shoot in DV or HDV?
 

I am starting a project for a person who wants the output in SD 4:3. One of the clients family members asked if I could shoot in HD now and then later deliver the project in HD after the family upgrades.


Rats. I was planning just to shoot it in DV and call it a day.

I am not up to speed in the HDV editing software just yet. Can I shoot in HDV now and deliver SD to the client using IDVD? Will it put the product in letterbox?

Guidance is appreciated.

Ok, here's the deal.
If your customer WANTS the video to be HD later, you need to shoot in HD now.

Here are your two choices for presenting your video in an SD format.

1. Just down convert your HD video to SD within your NLE. This is very easy to do. This will make the video letterboxed within SD 4:3. This is what I would do.

2. Use Pan & Scan technique, which is a technique commonly used when widescreen film is converted for television. Check you NLE on how to do this.
When using Sony Vegas you use the Video Event Pan/Crop tool. Here you crop the video to 720x480. This can be very tedious work since you will have to decide what you want to frame within the widescreen image and have to keep changing the position depending on where you're framing.

The second method will not be letterboxed; therefore, will not have any black bars. The Negative side is that the pan and scan process takes a while.
Also, since the image is cropped you compromise your original widescreen footage.