Here's an article on our feature film TOMORROW IS TODAY:

http://www.studiodaily.com/

It was shot with the Z1U in 50i. We are projecting 1080p24 HDCAM at our world premiere at the Rhode Island International Film Festival this Sunday August, 13th at 2:45PM (Columbus Theater).

Did a test screening today and although the projector was only capable of 720p24, it looked very decent.

If you're around come check it out!

Frederic

Hi, Frederic.
First off I wanted to say "Great job!". The preview looks amazing! And second off; Where can I see it? I live in the northwest so I'm not anywhere near the screening. Is there a way I can see it?
Let me know!! Thanks!

Gabriel.

Thanks Gabriel.

We'll be announcing West Coast screenings shortly here:

http://www.myspace.com/tomorrowistodaymovie

Thanks a lot! I'll keep checking back for it!

Gabriel.

Did you use the Z1 because the HD 100 was not available to you when you decided to shoot?

Would the HD 100 a first choice if it had been available?

I wish I was in Providence to see it, as I'm shopping for a cam and still hesitating between the Sony and the JVC.

From the top of your head, I know it's crazy to guess, but don't you think that shooting progressive, even though the rez was lower would have been less of a headache?
P.

One thing I very much liked to see on the story case of your film, which BTW should be:

http://www.studiodaily.com/main/technique/casestudies/6916.html

... was that you used graduated NDs on many shots.

That is something I have been mentioning on DVi forums for a long time, saying that IMO they were more important that UVs or polarizers for video work. Particularly for DV and certainly HDV. People did not seem to care.

Graduated NDs are the best way to control your contrast ranges, mostly when you have a clear sky on your back or when you are shooting backlights and have to open your iris.

Would love to see the final movie.

A thing that raised very much my interest in knowing more is the potential motion artifacts you were afraid of for your shooting.

What had been your experience on what you could and couldn't do? The problem only came up when de-interlacing? Would the JVC HD110's shorter GOP improve on that?

In my case I am considering going to film.

Also very interesting your decision to transfer your HDV to DVCPRO HD 50i and edit from there.

Would staying in 25 frames, instead of going to 24 frames as you did, mean a better quality or less motion artifacts? Did you test that?

Did you use the Z1 because the HD 100 was not available to you when you decided to shoot?

Would the HD 100 a first choice if it had been available?

I wish I was in Providence to see it, as I'm shopping for a cam and still hesitating between the Sony and the JVC.

From the top of your head, I know it's crazy to guess, but don't you think that shooting progressive, even though the rez was lower would have been less of a headache?
P.

Yes, we chose the Z1U because the HD100 wasn't yet functional (JVC received a model for us from Japan but it wasn't yet ready).

It was a good decision overall I think because we cropped for 2.35:1 and you loose quit a bit of resolution that way.

Carlos,

What we were concerned about was having the two fields too different when deinterlacing. Especially in scenes with strong back light and fast motion across the screen.

We weren't concerned about MPEG artifacts at all. As a matter of fact, out of the 60 hours we shot, we didn't have any issues with MPEG artifacts... none.

There are a few reasons I chose DVCPROHD 50i:

First, it's the exact same resolution as HDV 50i (1440 X 1080) where the DVCPRO HD 60i isn't (1280 X 1080). Check out the bitrate is also higher
in 50i (which makes sense).

Second, it's the best codec that will give me realtime on modest GRAID drives and not require tons of storage. 98 min is approx 79 GB I think. And that's the finished product.

Third, I tested the heck out of all the codec I could get my hands on and DVCPRO HD was holding up fine, especially in the shadows. One of the scenes available on our website (Julie and her Dad) was my testing scene. Since part of the scene is so dark, it had a tendency to fall apart easily in the conversion. DVCPRO HD had the best results:

http://tomorrowistodaymovie.com

Fourth, DVCPRO HD also offered the best realtime color correction performance on my setup (G5, dual Cinema Display, GRAIDS, Kona LH, etc...)

Fifth, DVCPRO HD would allow me to do 1080p 23.98 and play the timeline in realtime which is essential for going to HDCAM1080p24 via the Kona LH card.

Finally, DVCPRO HD in 25p allowed me to conform to 23.98 in cinema tools. Some other codecs won't.

That's it. Months of testing and research. Worked like a charm for us.

Frederic

We are very pleased to announce that Tomorrow is Today was nominated for Best Feature and Best Cinematography (http://www.film-festival.org/pdf/2006AWARDNominees.pdf) (pdf) at the Rhode Island International Film Festival. (http://www.film-festival.org/)

We didn't win in these categories but we did win the Directorial Discovery Award. (http://www.film-festival.org/pdf/2006Awards.pdf) (pdf)

The nomination for Best Cinematography is especially exciting for all of us, digital filmmakers since we were competing with dozens of 35mm films.

We are very pleased to announce that Tomorrow is Today was nominated for Best Feature and Best Cinematography (http://www.film-festival.org/pdf/2006AWARDNominees.pdf) (pdf) at the Rhode Island International Film Festival. (http://www.film-festival.org/)

We didn't win in these categories but we did win the Directorial Discovery Award. (http://www.film-festival.org/pdf/2006Awards.pdf) (pdf)

The nomination for Best Cinematography is especially exciting for all of us, digital filmmakers since we were competing with dozens of 35mm films.

Congratulations!

That's it. Months of testing and research. Worked like a charm for us.


That's why I am asking my questions.

Perhaps I misunderstood that part of the answer, but it wasn't clear to me why you converted your DVCPRO HD in 25p onto 23.98, instead of screening directly at 25p?

In a recent project I was researching for, where we were going to film, that was suggested everywhere as the best quality way out, involving very little software post. I mean shooting 1080/50i and going straight to film, just deinterlacing and converting 1:1 video to film. There would be a slight slow down in projection, but something a low budget film could live with.

The idea behind it being that there wouldn't be any software conversion to go to 24 frames.


Carlos

A couple reasons we went to 23.98.

First we can use US equipment to project and HDCAM1080p24

Also, some DVD players recognize 24p and display it accordingly.

Personally, I think the Z1 did a great job, as great as the HD100 could do with Frederic's movie. A lot of what we're seeing is the skill of Frederic and his team (DP, Gaffer, etc.). And the Z1 seemed to be the best for him. I also read that they used the Shot Transition feature to do a cool, dramatic slow zoom. I may try that on my film!

I wish I could see it--Frederic, try submitting here next month:

www.pbifilmfest.org

heath

Hi Frederic. I worked with your DP on another film this summer and heard stories about your shoot. Sounded like a lot of fun.

One question - did you manage to correct the flickering effect on a lot of the scenes? It looked like 60Hz fluoros not playing well with shooting 50i. If so, how did you do it?

Congratulations to you and Kevin for the awards and nominations. Well deserved. Look forward to seeing the release.

Regards,

Eric

Eric,

Kevin is awesome! What a talent.

Yes, we solved that issue simply by using the FCP flicker filter. Make sure you render the preview at full quality and it'll go away.

No doubt it was an awesome job and the images we can see at the film's site are fantastic.

The flickering correction, which I didn't know had happened, is something very good to know you can do in HDV too and be invisible. In my documentary I did the opposite: shoot in DV with a 60i camera in a 50i country.

Corrected one sequence with VirtualDubMod for deflicker and it completely vanished. What was exactly the stage you processed in your film?


Carlos

What was exactly the stage you processed in your film?

What do you mean?

What do you mean?

I mean in what stage in your workflow? E.g.: right after capturing, after DVCPROHD 50i conversion, etc.


Carlos

Ah, I see...

Before going progressive 25p

I am also interested in an answer on that workflow question.