Help: Vimeo HD Workflow on a Mac

[Stephen]

Hey all- I would greatly appreciate your help and insight on this one! I'm looking to create the simplest HD workflow that does not sacrifice quality for two different outputs. One output will be to Vimeo, the other output will be to HD Telvision or a digital projector. I am going to be developing a series of short films (3-10 minutes) as well as some short documentary bits (2-5 minutes) which I will be posting on my blog via Vimeo. The goal is to drive users to the Vimeo site so that they can watch the footage in full HD. Thus enters my first hurdle...

Last night I uploaded my first attempt at getting HD footage from the HV20 to Vimeo. You can view my result here: http://www.vimeo.com/732900 Please download the full clip from Vimeo to see what my final export footage looks like if you wouldn't mind.

There are some obvious areas that need improvement, but I am stumped as to how to make this look better. I used iMovie to edit this in (I use iMovie for quick edits... for example, I will use this to edit my documentary bits... I use Premier Pro CS3 for my short films). The original footage is all shot using the 24p mode on the HV20. I know that iMovie HD doesn't truely edit 24p footage, but then again, I didn't ever eliminate pulldown from this so I'm wondering if that even matters. I just pulled in the footage through iMovie, made some quick edits, and spit it out using the export feature. I tried to exactly follow all the settings that Vimeo lists for HD quicktime exporting to the 'T'. I'm unsure as to why I'm getting a decent amount of artifacting and 'lines' in my footage. This is especially apparent in the footage of my wife in the grocery store. Any suggestions? Any obvious reasons why some of these things are happening? Any Mac users willing and able to post their own NTSC documented workflow process along with samples of what their stuff turns out like when posted to Vimeo? This is my first attempt so I'm totally open to suggestions- I just want to have my footage look as pristine, perfect as possible. Once I have a workflow I'll stick to it.

I want to get my HV20 footage to look as good as this guy's video: http://www.vimeo.com/422269 That footage looks amazing! How do I get there with a Mac, iMovie HD, and Premier Pro CS3 at my disposal?

I see that Eugenia has a new pulldown method at: http://www.hv20.com/showthread.php?t=5091&highlight=vimeo+settings Might this help me in my search to elimniate the artifcating and lines I'm currently experiencing or is this a different problem altogether? I also have been to Eugenia's site tutorial for exporting to 720p at: http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2007/12/08/exporting-with-quicktime-in-720p/ I am able to make full use of iMovie's exporting options and it seems, in theory, that I am setting everything correctly using her first listed option.

So in a nutshell- any thoughts on Mac workflow I can use to get amazing looking Vimeo videos from my footage? My piece flows great without any visible lines or artifacting in iMovie natively but is less then satisfactory when put on Vimeo. If I can get my footage to look like the second video link I listed ('Dogstar'), I would be elated!

SECONDLY... I am interesting in finding out what HD Workflows you guys and girls use to import and export your footage into and out of Premier Pro CS3 on the Mac for your short films. I'm a creature of habit and once I have a recipe for success I'll stick to it. Just trying to do all of this right in the first place before I create bad habits. Thank you so much for your help! This forum is amazingly helpful and I am very, VERY grateful!

Thanks,