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Editing in HDV / Film Look

C

Craigy

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 14, 2003
403
48
New Zealand
I've looked at many forums about HDV in FCP and are confused as whether to convert the HDV footage to another format before starting to edit etc.

We ultimately want to produce de-interlaced material for the web and for DVD - maybe in 720p. Would the nattress film look filters be any good for us in native HDV or should we still consider changing format?

Thanks
 
Craigy said:
I've looked at many forums about HDV in FCP and are confused as whether to convert the HDV footage to another format before starting to edit etc.

We ultimately want to produce de-interlaced material for the web and for DVD - maybe in 720p. Would the nattress film look filters be any good for us in native HDV or should we still consider changing format?

Thanks
Click to expand...
What camera is the HDV footage coming from? The XHA1, for example, can produce progressive footage that doesn't need to be down-converted or deinterlaced. Also, as the footage is 23.98fps, it'll produce lower bandwidth files than traditional 29.97fps footage.
 
Edit: Sorry, misread the question

New response: Your best bet would be to edit everything in HDV, downsample it to 720p or whatever, and apply the filters at that stage.
 
Are these two questions?

What I heard is that it is a good idea to convert into Apple Lossless and edit in this format.

For the filmlook it really depends on what you want. If your final medium is DVD then it doesn't necessarly make sense to shoot in any other speed then NTSC or PAL. But then you don't have to shoot in HDV.

And yes - the Natress filters are good for what they do.
 
pdpfilms said:
What camera is the HDV footage coming from? The XHA1, for example, can produce progressive footage that doesn't need to be down-converted or deinterlaced. Also, as the footage is 23.98fps, it'll produce lower bandwidth files than traditional 29.97fps footage.
Click to expand...
Sony HDR-HC1 HDV PAL
 
Craigy said:
Sony HDR-HC1 HDV PAL
Click to expand...

why does everyone think format matters? just shoot 24p if you can....which on the HC1 is still 29.97....and import to HDV1080i60. edit in the native format...don't change to the "lossless format" ......because there is no such thing......and focus more of your time on how well you are able to hold the camera, and do a good job with the storyboard. if you de-interlace your footage, you are going to degrade the quality....and if you're going to the web, what is the point in shooting hdv? there's a lot of questions you can ask, but honestly....how complicated do you want this to be......
 
I haven't done HDV natively, but offline editing is more for TV stations and Film companies editing stuff shot on film or Digibeta, etc. If your computer is powerful enough to deal with HDV natively there is no point doing this.

I think those mentioning "lossless" might have been referring to Apple Intermediate Codec, which is used in iMovie and FCE as it's less processor hungry than HDV. It's not technically "lossless", but I think it's rather good (in a strictly non-scientific way).

You might want to look at this > http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/resources/white_papers/HDV_FAQ.pdf


As for your HC1 and deinterlacing... Without checking, I think the HC1 has a 'Cineframe' mode, which on its "big brother" the A1 is reasonable. (Still records interlaced fields, btw.) But it loses some resolution. Likewise, there are options to do it inside FCE and Pro, but I think they just throw away one field and therefore half of the vertical resolution.

A better option would be to find a program that 'blends' the fields, and therefore keeps all the resolution. Not sure, but I reckon expensive software like After Effects and Magic Bullet will give this option. I used to use a program called JES Deinterlacer for DV footage.
 
If the HC1 only has the cinema 24 effect, you are not going to get that true "film look" unless you do some serious research on 3rd party software. I HATE sony's cinema mode.....I used to have a FX1.

there is really no point in using the apple intermediate codec if your computer can edit in native HDV....none (that I can think of haha)
 
Craigy said:
I've looked at many forums about HDV in FCP and are confused as whether to convert the HDV footage to another format before starting to edit etc.
Click to expand...
Much of the rationale behind transcoding HDV to a different format (AIC and DVCPro HD are probably the two most common) is because HDV is a craptacular format to post with. Transcoding to AIC or DVCPro HD will give you more Real Time performance, shorter render times, and better effects/color correction/gfx results because of the milder compression. Now if your final product was going to be delivered on HDV then you'd just want to work w/HDV throughout.

We ultimately want to produce de-interlaced material for the web and for DVD - maybe in 720p. Would the nattress film look filters be any good for us in native HDV or should we still consider changing format?
Click to expand...
I don't have any first hand experience, but I would say using the Nattress filters (or any plugins) would look better using AIC or DVCPro HD as opposed to HDV. You could always e-mail Graeme though. He made the filters so I'm sure he knows how best to apply them. ;)


Lethal
 
eightd said:
how do you expect him to convert 25 hdv to 23.976 frame rate?
Click to expand...

so you're saying if you shoot in sony's cineframe 25 mode (which looks nothing like film because of so much of a strobe look), and you use the AIC and cinema tools to 23.976, you'll have true progressive 24 (cinema tools will erase the interlaced frames)????

if so, that's cool!
 
bkvideography said:
If the HC1 only has the cinema 24 effect, you are not going to get that true "film look" unless you do some serious research on 3rd party software. I HATE sony's cinema mode.....I used to have a FX1.

there is really no point in using the apple intermediate codec if your computer can edit in native HDV....none (that I can think of haha)
Click to expand...

Hey i just bought a hdr-hc5 sony a month ago and i keep hearing about the cinema mode; however, everybody like it. you r the first person to say different. well anyway i dont know how to put my cam on that mode. does my camera even have this mode? and do u know how to activate it?
 
aaronclark32 said:
Hey i just bought a hdr-hc5 sony a month ago and i keep hearing about the cinema mode; however, everybody like it. you r the first person to say different. well anyway i dont know how to put my cam on that mode. does my camera even have this mode? and do u know how to activate it?
Click to expand...


you have to think about your audience. play 60i in front of a lady then play the 24 cinema mode and see which one makes them want to throw up first.

- instructions on turning the mode on should be in the manual.
 
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