Mixing HD and SD

D

DocuGirl

Member
Hi All,

I am currently shooting my first feature length documentary in Argentina about a group of street kids. The idea is to give kids the video camera and work their experience and footage into a longer documentary (clearly this a very abbreviated version of the story).

I am several weeks into a several month shoot and just decided to switch to HD. I am willing to lose the last couple weeks of tape, but my question is: Would it be possible to incorporate SD tape into an HD documentary without having it look like crap? I really don't want a Wizard of Oz thing going on, but I wonder if it would be possible stylistically to make it work and not lose some good moments I already have...

Also, I would like to enter this documentary in film festivals when it's finished if that affects your answer at all.

Thanks for your response...any advice would be appreciated :smile:
 
really the only problem youd have is if you outed the feature to high def dvd. say you shot 1080 wit the hvx and shot sd wit the dvx. you can uprezz the footage to 720 and down convert your 1080 to 720 so your cut will be 1280x720. really any festival/dvd distrubution you wont have hd footage anyway. im sure there are some that playback hd. check with the festival. if it does playback hd then all you have to do is (also hoping you shoot/shot 24p on both cameras) just put your footage in the timeline (23.976 for advance or 24fp for 24p depending on what you shoot/shot on.) and out final project to 720p. also, hoping again. you do have hd burner
 
There's no way to just enlarge the SD footage? Maybe cut off some sides to make it fit with HD?

Personally, I wouldn't mind. The HD would make the whole thing look more proffesional, and you can often have two different qualities, especially in a documentary. Sometimes in docu's you'll have film in one scene, HD in another, and then a low res hidden cam in another. IT never bugs me. It's not like a narrative film, where it would look strange to go from one scene shot in HD to one in SD. It's almost a different style. I would say go with it! Use it to your advantage.
 
uprezzin sd footage is taking 720x480 and making it 1280x720. so it does, "enlarge" it. therefore you can mix sd with hd. when you render out the final cut, to 720p. the sd (720x480) and the hd (1080 or 720) will now be 1280x720
 
Not to insult your project or anything, but unless you already have a guaranteed HD outlet (i.e Discovery Channel or the like) or have a distributor willing to sell your film on Blu-Ray, you don't have anything to worry about when mixing HD and SD because it'll go straight to SD anyway. Edit both in HD, and then shrink the HD files to make them SD.
 
Thanks!

Thanks!

Thanks everyone...I appreciate the advice. I guess I need to stop worrying so much and just focus on the project.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top