Hello all. As production wraps up and I hurriedly begin briniging in footage, I have a question concerning one tape which was accidentally shot 30i while the rest of the documentary was shot 24pA on the DVX100. Not that it matters now, but what happened was that in the heat of the moment my camera operator didn't flip back to F6 from F1 after setting color bars, and as luck would have it, that very early morning footage turned out to be pretty special. There is other stuff we got as the weeks went by that I can use in its place, but nothing (IMO) as touching as what that particular tape has on it, if it can be salvaged. Which brings me to...

I shot with the DVX because: a) it looked richer and more "filmic" (IMO) than the other options available to me; and b) I've had (modest) studio interest in the story and 24pA seemed like the best choice (on my budget) for a possible future transfer. That said, can any of the products out there, any of the post tricks/software debated here and elsewhere, be used on the 30i footage to genuinely mimic how I shot the rest? And if they come close, does anyone have any samples? Is it worth the money and effort to even try? And would how you answer that change if this really were to be blessed by the powers that be and go to a film out for theatre projection? I've seen plenty of docs at screenings that no doubt didn't look all that bad on TV and PC monitors, but blown up looked pretty sad in big screening rooms, so I'm more that a little skeptical that anything really is worth the shot... but still.

If time and money were no object (yeah, right!) I'd invest in various options and simply see how good I could make it, whatever the cost and however long it took. But when I have to cut over 90 hours to 90-120 minutes myself, and have it in someone's hands by mid-October, scored, it seems crazy to even consider taking the time. Then again, I love the footage, and if I wasn't nuts I wouldn't have taken all this on in the first place. ;-)

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Marcia

You could try http://www.dvfilm.com/maker/index.htm The demo version is free and you could do a quick test (it writes its logo on the video in demo mode).

When you say 30i does that mean the shutter speed was 1/30? If so then you have probably lost a lot of vertical resolution as compared to your 24p. DVFilm says you should shoot at 1/60 sec shutter speed to obtain the best results with their software.

Thanks for the link, Boyd. Will check it out once I've got everything brought in the computer. Am busily filling up two 500 gig drives. Regarding the shutter, what I printed off DVFilm says to shoot with the shutter off (1/50) when using the DVX, which is what I did. That didn't change in 30p. Am looking forward to seeing what the demo does with it, though. Would like to do a little investigating into Magic Bullet, too. Though time is short. Have you ever tried it? Or know anyone who has tried the full "Magic Bullet for Editors?" I should do a search on this site as well.