Hands-On HDV

Navigating production and post with HDV

Remember what DV did for standard-definition video acquisition? Ostensibly a consumer format, it opened the door for more than just accelerated home-movie production. Ten years down the line, it’s enabled everything from hip TV commercials and documentaries to Danish art films and shark-attack thrillers. Now HDV, which was also introduced as a consumer format, is catching on even more quickly. Whether it’s your primary acquisition format or a B-roll solution, if you shoot smart and edit smart, you can get great value for your money.

But it can be tricky to get the best results. HDV is highly compressed, which makes it a poor choice in post-production — you’ll probably want to convert that MPEG-2 stream to something else before you do any editing or compositing work. And just using HDV means you have to make a choice between Sony’s HDV recipe and JVC’s— which seems to be essentially a choice between 1080i and 720p, but with lots of other considerations in the mix.

To help you make those decisions, we asked HDV early adopters for their best tips on working in the format. Over the next seven pages, you’ll get lots of information on shooting and posting HDV in the words of the pros putting it to the test, out in the field and back in the studio. These are still early days for HDV, so consider this less a handbook than a field guide for travelers in uncharted territories— helping to keep your head above water and the ground beneath your feet.

Consider Going PAL and Adjusting Your Audio for 24p

Nick Tucker
President/director/editor
Golem Films, Greenville, CA
Recent HDV Projects: American Vampire

We really wanted to shoot 25 frames per second since it was the best alternative to shooting at 24 frames. That’s one of the things that sold us on the Sony HVR-Z1U, that it shot 50i and 60i. While we did look at the CineFrame feature on the HVR-Z1U, we weren’t really happy with the motion quality. But I had shot a couple of projects at 25p [50i] and slowed down the footage to 24p and had really good results, so that was what we opted to do. As it happens we’ve had extremely good results.

When you work with Final Cut Pro and try to put PAL footage into an NTSC timeline it can do nasty things to your motion quality. It kind of stutters and it’s not pretty. So we used Cinema Tools to conform the video to 24p first, and a Nattress plug-in to de-interlace it. After you slow the audio down four percent, and pitch-shift it to compensate, you’ve effectively got 24 frames. DVDs support 24p video, and it displays smoothly on normal NTSC televisions, so it’s the easiest way to get your PAL footage onto an NTSC monitor.

For the DVD that we’ll use for festival submissions, we’re exporting it from FCP as a QuickTime 24p movie and using FCP’s Compressor to go to DVD. At least try some of the major plug-ins before monkeying around with slowing footage down. I’d recommend that anyone who wants to do it download all the demo versions of DVFilm Maker and Nattress Film Effects and try them out. It’s free to try them, after all, and they’ll give you a good idea of the result.

Our color correction is kind of unique. The film is shot in color but we’re de-saturating many scenes to black and white, for several reasons. One is a stylistic choice— we like the look as our movie is about vampires and has a Gothic feel. We’ve had some amazing results with pretty dark footage that really looks beautiful in black and white. We just adjusted in FCP 5 with the three-point color corrector, first de-saturating and then adjusting the contrast. It was able to take care of about 90 percent of the color correction that we needed to do. The color was pretty good out of the camera. We shot a scene in a comic book store and the colors of the comics are really amazing. Aside from the built-in Final Cut Pro color corrector, the one thing we have used is the film gamma effect from Nattress.

The Right Camera; Matching Settings; Cineform Mode

Jody Eldred
Director/writer/cameraman
Los Angeles, CA
Recent HDV Projects: Inserts for CBS’s JAG

Get the Right Camera for the Right Job
No one camera is perfect for everything. The lesser the camera, the more experienced the camera operator required to get good images out of it. In some respects, it takes a more talented operator to make the Sony HVR-Z1U look good. Use that camera in places where it’s more logical to use it than the Sony HDW-F900. We were shooting the big Sturges motorcycle rally up in South Dakota, and there are a lot of things the Z1U was perfect for, such as mounting it outside a vehicle with a wide-angle lens to get up close to a motorcycle. That would have been impractical, and maybe even dangerous, with an F900. We would use HDV for shots inside a bar or club that required a lower-profile camera or greater light sensitivity, and some handheld stuff on motorcycles. But when it came time to do all the interviews, we didn’t shoot any with the Z1U. The F900 is more controllable, has shallow depth of field, and we can make it look how we want pretty easily. But I like shooting with the Z1U in small places. It’s particularly useful to keep a wide lens on the camera so you can keep up close to your subject and stay zoomed out. It gives me a little better effect all the time.

