-
Enlarging video twice?
I’m shooting a movie with a Sony point and shoot digital camera that also happens to have a film mode. I’m completely zero budget here and am shooting in VGA (640 x 480). Please try not to laugh about this all day, lol.
What I need advice on is how best to go about enlarging the video. I am using Sony Vegas and Video Enhancer. So far this is how I think I should go about this:
I’m gonna take all my raw footage into video enhancer and enlarge it to 720 x 540 (still in 4:3 aspect). Then I’m going to create a project that is in 16:9 aspect ratio, but a bit smaller than the enlarged footage, perhaps 700 x 394. I’m making the project size just a bit smaller like this, because I plan on doing a lot of Pan & Scan to the footage. Most of the footage will be shot on a tripod and I will be the only actor, so I can’t do a lot of fancy dollying and tracking, etc. So I want to do some pan & scan & zooming to the footage to give it a little more life, nothing crazy, just a touch. So I need the footage to be of higher resolution than the project resolution, because panning & scanning & zooming all enlarge the raw footage, so I will lose resolution if my raw footage is the same size as my project resolution. I figure as a bonus, for the shots I dont pan and scan, they will be extra crisp, becuase they will actually be shrunken down to size. Make sense? It’s a bit convoluted, but I feel sure that other video makers out there will understand what I’m talking about and what I’m trying to do.
So then, my final edited video will be in 700 x 394. Then I will take the final, and either run it through Video Enhancer again, or perhaps use some kind of hardware in a pro studio to blow it all up to 1080p. Again, you can laugh a bit, I would, but please not all day long, lol.
I don’t know anything about what kind of pro hardware would be good for the final blow up, and how it compares to Video Enhancer. My final goal is of course a DVD, and hopefully, if I get selected, I will need to transfer it all over to Sony HD CAM to be played at Sundance. Maybe I could shoot for a smaller final resolution for the DVD, I know not all DVDs are in 1080. And then maybe the Sony HD CAM recorder will blow it up nice an neat from DVD to 1080?
What is the best method to do all this? And when I run the raw footage through Video Enhancer the first time, what kind of codec should I use? Should I try to match the codec it is already in that the Sony Camera uses? I know I should probably do that uncompressed, but I don’t have anywhere near the disk space for that, it seems to be something like 50 MBs/second, and I’m probably gonna have 4 or 5 hours of total raw footage. Maybe I should try to enlarge the video the first time at a higher resolution than 720 x 540? Maybe smaller?
So I know this is a lot of info, and may be kind of hard to wrap your head around, but I really need help here! I would super appreciate any advice!
-
5 Replies
-
Ryan,
We would never laugh at anybody that’s new to video, since we all started from somewhere. Congrats on you for thinking ahead about your project planning.Maybe you should shoot a small test clip, and try your enlarging theory before you jump ‘all in’ and realize, in the end, that the footage quality is not what you wanted. Nobody wants to spend a large amount of time shooting and be dissatisfied with the results.
My fear is that you will be shooting with a consumer camera, and shooting in standard definition. The footage might look fine when played back on a standard definition television (or computer monitor), but when you enlarge it, run it through an optimization software, and then enlarge it again (if I read your post correctly), you might significantly degrade the quality of your video. How about keeping the footage as shot and letterbox it?
I would suggest shooting a short test, run it through what you have planned, and see if you’re satisfied with the results. If you don’t like the quality, at least you learned something that will help you in the future and didn’t waste a large amount of your time for this ‘test’. If you will be submitting your work to the Sundance Film Festival, I believe they have pretty strict standards on the quality. I know some film festivals have a minimum video quality (30 mb/s video, for example), which even my prosumer camera (Sony NEX-VG10) that cost me $1400 a few years ago can’t even produce.
Good luck,
Dave -
Hi Ryan,
1. Test this out BEFORE you commit.
2. You can purchase a good point and shoot camera that has video capability for under $300 – 720P 30 fps- Check out Best Buy etc.
3. Up rezzing your video will NOT make it look better.
4. Do you have a Camera you can borrow that shoots DV with XLR inputs?
5. Do you have an Iphone 5? Several films have been shot with Iphones as of late….T
-
Thanks for the info and encouragement, guys.
Pillar boxing is an idea. I guess standard dvd resolution is 720 x 480, and I’m shooting in 640 x 480 so I wouldn’t have to blow it up at all. That said I don’t like the way pillar boxing looks, not sure if anybody really does. Also, since I’m gonna be doing pan/scan/zoom, some of the footage will get blown up anyway.
Yeah I’d love to buy a great new camera. It’s amazing how far technology has come. I remember the first camcorder I ever bought, back in 1993, was strictly VGA resolution, and cost $2200–craziness. I was looking at buying a GoPro Black (I think it’s about $400), which supposedly goes all the way up to 4K resolution, and can do pretty high frame rates in lower resolutions so would be great for slow mo. But really I have absolutely no money. I’m unemployed and on unemployment. With the props I need to buy, and renting a hotel room for the final scene, as well as a glide gear stabilizer and some extra battery packs, I’m pretty much maxed out here.
I hope that’s not true about Sundance requiring a certain MB/s rate. I read through the submission requirements a couple times and didn’t see anything about that. Also, they encourage young film makers to enter. I can’t really image a teenager who isn’t wealthy having access to a CineAlta or something like that.
Does anybody know anything about a pro piece of hardware that might do a good job at enlarging? They must exist right? I do have to say though that Video Enhancer does a great job. You can add brightness contrast saturation denoising and sharpening filters to the footage while it is being enlarged, and if you apply them tastefully (I’m a graphic designer by trade and have a lot of experience with restoring photos), I think the footage can almost look better blown up than the original.
-
Ryan,
Standard definition video is 640×480. High definition video is 1280×720 (aka 720) or 1920×1080 (aka 1080).Thomas’s idea about recording on an iPhone is a great idea and has proven to work great. If this is your first go at something like this, keep it simple. You seem to be insistent on enlarging, but trust me, it’s going to look bad.
Dave
-
I just think enlargement will be unavoidable. When I burn a DVD Vegas will enlarge the footage to the proper DVD resolution anyway, won’t it? And then, if by some awesome stroke of luck, I get selected to be shown at Sundance, I will need to transfer it over to SONY HD CAM, so it will get enlarged again. So I just think it’s unavoidable.
What about projecting the video, and then recording it with a high resolution video camera? I could probably afford to rent a HD cam for a day. Anybody ever try something like that?
The iPhone 5 sounds like a great idea, especially since my Glide Gear came with a special mounting bracket for cell phones that I could also use on a tripod, but unfortunately it looks like even a used iPhone 5 would cost more than a brand new GoPro Black.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up