Shooting in PAL Do I need conversion?

[VitaSogno]

Hi all,

 

Total newbie here, so I hope this makes sense:

 

My dp will shoot on PD-170p - so PAL only. We'll probably get about 1/3-1/4

of the film done this way--my footage, b-roll, interviews, and trailer. He's

in Milan, and I'm in the States, so after shooting, we'll return to our

respective countries.

 

A few questions: I'm pretty sure I can edit on Final Cut Pro with PAL,

right? If so, is it better just not to convert to NTSC? We can eventually move PAL

to DVD (is that MP4)? So just two conversions (PAL - DVD) rather than three

(PAL - NTSC - DVD).

 

Does that work? It's my understanding that converting to NTSC can be pricey

(they charge per hour of footage, not per tape) and there can be glitches

(with sound, so forth).

 

Can it work like this:

 

- shoot in pal

- input into final cut pro or like... edit...

- output to digital format (dvd, etc )

 

At any rate, some people have recommending skipping the whole issue and just

renting/borrowing an NTSC camera, but at this point, It's not possible.

 

So if you've had any experience in this regard, I'd love to hear from you.

I'd love to hear any thoughts on the easiest way to do this. Ultimately, we'll

put the trailer on . . . probably Quicktime and DVD (not really sure how all

this works) and edit the footage to hold on to for when I have money to go

back and shoot the rest of the film.

 

Thanks so much!

 

Darla

[Stuart Brereton]

It's simple, you change your project & capture settings in FCP to DV-PAL in the AV settings menu, then open a new project. Import your footage as normal and edit. When you're done, export the project as a DV-NTSC project via Compressor.