Film laboratory
A film lab or film laboratory is a service center for the film and television industry, which works on behalf of film producers, film distributors and film archives and is responsible for the development, processing and reproduction of footage up to vorführfertigen feature film or broadcast-quality television game. The film lab is usually already involved in the phase of pre-production planning. Its specialists serve the production to the delivery of finished products, usually in the form of theatrical copies of the film distribution.
Modified profile by digitizing
Through two key changes in the feature film and television production and distribution, the demand for the traditional services of Kopierwerke plummeted worldwide. Firstly, the majority of the movies is now no longer listed by film, but digital - while once often thousands were prepared to tens of thousands of copies of a film, to do without many studios in their productions partially complete on the production of copies. On the other hand, in particular rarely used in the production of films film cameras, the majority of production is done digitally. This led to the former market leaders such as Technicolor and Deluxe copying their works closed partially or completely massively reduced, several former competitors merged and anmeldeten other companies, such as Geyer, insolvency.
New services which replace the classical portfolio Kopierwerke often originated outside this, such as the Digital Intermediate.
Responsibilities and Services
- Film development
- Production of sample copies for the production crew and the cutter
- Negative product (" Negativabziehen " ) upon presentation of cut copy
- Production of Tonnegativen by analog or digital masters of recording studios
- Executing tricks with precision copying machines
- Title
- Preparation of intermediate generation, " interpositive " " internegative ", " duplicate negative"
- Color timer
- Production of combined Bildtonkopien for cinema use (see copy generation)
- Scanning of the developed film for analog or digital video, such as the transmission copy for television evaluation
- Services of the Archives Technique: Preparation of endangered material for duplicating and re- copying
The most important service at the film lab is developing the exposed film materials and immediately subsequent production of often only roughly corrected patterns demonstration for producers, directors and cameramen before the shooting the next day.
The processing includes all common black and white and color processes, film formats (35mm normal film, 16 mm cine film, 65/70 mm wide film, Super 8 Home Movie ), including the transferral of a film format to another ( reduction copy or Blow Up ). The importance of the development and processing of reversal materials has significantly decreased since the late 1980s through the computerization of the current coverage of television ( video).
Various professions are responsible for working in a lab. These include, inter alia, specialized professionals such as developers, scribes, lab assistants in the sensitometric and chemical analysis, negative cutter, Filmlichtbestimmer in traditional film lab and colorists in the digital domain, audio professionals, graphic designers, photographers, Trick cameramen and sound and film cutter.
Business
In Austria the only two film lab works are the Listo film and the Synchro Film. In Germany there are in addition to the medium- copy works that are specialized, inter alia, on nitrate film material - such as the ABC & Taunus film lab GmbH - the company ARRI Film & TV Services GmbH and CinePostproduction GmbH CineMedia Film AG (formerly Geyer -Werke ). In Switzerland, there is still a company, Egli Film in Zurich.