Ultra 16mm Regular 16mm comparison

This is a comparison of Ultra 16mm and Regular 16mm. Cropped to 16:9 for HD. Shot with the same Arriflex BL. Film processed by Alphacine in WA. Transfer done at Cinelicious in LA By Andy Barr. Compressed to Prorez 422 HQ. Web compression done in Quicktime h.264 1920X1080 at 24P via Final Cut Pro. the film stocks used are marked. From the production of Rockabilly High School.

Directed by Thomas I. Blanchard & J. Winfield Heckert. Shot by J. Winfield Heckert.
Sound by Daniel Murphy.
Starring Alix Garnder and Chris Devitt.
Costumes by
Tammy Morris Monaco
Casting by Nancy Garnder

If you can't afford to buy or rent Super16mm equipment then U16 is the way to go. I bought my Arriflex BL off ebay for only $2500 and had the U16 conversion done by Bernie at super16inc.com for 600.00. I think he is charging $700 now for the Arri conversion. Rockabilly High School is a short film of about 20-30mins in length we have been shooting on weekends spending alot of time on prep and selecting great actors that have donated there time and effort. The people at Alphcine have done a wonderful job processing the film. they where even able to salvage one roll that I screwed up unloading. As far as price they are not a discount Lab but not over priced either. Andy and Paul over at Cinelicious do a wonderful job for $275 an hour for an HD transfer with color correction. The film looks great. beats the pants off $800 an hour Spirit transfer. I have had Pro8mm transfer my films before and was never really happy with the outcome.

We never did dailies for Rockabilly we just had them transfer the film as it was. We may have wasted some cash on scenes we can't use but not as much as we would have wasting time paying $100 an hour for dailes and doing EDLs and like. Since there where pauses in our production we sent 2-3 reels out at a time for processing and transfer. I would check with Alphacine or any lab before having them transfer U16. If the telecine machine is not set up to handle U16 there is every possibility the unit may scratch the film. We have a few scenes left to shoot and I am working on another U16 film called "Virangula" I'm shooting in October for Ashay Javadeker.

If i have one piece of advice its Plan, Plan, Plan, Rehearse, Rehearse, Rehearse and then roll with the punches.

All and all the U16 workflow is great if you can't afford super16mm. super16 opens an world of labs, transfer houses, cameras and lenses and pitfalls and even more debating.