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Can GoPro Camera FOOTAGE be Intercut with R3D Scenes for 4K HD Television ??

George D.

George D.

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When working on a documentary production for television, in 4K HD, using Red-One and Scarlet footage, if you HAVE to, can you intercut "GoPro" Camera footage with the R3D scenes without a "noticeable" loss of quality to the average television audiences?

In other words, there are some shots we want to shoot, that there is just NO WAY of getting with either our Red-One or Scarlet, without spending vast funds of money waaaaaaaaaaaaaay beyond our budget.

Since ours, is a self-funded production, I am just inquiring if any of you have had the experience or know-how as to whether this GoPro footage could even be a consideration or a possibility.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks for your time.

George

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The GoPro 4K option is 15fps.
 
Anything is possible in Post, however if your matching it with other footage then you might see the diff.

Have you tried it?

It all depends on how the GoPro footage is used.

If its for a different POV e.g. fake security camera, dream like sequence, a completely different color treatment etc.
then yes you can probably use it.

But trying to match frames from a 4K 23.976 project with a 4K 15fps might cause issues.

Test as much as possible first.
 
Eric Santiago said:
Anything is possible in Post, however if your matching it with other footage then you might see the diff.

Have you tried it?

It all depends on how the GoPro footage is used.

If its for a different POV e.g. fake security camera, dream like sequence, a completely different color treatment etc.
then yes you can probably use it.

But trying to match frames from a 4K 23.976 project with a 4K 15fps might cause issues.

Test as much as possible first.
Click to expand...

We are NOT considering the use of it for "main" footage. We were hoping we could use it for rear projection or a blue/green screen background element, possibly even slightly out of focus.

When we put special visual effects components together we prefer to have all the elements shot with the same quality, etc, etc. But, in this case, since we are going to use the GoPro stuff for a BG element, I was hoping we could maybe get away with it.

Our situation does not allow us to use the GoPro Camera for experimentation prior to purchase. And, if it won't work, why put out the money, even if it's a trivial expense? Since we are footing the bill for this production out of our own pockets, every penny counts.

Thanks for your advise and help.

.
 
Rent? Find some skater kid and borrow :)

I held off on updating my Hero 2.

Waiting for a real 4K GoPro.

Would like to use that for vehicle and extreme sports shots.

I tried to put my Scarlet on my Snowboard.

Didnt stay too long :(
 
This question can only be answered by testing your setup and making the the call yourself. That said, I use gopo footage all the time intercut with epic footage.. The key is to use the strengths of the gopro to get the optimal results. Well lit, well mounted footage can look fantastic in 2.7k using the protune setting. I also keep the cuts super short so the audience doesn't have too long to really scrutinize the frame. One of the biggest things that gives the footage away is the jello-vision effect if your mounts are sub par.

Also keep in mind the gopros will have a very deep DOF, so any blurring will be a post effort. The ultra wide FOV is also a give away, but it can be less noticeable in wide open spaces.

Like any thing else, the content is king, so if that is the only way to get the shot, it will have to do.

TL,DR - Solid mounting, lots of light, and short cuts will go a long way using Gopro footage with a 4K sequence. .02
 
You said that you're working in 4KHD, but am I right in presuming that your primary distribution format will be 1080P HD and not QuadHD?

I'm DITing a feature right now which is primarily shooting Epic at slightly less than 5K (5KFF masked to 2.40 with a 5% frameguide area reduction) and we're using GoPro Hero 3s in 2.7K "cine RAW" (really just log-looking H.264) mode. When both the Epic footage and the Hero 3 footage are scaled down to 1080 and properly graded, they intercut very very well.

Like most features these days, we're assuming most cineplexes will project it in 2K, so the intercutting of the formats should remain fine.

Obviously if the Hero 3 footage needs to be upscaled to 4K or QuadHD, it's going to appear softer than the Epic footage, unless measures are taken to make them match better.

If you can swing it, use the Novo Cam modded Hero 3s from Radiant Images. Same sensor (better OLPF) and image specs, but they allow the use of proper lenses, so you can control exposure and not suffer from the extremely wide, distorted FOV inherent in the Hero 3's stock lens.
 
