according to the intended use. Choosing more than one format can serve a variety of purposes and can run on the various media playback devices.
Quality and Visual Enhancements
Like filming, editing is an art and the quality of your movie highly depends on your editor. Several filmmakers choose to shoot the movie on film and later convert it into digital format. Digital media can be easily edited by professional and also adds the possibility of adding or removing the various visual elements for a desired look. Shooting on films provide the filmmakers with more high quality capture of scenes while maintaining a more real time visual. An editor must be careful to not over enhance the picture quality that it loses the real time visual effects and authenticity.
Converting a Film to DVD appears as a simple task, but requires acute editing skills and experience in the field. Keeping the above points in mind while editing can often help you achieve the desired results. However, it is highly recommended to hire the services of professionals in order to transfer your movies from physical films to digital media.
Author Bio:
Luke Peters is an avid fan of cinema and likes watching international cinema. He is the content contributor for several websites and blogs related to film making, editing and likes to keep up to date with the latest news and reviews in the industry.