Finishing for 2k projection?

[ProAction Films]

I am a beginning film student and was playing around with the idea of making a short film and I also have the opportunity to have it shown on a 20' screen.

I asume it would be shown on a 2k Digital Projector.

I would be shooting with a Red Scarlet (Once its out) and a HVX200a.

This would be my first attempt projecting on to a big screen.

With the Scarlet I would just downscale the 3k to 2k but with the HVX, would I upscale to 2k?

My instincts tell me blowing up 1080 to 2k is a no no because it would kill the picture right? even though 1080 and 2k are not that far off (comparatively speaking of course).

How would I (for the lack of better terminology) export to 2k?

What format would it need to be in? (Uncompressed?)

What kind of media does the film need to be on?

What would be the basic process? It doesn't need to be a huge detailed answer, as I said before this is just an idea I'm tossing around. And nothing is set in stone. I was just trying to get an idea of what it would take.

-Timothy

 

[tfg]

Firstly, your HVX shoots at 1280x1080, which is a far cry from the full raster 1920x1080 resolution. But that's another issue.

However.. blowing anything up is not going to ruin the footage. There is no quality lost or gained when up-rezzing. It will look the same in 2K resolution as it will in its original resolution.

Again though... you shouldn't have to upscale anything... you can mix and match the different resolutions on the timeline. As for the final delivery codec .. .I would assume that the projector has a DVI-in port, or something equivalent where you can hook a laptop/computer up to it. So... it simply needs to be a codec that the computer is capable of playing back smoothly.

And as a final tech tidbit: remember that your scarlet is a single chip machine, unlike your HVX. So, whereas your HVX has 3 chips for red, green and blue pixels, the scarlet has to deduce every R G and B value from a single pixel. In short: it interpolates a lot. The end result is that 3k resolution, when fully debayered, is not going to resolve to actual 3k resolution... it will resolve around the ballpark of 1920x1080-ish, maybe less - I don't know precisely. But for the record, your HVX doesn't resolve to its full resolution either. I just mention this stuff because you seem so concerned with mix/matching.

 

[ProAction Films]

I've read on RedUser that the Scarlet will resolve around 2.4k. I understand that cameras rarely resolve what they say they do. Playing the film stright off the computer is a interesting idea I would have never thought of that.

But talking about up-scaling, I don't understand how it's possible to not have any quality loss when up-scaling to 2k. Or am I mixing up the idea of up-scaling to 2k and stretching 1080p to fit a 2k frame? I have heard of hardware and software that up-converts SD footage to HD and I wouldn't doubt that there Is something that will do 1080p to 2k but I've never tried it so I don't know how good it looks.

Thanks for your help!

 

[tfg]

But talking about up-scaling, I don't understand how it's possible to not have any quality loss when up-scaling to 2k.
Thanks for your help!

Think about it... make a movie at 720x480 and then watch it on a giant theater screen and it will look like garbage. Then upscale the same movie to 1920x1080 and play it in the theater again: it will look exactly the same. Nothing is gained by adding a bunch of resolution to picture that is natively low resolution. The same is going to happen with your movie if the footage originated at 1280x1080. Upscaling isn't going to change anything.

On the note of the scarlet resolving to 2.4k? I'll believe it when I see it. A 2/3 inch sensor that does that? I'll be impressed when it's proven true.

 

[Demistate]

I've found that minor detail sharpening can help when blowing up your footage to a higher resolution to play on a very large screen. IMAX calls their system DMR. Other Professional compressionists will have similar upscaling methods that they can perform on your footage to give a better upscale than just sending it to your compression software with a different resolution dialed on.

 

[milksac]

I asume it would be shown on a 2k Digital Projector.

Why do you assume that it will be played back and shown at 2K resolution? Don't assume anything. Find out what the theatre or venue wants delivered for playback and then determine your work flow.