What Sequence Settings to use with DV NTSC footage for higher quality broadcasts?

A

armadillo

Well-known member
Hi,

I have captured some footage from a fairly low-level camera, and the natural sequence settings are NTSC DV (3:2).

The footage has the potential, however, to make for a good short tv broadcast, so I want to edit it at the highest resolution. Even if the video gets pixelated by expanding, I don't want the titles and captions to be done at a low resolution, so they will end up fuzzy if this is ever expanded for broadcast on a large tv.

I tried some of the sequence setting presets in FinalCut but none match the exact proportions of the footage. That is, I can't zoom the footage to "fit" the dimensions of the new window.

I want to use best practices for working on this, which is to say, I don't want to do a bunch of work, then have the product be good but too small...then have to go in and fix the zooming and motion of every single clip.

If you were working with this footage, with an eye to possible DVD products and television broadcasts, what sequence settings would you use for your editing to get it right the first time and avoid having to re-edit things at different sizes later?

Thanks.
 
I'm not sure how FCP translates to the workflow of premiere but if I were working on your project I would create a sequence that is designed for the use of 1080p of 720p P2 media. Then I would drop on two copies of the same shot onto the timeline. The bottom copy would then be stretched so the image fits the 16:9 frame, and a camera blur effect would is added to the now 16:9 layer. Then on the top layer stretch the frame so that the full 4:3 shot is is now visible, the black bars now gone, without damaging the integrity of your original shot. If you are using color you want to add a drop shadow to the 4:3 (top) layer to add perspective and diffuse the boldness of the side bars. When you are done, export the full shots at 1080p, or 720p. When it comes time to edit your new piece you now have a strip of film that can be dropped right into your new project without having to do any resizing while addressing the issue of multiple aspect ratios.

I made an example from some old 480 *mp4 TV scenes. This was already compressed when I started but notice how much definition is lost when you go to full screen. Your DV footage will look much better, but if you stretch the shots too much you're going to end up with unviewable mush. There are examples of this technique all over reality TV when they have to resort to patching in 4:3 footage from the screen side camera of an iPhone because Snookie was banging the camera crew who were DTF after there was an on-set misunderstanding of the term DP.

 
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Thanks for the advice. It is appreciated.

I will try to figure out what the FCP equivalent of that setting is...

I figure it is best to edit at as though it will play in HD and then simply downsize as necessary depending on the medium.

Regarding the wings, that is a good call. The thing with this footage is, some of it was recorded on poor equipment, so sometimes the top or bottom 2% of it looks like a bad VCR rip (swaying and messed up). My solution, when the dimensions of the window in FCP are the same as the footage, is to zoom in to 101 or 102% and the crud just gets cropped out.

With the new project settings, even with the wings, zooming in different amounts with different clips will make for slight changes from shot to shot in the size of the "wings."

The solution that comes to mind would be to put the wings layer in front and crop it to a fixed size on the left and right, slightly overlapping the main window, maybe with a slight edge feather. But this does seem pretty cumbersome to do with every single clip...especially since, as far as I know in FCP, you can't copy and paste motion settings for a clip...
 
By the way, does anyone know a trick for pasting motion settings for a clip in FCP?

If not, what a horrendous design oversight.
 
Isn't that the guy from Carrie in the Flash suit? Was that a real show or a tacky commercial?
 
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That is the show The Greatest American Hero. The star is William Katt. He was one of the people who auditioned for the role of Luke Skywalker. This was my favorite TV show when I was a child. It's about a guy who is given a super suit by aliens but he loses the instruction book and then can't use any of his powers properly.


As far as using the wings and clipping off bad footage there should be a "crop" effect that allows you to clip of certain parts of the footage without leaving a background.
 
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Interesting audition there. That combo could have worked...

As to the settings / wings issue...

