Mixing EX-3 with DVX100 footage

Is it asking for trouble to mix EX-3 footage with DVX100 footage?

I'm scheduled to shoot with an EX-3 for the first time tomorrow. My documentary has exclusively been shot with a DVX100 for a few years. (In 24PA anamorphic mode, using an anamorphic adapter lens). I want the new footage in HD, because I'm doing an aerial sequence. I have the choice of going with an EX-3 or the HVX200 rental.

How would I convert the MPEG-2 footage to my DV/DVCPRO NTSC 720X480 timeline?

Dual 2.5 Ghz G5, 5GB SDRAM, FCP 6.0.6, QT 7.6.2, OS 10.4.11

use the hvx200 and you can record to dvcpro50. without the p2 card the hvx is glorified dv.

Also, i have recorded footage with the dvx100b from a helicopter and dual engine plane. It does a pretty good job without the lens adapter.

The problem i had the 1st time was that the helicopter pilot was use to the mount being on the bottom of the chopper and he had to maneuver into the shot rather than just fly above the shot where a 360* swivel and 180* tilt mount would take care of the shot.

Make sure you coach him into the shot. I wasted 250. for my 30min chopper rental and only had about 14m of usable footage.

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

What is the workflow to convert MPEG-2 into a DV timeline? Is this a difficult way to go?

Same as the workflow for converting any footage of type not-x into type x. In the simplest case it would just be a codec conversion, but it gets incrementally more complex if you also have to convert frame size (HD to SD, for example). If you have to convert frame rate, then there's no one workflow, but rather discrete solutions depending on your inputs and outputs. If I could figure out how to draw a table in here, I'd throw together a sort of Punnett square, but the truth is I'm just not feeling that ambitious this afternoon.

It will be shot at the same frame rate 24p.

For the most part, anytime you have the option to shoot HD or SD, shoot HD - you can always downconvert. If you shoot SD, it will never be upgradable to HD. Renting a helicopter is no small cost - someday you may want to re-use that footage in an HD production, and if it's SD - you'll have to re-shoot.

good thinking, mike

Quote

What is the workflow to convert MPEG-2 into a DV timeline? Is this a difficult way to go?

well, you could do the down-converting first,
but picking up on what mike has said,
i'd also add that being able to "invisibly" zoom in and reframe HD footage in SD timelines ca be pretty useful.
(i'm thinking of my own experience of HD helicopter footage in an otherwise SD show)

so maybe you should convert to Prores, and keep your HD frame size.


nick

If you drop that HD footage, completely sans-conversion, into a DV timeline, the crappy DV colorspace will make it look pretty convincingly like DV.

If you were going the other way around, and decided to edit and distribute the whole thing in HD, you would have a lot of work to do to get that DV stuff up to the level of the HD footage.

I realize I need to use the HD footage.

What I'm concerned with is Sony?s XDCam format. And mixing it with my DVX100 SD footage in a DV timeline. I have no idea how to work with the XDCam stuff. I just looked up some info about editing with this format and it looks like I might be in for some hassles.

I just signed off a job after 3 years of XDCamHD, and while there were some bumps in the beginning, it's all fine now. I'd use the EX-series without hesitation. Any of the above outlined methods will get you where you need to go.

Thanks for the reassurance.

I've had a bias against SONY products because I had a nightmare experience a fews years back with a SONY digital camera not being able to interface with a Mac. Haven't used them since.

PANASONIC = NO HASSLE EDITING.

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

Eh? Where did that come from?



www.strypesinpost.com

Positive Tourettes Syndrome

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

I'm sure it must've been tough on you, J.Corbett, but admittedly, i cannot fully empathize as I haven't been inflicted with the ailment.

Then again, I'd beg to differ on the Panasonic assessment. Both Panasonic and Sony have a pretty good professional range of cameras that work quite well in FCP.



www.strypesinpost.com