Match Your HDV Settings to Your Workhorse Cameras
To match the Z1U’s footage with the F900, I prefer to make the picture a little bit richer so you start out with a little more to work with. So I turn the chroma up a little bit, and with the phase I warm the picture up a little bit— just a few points, nothing extreme— and make sure the sharpness is generally similar to the F900, not too dull or too crisp. I prefer a look that is richer yet allows me to see into the blacks, so my personal preference is the Cinematone 2 setting with black stretch on. That, to me, gets the look that’s closest to what my F900 does. There are so many things you can do— crank the chroma way high and do all kinds of stuff to get super high contrast— but personally, I prefer to capture something really excellent in the field that’s close to the look I want, and if I want to tweak it in post I can always do that.

Consider Alternatives to Cineframe Mode
In my opinion, CineFrame 24 is not a good mode. I’ve been shooting at 25 frames per second, or 50i. My F900s were set up for 23.98 but I shot the Z1Us at 50i, and we’re going to offspeed-play it in post at 23.98. There will be a tiny speed difference and it should intercut just fine. That, for us, was the best route to make everything look 24-frame. Also, there may be a film-out, and this is the best workflow for getting there.

Know When to Use The Sony Z1U and/or the JVC GY-HD100U

Steve Gibby
Producer/director/DP
Cut4 Media Group
San Luis Obispo, CA
Recent HDV Projects: Stock footage for Mammoth HD

If you own or plan to rent the current top-performance HDV camcorders, the JVC GY-HD100U and the Sony HVR-Z1U, how do you decide which one to use on any particular project? Let’s analyze their key features.

The Z1U records 1080i/60 HDV, and several networks broadcast in 1080i, including NBC, CBS and HDNET. It also records 480i/60, which looks good for SD reality TV. The Z1U has the capability to output 480p analog SD from 480i, but that’s not as good as shooting 480p natively. However, I use the Z1U for projects where I need a run-and-gun form factor, and native progressive is not the look I’m after. (The Z1U’s optical image stabilization is nice for those situations.) The big drawbacks to the Z1U, especially for indie film production, are the lack of true progressive 24p and the lack of a removable lens. There are indie shooters that use the Z1U with a matte box, follow focus, etc. In my opinion, though, true progressive video is a better choice for indie production. The 12x fixed lens is also a big drawback for far-away sports, nature or any long-focal-length needs. I simply don’t use my Z1U in those situations. I also don’t use my Z1U when I need good depth of field. I’m used to getting good depth of field easily with detachable professional lenses on my 1/2-inch and 2/3-inch CCD cameras, but it’s extra work on the Z1U. I’ve found that the Z1U is excellent for acquiring mobile 1080i stock footage of scenery, nature and well-lit indoor subjects. I avoid shooting fast lateral moving subjects with the Z1U. If I have to shoot them, I increase the shutter speed and pan with the action.

One decided advantage of the HD100U is its ability to record in 480p/60. For shooting high-motion subjects, 480p/60 beats the heck out of 480i/60. If the footage is destined for television, slow-motion sequences will be much better in 480p/60, and frame grabs for a Web site are crisper. If the HD100U’s motion-smoothing filter for 30p is effective at eliminating judder, the HD100U may be a good camera for faster-moving television production (sports, etc.). Another advantage is the ability to change lenses. With a 2x extender, the HD100U’s 16x lens could be a good long lens for sports, nature, etc., and the.8 wide-angle converter should make it a decent option for ENG-style situations (balanced with large batteries on the camera). The 13x lens, though pricey, should be a great lens for a wide variety of shorter-focal-length applications. With the 1/2-inch to 1/3-inch converter, lenses such as the Fujinon S20x6.4 or the Canon YH19x6.7 can be used. These are $3,500, 1/2-inch SD lenses that work well in SD modes (480i and 480p), but whether they will resolve 720p adequately remains to be seen. Both cameras are excellent performers in their designed functions. For real mobile, short-focal-length, reality-look production, I’d probably use the Z1, accessorized with a wide converter, etc. For high-action handheld and tripod work (30p motion-smoothed), long focal-length tripod work requiring interchangeable lenses, or work that required 480p/60, I’d choose the HD100.

