General HD information

Producers and production managers

Note: ALL HD FORMATS ARE 16:9 (1:178 anamorphic) Only.

Questions from production to the client.

1-What HD format do you want to shoot?

The formats are:

HDCAM SR highest quality high definition (1080/1920p/i at 4:4:4 or 4:2:2)

HDCAM Medium quality high definition (1080/1920p/i)

XDCAM average quality high definition (1080/1440p/i)

Panasonic average quality high definition (720/1280p)

3- Do you require rushes/dailies?

If the client does want DVD or Tape dailies, then they will be locked to the

Frame rate and frequency they shot. Refer to table above.

(PAL625 is 25fps) and (NTSC 525 is 29.970)

It is possible to do standards conversion IE: 24fps to PAL or 25fps to NTSC

in 4:3 (1:133 letter box also known as edge crop) or 16:9 anamorphic.*

Note: standards conversions add to the budget!

4-Where will you be editing?

Ensure if they are posting in South Africa; that the post facility can deal with

Multi format and can do the necessary standards conversions to the deliver the

Client requirements in HD or SD.

Some facts:

Lighting depends on the DOP, HD does NOT require LESS light.

HD stock is less expensive than 16 mm/35mm Film.

HD Camera hire is more expensive than 16mm film camera hire.

Grips, lighting and sound are the same price.

Film DOES have a better dynamic range and colour fidelity than HD.

Film does not have better high speed ability than HD/2K cameras.

HD is NOT a replacement for film.

HD RGB 4:4:4 for CGI is clean, fast and steady.

8 bit recording 256 samples, 10 bit = 1024 samples.

A clone is a transfer that has not been re-encoded (SDTI board required)