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32 NO ONE WORKS IN A VACUUM<br />
Ironically, the best way to approach HD workfl ow is to treat it like fi lm. 16 If<br />
the project was shot on 24p (or 23.98p), create SD work tapes and edit with<br />
them as you normally would. For fi lm projects, transfer the negative to HD<br />
as though you were working with an SD electronic editing model. In PAL,<br />
transfer the negative at 50 Hz (24 fps) to a 24p HD recorder. From this you<br />
can make all necessary PAL offl ine copies. For NTSC, lock the telecine and<br />
the 24p recorder to 59.94 Hz (23.976 fps). Standard 29.97 NTSC work copies<br />
can be created from this HD master. Just remember to keep the reference the<br />
same for sound and picture at all stages in the postproduction process, and<br />
you won’t have any problems.<br />
When the fi nished job is scanned to fi lm for release, sound and picture will<br />
both be referenced to 60 Hz and will fall into sync. Many fi lmmakers shooting<br />
HD but expecting to release on fi lm choose to shoot at 24p since it’s easy to<br />
create an excellent fi lmprint from that. TV formats are also relatively compatible<br />
with 24p. Well-heeled productions may shoot 23.98p with sound at<br />
29.97 fps and then edit on a workstation capable of storing and displaying HD<br />
images (and equipped with a dizzying amount of storage). You can also shoot<br />
at 24p/48 kHz as long as (again!) sound and picture are running at the same<br />
rate at any given step of the process. 17<br />
To survive a production shot on HD, or shot on fi lm and transferred to HD,<br />
make a detailed chart of the project’s workfl ow before shooting begins. Discuss<br />
with the director of photography, the supervising sound editor, and the<br />
picture editor what each hopes to accomplish and come up with a plan that<br />
doesn’t give any player an excuse to change the rules in midstream. Specify<br />
frame rates, timecode, and sample rates for each step of the process and make<br />
sure that everyone understands and concurs.<br />
Keep the reference rates correct and you’ll get through the job. However,<br />
remember that HD is a relatively new format whose “common knowledge”<br />
rules haven’t fi ltered down to low-budget producers just yet. So expect that<br />
everything in the fi eld was done wrong, and be prepared for surprises—<br />
another reason for knowing as much as possible about all of the fi lmmaking<br />
workfl ows.<br />
16 For much more detailed information on HD shooting rates and their implications, see<br />
High Defi nition and 24p Cinematography by Paul Wheeler (Oxford: Focal Press, 2003).<br />
17 Visit http://24p.com/reference.htm for an ever-growing series of papers on working in a<br />
24p environment, presented by Michael Phillips and others.
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