It seems the closest to your recommendation is HDTV 720p (16:9).
- Others included HD (1440x1080), HD (1280x1080), HDTV 1080i (16:9), Film (Academy) (4:3)...
- All other options didn't seem right...

Anyway, with HDTV 720p, I was surprised that I was able to fill the editing window from top to bottom by only expanding the miniDV footage to 150%.

Given how small the footage is when I export it at "actual size," I don't think 150% of that would be suitable for any sort of professional broadcasts... Am I right?

Also, in attempting to follow your directions to put a drop shadow on the main layer, to separate it from the wings, I am able to create one, but ONLY one (and in only one direction). I can't seem to apply a drop shadow to the left AND right to balance the look.

Any suggestions, anyone?
 
As a bit of further info...

with HD (1440x1080) when I use these settings, I fill the window from left to right when I expand/zoom the DV footage to 200%. I actually would have the "wings" at the top and bottom, where there is extra space.

Film (Academy) is larger. I fill the window (from side to side) when I zoom to 285%. But again, there is still room at the top and bottom.

I tend to think of this raw miniDV footage I am working with as narrow to begin with. These two highest resolution settings are even more narrow (and much narrower than the dimensions of an HD TV screen).

I feel like there should be another preset option for the sequence that would be appropriate for the situation...
 
Should I be doing something like making a custom setting of 1920 x 1080, and then keeping the same aspect ratio on my footage and creating the wings there?

Wouldn't that be suitable for widescreen HD and then allow me to trim away the wings in final outputs as necessary for the broadcast format?

I feel like Final Cut should have a 1920x1080 option in the drop-down menu of sequence settings...
 
I just tried making the custom 1920 x 1080 setting...

The main layer stretches to the top and bottom of the preview screen at 228% zoom... The "wings" layer reaches the sides of the window at 270% zoom

Can anyone suggest issues I could run into down the road if I do my editing in these settings? Example, the main layer won't shrink or expand in terms of aspect ratio when I export the final product, will it? Or have I just gone and basically created a preset that resembles a common final output but will, in fact, require a re-edit from the ground up for one reason or another?

Thanks...
 
Also, regarding the "drop shadow on both sides" issue with the wings, the only solution I can think of is to duplicate the main video layer, and then change the drop shadow on the 2nd one to the other side...

But that does seem like inefficient use of memory and layers...
 
With the stretching of the shot you are going to have to use your eyes to see if the footage look acceptable. With the drop shadow you are getting only one side because your distance needs to be set at 0, then the shadow will disappear, using the softness adjustment you are going to raise it until the shadow starts to spread out from behind the top layer, and then raise the opacity as well to make the drop shadow more visible.

You should export a piece of the footage as is - in 4:3 - and post it here so we can see the quality of the footage you are working with.
 
Thanks for the reply.

Correct me if I'm wrong but, since the footage is what it is, it seems best to edit it at the highest resolution at which it might potentially be displayed (even if it is zoomed to mush) and then downsize as necessary. I will grant that it isn't terribly impressive when zoomed to 228%, but if I ever want to display in HD...there doesn't seem to be another alternative.

Does my custom 1920x1080 preset seem like a smart way to go?

In the meantime, I will work on exporting some footage for discussion purposes. Thanks.
 
Here is a clip of footage with the quality in question...

https://vimeo.com/53247750

You asked for it to be posted "4:3 as is" but when sampled at DV NTSC it entered Final Cut as 3:2, so I left it that way...

All I have done is apply a de-interlace filter.

Exported with the compressor "DV / DVCPRO NTSC" which FCP seemed to set as the default with this footage.

Anyway, any ideas on how to edit (what settings) at the highest possible resolution / broadcast size are still welcome. Even if the footage gets zoomed to near-mush, no reason not to have crisp titles, etc.

Also, I accidentally imported some clips into a sequence with HDV 1080i60 as the setting, and the resolution looked okay at that size but it was extremely jumpy / skippy due to the frame rate difference I imagine.
 
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