First proper shoot!

[Darren Ruddock]

Hi,

Just like to start by saying this forum looks like a superb mine of information on this awsome camera! Well done to all involved!

We have our first shoot for a pop video in a few weeks. Just wondered what the general advice would be.

The shoot will be fairly low lit, going for a dark moody feel. We are going to shoot in 720p.
It will all be handheld to give an edgy look.

My main questions are:

Are we best off shooting in 720p or 1080p. Which would handle fast camera work such as pans or tilts best? Plus which would downscale to SD better? We want two verisons of the project. One in SD and the original HD project which leads me to my next question....

With regards delivery to the client, what's the best way to deliver the full HD project?? Ideally I would have thought as an unauthored data disc. How are you guys dealing with this?

Many thanks.

Darren

[Noah Kadner]

This camera's sweet spot is 1080/24p. Not sure that 720 vs 1080 makes much of a difference in terms of handling pans. That has more to do with frame rate. In general motion is smoother at 30p and 60i but most folks prefer the look of 24p. So using a tripod and moving the camera carefully is the key.

In most NLEs you can easily edit in HD and derive an SD downconvert from your completed edit. For the final delivery- it really depends what the client asks for. You can give them a 1080 ProRes if you're on the Mac or an H.264 or uncompressed AVI. Or you can give them a 16:9 SD, DVD. Really depends what they intend to do with the footage. Broadcast, color correct, play it at home, etc.

In the meantime, I'd suggest grabbing a tutorial DVD on the camera- such as oh say- mine:

Call Box - Sony EX1 Guidebook

-Noah

[Darren Ruddock]

Ha ha Noah, like your style!

Just one more question...

Do I need a Blu ray burner to burn the HD project onto a disc?? They are pretty expensive plus nobody is sure if its the way to go!

The finished project will only be 3 and a half minutes. I don't spose it's possible to burn the HD project onto a regular DVD with the burner that comes with the Mac Pro?

Many thanks again.

[Noah Kadner]

Nice plugs are my specialty.

Anyways- again it depends. If you want them to be able to play it on a Blu-Ray player than yeah you need a Blu-Ray burner and authoring software. They can also easily connect to an HD display via DVI and play off a hard drive- in that case sure a 3 1/2 minute H.264 at 1080p should have no problem fitting onto a standard DVD-R but then they'll have to move it to their hard drive to view it.

So it ultimately comes down to what they want to do with it.

-Noah

[Patrick Collins]

I just finished a comedy shoot at 720P 25fps, which looks just great.

The logic for the choice was that being in Oz, like the UK, normal TV is PAL 25, so there was no point messing about in post with a 24-25 transfer. Also it will end up being distributed on a standard DVD outside of transmission, or else be seen on the internet, so forcing the editor to work with 1080P on the timeline seemed a bit like overkill.

HTH,

PJ Collins

[Alister Chapman]

If it's ever going to be watched on a full HD TV or monitor 1080P will look sooo much sharper than 720P. The old DVD-HD or Blu-Ray argument died some time back when the HD-DVD consortium threw in the towel. Blu-ray burners are not really that expensive and there are several good software options for authoring basic Blu-ray discs. Of note is Sony's DVD architect that is bundled with Vegas and can add menus, multiple camera views and is compatible with the majority of players.

As for 1080P vs 720P in the edit. If the computer is properly set up and running decent software (FCP, Vegas, Avid etc) then there really isn't much difference in performance. 1080P XDCAM editing should be real time for cuts and basic effects. Yes you will have to render stuff if you have a more complex edit but for a short pop video that's not going to take long.

I would shoot it at 1080P25. You can always down scale it if you need to.

[David Issko]

Darren, to get the most out of your camera, set up the picture profiles using test charts to start with. From there you can change parameters to suit the look you require. You can set 6 different picture profiles in the camera.

Tuning the camera first is a technical necessity if you want to extract the best performance from your camera. It makes a world of difference compared to the standard 'out of the box' settings.

I have carried out quite a bit of i & p tests and each frame rate will suit a different client/look/feel/circumstances. All are great. Still more testing to do.

Enjoy a terrific camera.
David

[Darren Ruddock]

Thanks all.

We will do some test shots first anyway.

The project may be used by a record company, possibly be bunged on a CD along with the single as a CD Rom

Test charts? How do these work exactly David?

Many thanks

[Patrick Collins]

Yes if in doubt 1080 25P it.