Getting the best out of MiniDV footage

Someone over at CGTalk was asking about how to get the best quality out of a 1CCD MiniDV camera, so I shared the tricks i use. Thought I'd share them here, too, cuz I care much more about you guys!
Maybe you don't agree with these and think i'm nuts, maybe you have a better technique. But I've used this tons, and it works awesome for me. i don't know if it works in Premiere, but it works in AE. It essentially doubles the resolution of DV (kind of).

import your footage twice. it'll come in as either upper field first or lower field first (under Interpret Footage - Main). Change one of the imported files, so you have one of upper and one of lower. drop them both into a comp, doesn't matter which is on top, but make the top one 50% opacity.

zoom in and look at the difference as you toggle the visibility of the top layer - the difference is undeniable. look at people's hair, look at jaggy edges.

if you have really fast action or fast camera moves, this won't work too well, because it introduces a doubling effect on the motion blur of things moving fast through the frame. but for most general shots, this literally doubles your resolution.

and the same effect CANNOT be achieved by simply removing interlacing. Removing interlacing simply doubles the alternating lines of the video, which is exactly the opposite of what this effect is meant to counteract.

I've used this on everything i've ever shot with my 1ccd camera, and the first time we watched footage on one of those 4 foot wide tv's, all my filmmaker friends were asking me why my footage looked better than their 3ccd "filmlook"ed footage. I didn't tell them. Let them figure it out on their own.

I also always color correct to look more like film, and add 2 layers of grain - one big chunky monochrome-in-multiply-mode layer, and one very fine color grain layer. I vary their opacities.

Thanks a lot for the tip hype . i've actually read a tutorial that uses a similar technique to obtain a "film" look but i couldnt really get it to work because i was really new to AE at the time and the instructions were a bit vague. i think i'll try playing around with it again. thanks for the tip i love all the little contributions you have been making to this community, they're MUCH appreciated.

That's great advice Hype. In fact, that is a major thing when it comes to DV footage. The biggest problem is the dang jagged edges, especially when and if you are trying to pull a key. I use that method consistently along with another process right afterward, Where I convert the footage to YUV space from RGB, and blur the Blue and green channel only, just a bit, and then convert it back to RGB. In after effects, sapphire spark blur has the ability to blur these channels out, and I think Tinderbox rewire will allow you to do it. As far as out of the box goes... I don't think so, but I could be wrong.

The reason now for the conversion for those of you who are lost at this point, is because YUV space stands for Luminance, Chroma, Chroma. as opposed to Red, Green, Blue. so if you blur the two chroma channels by about 3 to 4 pixels, and then put it back into the correct color space, you'll find that your jagged edges are gone and you have a nice, clean DV edge to pull a key off of.

Combined with the interlacing method Hype just described, you'll be the envy of everyone at Video Club.

-Z

I have access to a Canon GL2, So i'm fine off, good tip though

Hype man, thanks for an awsome tip!! It makes perfect sense!!

I really have to play around a bit with A.E it sounds like an awsome software, really need to get it i think. I've been serching for ages to find a decent 'film look' tutorial. But by far, i think you'rs makes the most sense of all.

I also highly agree with Franklyn - thanks a lot for you contributions throught this forum man.

Thanks

Zach!!!!

look at this. its pretty much what you describe (RGB to YUV, blur blue green, etc) in AE without plugins (not counting keylight cuz it ships with it).

http://www.aenhancers.com/viewtopic.php?t=40

pretty sweet!

Yeah man, that's exactly it actually. I didn't know you could actually do that in After Effects. That's pretty sweet man. I can't believe I missed that feature.

Ok, things have changed alot for me in regards to miniDV. I've learned alot lately. I bought this book and literally COULD NOT put it down until I was done. Got it friday night and finished it by Sunday afternoon.

http://rebelsguide.com/DV%20Rebel%27s%2 ... Guide.html

It's pretty damn amazing. Written by Stu Maschwitz, who worked at ILM for a long time, and then left to start the Orphanage visual effect studio in San Francisco. He also created the Magic Bullet suite of effects. After reading the book, I exchanged a few correspondences with him regarding miniDV, and learned a bit more.

If you guys ever plan on shooting ANYTHING with a miniDV camera, you should absolutely read this book. He convinced me stop using my "field averaging" technique I mention in the beginning of this thread. I was kinda working on an AE script that would automate my little process, too, but now I'm not sure if i'm gonna finish it.

Why? What's wrong with your technique?
~Mechis

that's an awesome book, I just found out about it the other day, and i have it qued on my netflix account, I mean, when i get paid im buying it.

-Z

well, he stressed to me the importance of 24fps, which, of course, I know is essential to making something look like film, because the eye is accustomed to that flicker rate, but my line of thinking was always that my little projects are just going to end up on DVD anyway, so why not concentrate on getting the best resolution out of my camera, not worry about the frame rate, and then use color correction to really try to get the film look. My frame averaging technique does make the resolution better, but Stu made the argument to me that frame averaging makes everything a little "wierd". I agree it did wierd things in motion blur, but it didn't affect the time, so things moving fast weren't on screen any longer than the untreated footage was, so I actually kinda thought it looked fine, maybe even more like film since it sort of replicated having a film camera's shutter open longer. Stu doesn't like it at all, but gave me a much faster, eaiser way to do the same technique, without importing the footage twice and without getting the doubled-up motion blur. (i'll post it below in my next post!)

He also gave me explicit instruction on how to SUPER easily convert my 60i (29.97) footage into 24fps, and it works with or without the frame averaging, so I can still use the frame averaging if I'm really inclined to. But I'm going to try not to on my next short projects.

Gotta run to morning dailies, will post more about this when I get back!

Great thread for the bookmarks! Thanks Hype.

no problem!

i'm really just trying to get the best out of my camera so i don't have to spend $4000 on a new HD 24p one. i bought my camera literally a few months before the first 24p Panasonic came out - really bad timing!