Film into Video (or perhaps too much information)

(Charles)

While Libby is busy reading books and viewing and listening to Fiore on tape (see below), I'm still busy re-synching all the sound to video, which is rather a complex business. The Fiore film was originally shot (back in the 1970s) with cinema in mind, and in those days projection was entirely on film at 24 frames per second, so this is the speed at which we shot the film. Moving into the digital era, all of the original film negative has been telecined to HDCAM digital tape at 25 frames per second, which means that all of the sound, originaly recorded on a stereo Nagra IVS reel to reel tape recorder, must be speeded up to match the pictures. Using a Nagra QSLS synchroniser, which can read the sync pulse on the tape and ensure that it plays back accurately, I'm copying the 7.5 inches per second 1/4" tapes to compact flash cards on a Sound Devices 744T digital recorder. The files on the CF cards (each running at about 22 minutes) are copied onto the computer hard drive, then using Adobe Audition software, I'm speeding them up by reducing the running time of each sound file to 96% of the original, whilst maintaining the original pitch. Having done all this, the files can be imported into my editing software (Final Cut Pro in this case) and then broken down into individual shots, which can then be synched up in the timeline with the appropriate piece of film.