HPX-170 Shooting both 720pn 'cranked' footage and 1080pa, COMBINING IN FCP?

jburke14

jburke14

Active member
Hello, I have been looking for an answer to this for some time. With not much success. However my question is this.

We are shooting a short film with the HPX170 and the redrock cinema lens adapter w/zeiss lenses and We obviously want the highest resolution and least compression (best picture), however we also want to shoot over/under cranked footage for slow motion and other effects. Is there a way to shoot the majority of the film in 1080pa resulting in the best picture quality and then only shoot the cranked footage in 720pn. Later in final Cut Pro drop the 720pn footage into the 1080pa timeline? Or is there a better alternative?

I want to shoot the majority in 1080p but still have the ability to overcrank/undercrank with the HPX170. I think this should work, but is there any steps that need to be done?
 
Well, I did some tests, and shot and imported some 1080 24pa footage from my HPX170, and then filmed similar material in 720p 24pn.

I set up a project in FCP with 1080 24pa settings and put the 1080 clips into the timeline. I then imported the 720p 24pn clips into a different project using their normal capture settings (no pulldown) and then i dragged them into the 1080 24pa timeline. There is a difference in quality and sharpness between the 1080 and 720 footage, however the clips played back at the right speed and frame rate.

I also shot some slow motion footage in 720 24pn and put it into the timeline (the purpose of this test) and it played back exactly as it would have in a regular 720 24pn timeline. So it seems that You can indeed record cranked footage in 720p and place it into a 1080p 24pa timeline, as long as they are not imported using the 1080 24pa capture settings.

Any thoughts from experts or interested users is welcome!

-James
 
mixing up 1080pa with 720pm

mixing up 1080pa with 720pm

I had to make the same decision. Others may differ, but for my indie feature I've been mixing it just as you described and the slow mo 720pn looks very good to me, droped into the FCP 1080pa timeline. I don't know how much overcranking you are talking about doing but this seems preferable to shooting the whole thing at 720pn. My thinking is I can run the Neat Video plugin if I want to smooth the grain on the expanded 720. I just think the overcranked stuff looks so good it trumps other options, if based on using same camera for everything. But just because you're reading my opinion on this web page, it doesn't make it right; so run some tests and see what you think.



jburke14 said:
Hello, I have been looking for an answer to this for some time. With not much success. However my question is this.

We are shooting a short film with the HPX170 and the redrock cinema lens adapter w/zeiss lenses and We obviously want the highest resolution and least compression (best picture), however we also want to shoot over/under cranked footage for slow motion and other effects. Is there a way to shoot the majority of the film in 1080pa resulting in the best picture quality and then only shoot the cranked footage in 720pn. Later in final Cut Pro drop the 720pn footage into the 1080pa timeline? Or is there a better alternative?

I want to shoot the majority in 1080p but still have the ability to overcrank/undercrank with the HPX170. I think this should work, but is there any steps that need to be done?
Click to expand...
 
What do you see as advantages to shooting 720pn? just more streamlined and easier on the workflow? size of course. any other particulars?
 
The biggest advantage is going to be space saving. If you are low on P2 storage/ or can't dump footage in the field for whatever reason, I would prefer to have the security to shoot as many takes as needed in 720, and pick the best performance in the editing room than getting two takes at 1080 that don't quite cut it when you start piecing your story together.

The HPX170 initially scans all its images at 1920x1080, then compresses that image to DVCPROHD 720 and DVCPROHD 1080, both of which are recorded at less than 1920x1080 (1440x1080 I think?) and 1280x720 (960x720 I think?). So the stuff you recorded at 720 will match fine with the stuff you shot 1080, no one has ever watched one of my films and said Are you shooting two different resolutions and stretching one? I am also a big fan of mixing 1080 footage with undercranked/overcranked stuff. Since I often shoot with a DSLR on set as well this is my workflow..

-Transcode DSLR footage to Pro Res files.
-Create project in final cut pro, and bring the DSLR pro res file onto the timeline first. This is because the DSLR is a full raster 1920x1080 image not 1440x1080 like the HPX170.
-Then when you bring in the 1080 and 720 files from the HPX they will need to be rendered on the timelime, after rendering they will be the correct size, and everything will be full raster 1920x1080. At this point I really would have to get my shot logs out to tell you honestly which was 1080 and which was 720. Sure there is a difference, but it is very subtle when mixing this cameras footage.
 
I mix 1080 with overcranked 720 24pn on the FCP timeline all the time... I bet you couldn't tell the difference if you watched 'em. As far as I'm concerned, the 720/1080 thing is not the real issue on the HPX. To me the real issue is the fact that the camera only shoots interval mode in 30fps, which is a real problem when I want to stick w/ the 24p timeline. There are several workarounds, but none of them are very satisfactory to me. Unforunately, the only seamless way around this is to put everything on a 30p timeline. The 24p footage looks fine there. However, the 30p footage does not work on the 24p timeline. But back to the issue... you will have NO problem mixing these two DVCPRO resolutions.
 
Hi. I'm new to this page and can't figure out how to (or if I'm allowed to) post a new query. Mine concerns 720PN, but doesn't relate to this actual thread if you see what I mean. The problem: I shot some footage of a band last night in 720PN and looking at the thumbnails everything looked fine. I transfered the data to a hard drive, then to my computer, then coverted the footage via Cineform to avi. When I play the footage, it plays at what lloks like double speed (the sound is still all right). Any ideas? Thanks. David Parsons
 
David,

Top of the main (Forum) page, left side, ~ big button "Post New Thread" once you do that, we can address your issue.
 
Thanks, VideoAtlanta, but I only have "New Posts" and no "Post New Thread". Maybe this is because I'm new to this website, but it's a bit frustrating because I really need to sort out this problem (have Barry Green's wonderful book, but can't doesn't have a troubleshooting section, so no luck there).
 
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