With ATSC broadcast standards taking hold in North America, electronic acquisition is ready. At the HDFEST in Los Angeles, the last leg of a world wide festival, cinematographers, video engineers, post production experts, directors, and actors came together for four days to sing the praises of HD. The festival defined HD as either 1080i or 1080p, but one short was upconverted from a 720p original.

The equipment at the Los Angeles Film School favored the 1080i images, as the 1080p images looked jerky, oversaturated, and blurred. The documentaries and features in 1080i included topics as varied as cloning of endangered species in, "Cloning and Conservation," to a living history of the Russian Aristocracy in, "Russian Ark." The audience turnout consisted mainly of cast and crew of the showcase works, along with budding film and videographers hoping and grasping for information on this new format.

Some of the tips we got:

• Final Cut Pro is the standard editing tool of the HD story teller
• A detailed understanding of video is critical to get a good HD image
• Camcorder viewfinders or LCD monitors are too small to get accurate focus and image preview, so it is best to get a 24 inch HD display in the field
• HD is a unique format which sits along side film, not a replacement
• A lot of color correction and image manipulation can take place in post production, but test before you commit to tape, before you lose the digital data

Links:
HDFEST