-
HD production- in retrospect
-
Or 35mm vs. Super 8 if you really wanna go down that rabbit hole…
Noah
Unlock the secrets of 24p, HD and Final Cut Studio with Call Box Training. Featuring the Canon 5D Mark II and 7D.
-
I’m in the same boat and I’m still using SD for much the same reasons: 1 DV camera and 1 HDV camera, 2 iMacs with never enough space, 1 Panasonic CRT monitor, delivery on DVD or intranet and I have never seen a BluRay player (in order to get HD out of one you have to go HDMI and none of our projectors have that), material that mostly doesn’t benefit from HD, material that will be outdated next year – never mind next decade.
I’d love to do HD, but that would involve replacing basically … everything. “Clients” don’t pay me or my unit.
I did see some sweet surgical videos shot in HD by Greg Ondera. I do have a surgical series coming up. Hmmm…
-
Surgical videos are an obvious case where higher resolution is what you want and need.
-
You need to reframe the question. The question isn’t should I be shooting and finishing in HD now? The question is will I be expected to deliver in HD 5 years from now? If the answer is yes then you need to plan accordingly and work toward that goal. Spreading out the purchasing over 5 years makes the transition far less painful. One of the things you should be doing now is shooting your SD material in 16:9 (full height anamorphic). Scaling up 16:9 SD source footage to HD looks OK. Scaling 4:3 SD source footage is less than ideal – you’re trying to fit a square peg into a rectangular hole.
Again, looking forward – what will be the norm 5 years from now ?
-
[Mark Suszko] “Surgical videos are an obvious case where higher resolution is what you want and need.
“Agreed and since this one will be ENT (small surgical area, need to get in close) I’ll probably use my little Canon HFS10 in 1080. This is only my second go at surgical videos in OT so I am learning as I go. Lucky I have a strong stomach.
-
(Again, looking forward – what will be the norm 5 years from now ?)
Prognostication about the future of communication is fraught with danger.
I believe corporate production will be completely dedicated to internet/intranet.
We will have to learn how to make programming look good on a small
screen… smartphones.
High production value will become less important. The message will be short and sweet.
Being well versed in greenscreen will be a plus, if not a necessity.
On rare occasion will we pull out the stops and be involved in a big production…maybe for projection….HDKevin Ryan
Editor/Graphics
The Government Channel
City of Charlotte
Charlotte, NC -
[Kevin Ryan] “I believe corporate production will be completely dedicated to internet/intranet.
“I’m sick of little silver/purple spinning discs.
[Kevin Ryan] “High production value will become less important. The message will be short and sweet.
“
That’s important now, yet people still insist on “can ya film my riveting 2 hour PPT presentation – it’s so great everyone will want a copy”. -
Well if we’re looking forward 5 years, let’s look back 5 years. Here are my subjective analyses:
2005
Desktop monitors: 19″ pretty big and affordable
Home TVs: 27-32″ common, small amount of HD users
Business projectors: 640×480 – 1024×768
Phones: No widespread video
Website: Crappy video, maybe some HD for download
Movies: Red One had been announced but not really available
Movie theatres: IMAX was cool2010
Desktop monitors: 22-24″ pretty descent and affordable
Home TVs: ~32-40″ common, many HD users, many flat panels
Business projectors: 800×600 – 1920×1200
Phones: Video becoming more common, iphone already plays HD
Website: Video looking pretty good, lots of streaming HD available
Movies: Red One recently upgraded w/ new sensor; Epic almost ready (5k standard);
Movie theatres: 2K, 4K and 6K movie projectors being installed2015
Desktop monitors: 26-30″ pretty affordable
Home TVs: 40″+ hd flat panel std
Business projectors: 1280×720-2k
Phones: Video widespread (same as web video)
Website: HD Video widespread
Movies: Red One retired, Epic widely used w/ 65mm sensors probably
Movie theatres: 4K standard, some 6-8k+What will specifically affect you is that computer screens are getting larger (because they are affordable and result in less eye strain). This automatically makes everything higher resolution and therefor smaller.
Your SD videos will now be a little window on the screen instead of a large video. As monitors become sharper, artifacts will be come more noticeable. Also better looking video is continually coming out. Thus your video will begin to look poorer compared to modern stuff.
However, whether or not people care is subjective and is your real business decision. And it sounds like you’ve already made that decision. Being a video production company, I of course am betting my business that at least some people will care.
Cory
—
Cory Petkovsek
Corporate Video
http://www.CorporateVideoSD.com -
My answer is hidden in this short bit of imaginary dialog based not so loosely on real life.
Client: Hi Bill, great news, we have a new video project consisting of a few simple 10 minute training modules and I’ve got you a budget of 20 grand!
Me: Great. Oh, by the way how much can we spend if I can do the whole thing in HD instead?
Client: 20 grand.
Me: What if I add really outstanding fancy, schmancy motion graphics titles – like you see everywhere these days?
Client: 20 grand.
Me: What if I can to deliver it in SD, HD, letterboxed and pillarboxed, encoded into 23 different formats and in both NTSC and Pal?
Client: 20 grand.
Me: Oh.
Client: Oh, and I told the company IT guys that after it’s done you’d help them with distribution, web posting and the SEO stuff as well, that cool?
Me: (knowing when I’m licked) Mumbles “sure”
FCP since NAB 1999
creator: muti-track movies
http://www.starteditingnow.com -
No contest in my humble opinion. Got to go HD. I still output to SD DVD’s but the resultant downscaled picture is still better than my stuff of five years ago shot DVCAM on a DSR 300. As someone else wrote the new cameras are better with larger chips (sensors) in the main and better low light performance. Post has presented no real problems provided you work in ProRes HQ which gives great pictures but not needing multi TB’s storage. I’ve seen my recent stuff in cinemas on a huge screen played in a BD player most of which have upscaling built in.
Sure you can get by shooting SD as long as it’s in 16:9 aspect but not I fear for too much longer. I feel things are moving faster here in Europe than America which, historically, is unusual.
But of course, as ever CONTENT IS ALL.
Michael Slowe
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up