Shooting HDV (page 2)

Another difference with HDV is whether the frame itself is scanned progressively or whether it is interlaced. Interlaced images look like video, while progressive scan can look like film. The more the motion, the more noticeable the flicker from progressive frames become. The cinematography award at Sundance film festival this year went to a movie shot not on film, not on HD, but on a special format shot on the Panasonic AG-DVX100, at 480 lines of resolution, shooting progressive frames. The JVC HDV camera can shoot with a progressive frame that gives you the film-like look. The camera shoots at 30 fps, which is not the same as film and is also not the same as NTSC television. When in progressive mode, quick pans and tilts make the effect of the flicker more noticeable. If moves are really quick, blurring can start to become disturbing. You might want to pan no faster than five or six seconds, end to end.

Shutter speed is an important consideration. An electronic shutter is the equivalent of the mechanical film shutter. Just as the film shutter cuts the frame exposure in half, so will the electronic shutter cut your exposure time in half. If you are shooting 30 fps interlaced, then you should be at 1/60th. 30fps progressive can use a 1/30th shutter speed.

Watch out for the auto-iris opening and closing while you shoot. Neutral density filters can help moderate swings in brightness while you are shooting. Your challenge is compounded by the fact that there is no evidence of a knee, which would compress the bright sections of your picture so they would not overexpose, unless the light level was higher. You might want to try a low-contrast filter to minimize problems on this front. The filters come in strengths from 1-5, with 5 being the strongest. They raise the black levels and add halation, which is a slight haze around overexposed objects. This will reduce the amount of contrast in the picture, which can really help JVC's initial HDV cameras produce the best image possible.

Like most smallish consumer cameras in low light, colors can be muted. They look best with bright subjects, so the rules of good lighting apply to the magic of HDV as well.

HDV camcorders shoot in a compressed MPEG-2 video format that can suffer from chromatic aberrations and artifacting. Subtle gradations in color or brightness break into discrete, artificial looking steps. This is not a fatal flaw, but DV looks better in this regard. Then again, the DVDs and digital television you watch also shares this compression problem. If you are happy with those technologies, HDV camcorders will be just fine.

The GR-HD1U's detail (edge) enhancement processing was cranked way up, probably to squeeze out every detail possible. The image was hyper-crispy video on steroids and was much criticized. The JY-HD10U turned this processing down a tad to a more pleasing level. Detail is not adjustable on either camera, however.

Frederic Haubrich's initial goals in shooting Hotel Room were modest. "We really did that as an experiment. We wanted to see if we could create a decent product and eventually make a feature." He met and exceeded his goals. His short movie gave potential investors confidence in his abilities and in the JVC HDV camera and he raised over $100,000 for another HDV feature shot in August that is currently in postproduction. Maybe that will make those who thought he was a tiny bit crazy think again. And for all of us, it's a good time to keep an eye on HDV.

Matthew David Wachsman is a filmmaker, cinematographer and writer.

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