Focus on the Fly with the JVC-HD100U

Bernie Mitchell
President, Silver Platter Productions
Knoxville, TN
JVC Pro HD consultant/evangelist
Recent HDV Projects: Test projects only

About a month ago, I received one of the very first JVC GY-HD100U HDV cameras to shoot with and test out in post. Because it is a pure 24-frame progressive HD camcorder, JVC asked me to introduce it to film schools.

First, know that this camera is a progressive camera. As a shooter, you need to understand the difference between interlace and progressive and understand the type of look you want to get and how to shoot for it. Remember, high-def sees everything. What I mean by that is, high-def doesn’t exaggerate things, but it does let you see things you wouldn’t ordinarily see.

One of the nicest features on this camera, which I use all the time, is setting the viewfinder to display both safe guides for 16:9 aspect ratio and 4:3. That way, when you frame for 16:9, you’re also aware of protecting your 4:3 shot. So, if a project ends up going SD, you’re fine.

Another feature I use all the time is Focus Assist. This is a great benefit to a high def shooter. Focus in high definition is critical and, when you’re looking through a viewfinder it’s difficult to tell if you’re actually in focus. When you turn Focus Assist on, the viewfinder goes black and white. As you rack into focus, the outline of your subject pops into color and there’s a color peaking around the edge of your object. It makes it very easy, particularly in outdoor situations where you have extremely bright ambient light, to tell if you’re in focus. With this camera and its interchangeable lenses you can now get that cinema look of shallow depth of field. With Focus Assist you can easily rack focus through from one point of the image to another, letting you pull off that cinematographic trick of leading the audience’s eyes through the frame with focus.

One last tip: This camera shoots 24 frame and 30 frame progressive. If you haven’t shot 24p before, I strongly recommend that you use a tripod or some sort of camera support. As I mentioned earlier, high def shows everything. So, you’re really going to see a lot of camera movement in 24p. Support your camera!

Get Rid of MPEG-2 Noise With an HD-SDI Converter and HDCAM Deck

Andreas Timmes
Producer, Creative Development
MSS — New York
Recent HDV Projects: Currently shooting a promotion for an upcoming Japanese movie

Shooting with the Sony HDR-FX1, we noticed that the image quality, although generally very good, becomes a bit noisy (or blurred) when we panned with the camera. Actually, this is quite typical for MPEG-2 compression, even in HD broadcasts, as we noticed in the Summer Olympics broadcasts. With the HDR-FX1, the blur/noise is more visible because it features a less expensive codec. Using an HD-SDI converter, we then hooked up the camera with a portable HDCAM deck (SONY HDW-250). This let us bypass the MPEG-2 codec (with a transfer rate of 25 Mbps) and, instead, record uncompressed HD (with a rate of 140 Mbps). This resulted in a higher image quality with relatively clean pans.

Based on our experience, we also recommend minimizing horizontal movement (panning) as much as possible in order to maintain a clean image. If you need to pan (and want to maintain the image quality), always pan as slowly as possible!

Get a Film look with 35mm lenses

Tom Camarda
Director of photography
Los Angeles
Recent HDV Project: Busgirl, an independent film with director Steven Schuldt

When I was first approached by director Steven Schuldt to shoot his film Busgirl, his mind was already made up on what format we were going to use. Steven is very technically oriented and a steadfast H.264 proponent. He also had a lot of faith in the HDV format and, although I was initially hesitant, I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Steven had seen a film that I photographed called Grace that was shot on DV using the P&S Technik Mini 35 adapter, which allowed us to use 35mm cinema lenses. He was thrilled with that look and wanted the same shallow depth of field for Busgirl. So off we went to NAB to put together our HDV camera package.

