Advice for format and slo-mo

M

max99

Member
I'm shooting a short, comedic piece on the EX-1. Probably destined for web/DVD. (Maybe a film festival big screen, but whatever).

Some shots will be indoor, tripod, people talking, some light panning and dolly work. Other shots will be "mock-dramatic" and slow motion (e.g. a Western-type stare-down). I plan to do the slow motion using S&Q. I am planning to shot in 24p because I like the look, and because I want to try some standard slow motion overcranked to 60, as well as some slight slow motion overcranked to 30.

Based on the above, which option would you recommend:

  1. Mixed formats: 1080p24 for the regular shots, 1080p24 overcranked to 30 for slight slo-mo, and 720p24 overcranked to 60 for standard slo-mo.
  2. Same formats: 720p24 for all shots, with appropriate overcranking.
  3. Some other combo.
Other than changing the slo-mo amount, is there any reason to overcrank to 48 rather than 60 - i.e. to better maintain the 24p filmic look. (<<Yes, I know. 24p isn't the filmic cure-all. But you get my point.)
 
When I shot my first short on the Panasonic HVX200 I went with shooting everything 720/24p because of the one or two slo-mo shots we were going to film. Guess what? Those slo-mo shots hit the cutting room floor and I was left with a lower resolution film.

In hindsight I would have shot everything at 1080/24p and up-ressed the few slo mo shots we planned to use. The EX1 will benefit even more due to its full raster chips. ALWAYS shoot your master footage at a higher spec than the delivery format. Because you never know if later on in your career someone or some company will want to put your stuff on Blu Ray or whatever.

As far as your 48fps vs. 60fps...it depends on what you/the director want. 48fps is twice as slow as "real-time" and 60fps is 2.5x as slow. They both have their own look. Personally I'd go with 60fps for the mock-dramatic effect or just shoot both so you have it to work with in the edit.
 
Thanks Adam. The future-proofing notion is really my only hesitation. Otherwise, I'm kinda sold on doing the 720p for the whole shoot b/c (1) it is probably destined for the web or for an SD DVD and (2) it will speed up the edit and avoid mixed timeline issues. Also, I have never done any up-rezzing so I'm not sure what that entails.

But, again, the future-proofing issue keeps me on the fence, at least for a few more days (until my shoot!)
 
personally i shoot everything at 1080p/24 then if i need to overcrank i drop to 720p. i edit at 1080p and drop my 720p clips in the same timeline. fcp automatically uprezzes it and it plays back in realtime. no hassle at all.
 
Thanks. It's funny, I posted on another board where the consensus is: "720p24 is a great acquisition format, perfectly suited to your needs. Why bother with bigger files and mixed formats? You'll be very happy with all 720."

Still torn, but I guess it's not a big deal whichever way I go for this short. Thanks for the continued input.
 
The 720P output of the EX1 rivals the detail of the 1080P mode of several other cameras and all HDV cameras, so in that context, it's a fine acquisition format, but on a really huge screen, educated eyes are going to see the difference. I mix 720P/60 overcranked footage with 1080P/24 footage right on a 1080P timeline in Premiere CS3 and render the result to Blu-ray discs and the results look fine. The overcranked footage is not quite at that "20/20 vision" clarity, but it still looks nice and, depending on the population of sharp edges in the frame, may not be easy to notice in some cases, especially where fast action exists.
 
on my 1080p plasma i don't really see a difference between 720 and 1080. but on my computer screen i definitely see it. that's enough for me. plus if you shoot at 1080 and output to 720, there is the opportunity to punch in on the footage quite a bit before losing quality. you can pull an extreme CU out of a normal CU and so forth...
 
Ok, great points. (I forgot about the luxury of scaling up and zooming in on the 1080p shots).

So, how does this sound as a plan? I'll shoot in 1080p, except the slow-motion shots. Then I'll drop everything in a 1080p FCP timeline, thus up-rezzing the 720p slo-mo shots. If I find the difference is too noticeable, I can just drop everything in a second timeline set to 720p, thus down-rezzing the 1080p footage.

Make sense?
 
Any thoughts on which would look better: footage captured at 720p or footage captured at 1080p and then down-rezzed in FCP to 720p? tnx.
 
Max...you should just shoot some test footage to see how it'll look.

On smaller plasma screens (or LCD, projection, etc.) it is harder to see the difference between 1080 and 720. I am lucky enough to have access to a 57" TV and I can definitely see a difference. Most people wouldn't notice it but since 1080p and 720p run at the same data rate and 1080p has better resolution, why bother with 720p? Unless your client demands it or you want 720/60p...
 
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