Which HD format for a documentary?

Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

Which HD format for a documentary?

Posted by Drew Lahat on February 16, 2011 at 6:26 am

This is not specifically an FCP-related question, but wasn’t sure what’s a more appropriate forum.

I’m starting to online an hour-long historical documentary, offlined in NTSC. The delivery format is of course best addressed at the beginning of the process, but the project metamorphosed several times throughout the process.

Now I know that the project is roughly:

50% SD archival footage, 24p film over 30i
25% interviews in 720/60p
15% stock footage of all shapes and sizes, 1080, 720, even PAL
10% graphics

Target is festival circuit and hopefully cable TV. There are no current deals with specific broadcasters.

I think that an SD finish is out of the question these days.
Given that, which way do you recommend to go for mastering? 720p/60, 1080i/30, something else?

I’m leaning towards 720/60p:
* It’s the native format of the interviews
* Roughly half of the potential cable channels are 720/60p
* Going to 1080 will unnecessarily scale up everything
* With much of the footage in SD (and some even worse), I’d rather not go TOO high-def. 720 seems a good broadcast-compliant compromise.
* Not being interlaced is already a good thing in my view. Just about any display apparatus these days is progressive (LCD & plasma TV’s, computers, projectors). It’s easier to interlace than to deinterlace.
* To make 30i versions, footage should fold back properly into 2:3 pulldown for the 24p stuff and 2:1 for the 60p.

I’m encountering severe problems converting the timebase to 60p, but that’s a different story.

What do you think?

Drew Lahat replied 15 years, 2 months ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
3 Replies

David Roth weiss
February 16, 2011 at 6:35 am

[Drew Lahat] “I’m leaning towards 720/60p:
* It’s the native format of the interviews”

Enough said right there. There’s little effective difference between 720p and 1080i from a qualitative standpoint anyway, especially with all that SD and stock material. Certainly no reason whatsoever to scale 720p up to 1080i unless you had more 1080i from the get go. Plus, SD scales just a tad better to 720p because you needn’t scale as much. It’s pretty much a no-brainer.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.com

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
Paul Jay
February 16, 2011 at 9:49 am

If lots of motion in archival footage, you really don’t want double frames.
It’s 50% of your footage.
Thats what i think. Your severe ‘converting to 60’ problems.

Personally i would lean towards 720p30 because of this.
In a ProRes timeline.

Interviews in 60 P. Who’s idea was that 😛
Because there’s not much motion. 60P to 30P wouldn’t be much of a problem i think.
Drew Lahat
February 16, 2011 at 6:43 pm

Correct me if I’m wrong, no one broadcasts in 720p/30. So is doubling the frames a common practice? Wouldn’t it get rejected by 720p broadcasters?

Also, 24p would look bad in 30p, while 60 is a common denominator of 24 and 30. On a progressive display, why would pulldowned 24p look any different in 30i than in 60p?

>> Interviews in 60 P. Who’s idea was that 😛

Mine and the director’s 🙂 The look is equivalent to plain (NTSC) video, and we wanted to differentiate the interviews from the archival & stock footage.

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