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HD Workflow
I am teaching two experienced Sony Vegas editors the joys of FCP starting this week. We are teaching them on a project that I am not sure how to handle. Once everything is setup correctly, I know that we won’t have problems, but getting things setup is the trick. I am new to HD editing, I did recently complete an XDCAM HD edit, but the project was setup for me by the DP, so it was brainless from there. Mostly, I have been doing MiniDV and SD.
This project is will be approximately 15 minutes. It consists of about 75% legacy footage, most of which will be available on HDCAM (probably at 23.98), but some that will be SD Digibeta stuff. The remaining 25% was new production that was shot last week. It was all shot on a Sony HDCAM camera and the on site producer said that it was shot at 1080i/23.98.
I’d like to figure out the best workflow to edit this, including the upconvert/downconvert of footage. I told the producer that we might edit all in SD (downconvert the HD captures), since it will end up going to DVD anyway. He was really nervous and worried that the quality won’t be as good. My thought process was smaller filesize, easier to edit (we do not have a RAID ARRAY, we DO have an Xsan) and also, I worry about upconverting any SD footage, only to downconvert it later.
We have a AJA Kona LH card, so the downconvert (or up) seems like it would be better through the card rather then in Compressor. We are editing on two Mac Pro’s and hte footage will all live on an Xsan. If we MUST have a Raid Array, we do have a Firewire 800 My Book with 2 x 500 gb drives in an Array, if we need it. But if the footage is SD then we can run more tracks and edit easier.
There will be a little visual effects work which consists of a simple title sequence which has some greenscreen footage and credits, this will all be done in After Effects. I assume that if we edit in HD then the greenscreen will be cleaner/easier because of the color space? I can also see an advantage of having the full HD frame if we need to do any zooming, etc. But those seem to be hte only advantages.
Right now, I’m thinking of digitize the footage at Standard Definition (maybe using ProRes 422). We could do an online (redigitize) later if necessary.
I posted a 24p project in Avid from a Panasonic DVX-100 and I edited the timeline at 23.98, but it was still progressive, so I am a little confused when they said 1080i/23.98.
QUESTIONS:
-What are the Advantages or Disadvantages of editing in Standard Definition (rather then HD)? This is what I am leaning towards.
-Is the NEW ootage really 1080 INTERLACED when shot at 23.98?
-Should we plan to capture/edit in HD or SD?
-Is the upconvert/downconvert best through the Kona card? So, no matter what we decide on, we’d use that card to convert on capture?
-What should the codec be? Is ProRes 422 a good option, or do we just do uncompressed (in either SD or HD)?
-Any issues with the Greenscreen footage?
-Is there any advantage or reason to do an offline/online?
-What about the Framerate? I assume we will just set the sequence to 23.98. Is there anything i need to know abou SLOW-MOTION? If we do slow some footage down, is there any rules?Along with the Kona Card, for DVD compression we have Compressor (obviously) and we also have Sorenson Squeeze, although I’ve been less impressed by Squeeze for MPEG-2.
I want to try and keep this as simple as possible, since we have new editors. So, I’d like to just setup the captures and timeline and not let them even worry about that right now, they are just getting their feet wet.
Any advice or links to messages/documents on this would be great. Thanks for your help!
-Tucker -
3 Replies
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[Tucker Dansie] “We have a AJA Kona LH card, so the downconvert (or up) seems like it would be better through the card rather then in Compressor.”
LH only does downconversion. The Kona 3 and Io HD do Upconversion.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR
The new Color Training DVD now available from the Creative Cow! -
Good to know. It is a brand new MAc Pro and Kona, so I am not even 100% sure it is a Kona LH, but it seems like that is what hte box said. I’ll check tomorrow.
So, if it IS a Kona LH then it seems like I should probably downconvert to SD on capture. If it doesn’t upconvert then I will have to do any upconversion in compressor or something, right?
thanks
-Tucker -
[Tucker Dansie] “So, if it IS a Kona LH then it seems like I should probably downconvert to SD on capture. I”
Yes, AJA hardware downconversion is much better than any software conversion in FCP.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR
The new Color Training DVD now available from the Creative Cow!
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