My first big screen feature

F

Falconking

Hello guys...

If everything goes well and my prays are answered :) I will be shooting my opera prima next spring. Its a sci fi movie with lots of action and spectacular VFX. My first plan was to shoot in film, but it was impossible due to budget limitations (1 mill) and to the fact that compositing all the fx shots to film is far more complicated. So I decided to go for HD instead, actually buying an HD camera (have more film projects to do if this one makes ok). I have read and seen tests of many hd cameras, and in my oppinion there is only 2 choices when shooting for the big screen: The sony cinealta and the panasonic Varicam. Unfortunatelly, the cinealta is out of the scene because I simply can`t afford it. The varicam looks like a good choice, but I have found it only records 720 p, against the 1080p of the cinealta. The video looks great, but I have only seen it in a monitor, not transfered to film and projected. Now, to make things more dificult, I had the chance to take a look at the JVC pro hd 100u wich is a lot cheaper and also records 720p at 24 fps. I saw samples of video and it looks ALMOST as good as the varicam, wich is $66,000 againts $7000 of the JVC. My questions are:
1.- Has anyone here done some film project in the Varicam or the JVC hd pro ?
2.- Is there a significant difference in quality (when transfered and projected in film) from the cinealta against the varicam ?
3.- should I consider the JVC for film work ?
4.- are there any other high quality options in cameras ?
Thanks for your help guys ! :)

falconking.
 
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If you're doing sci-fi with lots of compositing, then I'd anticipate some problems with the HDV codec. It's SEVERELY compressed, more than DV, certainly more than the DVCPro HD format of the Varicam. HDV also uses a long form GOP, which is compensated for by your NLE. I haven't done compositing work in that situation, but I'd nevertheless anticipate problems.

With your budget, I'd either RENT the Varicam instead of buying it, OR I'd use the Panasonic HVX-100, which is the HD version of the DVX. It shoots at 1080p, 24 fps, and uses the same DVC Pro HD codec of the Varicam.
 
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If you want to do compositing - and lots of it - a camera which records 4:2:2 data is imperative. It could possibly be done on a lower codec but the results will take much longer and look worse.
 
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Is it necessary to buy the camera? You can rent a panavised cinealta for a couple of grand a week(if you work at it). I think you could shoot your whole film on the cinealta and still be under the $66k of the varicam. Also, since the cinealta is around $100k you could probably find several DPs that own one.

So the question I often find my self asking (though with a smaller budget) is, do you want to make a movie with the $1 Mill or increase your gear? If you want to make the movie, spend the money on the movie and rent the camera.

Just my unsolictied $0.02,
Joe Hunt
 
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Thanks for the advice, guys. I have another question:

I just read that some guys were recording the direct output of the cinealta to hard disk (in a computer) in order to get a cleaner, shaper video for VFX shots and compositing. Is this possible ? Any experiences on this matter ?
 
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