This is veteran stuntman David A. Fultz on the set of "Mountain Mafia" falling out of a tree while on fire. The stunt was coordinated by Rick Shaw with cameras operated by (Director) Cherokee Hall and Casey Miracle. What better time to test the Compressor preset for converting Canon HF10 footage into DVCPROHD footage for use with Panasonic HVX200 footage? All images courtesy of JustUsLegue Films.
Here is the raw HF10 image.
And here is what it looked like after conversion to DVCPROHD, resized to 720p, and roughly color corrected.
Here's another corrected, sized shot from the HF10:
And here is a shot from the HVX200 taken at a different angle for comparison.
Remember that the HVX200 has 4:2:2 color and that we are not attempting a perfect color match with the preset. We are just trying to get the footage into the same format (24p, 1280x720, DVCPROHD) and "in the ballpark" for later color correction. What I see in this example is that the color in his sweater is basically right, and the detail in the ground looks good in the "after" picture. It's close enough for color correction and to be intercut with the HVX footage.
When I was dumping the Canon HF10 footage from the SDHC card, I overheard "No. They aren't using that camera for the movie. That's just for capturing behind the scenes footage." I snickered quietly to myself. Boy were they surprised when he saw the post-preset images! Side by side at full resolution, nobody could tell which clip was shot on the Canon HF10 and which was shot on the Panasonic HVX200. The same person looking at the HF10 footage said "You ARE going to use those shots in the movie, aren't you?" You bet.
Tom Stern is a writer, producer, and director. His company, FILMdyne LLC, specializes in Digital Cinematography. Their motto says it all: “Shot on video – looks like film.” Visit them online at http://www.filmdyne.com/ Tom is the author of the Redrockmicro M2 Cinema Lens Adapter manual. Tom is a frequent contributor to the online forums at DVXuser.com, http://www.dvxuser.com/ under his nome de plume Andy Starbuck.Tom is also one of the founding members of JustUs League Films. A production troupe in Lexington, Kentucky. http://www.justusleaguefilms.com/
