Z1 HDV Film-Out Now in Theaters!

[Jon Fordham]

For anybody interested in seeing an HDV film out, visit your local Clearview Cinemas this weekend!

The 30 second PSA for the Food Bank's CANS Film Festival starring Stanley Tucci and Oliver Platt, is currently playing before the previews at all Clearview Cinemas. The PSA, shot by Eric Robbins and Jon Fordham, was shot in 1080/60i HDV with the Sony Z1 and transferred to 35mm by Technicolor NY.

For more information on the Food Bank and the CANS Film Festival, please visit:

http://foodbanknyc.org/

and

http://www.foodbanknyc.org/CANS/

[Steve Nunez]

Can you post a direct link for the clip?

[David Mintzer]

Was there any description of the process---did they shoot it in PAL and do a conversion?

[Jon Fordham]

Well, the clip itself isn't really the point... The reason for mentioning the PSA (aside from raising awareness for the Food Bank) is to let people know they can view HDV that has been transferred to 35mm, ON 35mm, projected in theaters.

I know there has been a lot of discussion about HDV transferred to 35mm, so I thought people may like to see the actual results for themselves.

But if you insist on viewing it in a highly compressed, DV off-lined, video version, then this is where you can view it:

http://www.foodbanknyc.org/video/SandO.cfm

But please take a minute to go to: http://foodbanknyc.org and read about the organization and the work they do!

David, as I mentioned in the initial post, this was shot in 60i "NTSC mode", not 50i "PAL mode". Both Eric, the producer, and myself wanted to shoot this in CF25, or at least 50i. But the director insisted on 60i. The footage was captured as a downconverted NTSC letterboxed clip and cut in DV res. It wasn't until Technicolor NY was ready to do the transfer that the piece was re-captured in full res. The transfer was done with a low contrast print stock. Neither Eric nor myself were present to supervise the transfer.

The clip that is available online is compressed from the downconverted NTSC Letterboxed DV res version. So if you're at all interested in what HDV looks like on 35mm film, then you should see it in theaters!

[Fredrik-Larsson]

I have seen it mentioned that 50i is preferred compared to 60i and even the Cineframes formats that the Sony has. Is this correct? Anyone care to comment and has some more information about this?

[Jon Fordham]

Fredrik,

For film out's, yes, 50i is preferrable to 60i. Though 60i would be prefereble to Sony's CF24 and CF30. But when it comes down to a decision of 50i vs CF25, then that's a whole other debate. The argument is really about how much resolution can be preserved by shooting interlaced and having a post application do the de-interlacing vs letting the camera do the de-interlacing before its compressed to tape. Or how much resolution the transfer house thinks their method will preserve. Every transfer house has their own method, and every software developer will tell you that their method is best because, well they want to sell you their software! But how much resolution can those post options really preserve, and is it a noticeable and justifiable difference?

Our desire to shoot the PSA in CF25 was two fold. One, we weren't certain that the PSA would be filmed out. It was an option that had been discussed, but a decision hadn't been made by the time we were ready to roll on the day. So we felt that the CF25 mode would allow us the option of better transfer to film than 60i. Second, even if the PSA didn't go to a film out, we would still be able to do an easy standards conversion to 60i and maintain that 25fps motion signature.

For more information on the CF25 workflow I'm talking about read this thread:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=59664