Oversampling telecine to HD

[Fulgencio Martinez]

Hi,

I shoot music videos and normally go from s16 to digibeta. Will it make sense to go to HD do the post and then downsize to SD?

What about 2k and then to SD?

I guess 2K will raise the budget, but the HD method wouldn´t be very expensive.

Any experience about this?

Thanks,

Fulgencio

[David Mullen ASC]

It makes sense to post in 24P HD if you need to distribute the music video to both NTSC and PAL countries (plus HD markets). Next best would be a PAL post. 2K data isn't really necessary unless you are planning a transfer to film.

 

If you only have to sell the video to one market, NTSC or PAL, then a digi-beta post is fine.

[Tenolian Bell]

This reminds me of a conversation I had recently with a manager of a post house. He excitedly exclaimed how he can see 2K becoming more and more commonly used.

 

He said his post house was soon taking delivery of Sony's new HDCAM SR decks. He said once you are working at 1080 4:4:4 RGB tape format you might as well go all the way to a 2K scan. You are shooting 35mm the information is there you might as well take advantage of it.

 

He said he could see this path for television projects more and more. I asked even though television especially NTSC doesn't look any better. He explained that in music video and commercial work agencies are always exploring ways to make flashier photography and visual effects, and a 2K color space gives even more room to resolve more variations of color and dymanic range. Plus with 2K VFX being ubiquitous in motion picture it's easy to bring to television and will allow artist to create even more photorealistic enviornments and products, with flashier more detailed colors.

 

I asked him about storage of the 2k files. He explained many top commercial/ music video finishing houses are already set up for D5 finshing, its not really that far to deal with HDCAM SR, and ultimately 2K.

 

He predicted that first there would be 2K scans that are scaled immediately down to HDCAM SR. But eventually the film will be scanned, stored, and finished 2K, then the final product scaled down to SR for delivery.

 

He said he could see this in commercial/ music video work because they are short form, a lot of money is spent on them, and the image is everything. He said cinematographers, director's, colorists, VFX artist are all very competative in working to attract ad agency attention, and would be pushing to work with the latest technology that will seperate themselves from everyone else.

[David Mullen ASC]

"Band of Brothers" was scanned and posted in 2K data before final HD conversions were made -- but that's partly because U.K. is more 2K than HD oriented compared to Los Angeles where it is the reverse.

 

Certainly I think someday working only in data mode until the final video delivery formats are needed will be the norm, but not right now. For TV projects, it still tends to be more common to work in a video format for post.

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

Posting in HD for distribution in SD would be rather like shooting 65mm for a 35mm release - it would yeild extremely sharp, good-looking, low-noise SD pictures, and even though HDCAM is only 3:1:1 you're still sampling more colour than digibeta.

 

A practice to be encouraged, I'd have thought, particularly where you want a super-slick looking music promo.

 

Phil

[Tenolian Bell]

Yeah David you are right. Most of the music video's I've shot over the past couple of years have largely post on Digibeta. A couple have finished 24P, that was for MTV Europe and the PAL converstion.