I'm thinking of shooting this project in 720p. Is that a good idea?

O

oxband

Well-known member
I'm about to start shooting a short doc that I hope to get screened at festivals. I have access to archival footage of my subject that is almost all is SD and 4:3. I also want to use photographs.


I'm thinking of shooting in 720p/24fps with my HMC-150. Here's my thinking: Almost all the audio and much of the footage is going to be from an extended interview of the subject, and this footage will essentially undergird the film. I want to shoot in HD and hopefully use it, but this way I can downgrade if need be. Shooting in 720 will make it less jarring to upscale the archival footage if I go HD than if I did it in 1080. The 24fps is because I just prefer that look over 30fps. Moreover, I'll be shooting b-roll and I'm thinking that some of it I might want to put in slo-mo. Shooting in 720p means I can go to 60p and slow it down without much blur as opposed to shooting in 1080 where 60fps is interlaced.


Any thoughts or feedback would be appreciated. I'm still new to this game and have much to learn.
 
oxband said:
I'm about to start shooting a short doc that I hope to get screened at festivals. I have access to archival footage of my subject that is almost all is SD and 4:3. I also want to use photographs.


I'm thinking of shooting in 720p/24fps with my HMC-150. Here's my thinking: Almost all the audio and much of the footage is going to be from an extended interview of the subject, and this footage will essentially undergird the film. I want to shoot in HD and hopefully use it, but this way I can downgrade if need be. Shooting in 720 will make it less jarring to upscale the archival footage if I go HD than if I did it in 1080. The 24fps is because I just prefer that look over 30fps. Moreover, I'll be shooting b-roll and I'm thinking that some of it I might want to put in slo-mo. Shooting in 720p means I can go to 60p and slow it down without much blur as opposed to shooting in 1080 where 60fps is interlaced.


Any thoughts or feedback would be appreciated. I'm still new to this game and have much to learn.
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If you're using Premiere Pro CS5/5.5 -- everything you described can be done easily. Premiere Pro does upscaling of content exceptionally well -- it may be the best kept secret about CS5. There's also a plug-in we tested some time ago from Red Giant ("Instand HD") for upscaling your archive footage to "HD."

If it were me -- I'd shoot everything in 720/60p. You can output (encode) 60p footage to a perfect 24p -- just remember that all the 24p rules apply (panning, motion, etc.), or you can interpret the 60p footage as 24p footage resulting in approximately 1/3rd speed "slow motion."

After three years with the HMC150 I can tell you that although 1080p may have mildly better resolution -- the 720 footage out of the 150 looks better. These days, when I use the 150 -- it's exclusively a 720/60p camera.

Regarding display on TV sets -- any 1080 set that isn't junk flawlessy upscales 720. Regarding projection screens -- any modern projector that doesn't suck will do an excellent job of displaying 720.
 
I'd agree with your decision. Shoot 720p/24 for the normal stuff, and 60p for the stuff you want to slow down. Frame rate conversions never look as good as shooting at the intended frame rate.
 
Jim Simon said:
Frame rate conversions never look as good as shooting at the intended frame rate.
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I disagree. If you're doing stuff right -- you can deliver perfect results. On the other hand, if you're trying to convert 29.98i to 23.98p, then you're not 'doing stuff right.'
 
Jim Simon said:
I'd agree with your decision. Shoot 720p/24 for the normal stuff, and 60p for the stuff you want to slow down. Frame rate conversions never look as good as shooting at the intended frame rate.
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I concur - even with properly done framerate conversions, it's not as crisp as footage shot in the native framerate in my experience and testing.
 
If its a controlled situation where you can re-shoot stuff, sure, shooting native 1080p24fps is best... HOWEVER... I have to confess that I ALWAYS shoot 720p60fps on the HMC150. Always. I've had way too many instances where I regret not shooting 60fps and you just can't go back. Most people never notice the difference between 60fps changed to 24fps... The Canon shooters have been going from 30 to 24 since the beginning. 60 to 24 isn't that bad of a jump.

The resolution difference between 1080 and 720 on the HMC is marginal at best to my eye. Compare it to the GH2 in 1080 and you will find that the difference between the two resolutions to be negligible.
 
Converting 60p to 24p is do-able, but is a little off compared to native 24p in my experience. Though it's much much better than 30p to 24p, and the difference will rarely be picked up by the average viewer. This is assuming the 60p was shot with a 1/60th shutter speed.

Regarding 720p vs 1080p..... I definitely notice a bit of a detail increase between 1080/24p and 720/60p.... an old post from Barry mentions that 1080p has much more chroma resolution, which is a bigger factor than the actual detail. Only thing superior to my eyes with 720/60p is the noise level is lower....though it's rarely that bad at 1080p.

Just my 2 cents.
 
Technical question: is it harder to convert 60fps to 30 or 24 if the shutter is not 1/60th? what if i want to slow the shutter in low light? how might that affect convertibility?
 
You can't use a shutter speed that is slower than the frame rate. Instead, you'll have to open the apperture or crank up the gain.

oxband said:
Technical question: is it harder to convert 60fps to 30 or 24 if the shutter is not 1/60th? what if i want to slow the shutter in low light? how might that affect convertibility?
Click to expand...
 
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