Shooting a long form Documentary in HDV
by Ian Cooley (icooley02)
on
Jan 29, 2008 at 8:08:12 am
Thanks to anyone who reads this post. I am starting production on a documentary that will be shot entirely in HDV and I and anticipate delivering it to my local PBS station. My question is three fold...
1) for HD delivery, PBS asks that the film be shot with a 1/2 inch CCD camera. Mine is 1/3 inch. How strict is PBS on this issue? Will they still take my HD doc anyways or choose a downconverted version of it instead? I only ask because there are so many people shooting with HDV cameras that operate using a 1/3 inch chip. Are all those people disqualified from HD delivery?
2) Will shooting in HDV lessen my chances of distribution? I know that HDV is highly compressed and lacks good color space compared to other formats. Does that make it inadequate?
3) I plan on doing color correction using Apple's Color. Due to HDV's lack of color content, is this a poor choice? I plan on capturing to ProRess. I wonder if this might make a difference?
Thankyou,
Ian
Canon XHA1
MacBook Pro
FCPS2, Photoshop CS3, AfterEffects CS3
Re: Shooting a long form Documentary in HDV by Ernie Santella on Jan 29, 2008 at 1:07:01 pm
Do a search, there was an entire thread on the topic of PBS's new rules a few months ago. If I remember correctly, PBS had a limit of only a small percentage of the program could be HDV.
Re: Shooting a long form Documentary in HDV by Ed Dooley on Jan 29, 2008 at 7:10:33 pm
When you say your "local" PBS station, do you mean a "big" local station like WGBH or KQED, or a small local affiliate? That can make all the difference. Small local PBS stations are much more flexible on what they allow (to a point).
Ed
Re: Shooting a long form Documentary in HDV by Harry Pallenberg on Jan 29, 2008 at 9:08:30 pm
I have found that if it is delivered in the right format they will not ask what it was shot on. Way back when MiniDV was new and NOT allowed, we just duped it to BetaSP and as long as it met the specs on the scopes all was well.
So far its been the same for HDV (either duped to Digibeta or HDCAM).
As far as the colorspace and such if you capture it to a prorez codec you should be fine. I mean you will not magically add info to your raw material, but anything you do to it (FX, graphics, grading and so on) will not take the color hit.
and re: your Indi & Doc film post... yes we have shot plenty on HDV and had it air on KCET (PBS in L.A.). I do not think HDV should limit your doc at all... as long as the content is there.
Good luck.
Thanks,
Harry.
Forum Cowmunity Leader: Indie & Doc
Forum Cowmunity Leader: HDV
Re: Shooting a long form Documentary in HDV by Douglas Spotted Eagle on Jan 29, 2008 at 9:11:07 pm
Harry!!! Shhh....you're not supposed to tell anyone this stuff.
WAAAYYYY too much effort has been put into dispelling what what can and cannot do with highly compressed formats.
I'm not sure which hurts more, my tongue or my cheek.
Douglas Spotted Eagle
VASST
Certified Sony Vegas Trainer
Aerial Camera/Instructor
