HDV OUTPUT / QUALITY QUESTIONS

Hi folks,

Got a story about HDV and hoping for some friendly advice.

I shot a short film last April on an HV40 camcorder in 1080P 24f format. I Outputted the project to FCpro via Firewire, edited on FCpro using Magic Bullet colour correction & effects, sent to compressor, and out to DVD. Via this route, I was very happy with the look of the film. It looked great on PLASMA television sets, pretty much exactly what I was going for.

The film ended up getting into a bunch of film festivals, one included the sci-fi festival in Seattle. Was very excited to have the film play there at the Cinerama (huge theatre). In this case, I had to submit the film in BETASP, HDCAM, or 35mm film for viewing.

I handed over a harddrive to DELUXE Toronto, and they put it out to HDCAM directly from the FCPRO timeline on the drive. Unfortunately, the final product on the big screen looked nothing like it did on my comp or a plasma. You could see all the individual PIXELS and it looked 'digitized'.

I was going for the GRITTY HDV look for the film, think CRANK 2 (which was shot on HDV), or 28 Days Later (Shot on SD). My question is, what kind of process were used to output these projects and make them look so great on HDV or SD?

I understand some people don't like that gritty look in the first place, rest assured I'm not asking about that, I know what the cheaper options are that are available ATM.

I'm asking what process was used to maintain such a high quality picture from the original HDV/SD cameras used on these films? Technically, my camera SHOULD be able to achieve a similar image to the CRANK look, as it is in the same family of HDV camcorders.

Is there anything in my process that can be corrected, or anything I can add to achieve the look I want on a big screen?

Cheers & Thanks,

Jourdan112