720 or 1080? Need input for Film Festival project

[Federico Aragon]

Hi all,

Wanted to know if there's anyone out there that has used the HVX200 for digital projection on the big screen for a film fest or similar project.

Basically I would like to learn from your experience and make the right choices to make this project look the best in the theater.

1. Details of shoot:Camera(HVX200 with P2 cards-dumping to mac), short film, day and night shots, etc. -We got all that covered-

2. Questions on shooting format:720p or 1080? 24p or 25p?

3. Post-prod workflow: Macpro - final cut (maybe use intermediate codec cineform or pro-res), some compositing, painting and/or roto work in AE, there will be no professional color grading so we'll try to nail our matrix and gamma settings as best as possible in production.

Best output for projection: motion jpg, .mov. .dpx? (Do film fests only use Barco projectors or others?)


Please answer ONLY if you've done it before, do not add tedious answers stating personal opinions on what you think would be the best.
I would like serious players answering this thread in order for all of us to benefit from their experience.

Thanks!

[Roshdi Alkadri]

for the big screen= more resolution so shoot 1080p, if your doing over or undercranking then you're forced to use 720p and intercutting with 1080 is not noticable. Cinegamma with the Cine-D setting, sharpness at -2, default 24pa looks pretty good. Also do let us know what format you're projecting from, its gotta be blu-ray, HD-DVD or an HD file thats when you'll see the full potential.

[Federico Aragon]

Thanks Roshdi, did you have a previous experience showcasing one of your projects into the big screen? if so, can you please comment on the output format used .mov, motion jpg, dpx, etc) that you handled the projectionist?

[Robert Lane]

Last year while doing the P2HD roadshow for Panasonic I gave away the grand-prize (the HVX200) at the 48 Hour film competition award ceremony in Albuquerque. All the final teams were given the HVX200 to shoot their video and all gave their final display on large-screen projection.

Almost all the teams shot in 720p because they wanted access to the VFR capabilities which are not available in 1080 mode. And most of them did quick tests between 720 and 1080; there was no appreciable difference in final output quality. In fact, more than half the production teams actually preferred the 720p look and feel.

If you're staying completely digital from production to final output you'd be challenged to really notice a difference on that camera. However if you were doing a film-transfer then you would want 1080 simply to have more real-estate available for the rev-tele-cine process.

My suggestion would be to shoot 720p which would give you VFR capabilities and a lot more record time on the P2 cards.

[Federico Aragon]

Robert...thank you!!! It's exactly what I was looking for.

I actually entered the 48hour film fest last year in San Diego, but we shot with Sony's (1080i output to .mov) and it was a bit grainy and soft once projected, but I remember that one of the winners shot on HVX with P2 and mini 35 adapter and looked awesome.

I really appreciate your input on this Robert, can you also comment on the preferred or best file format for projection once we get our final cut?

I actually work as a projectionist with film (kinoton) and digital (Barco) but thru Smoke or RaveHD using .cin or .dpx for high end film productions and I was wondering what the film fests use.

Many thanks again!

[Robert Lane]

I don't remember what their final output was; I'm guessing it was either an uncompressed QT or similar file type.

Most of the film festivals have specifications for your final output for standardization purposes, that way they don't have to monkey around with a plethora of differing and incompatible formats during showing. If you've entered in a contest I'm sure they will provide you with specs for your final file.