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Zooming In on 1080p footage
Hi all,
So I’m in the middle of editing a short film of which a large chunk is someone telling a story to another person. The issue is that for a large part of the story there isn’t a big variety of shots to choose from and as a result, we are worried that it feels a bit stale. Although sound design does have a part to play in the telling of the story, we still feel that something needs to be done to make it more interesting visually. So I thought that maybe a very slow zoom in (resize) to give the illusion of ‘tracking in’ at points might just give it the dynamism we need to get it over the line. However, it was shot in 1080p and that is also the format of our final delivery. Obviously in regards to picture quality we won’t be going from a wide shot to a close up or anything extreme like that, but I was just wondering if there was realistically any leeway in which we could zoom in without losing noticeable picture quality?
Cheers,
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3 Replies
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Depends on the quality of the footage (well lit, not too compressed), and a little on the type of shot, but generally speaking you can definitely pull off that type of zoom-ins, I wouldn’t expect too many problems up to 15%.
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+1 I wouldn’t think twice about 10-15 percent. Anything above that, take a look and decide amongst yourselves.
Sometimes you are amazed at what you can get away with…sometimes the focus is already soft, and you can hardly do anything.
There is no hard and fast rule. Between you, the director and the producer, you have to make the call as to how much is too much.
I recently rewatched the first Bourne movie on HD dvd. There is a scene in the cheap hotel room with Bourne and the girl, where the cu of the girl looks like it was taken from a much wider shot and zoomed in at least twice as much. The focus was quite soft compared to the shots on either side of it. They went to this shot 2 or 3 times. I’m sure someone (the editor) said “thats too much” and someone else (the director) said “its fine”. In the context of the story and the flow and the emotion, most in the audience wouldn’t have had a clue.
Glenn
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Okay cool. We won’t be zooming in by 10-15%. We are doing between 6-8% and the track is currently quite slow. From what we can see, there hasn’t been a huge change in the quality so I think we’re alright. As you say, it can be up to our discretion as to what we’re willing to tolerate.
Thanks for the responses!
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