GH2 GH2 Broadcast specs question...

tcarretti

tcarretti

Active member
This question is for anyone that can help.

I was approached by the owner of my gym asking me if I would be able to shoot a 30 second spot on one of the services that they offer there. It would be used both on the internet as well as being broadcast as a television commercial.

My question is this:

I have the following available to me:

GH1 hacked with Blackout-Powell 24p native
GH2
Canon 550D
Panasonic SDT750K camcorder

So basically I can shoot at 1080/24p, 720/60p, 1080/60p.... which one would work best?

To shoot for broadcast television, what would be suggested to use for the best efficiency as well as the best for encoding for television specs. I've never done anything for television before so I'm at a loss for what the final product should be. I'm using Adobe Premiere and After Effects for editing and post processing if that helps. I'd like to give it a shot, but want to be sure that I have the equipment and resources to deliver a quality product.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Tony Carretti
 
Contact the network or advertising company you'll be going through and ask them for their broadcast specifications.
 
As CColton said, email your local broadcast station & cable company in the sales department and ask for their specs. If you don't know which ones the gym plans to advertise on, email the top two or the two most likely. San Antonio is a top 40 market, so there's a good chance that they accept commercials in HD format, but they also may not. It isn't difficult to figure it out for yourself. Watch the commercials on an HD channel. For the local commercials (local companies-- not national brands) see if they fill the full screen or if they have black bars on the side, making them 4:3 instead of 16:9.

There's no reason not to shoot in the best format you can. Use the camera you like best and shoot in 1080p30 or 1080p24. I wouldn't shoot at 60p unless you intend to use it for slow motion. Edit in native resolution. Then for web/ youtube, you can put out a 1080p or 720p version. And for the stations, you'll find out what they need. If they do want standard definition, then you can either export the commercial with black bars on top OR cropping off the sides. Note that if you do black bars on top, it will also have black bars on the side of the screen (when shown on an HD channel) due to the TV station format. Of course, if it's cropped on the sides, you'll need to take that into account when shooting. DON'T take the 16:9 footage and "squish" it into 4:3-- that just looks bad and unprofessional.

They should give you exact specs that they want if they know what they're doing. And then they'll give you their FTP information and you just upload the file to it. They could potentially ask for it on tape of a certain format, though I don't see that happening in your market. If they did and you don't have access to the right equipment, you'd have to pay a local production company to transfer it for you.

Hope that helps.
 
Thanks so much CColton and BrandonT !

I really appreciate the assistance and advice. I'll probably end up shooting on the GH2, since that's what I'm most comfortable with and now know that I can use the 24p setting.

Again, thanks so much for the very quick replies!

Tony
 
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