The entire Process

[42041]

Originally Posted by morymb

I should have asked;

back in 1983, how did they make masters? What kind of high end(?) video cameras were used to record the film to tape?


Ive since wisened to modern film scanning to hard drives and thanks!

The film would run through a telecine, which used photomultiplier tubes to convert the image on the film into electric signals, and would be passed through some console where the technicial could manipulate the image and then it would be recorded to tape (Betacam, for example). A reverse CRT TV, if you will.
Back then, it would be analog tape. Nowadays it's usually HDCAM-SR or pro-res.