Is filming in 1080p ideal for independant filmmakers?

[Denialorcoped]

I am an independent filmmaker, currently directing my first short film. I love my HMC150; my only fear is when I show my film on the big screen the resolution may not look that crisp as compared to say a red camera.

But I was thinking, don't most film festivals require either a blu-ray or dvd? If so, is there really any need for a low-budget indie filmmaker to film in anything greater than 1080p?

 

[matt s.]

We projected a high bitrate 1080 .h264 created from a ProRes master shot on the 150 from a mac pro into a extremely high end texas instruments theater projector . It looked awesome so dont sweat it. It really all boils down to the projection system and the theater. We have also projected DVD in theaters and it looked great but not as good as the HD projection. You should be fine shooting 1080. Im about to go into production on our 4th feature and second shooting with the 150.

 

[Chris Adler]

There are obvious advantages to shooting in a resolution higher than what you intend to exhibit on. Recently shot a short in 4K on the RED that we mastered to 2K. One benefit was that we had a lot of latitude to push in during the edit to really get what we were after.

The short includes some helicopter footage shot on an HD Panasonic. The footage quality between the Panasonic and the RED is glaringly different and massively noticeable, especially when projected in a 2K digital cinema.

 

[Exact]

There are obvious advantages to shooting in a resolution higher than what you intend to exhibit on. Recently shot a short in 4K on the RED that we mastered to 2K. One benefit was that we had a lot of latitude to push in during the edit to really get what we were after.

The short includes some helicopter footage shot on an HD Panasonic. The footage quality between the Panasonic and the RED is glaringly different and massively noticeable, especially when projected in a 2K digital cinema.

...and therein lies a lesson. If you want the HMC footage to look good (which can easily do) don't try to mix it with cameras that look at lot better, because it's really only when you lay footage side by side that the average man in the street (or theatre) can tell what is good or bad, both of which are relative terms anyway!

 

[Denialorcoped]

But what are the odds of a low-budget film being projected in a 2K digital cinema?

I think this is important for indie filmmakers when deciding where to invest our money. We can wait till a relatively affordable 2K+ camera comes out; or we can shoot on a 1080p camera and invest money into other things like a DOF adapter or steadicam etc...