-
How Does One Achieve The Highest Possible Quality SD DVD
-
Scott… I’ve been shooting live theatre and dance productions for close to four years now.
I gave up talking to the LDs long ago as most are very attached to their design, settings, and look; not to mention that they are usually way too busy to have to worry about talking to me.
Due to fire regulations, we are always relegated to the very back row. I gave up fighting for better locations long ago as well.
As far as making the show shorter…
Other than cutting out the dark times in between scenes, I have no way of doing this. My job is to include everyone; not leave them on the “cutting room floor”. How would I explain that to the child or their parent. I’m pretty sure I would loose any and all of my accounts if I decided to “find the balance between picture quality and what has to be in the show.” You may have the luxury of “editing for length on shows that “need to have it all in.” I’m pretty positive that in my situation, it wouldn’t go “unnoticed by the audience.”
There was a time when I would use my 2 GL2s to shoot multiple shows as you suggested, but ever since the economy went south, the most any of these dance and theatre companies are willing to pay is $15 per DVD. At that price, I can only shoot one show. I’ve recently added the third camera because it’s a more cost effective way to achieve additional coverage and still produce an above average DVD.
If you read my entire post, I believe I also got the meaning of the word “workflow”. In fact, I gave it to you in words and pictures. I just didn’t know that was the “Industry term” for it.
[Scott] So if your firm on mixing cameras that are shooting in different aspect ratios, have poor low light performance, and you have to compress your footage a lot due to program length to get it all on the DVD, you have to expect a reduction in quality.
To be a bit more clear for you…
- my cameras are all shooting in the same aspect ratio (squeezed 16:9)
- all three are shooting in SD
- I bought the GL2s because they have the best low light performance in their class
- I reiterate that I have no control over the length of the programs.
- and I am certainly aware that all of these issues factor into my reduction in quality.
What I was hoping for was some clear, concrete advice on how to get the best picture quality on my final DVD product WITH all these limitations.
Some of us don’t have very deep pockets.
With all due respect. – Lisa
Lisa Laughbaum
Laughing Tree Productions
http://www.LaughingTreeProductions.com -
Thanks Chris…
It seems all I had to do was change my aspect ratio to NTSC DV (3:2). I did this on both my capture and sequence presets. I’ll hope that helps a bit.Lisa Laughbaum
Laughing Tree Productions
http://www.LaughingTreeProductions.com -
[B.J.] But realize also that you are shooting NTSC DV which records with 4:1:1 color sampling, i.e. 75% of the color information is eliminated. Then when you render to a DVD, which uses 4:2:0 color sampling, you keep only the overlapping color pixels. That leaves 12.5% of the color, which leads to the video looking mushy.
Wow! I didn’t know that… No wonder I’m losing so much quality. “Mushy” – That’s a great word! That’s exactly how I feel about it. It just loses so much of the original crispness.
[B.J.] Broadcast video is 4:2:2, which does make quite a difference (if it is full resolution!).
Hope I don’t sound ignorant, and I’ll probably check out my FCP manual as soon as I finish typing this, but can I somehow convert my DV footage to broadcast quality? AND, put it on a DVD?
[B.J.] I spent a long time trying to get a $12,000 NTSC DV camera (with a $4,000 lens) produce footage that looked good on DVD, but never got it to meet my standards.
I can relate to the standards thing. My clients (parents, children, theatre and dance companies) all seem pretty satisfied with the quality; it’s just my high standards that keep me questing!
What was the best NTSC DV SD Camera solution you came up with?
Lisa Laughbaum
Laughing Tree Productions
http://www.LaughingTreeProductions.com -
Years ago I had a Canon GL2 and I found that in Widescreen mode on a wide shot – it didn’t looks so good…
FWIWChris Tompkins
Video Atlanta -
[Lisa Laughbaum] “Hope I don’t sound ignorant, and I’ll probably check out my FCP manual as soon as I finish typing this, but can I somehow convert my DV footage to broadcast quality?”
Well, there was a lot of broadcasting of DV footage for news at least.
I have had to include a lot of DV footage in documentaries, and learned to grade the footage in many different ways to hide the flaws as much as possible. Localized color correction using multiple vignettes and subtle glows can help. A lot.
Working with high contrast stage-lit footage is the most difficult. Sometimes you have to do “skin replacement” where someone’s face got blown out for example.
[Lisa Laughbaum] “What was the best NTSC DV SD Camera solution you came up with?