Oh, silly me, your post title specifies QuadHD delivery. Well, in that case I'd say you'd either need sophisticated software/hardware upscaling and sharpening of the GoPro footage or judicious degradation of the 4K material to make the cameras intercut as seamlessly as possible. Probably some of both.
 
If it is for background only, it might be better to take two GoPro3 at 2.7K and stitch them in post, than to get 24 or 30 fps out of 15. It might be even easier and faster to stitch them. Keep the two very close while shooting. For background means to me, that the distance to any object is not quite short. Sell the two after the shooting if the budget is small. If shot very carefully, you might get even ~5K out of it, which allows for downsampling to a higher quality at 4K. (Just brain-storming, I stitch a lot of stills for my work). The main problem that might stand against this is the field of view that you might achieve with that set up.
 
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Dr. Sassi said:
If it is for background only, it might be better to take two GoPro3 at 2.7K and stitch them in post, than to get 24 or 30 fps out of 15. It might be even easier and faster to stitch them. Keep the two very close while shooting. For background means to me, that the distance to any object is not quite short. Sell the two after the shooting if the budget is small. If shot very carefully, you might get even ~5K out of it, which allows for downsampling to a higher quality at 4K. (Just brain-storming, I stitch a lot of stills for my work). The main problem that might stand against this is the field of view that you might achieve with that set up.
Click to expand...

Thanks, but with the system we are going to use, only ONE camera is possible.

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You are seeing GoPro footage on TV constantly! THE setting to use is 1080/60 ... if there is any movement. That will help reduce any jello or skewing. You DO NOT WANT to use higher resolution at the expense of jello/skewing! You can ask the Dp who thought it was smart to shoot at 4K 15 fps all day from a drone ... all unusable. All of the great GoPro footage that you see on their adverts is done at 1080/60 ... unless it's like an establishing shot at 4K or an interview at 2.7K 30 fps with a 3 or 2.7K 24 fps with a 3+

Here is the GoPro message board: http://goprouser.freeforums.org/

15 GoPros on a Corvette commercial: http://public.fotki.com/makofoto/family__friends/fujifilm-x-m1-first/iphone-gopro-hell-pano.html

My GoPro's are constantly working, either on my own shoots or rented out. They're on HOND right now with master car shooter Bill Bennett, ASC
 
Shot 3 national spots that aired all over the Olympics and will feature a cinematic release soon. Shot 2 epics at 5k and supplemented shots with 3 or 4 GoPro Blacks. GoPro's looked amazing. So much so that probably 1/4 - 1/3 of the edits featured them. The answer is probably yes on intercutting as long as you are careful how you shoot an post the footage.
 
pj pulled that in lotr and nobody really noticed or cared, people mixin-match-gradin on time. will be really cool when they come out with a next one (:
 
George D. said:
Our situation does not allow us to use the GoPro Camera for experimentation prior to purchase. And, if it won't work, why put out the money, even if it's a trivial expense? Since we are footing the bill for this production out of our own pockets, every penny counts.

Thanks for your advise and help.

.
Click to expand...

Hiya. I would REALLY recommend to do some tests, especially since its a low budget shot. You may regret it so many times over if you are missing some things. I also done low budget shots and the things I didn't test before hand turned out very costly in the end.

GoPros are not super easy to use correctly so you want to really know how to use it to its best potential when you are in a live situation.
GoPro is sharp, sharper than footage from 5D for example. However it has limited dynami range so its very easy to over expose footage. It can also change exposure in the middle of a shot so you get a jump in exposure, very bad. If you use 2.7k 24fps footage its very sharp, however you will get into problems if you have too fast movements, seems the sonser doesn't read that fast.
You cannot increase 15fps to 30fps if the movements are anywhere near a "normal movie". If its more static backgrounds it could work but not at all for camera work or big movements. You would want to shot in 1080p or maybe in 2.7k and then blow it up. Also recomment to use the "pro" setting with the gopro so you get better quality compression, remember that you cannot remote view the composition from your phone in the pro mode. Also be careful with batteries, they go very fast. 2.7k only lasts about 50minutes for example.

The short answer is, if you use it for blurred out backgrounds I think it could work but if possible do tests. Good luck!

/Andreas
 
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