Filmmakers, writers, technicians and 8mm film advocates, Bob Brodsky and Toni Treadway have been working together since 1975. We have not retired and have no plans for it, but we are a small, two person film and so are quite careful about which work we schedule.
We do high quality, scene by scene wet-gate transfer of small gauge movie film generally destined for professional productions. We work solely on camera original reversal film in 16mm, 8mm, or Super 8mm gauges. We make video masters on Digital Betacam or Beta SP, in SD NTSC, scene by scene, with wet gate, giving you each scene fully color and density corrected and shown full frame in its original 4:3 aspect ratio. Scenes from our masters have been edited into HD television productions around the world. We offer special handling of selected, shrunken, damaged or deteriorated original, and cam work with unusual sound sources. We do not work on negative, or prints. We work by appointment only, so call Toni to estimate and schedule your work before shipping film. Please scroll down the rest of this page to read the details before calling. We are a very small firm of two people. While we do try to hold time for television producers under deadline, many films do wait in line. Be aware that Toni will often advise you to do triage on your material to choose needed rolls or scenes. Thank you.
Shipping address: (please call first)
Tech assistance: if your film was submerged in a flood.
2005 special announcement: Bob's new book
Historic or artistic frame rates Inspection, Repairs, Hand Cleaning Instructions for producers on selecting and marking shots
Our speciality is very high quality transfers of CAMERA ORIGINAL REVERSAL FILM and only that. We handle Regular or Standard 8mm, Super 8mm and 16mm gauges, including film which is quite shrunken or deteriorated. We do not work on negative filmstock at all and prefer not to work on print material unless you particularly need us to handle a sole surviving copy. We love black & white or color reversal film, especially the venerable, beautiful Kodachrome movie film. We work on motion picture film that is new or old, archival, shrunken, deteriorated or damaged for artists, archivists, and television producers.
Our work is FULLY COMPONENT ANALOG or DIGITAL with SCENE-BY-SCENE COLOR IMPROVEMENTS and CONTRAST CONTROL. We work in Standard Definition as the old movie film we work with was shot in the 1:1.33 aspect ration, or $:3, not in widescreen. We want producers and thier editors to decide in post-production if and how and where to crop the image for widescreen presentaiton. We advocate you consider full frame presentation of historic images with pillar boxing. WE ALWAYS WET-GATE for SCRATCH SUPPRESSION unless by agreement with an artist on his or her hand painted original.
........Brodsky & Treadway.......Our Services in detail...
OUR SERVICES
Bob Brodsky works to REVEAL the DETAILS in REVERSAL FILM which is quite contrasty by nature because it was designed as direct projection material, to be shown in a darkened room.
WHO NEEDS OUR TRANSFER SERVICES?
Top
Who does NOT need our work?
WE make masters on standard definition NTSC, North American broadcast television standard in these formats: BETACAM-SP or DIGITAL BETACAM. This assures that you have a robust medium on the shelf alongside your real treasure, the very durable original film. Your motion picture film, if it is in good condition now and if stored properly (cool and dry) is expected to last centuries longer than current electronic media. Our video masters on Fuji stock will be stable and retrievable for 20 to 30 years at which time your company or family should plan to migrate the contents of the tapes forward to some media not yet invented. Today, you can enjoy copies of the analog or digital Betacam master videotapes that we make, on DVD for sharing with family or friends for home viewing, as window dubs for research, or on mini-DV or DV-CAM to input via Firewire to a computer for desktop editing. Our sister site www.LittleFilm.org has pages of recommendations on how to annotate movies, gather additional information, store original film and access, edit or share the contents of these remarkable little films.
WORK BEGINS WITH VOICE CONTACT
FOR DEFINING, SCHEDULING AND ESTIMATING YOUR NEEDS,
PLEASE CALL Toni Treadway, tel: 978-948-7985 (9-6 EST)
On artists' films, WE CAN RENDER IN DESIGNATED FRAME RATES, VARIABLE FROM 1 TO 24 FRAMES PER SECOND as instructed by the artist or the director.
WE CAN TRANSFER SHRUNKEN OR DETERIORATED ORIGINAL 8mm, SUPER 8 OR 16mm reversal MATERIALS. THIS IS OUR SPECIALITY.
WE TRANSFER SYNC SOUND from "all the usual suspects"
including
SINGLE SYSTEM SOUND-on-FILM
1 track or 2 track or stereo sound on film;
MAGNETIC 8mm, Super 8,
FULLCOAT 8mm, Super 8,
OPTICAL or MAGNETIC 16mm,
FULLCOAT 16mm interlocked, to 16mm picture or to Super 8 picture
and
SOUNDTRACKS FROM OTHER SOURCES
LIKE OPEN REEL AUDIO TAPE, or AUDIO CASSETTE.
We can do sync corrections in the above formats, or you can in post.
We work by appointment only. Most often we transfer and ship work on the same day when scheduled in advance with you. Please plan your production carefully. We encourage you to book time with us 10 days in advance, much longer if the job is large or if you are combining a transfer session with other travel to New England.
