1080 and 720 undercrank question

[Ryan Maes]

I'm planning on shooting a short film soon with my Panasonic HVX200, and I want to use the 1080/24pa setting for the highest quality HD recording. However, slo-mo can only be achieved in 720pn, and several of my shots require slo-mo.

My question is:

Is it possible to mix 720/24pn and 1080/24pa footage in the same project? (I suppose this depends on the software, but in general can it be done?).

Also, if I mix 1080/24pa and 720/24pn footage, will the two clash? In other words, will it be obvious which shots are done in 1080 and which are 720, or will they blend together well?

Thanks.

[Rogelio Salinas]

I've been wondering the same thing myself. Why not get the best possible quality for normal speed shots in 1080P, then get all of the slo-mo shots in 720P. That would be great if it is possible, but if there is an answer, someone here will know.

[Kenn Christenson]

When in doubt, test, test, test. Sorry, that's probably not the answer you're looking for. Because most of your questions revolve around a subjective evaluation, you're most likely the best judge. (The difference between 1080 & 720 isn't that great with this camera.)

If you're using Final Cut 5.1, you should be able to remove the Advanced pulldown so you can edit in a 23.976 sequence. You will then have to decide the frame size you want to edit in. Do you want to have to uprez 720P footage or downrez 1080? (IMHO downrezzing is probably your best bet.)

[Shane Ross]

Originally Posted by Kenn Christenson

When in doubt, test, test, test. Sorry, that's probably not the answer you're looking for. Because most of your questions revolve around a subjective evaluation, you're most likely the best judge. (The difference between 1080 & 720 isn't that great with this camera.)

I totally agree. If you really want to know, shoot tests.

Originally Posted by Kenn Christenson

If you're using Final Cut 5.1, you should be able to remove the Advanced pulldown so you can edit in a 23.976 sequence. You will then have to decide the frame size you want to edit in. Do you want to have to uprez 720P footage or downrez 1080? (IMHO downrezzing is probably your best bet.)

If you are shooting with the HVX you shouldn't have to remove the advanced pulldown if you shoot 24PN. But this is to the P2 cards only. If you are shooting to a firestore or directly to hard drive, you have to remove the pulldown.

[Scott Auerbach]

Ditto on testing... but if you're talking about only a handful of shots that need to be in 720 for the slomo, I'd be inclined to at least test uprezzing them, rather than having to downres the entire rest of the video, as someone suggested. I mean, if you're going to do that, you might as well shoot it all in 720!

Bear in mind, too, that you can only get 60 fps in-camera... in other words, 40% slomo. There's plenty of software out there that does a perfectly adequate job of 40% slomo with minimal artifacting (Avid's FluidMotion, for example, depending on the nature of the material...) If you really want to have the piece in 1080, I'd look into the possibility of slomo in post... it might be easier and more effective than mixing resolutions. In my experience, software slomo works best on locked-off tripod shots with backgrounds that don't have a lot of random, tiny detail (e.g, grass or moving water)... and footage shot with a higher shutter speed to reduce blur. Software interpolation usually has a real hard time figuring out how to create inbetweener frames of blurred objects.