Should I make my project and sequences 1080 or 2160?

Question

We make documentaries and docuseries for streaming and theatrical.

We shoot UHD (3840 x 2160). I make our dailies stringouts UHD. However, during our pitch process, our sizzle reels are 1080. Should we make our edit sequences 1080? Or should we make our edit sequences UHD?

Ex. If our edit sequence is 1080, then our footage is resized to 50%. If we push in to 75%, we aren't losing any quality. However, if our edit sequence was 2160, and we pushed in on the same shot (to 150%), then exported to 1080, would the shot have a loss in quality because we pushed in to 150%? Or would it look identical to an export from the 1080 sequence?

KazuTa · Accepted Answer

Then I'm still puzzled at your test.

Why were you testing the exports rather than simply seeing what happened within Premiere?

When we go to pitch meetings, we will be showing the exported version of our sizzle reels. We didn't want the slight loss in quality if our sizzle reel was cut in a UHD sequence and exported as 1080.

For the test, I put UHD footage in a UHD sequence and exported it as 1080 40Mbps CBR. I then brought the same footage into a 1080 sequence, Fit to Frame Size, and exported it as 1080 40Mbps CBR. I brought both exports into Premiere and compared them. There is a perceivable loss of quality in the UHD sequence exported as 1080; the eyes are softer, with less detail.

R Neil Haugen · Answer

If you use Set to framesize or scale manually, Premiere does not rasterize and will always go from original pixels.

If you use Scale to framesize, it will rasterize, and any further size changes will come from the resized image pixels.

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