Because the producers of Busgirl opted to buy all the equipment needed for the shoot, the P&S adapter was just not an option as it is very expensive. Steven found a company called Redrock Micro, whose M2 35mm lens adapter seemed to be just what we were after.

We had our rig outfitted with a Nikon lens mount so we could use Nikon SLR zoom lenses the producer owned. We outfitted these with follow focus rings from Cavsion in Canada, which allowed us to pull focus either by hand or remotely when using the steadicam. By the time the whole rig was built, it had the profile of an SRII and an ASA rating of 50! (Not what you’d expect when shooting digital.)

Unfortunately, there is no [true] 24p mode on the Sony HVR-Z1U, so we shot at 50i and used a 13-inch PAL monitor everywhere we went. We would watch dailies back at the production office on a 23-inch HD display to make sure our focus was sharp. Attention to back focus is critical in any digital production but even more so when shooting with 35mm adapters. I was really amazed at the latitude of this camera.

Overall, HDV is a great tool for low-budget filmmaking, especially if coupled with the M2 adapter, which can get you that film-like depth of field. I’m certainly keeping my eye on the next generation of HDV cameras because the potential for quality, inexpensive image-making is only getting better.

Here are a few key tips for using 35mm lenses with HDV:

• Setup is absolutely essential. Plan on spending at least a day or two to adjust the camera with your adapter.
• Try to work with lenses that have the same barrel diameter to create faster lens changes.
• Invest in a good follow-focus system.
• Pay special attention to setting the back focus. The HDV camera is focusing on a rotating ground glass. Be sure that this distance is maintained throughout the course of the shoot.
• Shoot tests!
• Be sure you are in manual mode and do not have any shutter or iris settings appearing on the LCD of the camera or they will override your manual settings.
• If possible, use a high-definition monitor with underscan to watch your
• dailies. This will give you the best indication of what you have to
• work with.
• Have fun!

Shoot with a Healthy Exposure

Kevin W. C. Wong
Director of photography
Toronto, Canada
Recent HDV Project: Tomorrow is Today

In shooting HDV with Sony’s HVR-Z1U, it is sometimes very tempting to shoot with low light since the camera does allow for a pretty clean image without a ton of lights. We tried to shoot in and around T4.0 as our ideal stop because it allows for a cleaner image as well as preserving a suitable depth of field. Particularly in HDV, because of the sharpness of highlights, a slightly soft image is about the most annoying giveaway imaginable, so shooting with a healthy exposure was important to the picture quality. Keeping in mind that we were shooting for a film-out also made us careful in preserving a clean and sharp image since everything is to be blown up onto a big screen.

On Tomorrow Is Today we made minimal use of filters (i.e. Polarizer, NDs, ND-Grads and a Sunset Grad.) Our strategy for filtration was to preserve a clean image for color correction and timing. We decided not to use softening filters for the same reason— keeping flexibility for post, especially for the film-out processes.

We used primarily long focal lengths for our shots to avoid barrel distortions. Since the story called for a naturalistic look, we wanted the perspective to be as close to the human eye as possible. The scenery at the Jersey Shore was breathtaking, so we just waited for the right time of day and let it do most of the work.

Our aim from the start was to have the film end up in 24fps, which is why we made the decision to shoot in 50i. From consulting with other filmmakers using the Z1U, we found that shooting in the CineFrame option simulates the progressive look quite well. However, if we were to truly de-interlace in post to film, it would be a difficult process.

As for monitoring exposure and composition, we tested the latitude of the camera in prep and learned to work within our zones. The zebra lines, along with metering our lights to stay within the levels, kept a consistency in our image. Compared to my prior experience shooting another feature last year with the JVC-HD1OU [the first HDV camera on the market and aimed at the consumer market], the Sony Z1 was miles ahead in improving its picture quality and most impressively its latitude. As for monitoring our framelines for the 2.35:1 ratio, we simply shot a rack leader in prep and stuck tape on our LCD and Monitor for the shoot.

