I've been asked by my boss to research the process of shooting video for digital cinema. We're looking at shooting some commercials that will play before a movie starts in a theater. Here's our equipment:
-JVC GY-HD250, normally shooting at 720p60
-standard Final Cut Studio workstation
As I've begun to research Digital Cinema and the process of getting a movie to play in a theater, I feel a bit overwhelmed. I don't even know where to start, as far as how I should shoot the video, what format to export it in, and more importantly, if I'm even setup with the right equipment to take on this kind of project.
Does anyone have any experience with shooting video solely for the purpose of playback in movie theater?
Re: Shooting for Digital Cinema by Emre Tufekci on Jun 27, 2008 at 10:49:11 pm
Hi there,
We have filmed a few spots for cinema release before trailers. The process is not any different as you broadcast off a digital projector not 35mm film.
The first step you need to do is determine which company you will advertise with a s they determine the spec for you to deliver.
For example if you are going through screenvision fits you goto:
You will see they outline very clearly what you need to deliver to them. If you have any questions call them, they all have client support reps and they can answer all your questions.
Aside from the technical specs read their rules for approved content.
Hope this helps,
Emre
www.productionpit.com
Boxx Tech PC, dual-dual AMD 2.0,4BG ram,Avid Media Composer HD w/Mojo,UVW-1800,DSR-25, Adobe Premium CS3.Gspeed ES.Steadicam Clipper 2 OP/Owner.
Re: Shooting for Digital Cinema by Tony Ingrassia on Jun 28, 2008 at 11:58:09 am
Thanks for the reply. Actually, the ads are for the theater owner to play at private events. They have a Dolby DC system plugged into a Barco 2K projector, and want to play this material at private functions. They are not using Screenvision at those events - so they need to have a digital media file that will play on the Dolby system.
What is odd is that no one says "To prepare media for the Dolby system, export your clip as ..." They do day MPEG2 and that it will play from DVD, but apparently there is some confusion as to the native file format.
Re: Shooting for Digital Cinema by Richard Herd on Jun 30, 2008 at 7:06:28 pm
Your post has two questions:
1. Shooting
2. Exhibiting.
Shooting -- for the best image quality possible you need to do a bit of research and test. For example, what is you camera's minimum luminosity. Be sure that that value is your black point and the rest of your image conforms along the straight line from that value. In post, you can change the curve of the straight line, but in order to do that, you must have the data (ie if there's no light, there's no electrons, and no corresponding YUV/RGB value to manipulate in post). Note that compared to what your eye can see, the black point will be very bright! From that point, you can test with contrast and lighting design.
Exhibiting -- standard DVDs are mpeg2 and HD DVD/Blu Ray are HDMPEG2 and there's a cornucopia of other details. The mpeg is contained in a VIDEO_TS folder. You need software designed for the task of compressing and encoding these. Final Cut Studio 2 has two programs suited for this task: Apple Compressor and DVD Studio. And to burn Blu Ray, you need a special burner.
(In general, test test test before you have disgruntled clients demanding a refund and soiling your reputation.)
