I have a zombie mocumentary that I'm toying with the idea of. I'm considering shooting it in SD to make the creature effects more believable on a lower budget. Since I would be fronting the cost for this because it's just an idea that I want to do, I will likely be using student or beginning make up artists. My thinking is that SD will provide a margin of error for the effects. The finished product will be 22 minutes in the style of "reality" TV shows. I have numerous cameras of both SD and HD resolution. In fact, I have more HD cameras than SD cameras at this point, so I could get more coverage using HD, but I think that the HD would show any flaws in the makeup to a greater extent. This would just be a YT/Vimeo project with possible, but unlikely, festival submission.
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Am I crazy to shoot SD?
- Thread starter Lucky Hardwood
- Start date
It's up to you. I personally wouldn't suggest committing yourself to an obsolete format, but aesthetically, you can do whatever the hell you want. I've recently seen short films shot on Super 8, SD, shot in 4:3.. All depends on your own artistic choices. But make sure the reason is an artistic one. If I was working for you, and I asked 'why do you want to shoot in SD?' I's want the answer to be something a little better than 'because if the make-up artists do a crap job, then it will help to hide it'. My response would be: well get better make-up artists then.
The other thing to remember is you can always shoot HD and then down-rez to SD.
The other thing to remember is you can always shoot HD and then down-rez to SD.
The other thing to remember is you can always shoot HD and then down-rez to SD.
^ This
^ This
There are some reasons to shoot SD. Not many, but some.
Yours is not among them.
First off, if your effects artists catch wind that you want to muddy up your footage because you expect that they'll do a crap job, they're bound to mutiny. It's never pretty.
Just have them focus on some of the basics: Blend the edges, make sure to get the necks and hands, etc. On your end, instead of muddying up the image unnecessarily, take ownership of the visual style of it. Zombie-horror films can make good use of Noir-esque chiaroscuro, and it can also help sell some borderline make-ups. Utilizing creative angles and set-ups can also benefit your shots while selling the effects.
Let your limitations inspire your creativity, not destroy it.
Yours is not among them.
First off, if your effects artists catch wind that you want to muddy up your footage because you expect that they'll do a crap job, they're bound to mutiny. It's never pretty.
Just have them focus on some of the basics: Blend the edges, make sure to get the necks and hands, etc. On your end, instead of muddying up the image unnecessarily, take ownership of the visual style of it. Zombie-horror films can make good use of Noir-esque chiaroscuro, and it can also help sell some borderline make-ups. Utilizing creative angles and set-ups can also benefit your shots while selling the effects.
Let your limitations inspire your creativity, not destroy it.
shooting in SD is like saying you want a smaller penis, it can do the job but not effectively...
Point taken. I want the finished product to look like a reality TV show.
The majority of reality tv shows have come along after HD was already the standard, so shooting in HD is certainly not going to ruin that effect. And like a few people mentioned before, you can easily take HD footage and degrade it if you so desire, but taking crap footage and cleaning it up is another story. It's the same principle as lighting a tad brighter than you want the finished project to look. It is always best to have as much freedom as possible in post production. That said, don't fall in the dangerous mindset that everything can be done in post, but certainly embrace post production and shoot your material with the process in mind.
I like to do as much in camera as possible. It seems to make the editors less grumpy.
I get that, but down-sampling the resolution isn't really going to effect their day very much, and having a better image should please your colorist and VFX artists a bit more. It's all about trade-off. I still stand that you should shoot in HD, only drop it to SD if you desperately need to in post.
I shouldn't need to downgrade the footage except for online display.
Shooting in HD gives you more options...you can downgrade from HD to SD but upscaling from SD to HD is never pretty.
If you want a more mudded look you can place filters in post that could do the effect or as someone else said...if you are that worried about the makeup artist then maybe it would be a much better move to just get another makeup artist...don't sacrifice or jeopardize your vision for the sake of not wanting to hurt the makeup artist's feelings....
If you want a more mudded look you can place filters in post that could do the effect or as someone else said...if you are that worried about the makeup artist then maybe it would be a much better move to just get another makeup artist...don't sacrifice or jeopardize your vision for the sake of not wanting to hurt the makeup artist's feelings....
