Apple Cinema Tools 4 - Manual (Page 155)

About Interpositives
Because the original footage is negative, the whole film must be printed from negative
images in order to result in a normal, positive film image. This means you want your
opticals to be negative when they are spliced into your original camera negative. The
optical lab typically uses a low-contrast film print (of the relevant parts of the original
camera negative) called an interpositive as the raw source footage from which to assemble
the opticals. After the opticals are assembled from the interpositive, they are printed as
optical negatives that can be spliced into the original camera negative.
Usually, before the final interpositive is created, one or more trial prints are made with
the guidance of a color specialist to find the proper combination of exposure and color
balance.
Note: In some cases, when opticals need a very stable image (as with images behind
text), a registration interpositive is required. Registration interpositive printing minimizes
unwanted lateral film motion in the optical printer gate. The optical lab will tell you when
a registration interpositive is needed.
Contact Printing vs. Optical Printing
Choosing between contact printing and optical printing depends on several factors. The
good news is you can have some effects created one way and others another way. Here
are factors you may want to weigh:
• Saving original footage: Contact printing requires the original camera negative to be
cut and spliced. Optical printing essentially results in a new negative being made, so
the original footage can be used again elsewhere.
• Previewing: If your transitions are printed on a contact printer, you don’t have the
option of seeing the finished transitions before the negative is cut, but if they are
printed optically, you do. After they are printed, transitions and motion effects may not
appear exactly as they did within your digital editing system. If you want to know
exactly how a transition is going to appear in the finished film, have it made optically
before finalizing the cut. Then, transfer the optical to video. You can edit the transferred
optical into your digital program to see how it will look.
• Cost: If you have standard-length transitions and there are a lot of them, it will probably
cost less to have them printed on a contact printer.
Although optical printing has the advantage of resulting in a new negative being made
that you can edit into your digital program to see how it looks and include in your cut
list, the optical’s negative must first be transferred to video at an additional cost.
It’s a good idea to compare quotes for having your transitions printed in different ways.
155 Chapter 9 Editing with Final Cut Pro