Apple Cinema Tools 3 - Manual (Page 132)

132 Chapter 7 Editing
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 transition 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. In addition, with
opticals it’s ideal to have them transferred to video, which is another expense, so you
can capture them and create a new cut list. It’s a good idea to compare quotes for
having your transitions printed in different ways.
 Length: Contact printing requires that the length of the transition be one of a set of
standard lengths, while optical printing does not. Cinema Tools identifies the set of
standard lengths for 24 fps or 23.98 fps media as 16, 24, 32, 48, 64, and 96 frames in
duration. Cinema Tools identifies the set of standard lengths for 29.97 fps or 30 fps
media as 20, 30, 40, 60, 80, and 120 frames in duration. (Be sure to check with your
contact printer about the standard lengths they require for different frame rates.)
UP01101.Book Page 132 Thursday, March 10, 2005 3:16 PM