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Mixed Format Documentary
Hey All, Ill try to make this as easy to understand as possible, any help or advise would be much appreciated..
Ok, so Im working on a Doc in FCP 7. A majority of the footage was shot 720×480 16×9 anamorphic. So I was editing everything natively in FC, DV/DVCPRO 720×480 anamorphic. Ok, everything is good.. now comes the wave of different HD formats…
I now have footage, 1440×1080, and 1920×1080 a variety of different cameras, etc. I need to add this new footage as broll to some of the dv sequences.
I want the final master sequence which will be exported to be 1920×1080, so obviously the newest footage will look very sharp and crisp in its native frame size, and the DV footage will just be scaled up.
So my plan is to continue to edit right in the dv sequences, adding the HD material right into that if needed. Then at the end, drop the dv sequence into a new HD sequence, and hit “No” during the conform option. That way FC scales everything to the new HD timeline?
Is that the right plan of attack? Will the HD footage lose any integrity being shrunk to 720×480 anamorphic for editing, then blown back up again to native size?
Sorry if this was confusing, I will try to clarify if there are any questions…
Thanks,
Jake -
4 Replies
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[Jake Deeds] “Is that the right plan of attack? Will the HD footage lose any integrity being shrunk to 720×480 anamorphic for editing, then blown back up again to native size?”
Of course.
Will look more or less as the DV blown up.
rafael -
Thanks Rafael,
That’s what I figured, however I tried my method and the HD footage seemed ok going from 720×480 anamorphic, then back to 1920×1080. Granted I Didnt export and test it on a large monitor. So would you or anyone else have any suggestions for a better workflow?
Should I take all of the DV Sequences and move them into a 1920×1080 sequence at this stage? That way I will be adding and editing the HD footage natively and not losing anything?
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[Jake Deeds] “Should I take all of the DV Sequences and move them into a 1920×1080 sequence at this stage? That way I will be adding and editing the HD footage natively and not losing anything?”
The problem is that FC will make a poor upscaling from SD to 1080.I would edit evereything in a SD Anamorphic sequence making sure that all the HD is on a separate track over the SD stuff. When you have exported and upscaled the full movie (Compressor), import back the upscaled movie to FC and paste the track with the HD stuff on top. The HD clips should match. You only need to remove the attributes (Basic Motion) to the HD clips in the track.
Think also that somewhere you need to de-interlace the D footage.
rafael -
I’ve been working with mixed formats on an edit for while. Most of the footage was HD and just one section was SD. As a workflow, we were editing on an HD timeline since most of the footage was HD.
In your case, bringing HD to an SD anamorphic timeline and taking it back to a 1920×1080 timeline for export will have a bearing on the HD material only if it has been either rendered or exported and then brought back in to the timeline. The logic behind it is that with every generation of conversion and export, there is a small amount of loss in image quality. This loss is cumulative with every subsequent conversion as you are, at every stage, making a physical alteration t the original footage. These may not be noticeable in most well-lit shots but you will see the difference if you have a lot of detail in your highlights and your blacks.
When you bring your HD material onto an HD timeline from the SD timeline, make sure you remove all motion attributes like scale, distort and centre.
You should be fine if you take your final HD output using compressor.
I hope this helps!
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