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Author Topic: Print Cost?
Brett G. Sherris
Film Handler

Posts: 36
From: Northport, NY 11768
Registered: Jan 2006


 - posted 01-11-2006 03:33 PM      Profile for Brett G. Sherris   Author's Homepage   Email Brett G. Sherris   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Gentlemen:

I'm new 'round these parts, so please excuse an ignorant question, but...

How much does it cost - in terms of lab fees & materials - to produce the average 2 hour release print?

Thanks,
B.

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99


 - posted 01-11-2006 04:53 PM      Profile for Brad Miller   Author's Homepage   Email Brad Miller       Edit/Delete Post 
Approximately (give or take) $1000 for an average print run. I believe it gets less with more quantities and most certainly gets more expensive with lower quantities.

Your mileage may vary depending on raw stock, time restrictions, a particular lab's pricing, etc.

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James Pope
Film Handler

Posts: 31
From: world wide web, USA
Registered: Mar 2002


 - posted 01-23-2006 03:34 PM      Profile for James Pope   Author's Homepage   Email James Pope   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Film stock varies from .08 to .14 a foot depending on brand, which lab there printing at (where in the world.. the Tialand lab is the cheapest for bothe Deluxe and Technicolor) and quality plus they do give breaks for duping more prints. A 35mm print has 16 frames per foot so thats 1.5 feet per sec (24 frames a sec) x60 = 90 feet per min x 120 min movie = 10,800 feet plus lead in/out just under 11,000 feet of film Say at the average .12 a foot $1,320 for a complete duped print

But if your talking about
quote: Brett G. Sherris
to produce the average 2 hour release print?
Then your talking about making a Oringinal a inner positive and a answer print which is where the major price of making a film print comes from but once you get to the answer print you can dup 500 or so prints saftly from it.

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000


 - posted 01-24-2006 08:03 AM      Profile for John Pytlak   Author's Homepage   Email John Pytlak   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: James Pope
Film stock varies from .08 to .14 a foot depending on brand.
The list price of 35mm Kodak VISION Premier Color Print Film 2393 is less than $0.10 USD (10 cents) a foot. Kodak VISION Color Print Film 2383 list price is less than 9 cents per foot.

Labs are able to somewhat offset the cost of processing by the silver they recover from the film.

quote: James Pope
Then your talking about making a Oringinal a inner positive and a answer print which is where the major price of making a film print comes from but once you get to the answer print you can dup 500 or so prints saftly from it.

The "answer print" is made from the original cut negative. Pricing is relatively high, as it includes the scene-to-scene timing by a skilled color timer.

Once the scene-to-scene timing of the answer print is approved by the director and cinematographer, the lab makes a master positive (interpositive) on Kodak VISION Color Intermediate Film. Multiple duplicate negatives are made from the master positive, which can then be sent to labs around the world for release printing:

Here is an interactive tutorial about the "image chain" and film printing:

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/support/imageChainDetect.shtml

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000


 - posted 01-29-2006 06:43 AM      Profile for Leo Enticknap   Author's Homepage   Email Leo Enticknap   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
The biggest variable is the size of the print run. The more prints you're striking, the more the cost of timing, negative cutting, striking intermediate elements etc. is amortised over each final release print. Each print of a 90-minute blockbuster feature which has 10,000 copies struck might cost as little as $500-600. On the other hand, when a single new print of Seven Samurai was struck for a film festival last year (one-off print, individually timed from an archival interneg, black-and-white, 10 reels long and with lasered subtitles), I gather that the lab bill came to UK£7,500.

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Jerry Axelsson
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 107
From: Stockholm, Sweden
Registered: May 2005


 - posted 02-03-2006 10:26 AM      Profile for Jerry Axelsson   Email Jerry Axelsson   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
John,

I was surprised to see that Vision Premiere (393) stock is about 1 cent more expensive than the reg. 383 per foot.
I guess quite a lot of films could have looked nicer on 393...

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000


 - posted 02-03-2006 11:26 AM      Profile for John Pytlak   Author's Homepage   Email John Pytlak   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
The KODAK VISION Premier Color Print Film 2393 does have more silver and other emulsion components in it, hence the slightly higher cost. Its maximum density is well over 5.0, capable of a 100,000:1 contrast ratio between white and black.

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Daryl C. W. O'Shea
Film God

Posts: 3977
From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from)
Registered: Jun 2002


 - posted 02-03-2006 12:08 PM      Profile for Daryl C. W. O'Shea   Author's Homepage   Email Daryl C. W. O'Shea   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Jerry Axelsson
1 cent more expensive than the reg. 383 per foot.
I guess quite a lot of films could have looked nicer on 393...

1 cent / foot is at least the yearly salary of an entry level employee in their corporate office for a wide release. It's really not surprising that you don't see more films on 2393.

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