Shooting with Canon XF300

I haven't worked much with HD footage, so need some help.

We just got a Canon XF300. We are updating the client's speaking demo reel. His current reel contains various formats from many speaking venues. It has some hi-def, a lot of standard def. The sequence settings are currently at 720 x 480. I shrunk the HD footage and put Andy's letterbox on the standard def.

We will be shooting new HD footage with the Canon XF300 of audience reactions to sprinkle throughout the demo. We shot some test footage at 1080i60 and 720i60, at both at 30 mbps and 50 mbps. We incorporated these new clips into the timeline and can't really notice a difference between the two sizes. However even though both clips were only 2 minutes long, each were 2 gigs! We will probably wind up with an hour of audience reaction and I'm wondering how to accommodate these huge files.

The finished video is going to wind up on Youtube and Vimeo.

Finally here is my question:
Is there a way to reduce the file size and maintain a decent quality since it's just going to be on the internet? It will be an ongoing project -- updating this reel with Hi def footage as the client gets more presentations shot on HD -- so we want to make sure we have a good plan.

Can you recommend best camera settings for this situation that would provide the best quality with the smallest file size. I realize hi def takes a lot of space but isn't there a way to reduce the size somewhat?

Thank you in advance for your suggestions.

Shelley
MacBoo Pro 2015
16 GB Ram
OS X 10.13
Premiere Pro CC

> However even though both clips were only 2 minutes long, each were 2 gigs! We will probably wind up with an
> hour of audience reaction and I'm wondering how to accommodate these huge files.

An hour of audience reaction? Really? That seems like overkill to me. Then again, I'm not familiar with the "public speaking" type of reel.

I'd say transcode to ProRes HD. Very manageable file sizes but good quality.

> Is there a way to reduce the file size and maintain a decent quality since it's just going to be on the internet?

That's a bit of a misconception, actually. Yes, the destination (internet, probably Flash) is of limited quality. But unless you want that final product to look really, really bad, you actually have to start off with very good quality, because that last stage will compress the hell out of your footage. Right now, by editing at a tiny frame size (720x480), you're actually throwing away a lot of your raw material even before you start. What is your Sequence codec? The frame size suggests DV NTSC, and that would be a mediocre choice even for SD.

How much of his raw footage is SD? You have to approach this mathematically. If he only has two 720x480 clips and the rest is HD, then you should be editing in HD to preserve as much video information as possible at the editing stage.


www.derekmok.com

<<How much of his raw footage is SD? You have to approach this mathematically. If he only has two 720x480 clips and the rest is HD, then you should be editing in HD to preserve as much video information as possible at the editing stage.>>

Currently, the timeline is 1/2 HD and 1/2 SD. As an experiment with the test footage, I started a new sequence and set it to HD, then recut in the standard def and resized it to fit, exported and uploaded to Youtube. You're right, it looks much better than output from the 720 x 480 timeline. It will be a bit of work, but I think I'm better off recreating the demo reel with the HD settings since the goal is to eventually replace all the footage with HD.

<<An hour of audience reaction? Really? That seems like overkill to me. Then again, I'm not familiar with the "public speaking" type of reel.>>

All speakers LOVE to see great audience shots cut into their demos, but you have to shoot a lot to get a few seconds here and there where someone in the shot isn't nodding off, scratching their head, yawning or picking their nose. Usually we get footage that has been shot by someone else and the camera work is jerky, they don't stay on the people long enough, etc. That's why we are going to shoot ourselves. We probably won't load the whole hour but the great moments are very few and far between.

<<I'd say transcode to ProRes HD. Very manageable file sizes but good quality. >>

What is the workflow for that process? Is it something I set up before FC ingests the media from the camera in long and transfer mode? Or do I ingest it, transcode with compressor, then delete the large files?

Shelley
MacBoo Pro 2015
16 GB Ram
OS X 10.13
Premiere Pro CC

Just did another test and I'm wondering why I can't see a difference between 1080i60 and 720i60? I see no difference in quality at all???

Shelley
MacBoo Pro 2015
16 GB Ram
OS X 10.13
Premiere Pro CC

Much better to work in HD - keeping it SD is working in the past, and it makes your stuff look dated.

What differences were you expecting to see between 720 and 1080?