Film Resolution for theaters

[Matty2Phatty]

our teachers seem to work with those old 35mm camaras and we wanted to do it digital

Most film school students absolutely hate the fact that they're forced to work with DV when they want to work with 35mm, and you're the opposite. 35mm is STILL the best format for shooting a film. Digital has a way to go yet.

the XM2 is 720x576 (PAL) i believe, which isn't near high enough to project on a cinema screen. However, a lot of festivals will still accept DV footage (as the kind of filmmaker that makes shorts usually can't afford 35mm). the resolutions you mention won't look terrible, though i would try to get into the 1920x? area.

I believe i heard once that Pixar render at 2k and then upsize it to 4k, because apparently digital animation can look TOO sharp on a cinema screen. I could be wrong about that.

[alejandro_m1]

I´m currently doing a CG short for finishing in 35mm (to screen in theaters), the resolutions that I´m working (and that I have been asked for the people who are most likely to do the data to film) are 1920x1080 with uncompressed tifs or tgas.

A "semipro" dv camera like the XM2 isn´t good enough (in most cases) for playing in a big screen, it is (at least for NTSC DV) 720x480 so it´s less than half the resolution you would need to at least compare to the image quality of a 35mm camera.

More than the quality to go for a blow up to 35mm you should be thinking about the difference between video and cinema, for example less deeper blacks and whites (they are more in the grays), less texture, and so on.

Saying that there are some pretty good examples of movies done in video that have amazing picture quality, Danny Boyle´s 28 days later for an example. They used Canon XL1 (minidv semipro cameras) which have pretty good optics, and it works great for the feeling of the movie.

You must ask if the looks of video works for your story, give them a decent postproduction (specially color matching) and it can look pretty good and can be indeed played in a cinema. I would only recommend something else, if you can go for an HDV camera, they give more resolution, run at 24p (most of them) and simulate more the feeling of a film camera.

Don´t record directly to the DV in the camcorder but use a DVCPRO or HDV in an external deck to keep a little better quality.

[FabioMSilva]

Thanx to everyone. I'll give a look into those.

[malcolmvexxed]

the resolutions you mention won't look terrible, though i would try to get into the 1920x? area.

.

i think 1920 x 1080 is the resolution most go for isn't it?





kinda wierd that you'd prefer to use dv than 35mm if you had access since film is still superior to digital but to each his own. good luck with your project

[FabioMSilva]

seems like i got mistaken by everyone...well guess its due too my rusty english ^_^

My teachers use 35mm for their movies :D. we students get some minidv or Dv (not sure yet since theyre still aquiring the camaras for our year). But as far as I know (from older students )they dont let students use school camaras for extra-curricular projects.

Still even if we could use 35mm, i cant even imagine the cost of turning it into data to be composited and edited on software like combustion or such. From what the teachers said, 35mm "reel/tape"(dunno if it is the right term in english, in portuguese would be "pelicula") would have to be converted into digital, worked and then reconverted into 35mm again. Each one of these steps as fair as i know costs about 5000€. IT's awfully expensive. That's why i'm thinking of going all digital straight from the biginning. When I end this 5 year film making course, digital camaras will probably be as powerful as 35mm(i guess).

ps: one of my teachers is crazy. He shot a 2 minute scene(those without cuts, dont remember the tecnical name for it) with 50mm "reel/tape", and repeated it over 32 takes!

what a waste of money.

[alejandro_m1]

Yeah you should go for the digital, but don´t think of screening it in a cinema, that too would cost a lot (around $15000 for a 5 minute digital short). There´s nothing wrong on seeing your short in TV :applause:

When I was in college we used either digital cameras or go through 16mm or super16 to end up in a TV screen, they looked great and were cheap for us because the school would give us the film stock and the developing and ranking (when you take the film and make a video working copy to be edited) so it was great, but maybe your teachers are cheap and don´t want to spend that amount of money in their students (just keeding :p)

About the digital cameras being as powerful as the film cameras I really don´t think so, they are way more important things about the "film looks" than just the image resolution. Indeed there are some cameras that get close to movie looks but not for consumers, except that the Sony/Panavision CineAlta camera drops dramatically down (like freefalling from a skyscrapperI don´t think that prices would be anywhere near to a student budget.

So again, aim for showing that in TV you are going to skip a lot of trouble with that and use that time and effort in developing a great story!

[malcolmvexxed]

ohhh okay i misunderstood you.

makes sense.

seems like i got mistaken by everyone...well guess its due too my rusty english ^_^

My teachers use 35mm for their movies :D. we students get some minidv or Dv (not sure yet since theyre still aquiring the camaras for our year). But as far as I know (from older students )they dont let students use school camaras for extra-curricular projects.

Still even if we could use 35mm, i cant even imagine the cost of turning it into data to be composited and edited on software like combustion or such. From what the teachers said, 35mm "reel/tape"(dunno if it is the right term in english, in portuguese would be "pelicula") would have to be converted into digital, worked and then reconverted into 35mm again. Each one of these steps as fair as i know costs about 5000€. IT's awfully expensive. That's why i'm thinking of going all digital straight from the biginning. When I end this 5 year film making course, digital camaras will probably be as powerful as 35mm(i guess).

ps: one of my teachers is crazy. He shot a 2 minute scene(those without cuts, dont remember the tecnical name for it) with 50mm "reel/tape", and repeated it over 32 takes!

what a waste of money.

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