[Tony]

Great example of a post workflow which should have been pre-tested well in advance of the entire shoot.

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

why do this when the file size of the native dvcproHD codec is small enough to deal with easily in FCP or Avid.

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

Any and all.

Canon, Fuji, Zeiss it all depends on the job, budget, rental house as well as specific application.

Tony

[Tony]

Best recommendation is to visit a real camera lab where can see the major differences in lens shading issues between SD and high end HD lenses.

You really do pay for what you get.

However in the world of ENG, reality tv work which is what honestly alot of the lower cost HD camcorders are aimed for then well who give a
f#$% about image quality? If the crap on tv had to match high end image quality of spots then reality tv would be shot on film or HDCAM SR but that is not going to happen ever.

Producers in that world are accustomed to paying cheap for crew, equipment etc so it may not make a high end lens a great return for ROI.

The real issue here is what is considered “good enough” for your application will surely not be acceptable for another end user.

So only you and your client base can decide what works for you.

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

That unit is currently only for Sony cameras and will spit out analog component from the viewfinder.

However since it is a unique item from P8 it is generally only available when you rent their camera gear also.

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

The insurance I am talking is about is errors and ommissions, liability coverage for production company etc. Any independent can produce a show regardless of where the funding originates from but the legal department of the network or outlet will need to verify the proper releases, insurance etc are in place.

There may be no need to incorporate if you have the payroll company take care of the employees hired for the job you just have to make sure the funds are deposited to the payroll company or else the employees will not be paid.

Maybe you should consider hiring an experience producer in this area who could deal with all the issues involved.

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

Long before you get all bent out of shape about what will codec will offer you super duper image quality I would be more concerned about establishing a common frame rate for the majority of all the elements.

Any frame rate conversions will be a major part of the workflow in the long run.
Given the amount of low res source crap you already have to deal with you need to seriously address avoid recompressing it over and over again. Maybe you could consider off lining in dvcproHD or photo jpeg then uprezzing to uncompressed if and when you need to for a film out.

Graeme is just telling it like it really is regardless of what others say. You personally have to decide what you can really afford versus what how good an image quality you want to retain if and when you do a film out.

FYI everyone doing a project always dreams of a filmout but once they figure out the cost and workflow involved that “vision” it easily goes out the window for all but the serious.

If I was really concerned about image quality I would shoot dvcproHD instead of HDV. The Varicam is not the only option for dvcproHD as the HDX 900 and HVX-200 are options.

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

You are going to need to obtain production insurance if you intend to sell it to any broadcast outlet.

In this case I recommend establishing a company to deal exclusively with this project.

Please consider the personal liability you are exposing yourself to when dealing with any project involving hiring crew, shooting on location etc and the benefits of properly establishing a formal business with proper insurance.

If you have to hire crew depending on what state you are working or based in you may want to consider paying the crew labor by a payroll company which will take care of the proper taxes, workers comp etc.

good luck,

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

Animation codec is not a real time codec in FCP the last I checked without the aid of a capture board like Cinewave.

Is also is a big file to deal with so expect long render time.

One last note would it not have been ideal to conduct a test in advance to determine if your chosen workflow would have worked for your client’s deadline.

There is no sense in pulling you hair out if you could have prepared in advance an alternative more sensible post production workflow.

Planning to fail or planning to succeed all starts with a good prep.

Tony Salgado

[Tony]

Why would you not want to change the varicam footage to 24 since it already has the “embedded” 24P frames within the 60P stream (assuming you set the Varicam to shoot at 24P not 60P)?

Keep in mind Varicam always does a pulldown to record to tape but the camera will put out various frames rates.

The key issue here is that you need to establish a common frame rate to edit in and it is clear that 24P would be the way to go if both cameras were in 24P mode.

If they were not then you broke a basic rule which was to preplan in advance and determine what common frame would be best for post production.

Trying to fix it afterwards can be an expensive, time consuming waste of money, effort and energy. So learn from this experience and do not to allow yourself to be put into this mess again.

Now assuming if 24P can be the common frame rate then use the FRC to extract the 24P frames from the Varicam footage and edit in a 24P timeline and incorporate the HVX 24P footage along with the Varicam and all well be well.

After you are all done then add 3:2 pulldown on the way out of FCP and lay off to tape.

You will not be degrading the Varicam footage if you reverse out the 3:2 pulldown during capture or if you use the FRC plug in.

The problem will be if your client wants a 60P “look” but you shot with the HVX in 24P native now when cutting between the Varicam 60P clips and the HVX 24Pn the “temporal” look and feel of the footage will not match due to the motion blurring in 24P.

But that may be ok if the 24Pn footage is suppose to look different.

Another method to add 3:2 to the HVX 24Pn footage is to drop the clips into a FCP 24P timeline and then add 3:2 on the way out to dvcpro HD tape.
Then recapture the new dvcpro HD tape with has 3:2 added into it.

You could also have AE do the pulldown and then used those files.

I am not sure if when you can do pulldown in FCP without having to lay off to tape or if you can use the files instead thus then saving the step to layoff to tape. You should experiment to find out.

Tony Salgado