May / 2003

technical notebook
Film Origination on a Doc Budget . . . one more thing

by Richard Stringer csc

Last month I wrote an article (From Russia . . . with Film) about how to make film origination possible on a documentary budget. I forgot to mention one technique which helped cut costs with synching rushes. Before non-linear computer editing, when tape-to-tape was in fashion, film rushes always had to have the sound married to the picture to give a final sync sound result on the tape. This involved time-code slating or specialty systems like the Aaton time-code format and this would cost extra for the lab to sync the sound to the picture.

What we did with Letters from Karelia was shoot the old fashioned way — we used to call it “crystal sync” — camera and sound running at perfect speed with a clapper board or beep slate for a reference point. We even used a non-time-code DAT for the Russia shoot. We transferred the picture MOS so no extra lab charges were incurred for sync up. Then Kelly Saxberg, the director and editor, digitized the sound and lined up the sync points or clapper slates to match the picture. She said it was easy to do, certainly simple to deal with in production, with no complex equipment and she saved money along the way.

Right now I am applying simple methods like that to a corporate film that Toronto’s Prisma Light is producing for Scotiabank. This is a film shoot that will take place in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Barbados, and Mexico. I am using Kodak’s new 7218 Vision2 stock. I started to look into Aaton time code because Mark Wright, the director, wanted to start and stop the interview camera unobtrusively to save stock and get only the salient points on camera. But I realized the technology would get very complex, require extra gear and the post facility would have to do the sync up at increased cost. Prisma Light was trying to sell the idea of film origination but could only achieve this through economic practices.

So I decided not to get caught up in technology. Like my Russian shoot, we will use simple gear — actually the sound recordist, John Martin, will use his old 1/4” Nagra. He will be running in perfect crystal speed with my Aaton. We will use a efficient beeper slate for B-roll shooting.

But how will the director get his unobtrusive start and stop on the interviews? I will give Mark Wright a camera on-off switch. When he feels he wants to get a statement on camera, he will start the camera. When he has what he wants he will signal me to tail slate. Then I will take the beeper slate up to the viewfinder eyepiece and push the button; the device will emit a bright light,. This will fog the film and at the same time a beep goes to the tape. This is a similar device to the Arri BL bloop light of yesteryear, which fogged the film at start-up and sent a beep down the “pilotone” cable (before crystal sync).

So the pictures are transferred MOS, then the sound will be digitized to the computer and the staff editor will do the synching at a reasonable internal cost. And no difficult-to-read time-code slate to deal with!

In this day and age, when technology can become very complex and costly, I like to be able to think back, remember techniques from simpler times and put them to good advantage in today’s production world.

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