24 or 30 Advice

I'm shooting some TV spots on a tight budget. The output will be a regular Digi Beta 30 fps.

I'm planning to shoot in HDV on my Canon XH A1. And of course I want it to look like film.

I've heard conflicting advice about this. Should I shoot in 24p and let FCP do the conversion to 30fps on the output? Or should I shoot in 60i and do some kind of film look in FCP?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Ron

it depends on what youre shooting and the desired end product. what does the client sell?

TV spots implies 29.97, right? Converting things around is a lot of trouble instead of shooting in good ole' NTSC.

I assume you mean 60i, or 29.97 interlaced. When people say "30" they often, but not always, mean 29.97 progressive.

All other things being equal, yes, you should shoot 23.976p and output through something like a Kona board. The hardware will insert the 3:2 pulldown for you.

But make sure you comply with the specs provided by your distributor. They can be surprisingly picky about things like pulldown cadences.

You can also shoot interlaced and apply G Film to the results. I recently used it to add a film look to "Cheap Trick: Live at Budokan" which I just color corrected. It was shot on 1" videotape back in 1978, but the look makes it seem like it was shot on film. The client was very impressed.

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These are actually PSA spots. Basically talking heads.

John...

the only thing about good old NTSC is that I'd like to take advantage of having HDV masters in terms of quality and the ability to move or resize the pic in post. So basically I'd be shooting 16x9 HDV at 60i....then use a Film look filter in post. Or shooting 16x9 HDV at 24p.

I guess the other question is...either way...should I convert the footage to SD 4x3 NTSC as I digitize? Or digitize at the HDV resolution....build the spot on an HDV timeline in FCP... and then wait until the FINAL output to downrez to 4x3 NTSC?

Thanks again for everyone's advice.

Ron

60i is 29,97 fps (30fps). The main point here is it doesnt matter that you capture in HDV since your final product wont be HD. Personnaly i would shoot the spot in 29,97 fps than add a film look in FCP.

It doesnt matter if you convert your HDV footage before or after since your final product will be SD. It wont look better if you capture in HDV than convert it in SD when your editing is done.