An interesting feature on the Z1 was the user preset buttons. They allow for repeatable‘racking’ of focus, focal lengths and exposure over three selectable intervals of time. At first I was reluctant in using these features, but as we went along the function allowed for accurate focus pulls and match framing needs. Towards the end of the shoot, I used the function almost in every scene (but of course with subtlety). Frederic [Haubrich, the director] and I had a running joke on set that we should do a‘slow zoom’ for every scene for kicks. Seriously though, some of my favorite shots in the film made use of these almost imperceptible zooms over 18 second intervals. This would normally not be possible to do unless we had a manual lens system on the camera along with a micro-force motor to pull it off. This detail in the Z1 is a definitely plus amongst its peers.

Shoot CinemaScope on the HVR-Z1U for Film-Out

Frederic Haubrich
Director
Lumiére Media, Doylestown, PA
Recent HDV Project: Tomorrow is Today

If you get a really good cinematographer to work with, what the HVR-Z1U camera is able to do with the three CCDs and the lens it comes with is unbelievable. You still need to take care of your lighting— control your highlights, contain your environment. In our tool kit we had three ND filters and a sky filter. But with 1920 x 1080, you essentially have amazing real estate. We did something that we hadn’t seen done with HDV before— we shot preserving for 2.35:1 Cinemascope. We felt that it would showcase the beauty of the Jersey Shore, which is a principal character in our story. Because Cinemascope is much wider than 16:9, we did the old trick of putting two pieces of tape on the viewfinder. In post we clipped the top and bottom.

The field LCD HD monitor [LMD9050] we got from Sony has a 2.35:1 mode that allows for transparent bands on top and bottom of the screen. This is important since you always want to give yourself the option to reframe the shot in post by moving it up or down and therefore keep booms out of the frame as much as possible.

We’re really looking forward to taking this out to film. People are going to be floored that this was shot with a $5,000 camera. So far we haven’t done any color correction on any of our footage and it looks pretty amazing. If you’re not going to do tons of action and you want to shoot beautiful landscapes and go for a cinematic look, 1080i is good. Lots of action can be a problem if you need to turn the footage to progressive by de-interlacing for a film-out. If the final delivery is 1080i, then I think interlaced is fine for action. We shot 50i because it’s a lot easier if you’re going to do a film-out as it’s 25 frames per-second. When you turn progressive you just remove one frame per-second and you slow down the audio by four percent. Shooting 50i you’re already getting more of a cinematic feel compared to a 60i. It has much less of video feel to it.

Before You Shoot: Start at the Finish

Marge Janssen
VP, Engineering
Tamberelli Digital Video, New York
Recent HDV Projects: Rents HDV gear to clients

The first question that needs to be addressed in acquisition today is: what does the post/transfer house require in order to finish the process? With the greater array of acquisition tools offered in today’s market, it becomes almost a necessity to answer questions pertaining to the end of the process first.

Where is the end product going? Whether your project goes directly and only to film, is meant for television broadcast, video documentary with possible film-out or webcasting internet use can determine equipment, format and set-up choices. Talk to your finishing house. Inquire about frame rates for the easiest transfer. You may ask if the format is easily edited. Do they require non-drop-frame or drop-frame time code? Is this format the best for compositing/green-screening and special effects? Is it better to shoot straight out and adjust in post or to capture the optimal quality in the camera and just post out? 720p or 1080i? Is there a benefit or drawback for the particular project? And, of course, double-system audio or not?

As an equipment provider, too often we see clients who come in to evaluate several camera models of different manufacturers side by side for their upcoming project. Do not make your choice by what you see in the camera. Any good camera engineer can make a camera look good on a monitor. Any evaluation requires a look at the recorded format. If you have the opportunity to do these side-by-side tests, roll tape and then take it to your finishing house.

There are several manufacturers offering many HDV acquisition choices and soon to be many more. Your finishing house can give you information to help you make decisions before you commit to your acquisition tools.

Panning; Audio; On-Set Monitors

Douglas Spotted Eagle Managing producer Sundance Media Group/VASST Stockton, UT Recent HDV Projects: Training video for Detroit Diesel, Child Abuse Prevention PSA

Shoot at Higher Shutter Speed if You're Panning A Lot
Shoot higher shutter speeds than 50/60 if you intend on making fast pans or tilts. The MPEG compression format does not lend itself well to high speed pans or tilts with lower shutter speeds. Practice shooting with slower shutter speeds for the beautiful effects this can provide if you know in advance what you’re looking for.

