Thanks!

The Z1/FX1 records in 60i and so you need edit in 60, i.e. have your project properties set to 60i, NOT 24p. Similarly, if you have CineForm do not use it to do drop-down. When the project is finished you may then render it to the format of your choice and compare results.

From a personal perspective, the more I play with my FX1 the more I like the look of 60i. I'm chasing the film look with DOF, increasing color gain in the camera, using the gamma and having a soft sharpness setting. What ever you do with footage from the FX1 if it is not 60i you are throwing information away.

The more I look at 24p, the more I view it as an "fX" to be used to create a certain less-immediate feeling. This is great stuff for certain things. However, if you have lots of motion or need to pan and zoom a lot, it sure creates problems. I'm having the same experience as MH: the FX1 (or the HDV cam of your choice) sure looks good, and it's a shame to throw away 20% of the pixels (1 - 24/30) and 60% of the temporal information (1 - 24/60) unless you indeed want to achieve that distance that film provides.

Marshall McLuhan attempted -- rather awkwardly, in my opinion -- to describe this difference when he labeled film "hot" and television "cool."

Oh wow, Marshall McLuhan. Far out!! Oh no, acid flashback: This flood of junk we got fed in the '60s just hit me:

"The medium is the message"

"Consciousness I, consciousness II, consciousness III"

"Turn on, tune in, drop out"

"Love means never having to say you're sorry"

OK the last one doesn't really fit, but it's from the 60's and is equally inane.

At least "The medium is the message" has a very serious meaning, as valid today as it was then (and as frequently overlooked).

But first a look at tomorrow's weather...

At least "The medium is the message" has a very serious meaning, as valid today as it was then (and as frequently overlooked).

I am not sure I would call it serious, and actually I have always thought his attempts to define how various media affect us in different ways was unnecessarily abstract. Here's the Wikipedia definition of what he meant by that famous phrase:

For Marshall McLuhan, the content of media is irrelevant. The form of the medium itself is what changes our consciousness.

I really like the look the 24p conversion from Vegas gives my 1080i 60fps shots. Not just the movement, but it seems to affect the color tone as well. Maybe I'm wrong, but I swear it does. Really looks better.

I really like the look the 24p conversion from Vegas gives my 1080i 60fps shots. Not just the movement, but it seems to affect the color tone as well. Maybe I'm wrong, but I swear it does. Really looks better.

Chacun à son goût.

goodtimej,

What parameters do you use to make your conversion? Do you go into Vegas Properties and change the framerate and make it progressive or do you use a preset template?

Also, I'm planning on playing the files back from a computer using Windows Media.

Any ideas on Windows Media settings to get optimal 720-24p output?

The medium IS the message - and here's the proof!!
And many of you older folks (USA) will remember it, too.

I used to do all the direct response ad work for Time/Warner, in the early 80's (often referred to as the "Golden Age" of direct response TV. Our budgets were typically in the high $80's to over $100k.

But they had a problem. Somewhere between 9pm and 10pm ad response would totally fall off. No calls would come in, even on the most successful of commercials.

Well, I came up with a concept and we ran with it, for Wunderman Advertising and Time Magazine.

You see, in those days, ALL the TV work we did was in 35mm, with mucho production value. So I built a set to look like a telephone operator's work station, hired a pretty blonde "telephone operator" actress, and wrote those famous words, "Hi - I'm Judy. Please stand by for an important announcement from Time Magazine"... then we would launch the commercial - in those days two minutes of hearty soft sell advertising. At the end of the spot, Judy would once again come on, with telephones ringing like crazy and say, "Call now to order - - etc, etc.".

But we shot "Judy" in VIDEOTAPE!! not film. People assumed that Judy was alive and there in the studio (which to all intents was true anyway). By utitlizing this technique of video - introducing film - followed by video - we proved the medium IS the message. The first time they ran the spot, order lines were tied up for over an hour!! Night time direct response was born.

The "Judy Wrap" was a time honored tradition for years to come and only died when some "bright" agency producer insisted on the "Quality Of Film" and shot them in 35mm. Strangely orders fell dramatically - but I was long gone from that scene, anyway.

v

I have always thought his attempts to define how various media affect us in different ways was unnecessarily abstract. Here's the Wikipedia definition of what he meant by that famous phrase:

In this example, Wikipedia offers a Coke bottle bottom through which to read MM's text.

I suggest this from the University of Toronto: [Link=http://individual.utoronto.ca/markfederman/article_mediumisthemessage.htm]

...the message of a newscast are not the news stories themselves, but a change in the public attitude towards crime, or the creation of a climate of fear.

I don't know if his brilliant concept of The Global Village came out of this or was conceived separately, but it looks like it could have been. Any overeducated types here who know? :O)

Sidecar: here is the link to the Jimmy Jameson 24p tutorial, which is done in DV.
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=22294&page=3

By his own self-description, McLuhan was not a scientist. He was an English Professor he often described himself as simply a "Thinker".

While doing research for an English History project, McLuhan came to a startling realization: With each change in the primary method by a society communicates, there has been a major change in the structure of society in general.

He observed how the introduction of the written word changed the world. How the invention of the printing press changed everything, allowing democracy to function. He observed how, in the last century, the introduction of radio, of film, and television changed not only our world, but how we see the world around us.

Many of McLuhans concepts we take for granted today were considered truly bizzarre when first introduced. McLuhan invented the term "Media". The phrase "Non-Linear" which we apply to describe our editing process, came from McLuhan.

McLuhan considered literature to be "Linear" , electronic media to be "Non-Linear" - He was certainly right about how "Hyperlinking" might work, long before we had the World Wide Web.

He also talked about "Hot" and "Cool" media. And about how our perceptions of the world change, as we experience it through different forms of media.

Although McLuhan has been shown to be wrong on a number of topics, he has gave us a new perspective that hadn't really been explored before.

For instance, I've seen that SD television, which we percieve to have a much better picture than it does (A "cool" medium.) completely distorts what is photographed. Hence, when you happen to be present at a happening which is covered on TV, and you see the replay later, you're inclined to say "That's not what happened - I was there!" A lot of people think that's because the reporters deliberately try to put their "spin" on things. But that's not the cause, the particular form of "media" is "shaping the event into its own image". That's why a description of an event in the newspaper will leave a totaly different impression than what you see on TV.

I'm convinced that the much of the world's events are impacted by how TV as a medium impacts us. Because SD-video is so blurry, we tend to see the world as a cartoon. There's no real detail there in the picture, just a sort-of blur. So we tend to expect our leaders and celebrities which are simplistic - not only in appearance, but also in personality. We expect "blurry", simple answers to complex problems. I also think that it's interesting that there has been no new or revolutionary music, since the introduction of the CD - and complex music (classical, anyone?) is slowly dying.

Travis