cutting up dvcam with hdv
 

Hi,
Was just wanting to know what happens when u need to use dvcam video cut in with hdv? I have a job to shoot where my main camera is a jvc gy-101e and my second camera is a minicam recorded onto dvcam. (PAL)
Whats the best frame rate/record format to shoot with the jvc to make it match as best as possible to the dvcam stuff?
Is this stuff going to look wierd cut together. Does Fcp5 work with the 2 formats seamlessly?

Thanks for any advice

They'll cut together quite nicely, if they're at the same frame rate. Frame rate doesn't matter, so long as they're the same. Of course, you *can* intercut various framerates together, television does it all the time, but you'll see a shift in cadence almost immediately, and might confuse the viewer.

As far as resolution, I'm assuming you'll be downsampling the HDV to match SD, rather than upsampling SD to match HD?

Are you shooting it specifically in high-def?

Because the HD101 also shoots regular DV, and obviously that will intercut quite compatibly. The most compatible way would be to shoot DV/50i on the HD101 and DVCAM/50i on the other camera...

Ultiimately i would like to shoot in hdv 30p. The bulk of stuff to shoot will be done with the gy-101e camera. The other minicam is for a few shots only but theyr'e pretty important shots. To be exact, it's a shot of a mcpherson strut suspension system on a race car..... an advertorial dvd for suspension systems. Would be a shame to have to shoot all in dv just to make it look the same.
Any ideas of a suitable minicam to record onto hdv via an analog in maybe?
Thanks for all your help

Craig

Craig - can we assume that your minicam is going to a DV-CAM recorder (like say a PD100AP or a PDX10P or a hard disk recorder?) If that's the case I would recommend shooting HDV @ 25P as you will soon be able to work directly with those in the same timeline (either SD or HD) within Avid. If you can't wait for Avid's 25P support to edit, Cineform's CIF would offer an intermediate workflow, which would work well with PremierePro and Vegas and clunkily with Avid. Lumiere offers Beta support on FCP, but I'm unsure about 25P (I'm not on Mac - someone else could better advise you). 30P would only work if you could source an NTSC minicam and recorder. As your final output is an advertorial DVD, most likely PAL, 30P would be problematic anyway - you would have to standards convert all your 30P material to 25i. For something like this, slo mos might be attractive, so you might also consider shooting in 576/50P rather than 720/25P.

As for a suitable minicam, I can put you onto a hire source in Sydney - this guy did a lot of minicams for the Mole and others. PM me if you're interested PS - excuse my ignorance but how do you PM someone on this forum?