Pay Close Attention to Your Audio in HDV
HDV has an MPEG-1 layer II audio format that records at 384 Kbps. This is very close to CD quality audio, except that it’s 48 KHz rather than 44.1. This compressed format is one that many HDV naysayers decry, but it’s perfectly useable for most shooting scenarios. However, acquiring audio at too low a level is like shooting images at too low a resolution. This becomes a problem when the audio is processed. Therefore, acquire audio in the HDV realm, as loud as possible without crossing the 0 dB brick wall. Level processing is a challenge in all formats, but HDV audio is slightly less forgiving than PCM audio (the DV standard). Therefore, you’ll want to pay closer attention to the audio if you’re shooting HDV.

Shoot On Set with a Black-and-White Monitor
Use the uncompressed outs to feed a flat screen with the color pulled out, or better yet, rent a production monitor. This will help when focusing HD cameras. Even with large on-camera displays, or enlarged viewfinders, anything out of focus in the HD world is immediately noticeable, particularly when viewed on a reasonably large display. Pulling focus properly is critical at higher HD resolutions.

Shoot CineFrame Mode on Z1U and Handle as Progressive through Post

Tim Kolb
Producer/director/co-founder
Kolb Syverson Communications
Appleton, WI
Recent HDV Projects: CopperBox "Finally Found You" music video

Before you shoot in simulated progressive or progressive scan HDV, you need to consider your post pathway. Right now progressive scan support for HDV source material does not exist in every NLE that can handle HDV.

For instance, if you’re going use the Sony HVR-Z1U camera, and you’re going to use it in one of the CineFrame modes, then it’s important to look at your post pipeline, and see if it’s going to support progressive on the timeline or not.

The Sony camera is not actually recording progressive; it records interlaced. There’s a flag on the data to specify a playback mode on the footage. You shoot in CineFrame 30 mode, but many editing systems will see it as 60i on ingest. These modes in the camera create a look. It’s not changing how it writes the file. If you shoot at CineFrame 30 you most likely want a 30p look, therefore you’d probably like to keep that during post.

We use CineForm’s Aspect HD running in Adobe Premiere to post. Aspect HD can be set to capture HDV footage as 60 or 50 fps interlaced, but can also be set to capture at 24, 25 and 30 fps progressive. You can bring in the HDV based on how you shot it. One particularly nice feature in Aspect is that you can bring in CineFrame 25 footage as 25 fps progressive and slow it to 24 fps and adjust for the audio pitch change, bypassing the 60i-to-24p pulldown from CineFrame 24 mode if you prefer.

Starting in MPEG doesn't mean you have to stay that way

Frederic Haubrich
Director, Lumiére Media
Doylestown, PA
Recent HDV Projects: Tomorrow is Today

With Final Cut Pro 5, ingesting and editing HDV is basically plug and play — you can cut HDV in real time. Here are the choices: from the timeline when you decide to generate a final output you could go out uncompressed HD or back to HDV. You can also generate full-resolution H.264.

But going back to HDV involves some MPEG artifacting when you start layering and doing effects and transitions. I’ve done a little bit of color correction in HDV and it looks terrible. I don’t think they’re insurmountable issues if you turn that timeline into a 4:2:2 color space codec with Media Manager before your output. Then, when you render and do color correction, you’re doing it off 4:2:2 where each frame is now a frame, you’re not working with MPEG any more. Now you can do color correction and get some pretty decent results. It’s still 4:2:0 to 4:2:2.

We experimented with Nattress’s latest FCP plug-ins for HDV and I must say that the Film Gamma plug-in is a really easy and impressive solution to making your footage even more film-like. From there we’ll do a final render to QuickTime 24p or whatever we need.

