HD workflow for “Blue Ray Disk”/ “HDCAM tape” output

[Jaap Van hoewijk]

Yes I do. I have exactly the same workflow.

[Robb Harriss]

Mine is “sorta” the same, though primary output is to web faux HD at 1280×720, and SD DVD. I just made the files necessary for a Blue-Ray. Did it yesterday remotely at the office while working at home, so I haven’t even seen the finished files yet. We’re having a showing with the production partner at the science museum in St. Louis next month and want to make a splash, hence the BR. It should be interesting.

the “film look” thing always gets me on my soapbox? What exactly does that mean? (And that’s after some 30 years of listening to the answers.) You mean some sort of frame stutter? You mean generational loss from multiple conversions between formats? Or maybe working from negative to positive to negative to positive again?

Film “look” is really about lighting, composition, use of the frame and the way you tell a story. Single camera has always been the standard for “film-style” shooting. Compose, light, shoot and then move to another angle. Work on the actor’s performance. Now to an awful lot of people it means shooting at 24fps, so when it’s played back on 25, 30, 50 or 60 fps it has a pull-down added to it. Strange, when you see a film in a theater (one still projecting at 24fps) there’s no pull-down artifact. How dare they sell tickets to a film without a film “look?”
Anyway, yeah, what does that mean? Try playing with Color to get a grade that’s more interesting than flat video. Control your lighting so you don’t get infinite depth of field, and yes, it is possible. And tell the story as if it really has something to say!
Ok, I’ll put away the soapbox now.

We capture off the HDCam deck (I think it’s a 500) out HDSDI port into the KONA card HDSDI in port. Been using ProRes Hq. for final. Just got into the Prores Proxy which is working out wonderfully. We used to create out own HD proxy format, and that would cause real issues in final reload/conform. I don’t have any real need for full 8 or 10 bit uncompressed. We’re not doing any green screen or other effects work. ProRes looks great and the people buying our programs aren’t setup to deal with higher level distribution anyway. Though I wish I’d had the 10bit for some of the features I’ve cut.

Non-linear: all the time and nothing but.

[Eric Pautsch]

Here are the specs:

High Definition Video
1920x1080x59.94i, 50i (16:9)
1920x1080x24p, 23.976p (16:9)
1440x1080x59.94i, 50i (16:9) AVC / VC-1 only
1440x1080x24p, 23.976p (16:9) AVC / VC-1 only
1280x720x59.94p, 50p (16:9)
1280x720x24p, 23.976p (16:9)
Standard Definition Video
720x480x59.94i (4:3/16:9)
720x576x50i (4:3/16:9)

You want to shoot, edit, encode 23.98 or 24p if possible. There is no 25p 1920×1080 in BD.

[Chris Borjis]

[eric pautsch] “There is no 25p 1920×1080 in BD.”

also of note, no 30P in 1920×1080 which has a lot of people scratching their heads.

[Gunnar Kordestani]

thanks for your comments so far, I agree it is more about the lighting and the frame, and the picture not as much about framerates… but that is what people are also interested in (and if it is just a show off, maybe)

DOP of the project is very fond of 24p.

so we will go for”

shoot at 1080p 24
capture with ProRes 422 1080p 24
edit ProRes 422 1080p 24
output to Blue-Ray, HDCAM Tape 1080p 24

Any doubts on that workflow?

I kind of expect a demand to have a SD DVD for output, as well. Would that be a problem with my 24p? (Playback will happen on any DVD Player then, but no region code is required)

Also I wonder…. we use a Sony HDCAM Cinealta, HDW-F900R Camera, which claims to be 12-bit. I read somewhere earlier that HDCAM always is 8-Bit. So I guess the camera sees 12 Bit but then actually records 8-Bit Material on the HDCAM Tape. Is that so?

Any Advice how I can get best results when I will have to colorgrade this material in the post (I assume that due to 8-bit Material, I cannot do too much in grading, right)?

regards
Gunnar

[Gunnar Kordestani]

hi there

> There is no 25p 1920x1080 in BD.

really? Wikipedia (which can be wrong, I know) says different:

“High-definition video may be stored on Blu-ray ROM discs with up to 1920×1080 pixel resolution at up to 60 frames per second interlaced or 25 frames per second progressive:[57]

Resolution fps Asp.ratio Codec NTSC Other Regions
1920×1080 25p (2) 16:9 … No Yes

Notes: (1) NTSC Regions only : (2) All other Regions”

for my case it doesnt matter anymore now, cause we will go for 24p, but I would be interesting to find out.

thx Gunnar