NatGeo to shoot in 1080i?

[Harlan]

I shot some Discovery channel stuff on the VariCam even though they’re a 1080i company. Granted the footage was up-rezzed to 1080, but still, Discovery is pretty anal.

Haven’t heard anything on the NatGeo front though.

Interesting.

harlan

PS – I actually can’t wait to do another Discovery channel shoot, and when they bitch that I’m doing 720p from a VariCam; I’ll say: “Oh, you wanted 1080? I’m sorry, no problem at all” as I reach down and pull out my tiny HVX200. 🙂

[Robin Probyn]

Hi Harlan

Just wondered,when you shot with your varicam for Discovery,who wanted 1080i,did you shoot at 60fps,I have a memory reading that 60fps was best for converting to interlaced(NTSC) if so would it also make sense that 50fps would be best for PAL interlaced? Or did you shoot someother frame rate,if so what was the thinking behind it.
Sorry a bit off the topic?

Thanks

[John Sharaf]

Thomas,

I too have heard that Nat Geo has purchased Varicams, and even had there own dedicated “Varicamp” recently. Furthermore, I got a call for a Nat Geo shoot this coming Tuesday specifying Varicam (unfortunately I was busy), so all I can deduce is that every purmutation is in play.

On Monday in fact, I’m doing a shoot for CBS Sports using a Varicam; granted it’s for the SD NFL Today Show, but it just shows that you can not assume that every 1080 network will only shoot on 1080 cameras. I’ve found that for the ultimate exhibition on televsion (even HD) that transcoding of 1080 to 720 or 720 to 1080 is pretty transparent, especially when when progressive. For film-out I think it’s a different story, with 1080p being slightly sharper than 720p.

Finally, the choice of production format is often determined by the post production workflow and the machines that are owned or readily available where the editing will take place. The Firewire/FCP/Varicam workflow has attracted many devotees because of the lower price, no need for downconverts, native hd editing on cheap storage and lack of off-line/on-line distinctions. I have to believe that many producers are using this workflow and transcoding at the end for delivery on D5 or HDCAM at 1080 per the specifications in their contracts with their network.