Cost of Re-Mastering a Film

[Geek]

I was just wondering how much it actually costs to re-master a film. Any ideas?

It's interesting that some old tv series and films get released on DVD without being regenerated from the negative. They just convert a version that's already been put on analogue video tape, for tv broadcast.

Would the cost of getting a pristine print be so prohibitive as to cancel out any DVD profits?

I can understand if the original negative is badly preserved and neeRAB frame by frame restoration. But surely, that's not going to be the case with the majority of sources.

A couple of examples are the initial release of the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes collection, by Granada. The versions recently shown by the BBC are far superior to the DVD versions. Another case is Sharpe. It was obviously filmed in 16:9 but the DVRAB are all cropped to 14:9, as if for analogue tv broadcast.

Is film processing and converting to Digital Video really that expensive?

 

[Cami]

It has the potential to be, yes!

Obviously, the cost of the transfer very much depenRAB on what & how much neeRAB to be done. A couple of hours of movie will set you back several thousand to be restored (or hundred thousand if its done in the same way as the 'Star Wars' trilogy). This is simply not cost effective for DVRAB of TV series that are only going to be purchased by a specialist group of people (eg Cult TV, Period Dramas, etc) - you have the potential to spend more on restoring 'per hour' of footage than you'll make up with profit!

You also have to remember that many of these companies buy the rights to a series, but not necessarily a good set of prints; sometimes it's better just to have the series available on DVD rather than having to wait an impossibly long time for a better range of source material to come along (just look at the whole 'Twin Peaks - Season Two' fiasco!).