Best Recording Setting/Frame Rate for Broadcast? (1080i?)

Jonathan_Healey

Jonathan_Healey

Well-known member
I have a client wanting to shoot a concert performance for broadcast. First, I pitched 720p to get the HD film-look and lower hard drive costs. The client suggested 1080 as some networks will not accept 720 footage and only buy 1080.

So that leaves me with two options: 1080p or 1080i. I need to keep my framerate at 29.97 for broadcast but now I'm considering forgoing the film-look and using the brilliant interlace video look. I find a lot of concerts on television to use interlace over cine-gammas.

What are you thoughts? The shoot begins tomorrow. Time is of the essence. Bonus points for telling me if the GH1 1080 setting can cut into this content, too. :)
 
If you want to mix GH1 with HVX/HPX, use 1080/24p mode. But that's only if you want the filmish look -- your client should tell you what they want. There's nothing wrong with shooting a concert at 1080i if that's what the look of the show demands and if that's what the client wants.
 
Thanks for the responses guys. In my experience, I've found low-light concert shoots to be more forgiving in interlaced modes. This is not going to be a concert that's lit for television. It's going to be low-light without washes. My thoughts were that interlaced footage gives way to more light and much more detail while the progressive modes (in the same environment) lack detail and are often muddy or noisy (due to gain increases).

The client is leaving the decision up to me. If I had ultimate control, I'd light the stage for broadcast, record progressive, and give it a much more cinematic look. For this particular client, it's very run-and-gun and I can use all the help I can get. That being said, I'm leaning toward interlaced.

A couple questions:

• If I'm using a GH1 along with the HVX am I limited to 1080p24p?
• Even though 1080p24p is 29.97 fps, on the HVX, will the progressive mode result in the film-look?
• Can I shoot 1080i60 on both cameras?
 
GH1 cannot shoot 1080i. In 1080 it can only record 24p. So if you want the motion cadence to match between them, you'd have to use 1080/24p mode on the HVX.

Yes, 1080/24p will look like film that's been transferred to video.

1080i60 is available on the GH2, but not the GH1.
 
So, to recap, I would be forced to shoot 1080/24p in order to use both the HVX200 and GH1.

That being said, I would not be using Compressor to transcode the GH1 files as that is normally done to convert to 23.98, correct? I would simply leave the GH1's 1080 footage as is from the log and transfer window.

To match on the HVX I would simply shoot 1080/24p and leave that footage alone, too. Resulting in 29.97 footage. All of which is film-look.
 
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