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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
We were planning on shooting DSR570 DVCam. Would the HDV Z1 be OK instead?
It depends. The Z1 is certainly better than the PD170 for widescreen DVCam production, but it does not have the ability to add a professional lens. The built in lens is OK but still displays slight chromatic fringing etc which can soften the image. Remember, the Canon J11 wide angle lens on a DSR 570 costs around £10,000: more than the camera itself! You will never get that quality, or go as wide angle on the Z1.
On the other hand, for a lot of situations, the Z1 will look fine for UK TX in situations where DVCam shooting has been agreed on. It still has to be operated by a competent person though: out of focus, under or overexposed shaky shots will not look good on any format. In HDV mode, the Z1 offers amazing pictures of a far higher resolution than the DSR, but if you are not making a high definition show it may not be noticeable in the final version. So should we shoot in DVCam or HDV on the Z1?
We are changing our original viewpoint that if you are finishing in SD then shoot DVCam. In our opinion, the HDV workflow we offer now is acceptable and the resulting pictures on air are better as the Mpeg codec of the HDV suffers less through digitial Mpeg transmission than the DCT Codec of DVCam.
If you have any inkling that your programme might be destined for better things (especially broadcast in the USA which has a growing demand for High Def programmes) you should definitely shoot in HDV. To keep costs down on the post production, we can sometimes grade a show in HD but only make Standard Def deliverables, keeping a backup of the project for the possibility of a buyer requesting HD deliverables (and money thus being available for this).
Of course, if you are making something you hope may get a cinema release, you should shoot the best you can get. Shot in Bombay, a recent feature documentary film posted here, looks great on the big screen and was all shot in HDV.
Can I use normal DVCam tapes?
Yes. If you are shooting in DVCam mode just carry on using Sony DVCam tapes. We request that you ONLY use Sony stock in our cameras. This is not to say there are better or worse stocks, but is to avoid problems with incompatible wet and dry tape lubricants from different manufacturers which can lead to oxide buildup. For shooting HDV see the next section. Are there problems with shooting in HDV?
There are a couple of issues to be aware of. Firstly, you need to use a better tape stock which costs a bit more. Because HDV is compressed using Mpeg (which spreads the compression of shots over 18 frames), a tape dropout can affect more than just one frame of picture. HDV tape is designed to be less prone to dropouts. You will also want to make sure these tapes are treated well by everyone who handles them, and don't shuttle them back and forth or eject them other than at the top of the tape unnecessarily. As with any rushes they should really only see action four times: shooting; dubbing a viewing copy or a clone (in one pass minimises damage); digitising for offline (again, try not to stop and start); and conforming in the online (where stop-start is inevitable). If some rushes are particularly valuable to you, think about cloning them before you do anything else. This goes for DV and DVCam as well. Again we request you only use Sony stock in our cameras.
Also, the audio is recorded compressed. This is at a high enough data rate to be more than adequate for dialogue for television, but for shoots where quality music recording is vital, for example, you mght want to think about separate sound recording onto DAT. The HDV's can record a time-of-day timecode to help sync this together later. This can take a bit more time and money of course.
The Z1 has a Cineframe mode: will this make our video look like film?
Our advice for most situations is to avoid putting any effects onto rushes in the camera. This limits your flexibility later on. It is possible to get a more controlled effect in post if you wish. It is impossible to remove an effect done in the camera. Having said that, the Z1 has a high degree of control over colour and black stretch and, set up a good operator, can allow for some good looks. But if in doubt, leave it out!
POST PRODUCTION QUESTIONS
Your quote doesn't include Blacked Stock: is that extra?
No. If your online is being performed on a non-linear system like Symphony, it is generally committed to tape in a single pass. There is no need for the tape to be blacked or striped beforehand. This used to be needed when performing a tape-to-tape linear online, and some facilities still charge as if this was the case. There is no pressing technical reason for this now. And at £100 or so for a blacked tape, that is a significant charge for something which may not be necessary.
What about blank CDs, OMF transfers etc? Will those be extra?
If information needs to move around within our building, we will use the network. There is not much need to use floppys and zips these days. And if all it takes to move your sound from the offline to the dub is pressing a button, it would seem wrong to charge for it.
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