We ask for a check as deposit on work booked in advance based on our estimate. We are very old-fashioned; we do not accept credit cards. If you have overpaid, we will refund the balance immediately. Small balances due are often billed. We reserve the right to add a surcharge for work performed with less than 48 hours notice, for nights, weekends or for jobs requiring unusual or extra documentation. If you are well organized and reasonable to work with, you may well avoid surcharges.
We transfer original materials which are usually carried to us in the hands of the original owner. If you are asking for service on a film not made or owned by you, we need you to get permission and clear all rights and releases prior to working with us. We infer that your contracting for our work means that you have the right to copy the material.
Your films have artistic, historic and sentimental value to you or even perhaps monetary value to your production. We treat your films with great care while they are in our hands, but we do not assume responsibility for loss or damage to your films while they are in our possession nor in transit. Common carriers have advised us they will not insure films for content but will only insure for replacement value of raw film stock.
In some instances the films need to be hand carried in which case a supervised transfer session is recommended. Supervising the transfer can save you money if you have done the work to be very familiar with the footage, have organized it and assembled it. In some cases, a documentary producer will want selected shots from a very large collection. In this paper, we recommend ways, unique to our studio, of organizing and marking the selected shots which can speed the work along. Instructions for producers on selecting and marking shots.Please follow our instructions to mark shots.
Brodsky & Treadway have handled unique original film materials for filmmakers and institutions as diverse as these:
Jem Cohen, Joe Gibbons, Saul Levine, Poli Marichal, Anne Charlotte Robertson, Michael Stipe, Sanjiban, Rea Tajiri, to name a few......as many as 300 visual and performing artists came to work with us a year for two decades.
Jane Weiner, Orlando Bagwell ("Malcolm X: Make It Plain"), Ken Burns, Natatcha Estebanez, Ricky Leacock, John Marshall, Robert Gardner, Glenn Holsten, Lawrence Hott ("Imagining Robert"), Spike Lee ("Four Little Girls"), Ricardo Mendez-Matta, Michael Moore ("Bowling for Columbine" first documentary invited to Cannes), Bill Moyers, David Sutherland and others ...
For 25 years we have handled the historic personal film records that are unique footage in great Public Television series like Ken Burns' The War, Frontline, The American Experience, Eyes on the Prize, Nova, Zoom, and P.O.V. We have also restored mving images used in ABC's The Twentieth Century and for documentary production at the BBC.
When you see old home movies in a documentary film looking wonderful, clean, scratch-free, with good shadow detail, and the movement on screen was rendered at the proper frame rate, it is quite likely we transferred it. Alternately, when in a music video or reenactment Super 8 is used for a flashy, degraded or a trendy look in a cutaway, it is likely we did NOT handle it.
The Academy Film Archive, The Human Studies Film Archive at the Smithsonian Institution, The Guggenheim Museum, The Whitney Museum, George Eastman House, The Japanese American National Museum, The National Center for Jewish Film at Brandeis, Northeast Historic Film, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the J.F.K. Library, The Dance Collection of the New York Public Library, Yivo Institute, local historical commissions, state archives, and private family collections.
Transfers: one hour minimum. We have day rates for training staff people at archives on site. Call.
Rates by the hour and then quarter hour increments for evaluation, condition reports, recommendations, reel assembly, repairs, re-splicing, removing mildew and reconditioning as required. Call.
We provide new Fuji (and only Fuji) videotape at cost. We master to NTSC Beta-SP or Digital Betacam. The choice is up to the producer or archive.
If time allows, we can make a viewing copy of the Beta or DBeta master on miniDV, DVCam (same Time Code as master), DVD or even VHS (straight or window dub). We urge you to develop a relationship with a tape duplication house in your area for multiple copies.
We track all packages in and out, so you must call before shipping with carrier and tracking number. We handle original materials which are irreplaceable.
Master videotape and original film are shipped separately for safety. This insures that an original film and master video are never in the same airplane, truck or location in transit.
Please telephone us to work out strategy for delivery so we know shipper, tracking numbers and date of arrival. We highly recommend services with tracking barcodes that require signatures, such as FedEx Express (not Ground), USPS Priority Mail with Delivery Confirmation, or UPS next day air service.
Please pack film in a cardboard box with adequate padding. Never ship any media, film, audio or videotape in a fiber-filled bag; NEVER!
Tel: 978-948-7985 (9-6 EST)
More contact details below, but first: Announcing BRODSKY's NEW BOOK!
Bob finished his long awaited memoir of growing up Victorian in the McCarthy era and the people who shaped him. Click on the cover image to link you to his book page.Rowley is located 35 miles north northeast of Boston. The town is bisected by Interstate Route 95. We live and work near the Plum Island Great Marsh east of old Route 1-A. We work a lot of the time so we cannot encourage visitors. Please call for an appointment.
Contact B&TInstructions for producers on marking selects.
NEED MORE INFO? Please visit our sister site www.LittleFilm.org as there we have information about small gauge filmmaking today, lists of labs as well as tips on restoration and preservation of old home movies, independent film and artist's films.
Call please us with questions or to schedule work. Tel: 978 948 7985 from 9-6 EST. If you reach a message machine, please leave your name, your phone number, your region, best hours to reach you and any technical details. Thank you, Toni & Bob