{"id":475,"date":"2013-03-07T01:26:06","date_gmt":"2013-03-07T01:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bigheadamusements.com\/wordpress\/?p=475"},"modified":"2016-09-15T02:26:59","modified_gmt":"2016-09-15T02:26:59","slug":"video-feedback-test-001-blue-plasma-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigheadamusements.com\/wordpress\/?p=475","title":{"rendered":"Video Feedback Test 001: Blue Plasma (2013)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Quick Preamble<\/strong><\/p>\n

Back in the summer of 2012 when I decided to start filming a documentary on a local video store using obsolete video gear (aka dead tech), I realized the restrictions offered a whole array of stylistic choices which one might be able to emulate digitally, but can\u2019t wholly capture in terms of the gear\u2019s analogue purity.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s kind of like LP versus CD, but like that ongoing rivalry of ‘which format is the best,\u2019 the winner is determined on a case-by-case basis, weighing a whole series of factors. For example, you can have a badly mastered album which can\u2019t be helped by being pressed on virgin vinyl, and a beautifully engineered album can sound awful when the CD\u2019s been crafted from badly edited cues which themselves have been remixed with poor dynamics.<\/p>\n

Because portable digital recorders capable of capturing uncompressed video fall outside of my humble budgetary confines, the compromise for the doc (still tentatively titled BSV 1172<\/strong>) was to record all footage straight to DVD, and deal with it on the hard drive within Adobe Premiere. Basically, you make the choices you have to make, and hopefully they won\u2019t be too restrictive in the long run.<\/p>\n

Back in 2005, Saul Rubinek directed a neat little drama,\u00a0Cruel But Necessary<\/a><\/strong>, and opted to shoot on DV instead of HD due to the cost and perceived stylistic attributes of each medium. In an interview<\/a> [M<\/a>] with KQEK.com, the actor \/ director felt he may have limited the film\u2019s acceptance among audiences and distributors.<\/p>\n

With the blending of various acquisition formats, or the occasional artistic decision to stick with lo-fi formats like VHS, at least within the creative community, there\u2019s a sense that as long as the format supports the goal in the end, lo-fi (be it VHS, S-VHS, or arguably DV) \u00a0shouldn\u2019t really matter.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the thinking, but in reality, choosing lo-fi media will affect the film\u2019s playback if its resolution is significantly less that the playback medium unless you can find some middle ground where it\u2019ll still retain the aspects of standard definition [SD] but still look acceptable on a 1080p display without garish artifacts from re-rendering the footage to a resolution that\u2019s unforgiving.<\/p>\n

From my end, the tough part is figuring out which rendering format, codec, and resolution will ensure the doc will still look good while delivering the qualities of its vintage \/ obsolete look from a 1985 saticon tube camera. (I\u2019ll have comparative samples at a later date showing why you can\u2019t just render a 300 line image and expect it\u2019ll look just a little soft. Shit happens, depending on the chosen options, and Premiere has an initially bewildering array of them.)<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the challenge of finding the right combination of stages when layering analogue and digital effects. The aesthetics of BSV 1172<\/strong>\u00a0are partly experimental, so the goal is to find out which pleasing artifacts reside within the video signal that was recorded simultaneously on DVD and VHS, and what aspects can be brought out and treated in both worlds to achieve my weird arty-farty concepts.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where short tests come in, but they\u2019re also a natural way to figure out exactly what happens when you thread various components together, with the end goal of finding that sweet-spot that yields an effect upon which you can build a sequence.<\/p>\n

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* * *<\/p>\n

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Shut Up and Get On With It<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0The first test uploaded to Vimeo<\/p>\n