Short documentaries - SD or HD?

H

HeyAndy

Active member
When making short documentaries, which definition is recommended, SD or HD?

Comments will be appreciated.
 
Budget pretty much drives all decisions. That being said always go for the highest quality you can. If you can afford HD- go for HD. For the past several years most documentaries have been filmed in HD. There are many reasons for this. For one, HD makes the film look less dated. It provides a better/higher quality image- which in turn can capture more of the emotion and realism of life.

And to be honest with you- with the plummeting costs of HD cameras and media there's really no reason not to go with HD.

Jim
 
Hey Andy,

I agree with Jim for the most part.

Here are two considerations for shooting DV. First, if you know that you will distribute only to DVD, then DV is a consideration. You can shoot 16x9 to DV so as to get the "modern" look that Jim mentions. Second, DV is a little more forgiving than HD while shooting, so if you are mostly run and gun (mostly run), then DV may have merit.

Grant
 
Where is it going to end up?

Online?

HD is more expensive to capture and produce - the gear, the peripherals, the storage, etc. - and by the time of you convert quality SD or HD to online formats, it's usually difficult if not impossible to tell the difference.

Aspect ratio - 4x3 or 16x9 - is aspect ratio. You can do both with decent HD or SD gear.

So if the end result is going to delivered on a web site - and the difference between shooting / editing on HD or SD is virtually indistinguishable - then using HD would be like using a shotgun to kill a fly. Effective, but over the top.

But then if money is no object...or there's a different end product...

Cheers,
George
 
SD makes no sense to me. Aside from the internet, what possible distribution is there? Standard is HD now.

assuming you have a choice.
 
Knoxworth said:
SD makes no sense to me. Aside from the internet, what possible distribution is there? Standard is HD now.
Click to expand...

DVD, television, ect.

What other distributions are out there?

Most of you are shooting HD and then down-rezzing it to SD anyway.
 
For the sake of posterity, these are the few remaining days in history where someone has this unique decision.
 
Definitely go HD... You can always easily go to SD if needed... but not the other way. HD cams and a decent editing computer are affordable as ever these days. There is no reason to invest in SD only equipment if you want to be flexible and up to date.
 
Tommy K said:
Definitely go HD... You can always easily go to SD if needed... but not the other way. HD cams and a decent editing computer are affordable as ever these days. There is no reason to invest in SD only equipment if you want to be flexible and up to date.
Click to expand...

I agree 100%!

There is very little reason for initially using SD. The only time I use it to make the original is when I'm using something like my video glasses which will only shoot SD.

I only use them when I need someone to say something they won't say on camera.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top