“Selling it.
:O)
Sorry, I understand you gotta do what you can do.
I sacrificed tape and got a broadcast camera that had the same head as a $85,000 Digibeta camera, but at a fraction of the cost. SDI out feeding a Decklink Extreme card into FCP with 10-bit 4:2:2 video all the way.
Learn more about grading, and PLAY with this as much as you can. If you can do that, you’ll soon be in demand…
If I get a few minutes soon, I’ll write about some of the inexpensive FCP add-ins I use for this.
-
Thanks B.J.
I have four two hour dance shows I\’m in the process of capturing, so that should take a while. I\’ll hope you find a few minutes before I start editing! I\’d love to hear about the plug-ins you mentioned.I do have one question I thought you might know the answer to…
Although we white balanced all three cameras at the same time, the Sony still looks quite different. When editing my projects, I use one multi-clip for each act; of course, the multiclip uses all three cameras. Should I color correct/match the three clips before I make the multiclip or export each scene (between the blackouts) from my final edit?
Any thoughts?
Lisa Laughbaum
Laughing Tree Productions
http://www.LaughingTreeProductions.com -
[Lisa Laughbaum] “Should I color correct/match the three clips before I make the multiclip or export each scene (between the blackouts) from my final edit?”
The proper way to deal with color correction/grading is always do it after you’ve made your cut. FCP’s Find and Find All commands allow you to select all of the shots from a particular angle or camera (by key words in your description such as A-Cam or B-Cam), and after grading just a single clip you can easily copy the CC filter from that to all similar clips. Can you dig it?
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
EPK Colorist – UP IN THE AIR – nominated for six academy awards
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
-
Chris
“Years ago I had a Canon GL2 and I found that in Widescreen mode on a wide shot – it didn’t looks so good…
FWIW “I think its because the GL2 is a basic SD 4×3 camera that uses an electronic stretching, or cropping and frame enlargement to get the widescreen. I looked at the online specs and they really avoid specifics about how this is done. When you mash this together in the same timeline as a camera that is shooting 16×9 HD, it isn’t surprising that they don’t match.
Also the originator of the thread seems to think this camera has the best low light performance “in its class”, but only according to Cannon’s marketing dept. Plenty of online reviews, and gripes in forums from users that give the GL2 low marks in this area. 1/4″ chips are a clue that the LL performance will be weak.Scott Sheriff
Director
SST Digital Media
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com -
Scott…
Your type of posts are the reason it took me three years to post my own. Have anything positive to say?Lisa Laughbaum
Laughing Tree Productions
http://www.LaughingTreeProductions.com -
Scott…
Your type of posts are the reason it took me three years to post my own. Have anything positive to say?
What type of posts would that be, perhaps those that favor aggrandizement over information?
I thought were you looking for advice on how to make your show look better?
The subject line of your post is “Re: How Does One Achieve The Highest Possible Quality SD DVD”, and to that, based on what you posted I gave you an answer which in a nutshell was, start with better material, and ways to improve your shooting environ, in order to do that. Which by the way, you never mentioned having attempted to do in your original post. But, that is the first place you can improve the look of your show. No amount of FCP trickery can add quality, that was never captured in the first place. Period, zero, end of story.
You also said you were having problems because your cameras don’t match, and here is the info you included RE the third camera; “…have recently hired a camera man who uses a new professional grade Sony HD camera.” Well that is really helpful. What model? What frame rate is he shooting? What format? How are you capturing it? Instead of useful info we could use to help you, we get the “I’ve been doing this for x number of years” speech.
I pointed out you had a lot of small things wrong with your workflow, and you might want to consider getting some time in with an editor. That is the polite way of saying, your not as up to speed on FCP, and production as you think you are, and you need more help than just a simple answer on the forum will provide.
So, yes to expect your GL2’s shooting 4×3 stretched(by the camera) to 16×9, under poor lighting, to match your third “new professional grade Sony HD camera” (whatever it is) is not realistic. Especially when you cut it in the wrong sequence settings, and have to compress 2 1/2 hours of material, shot at this quality level, to a SD DVD. Michael Sacci already went over all of this with you in the DVDSP forum. You have been presented plenty of options to improve your production values, in areas that you have direct control over, to “Achieve The Highest Possible Quality SD DVD” but just choose to dismiss advice that doesn’t reinforce the current methods as ‘negative’. I’m ok with that.Scott Sheriff
Director
SST Digital Media
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up