Do you always shoot weddings at 1080P/24p?
 

Just wanted to get a feel on the general consensus on how fellow wedding videographers film their weddings. Do you:

1.Film in full HD downconvert to SD in post?
2.Shoot in 30p or 24p?
3.Edit in full HD?
4.What AVCHD/H.264 converter do you use?
5.What is your conversion workflow?

Thanks,

Kren
Vertical Video Works* Winnipeg Videography

Re: Do you always shoot weddings at 1080P/24p?
 

We always shoot at 1080P/24p for weddings. We use MPEG Streamclip to convert the files and we do edit in HD. Not all of our couples are choosing Blu-Ray delivery, so for those that don't we simply down-convert during compression using compressor.

Re: Do you always shoot weddings at 1080P/24p?
 

Hi Kren

Just to be different, I shoot at 50i (we are in PAL country). However I convert using NewBlue's Upshift down to HDV from AVCHD as my little DuoCore doesn't handle AVCHD too well!! During the conversion to 50mbps MPEG2 I also let it convert to progressive which makes life a lot easier in my NLE when rendering out to SD for most brides.

I haven't got around to trying 25P yet with the new cameras....should I???? What's the advantage ????

Chris

Re: Do you always shoot weddings at 1080P/24p?
 

Hey Kren...

I'm shooting 1080p at 30fps...
I used to shoot 1080i, but the extra work involved with proper downconverts took up way too much time.
Plus it looks nicer for web output..
Since i'm working with CS4, i allow Adobe Media Encoder to create both SD and HD versions of my work.

I haven't worked with 1080 at 24fps, only because i'm in a run'n'gun situation, and my output tends to be long form. My clients aren't requesting for the cinematic feel...

Re: Do you always shoot weddings at 1080P/24p?
 

1. We film in full hd. Since DSLR's barely resolve 720p, we downconvert to 720 with no loss in IQ. This gives us the ability to refine our crops, add movement to our timelapses, stabilize mediocar footage, etc. We also deliver SD.

2. We shoot in 24p.

3. Per above.

4.Use premier so no converter. Looking into cineform, but don't know if we will incorporate it to our workflow.

5. Still not happy with out SD delivery. Will probably try below next time around,
TmpgEnc Video Mastering Works 5 Tutorial for downscaling Edius HD to SD

Re: Do you always shoot weddings at 1080P/24p?
 

We are shooting with two Sony V1U's. I started out shooting 24p but have one camera on a steadicam or spider mount and the famous CMOS jello effect caused us to switch to 30p.

Our style of Wedding Videography is documentary so we achieving a film look is not a huge priority for us at this time.

Re: Do you always shoot weddings at 1080P/24p?
 

I've read that 720p gives the ability to crop easier. I'm a bit new to HD, so would you mind explaning why it is easier to crop 720p than 1080p. It seems to be it would be the opposite. Thanks, Geoffrey

Re: Do you always shoot weddings at 1080P/24p?
 

When you drop your 1080p footage into a 720p timeline it will come in 150% bigger than the viewable window. You can either reduce your image to fit the 720 frame, or you can move it/adjust it to a better crop.

Re: Do you always shoot weddings at 1080P/24p?
 

So no reason to output it into 1080p, video being in 720p is good enough. Also put the 1080p on a 720p timeline and if you dont need to crop just shrink the footage to fit the screen and no loss in quality?

Re: Do you always shoot weddings at 1080P/24p?
 

That's the way I understand it, and have experience with my testing. Things might be different for the big screen for example, or for Panasonic cameras. For Canon dslr's this is what I've been told.

Re: Do you always shoot weddings at 1080P/24p?
 

Kren, it seems to me that the detailed answers to your question are going depend on your NLE and the quality of the material you're editing with, however in general my advice would be to edit at the highest quality you can and down-convert when the programme's completed.

Not only does that protect your quality but it also means you have a proper HD master to archive against the day when the client comes back and wants a Blu-ray disk version. Then it's good business as well.

Re: Do you always shoot weddings at 1080P/24p?
 

One great advice, i received was when i was still using PPro CS4, was to convert our DSLR footage to 720p and treat that as the master editing file...however as you mentioned we just upgraded our NLE to PPro CS5 so we can now edit natively. When we also downconvert to SD quality for DVDs its not as bad as we thought it would be...problem solved!

Cheers!

Kren
Vertical Video Works* Winnipeg Wedding Videography

Re: Do you always shoot weddings at 1080P/24p?
 

i wonder,
why would you shoot digital 24p for the web and DVD\BD delivery, 24 fps is not natural motion for human eye , we all know why it is 24, and not 23 or 25.

Re: Do you always shoot weddings at 1080P/24p?
 

if creates the film look everyone wants.

Re: Do you always shoot weddings at 1080P/24p?
 

Agreed, people want their weddings to be magical, not natural, IMO.