fullscreen commerical, shoot in HD or DVCPRO50?

Niceguy

Niceguy

Member
I have an upcoming shoot on the hvx. The client wants a fullscreen (4:3) image. I know a little about this but I am curious what you guys would suggest. Is there anything gained by shooting in a widescreen hd format (720 or 1080) and then zooming or whatever to get a fullscreen image?

Or... Does it make more sense to shoot it in a DVCPRO50 format in the correct aspect ratio.

I apologize if this has been covered. There are a lot of threads here and when I look for one specific thing I get sidetracked with other great info and then three hours later....

Thanks in advance
 
you could shoot 1080 24p, the npull the center patch, and down res it. it should be gorgeous. RAZOR sharp.
 
tim's probably right, but there's less compression using DVCPRO 50. You'll still get a great image and not have to worry about downscaling or npulling center patches :)

but you'd arguably get a better image shooting 1080.
 
I shot a commercial recently in 720p & framed for 4:3. Resized 4:3 in FCP and output to Digibeta. Still looked nice and sharp!

Cheers!
 
oh im sure it would!

but it will be even crisper in 1080. the HVX does get 20% more res in 1080.
 
One thing that is cool about EDIUS, is that if you shoot something in widescreen, and you edit on a 4:3 timeline, the footage is automatically letterboxed for you to fit the 4:3 ratio. You can then use that letterboxing for info, logos, etc. for the company you are doing the commercial for. Lots of them seem to be done that way. I mean where they letterbox and use that letterboxing for info. Like century 21 commercials, I think. But that way you don't lose any of the footage, you have a widescreen look and you don't have to worry about the best way to make it compatible with the 4:3 ratio, by cropping, zooming, or any of that crap.
Just an idea
Jason
 
This is absolutely right. If you have the capacity to handle the footage in post, I'd also shoot 1080p for a 4:3 deliverable.

e
 
pull center patch

pull center patch

sorry, what does "pulling the center patch" actually mean for us mere video mortals?
I had this exact question, I'm shooting 26 spots with the HVX and FCP and have not shot in HD before. and I'll probably have more questions as I go along, apologies in advance....
cheers
J
 
wow howd you get 26 spots? lol.

It smeans taking the 4:3 portion form the middle of the 16:9 frame. Reverse letter box/Pan and Scan.
 
Yeah I would just shoot DVCPro50,that is what we shoot all of our higher end commercials in here with the HVX. Beautiful is all I can say!!

~John G.
 
26 ?

26 ?

oh, you know. my big fat mouth. thanks for the explanation. and i'm assuming the easiest way to do this is just scaling picture to yer good ol' 4:3 settings? I usually just shoot everything 16:9 (this is my excuse for not knowing anything about the scaling process).
btw if anybody is interested (and how could you not be?) you can view my tests for these spots (shot on the dvx100b) at:
http://www.judesays.com/cutting_room
user: say
pass: what?

keep an eye out for focus and reflection issues, unproper exposure, and crappy quicktime export quality!
 
No question, shoot 4:3 DVCPRO50. Unless they want it at 60i; I'm not too happy with HVX SD 60i performance, if they want 60i I might shoot 720p and downconvert in post.

But if you're doing 24p or 30p, and you want 4:3 SD, there's no doubt that you should shoot 4:3 DVCPRO50. As 4mat said, "that's what it's there for!"
 
barry is the 4:3 on the HVX as good as DVX standard? or is the purpose built DVX gonna take it out on that front?
 
dvcpro50

dvcpro50

so I'm not going to lose any quality by shooting in dvcpro50? I always thought it was compressed quite a bit in comparison to HD. does make sense though, i'd rather not have to mess with scaling altogether if possible....
 
TimurCivan said:
barry is the 4:3 on the HVX as good as DVX standard? or is the purpose built DVX gonna take it out on that front?
Click to expand...
In 60i the DVX wins. In sensitivity the DVX wins. In 24p or 30p the HVX is just better across the board. More dynamic range, less noise. In DV50 or 16:9 it's no contest; when you combine the two (16:9 DV50 vs. squeeze DV) then the HVX really pulls ahead.

For 480/60i 4:3 I'd shoot the DVX no doubt. Better-looking interlaced footage, plus two stops more sensitivity -- can't argue there. But progressive and DV50 and native 16:9 and an extra stop of dynamic range give the HVX the nod in most other ways of shooting.
 
Camdude said:
I shot a commercial recently in 720p & framed for 4:3. Resized 4:3 in FCP and output to Digibeta. Still looked nice and sharp!

Cheers!
Click to expand...


How did you output to digibeta? eg connection, workflow
 
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