HOW TO ORDER FILM SERVICES FROM CINELAB:
Download and print the order form (s) for the types of film you are sending to the lab and ship the film with the form(s) in a box.
Cinelab reccomends shipping film in a box and not in a envelope or pouch, we have seen film damaged when not shipped in a box.
Please track your package to confirm delivery to the lab.
ABOUT UPLOADS:
Google Drive is a great service but has some limitations, specifically a daily upload limit and some speed limits, for these reasons we do not upload files over 3K to Google Drive except by arrangement. File sizes from 3.3K through 9.4K ProRes are exponentially larger and take a very long time to upload and take all or most of a daily upload limit for just a few film files. Cinelab maintains files on google as long as we can but you should have them in a working drive and backed up as we erase Google Drive files typically after three months time. Orders which have upload selected have their physical film sent back at a slower pace using slower and less costly shipping, if you need your physical film back faster for any reason please let the lab know this when you submit your film.
Uncompressed DPX or TIFF sequences have to ship on a hard drive, no uploads are available for these file types.
We support other Professional upload services like MASV and Aspera which we can connect to for files and dailies etc. Cinelab does not make user accounts on these services and the end user is responsible for any costs for bandwidth or storage on professional cloud platforms.
Student uploads are no cost up to 20Gb and then $1/Gb after, Professional Jobs are $1/Gb and are prioritized for upload.
ABOUT DRIVES:
You can provide a drive or thumb drive with adequate space for the files requested.
When providing a thumb drive it should be 16GB or larger and either un-formatted or formatted ExFAT, HFS+,NTFS we cannot use FAT-32 Format drives. It is lab policy not to erase any drives with any files on the drive.
If a drive is sent to the lab formatted FAT-32 with files or undersized to the scan files we will automatically add a properly sized drive or thumb drive to the order.
The lab will not “Break Up” files to fit across multiple smaller thumb drives, I.E. if you send multiple 32Gb thumb drives for a 85Gb file they will not be used and a properly sized thumb drive will be added to the order.
Cinelab sells 32Gb 64Gb and 128Gb USB3 SanDisk thumb drives 500Gb T7 USB3 SSDs and 2Tb and 4Tb Spinning disks for current market rate, these prices fluctuate so check amazon or B&H for what the current prices for drives are and that is about what we sell them for.
When Shipping Your Film to Cinelab:
- Be sure your film cans or daylight spools are sealed securely in their cans, boxes or a light-tight container that is accurately labeled with the type of film it contains.
- Download, Print and Fill out our order form completely and legibly. Make sure to include it inside the package with your film.
- Stuff the package with newspaper or some kind of packing material so the contents of the package move around as little as possible during transit to the lab.
For Expedited (RUSH) Jobs we recommend shipping with UPS or FedEX for shipping to the lab overnight. IMPORTANT !! ship standard overnight NOT FedEx Priority or First!! The lab opens at 10AM and early deliveries will be delayed and delivered to the lab later in the day. Standard Overnight shipping please for Rush work.
Getting Your Film Back
Cinelab will ship your film back to you using either UPS or FedEx. Cinelab does not ship using the US Postal service we have had too many return issues using USPS.
If you include your email address in the space provided on our order form, we will send you an Email with the UPS or FedEx tracking number for your shipment when your order is completed.
If you shipped your film to the lab bundled with a group of student classmates, be sure to specify which address we will be sending the batch back to.