Go DI; Convert to 24p; Use a Proxy

Douglas Spotted Eagle
Managing producer
Sundance Media Group/VASST Stockton, UT
Recent HDV Projects: Training video for Detroit Diesel, Child Abuse Prevention PSA

Don't Go Native, Go DI
Regardless of the NLE being used, consider editing in an intermediary format. In the Windows environment, consider using the CineForm DI (Digital Intermediary) as it converts the 4:2:0 m2t stream (native HDV) to a 4:2:2 short-GOP stream. Several software companies tout their ability to edit native HDV, but this isn’t a good idea due to color-shift issues of the GOP format. Converting the stream to an intermediary eliminates these concerns. Further, the transport-stream format at any bit rate loses quality after a single recompression, therefore making the m2t stream less than ideal for compositing. At Sundance Media Group/VASST, we convert immediately to 4:2:2 YUV for our compositing and editing.

Convert to 24p in Vegas
If your final output is to film, shoot 50i with your HDV camera. 50i converts to 24p for output much more nicely than does 60i. Merely converting, and in some software applications, slowing the audio and video by 4 percent, provides a wonderful 24p output with no hassles. Sony Vegas 6 does an outstanding job of the 50i to 24p conversion without the extra renders and slow-downs, so if you plan on working with film-out, consider Vegas as an option. Otherwise, simply render the 50i to 25p, and then slow the footage and audio.

If Your Computer's Slow, Use a Proxy
Be sure your computer is up to the task of editing HD. If it’s not up to speed, consider proxy-based editing. Editors have done this for years in various NLEs, and proxy-based editing allows slower NLEs to edit HD. The way a proxy works is that the HD file resides on the drive, waiting to be used at final render. The proxy stream, which could be plain-vanilla DV in widescreen mode, or a more complex low-resolution MJPEG file in a full 1440 x 1080 (anamorphic) format, is used for editing, color correction, titling, etc. The proxy files are swapped out for the real HD files at the time of final render. Be sure your proxy format can properly manage the ITU-709 color space that HD uses.

Conform HDV to Large-Format, Uncompressed HD

Michael Cioni
Post-production supervisor
PlasterCITY Digital Post
Los Angeles
Recent HDV Projects: The Biker Chef, All In

One of the most common questions from HDV filmmakers is how to conform the HDV format from 29.97 to 23.98 frames per second for large format 23.98 Psf 1080 x 1920 exhibition. After extensive testing and examining the results on a 1.3K DLP projector, I recommend three options for conforming HDV to the world of uncompressed HD.

Option 1: Shoot in PAL
Though PAL acquisition quickly disappeared when 24p DV was made available, HDV does not yet have a satisfactory solution for 24p acquisition. For director Nick Vallelonga’s poker film All In, HDV cameras were brought in to supplement three Sony HDW-F900’s required for a large car crash sequence. The Sony HVR-Z1U was chosen for its high resolution and captured the crash at 1080/25/50i. The footage was ingested natively into Final Cut Pro at HDV PAL, 25/50i. Afterward, it was brought in to Adobe After Effects where it went through a 4 percent slow-pass conversion by re-mapping the time base from 25 to 23.98 progressive. This was then rendered out uncompressed 10-bit and laid to HDCAM SR, creating a seamless 1080/23.98 Psf camera master for editorial.

Option 2: Use Reverse Telecine
On Christopher Coppola’s traveling cooking show, The Biker Chef, HDV became a handy solution. Using the Panasonic VariCam, Biker Chef is shot documentary-style on the road, and critical insert shots are often missed in the field. Dealing with budget constraints, the Sony Z1U in CineFrame mode was used for small stage set-up cooking insert shots instead of the VariCam. Though the CineFrame mode is not true progressive capturing, the Z1U does lay 3:2 pulldown to the HDV tape. Once ingested into Final Cut Pro, the footage is taken to Cinema Tools and a reverse telecine is performed. The footage is then re-laid back to HDCAM at 23.98 Psf for editorial and later color corrected to match the VariCam.

Option 3: Use the Teranex Xantus
For optimum HDV image acquisition for a feature in development, the RGB output of the Z1U was fed through an AJA HD10A RGB to HD-SDI converter. The RGB feed, essentially an uncompressed HD stream, was recorded to HDCAM SR at 4:4:4 10-bit. Afterwards, the SR tape was fed through the Teranex Xantus frame-rate converter and de-interlaced and converted to 1080/23.98Psf. Working right off the Z1U chip allowed us to bypass the heavy HDV compression and still achieve a 24p master with stunning color, resolution and clarity.