First of all I'd like to say hello, as I am a new member here. I've been scouring the internet for a video editing forum I could get some help at and I think this might be it

I've been charged with the task of being the principle director, cinematographer and editor for a small, VERY low budget, 30 minute short movie. This movie is very limited and will be shown to an audience of about 30 people so its pretty important to our little group of people. I've never really mucked around with Video editing but so far I haven't run into any major problems, but I do have a few questions on how to do some things, and this subsection was the best one I could find relating to my problem, if not I hope the mods can move it.

Anyway I started planning out my work in steps and they were as follows:

1) Shoot Raw footage with DV cam
2) Import Video using Premiere CS3 and only use to piece together the film in one large file
3)Take said large file and import into CompositeLab and EffectsLab for Chroma Key and effects (muzzle flares and time warps etc)
4) Take final chroma keyed and effected film and add sound and touch up in Premiere

What are your thoughts on this process?

-Ok so this is going to happen in the next few days, I'm working with VERY limited equipment. The camera itself is a SD Sony TRV-130. From what I know about it, its not that great of a camera. Just consumer level, has firewire, but no dedicated Mic inputs which I don't like and very basic manual features. This is what I'm stuck with and can't help it. I'm shooting in widescreen 720x480 and I Believe the video is Interlaced (I'll get to why Im having problems with this later). I also have access to a tripod and a very basic Bluescreen setup for Chroma key.
-In terms of software I will primarily be using Adobe Premiere and FXHome's CompositeLab and EffectsLab for the chroma and effects.

Now for my questions:

1) Chroma Key is a big thing here and there will be lots of it, from the test shots I've done I've been having one major problem and that is jagged edges around my subjects. Now I've done my best with the lighting and I believe that to be a non issue, but what I think the problem is( from what I've read) is that since the video is interlaced/interleaved(?) that this is causing the the jaggie edges. I've eliminated all shadows on my bluescreen but I can't get rid of them with lighting or software bluring. I need help with this, is there any other software for smoothing it out or any tips any one might have?

2) The target output is straight to DVD and it will be shown in classroom on normal TV's, I have read that the video and problem that was mentioned above will disappear once it is on a interlaced TV and not being edited on a progressive computer monitor. Either way I'd like to make sure not only that it doesn't have jaggie edges, but I'm also looking to give the film a "Movie" look, since this is a DV cam shooting in 480i it doesn't really look Movie like, so my question here is there anyway to convert (since I did read a little about this) to 24P frame rate or 480p or something to do with 3:2 pulldown. As you can see I don't actually know what causes films to look they do be it, framerate or the number of lines of res, I was wondering if someone here could answer this and tell me of how to go about doing it either through premiere or some other piece of software.

Well that's about everything I can think of, I'd like to thank in advanced anyone who manages to read this long winded post, I look forward to some interesting replies and thanks again

1) May be a limitation of your keying s/w. I'm not familiar with the keying s/w you are using. Also, it may be a limitation of how it was shot. If you shoot your green or bluescrene work wrong then you're not likely to ever get a great key from it I'm afraid. Getting the shooting right is quite an art form in itself. Can you describe your setup? i.e how far from the bluescreen was your talent standing? Did you light the bluescreen and the talent seperately in a controlled environment? Can you suply a still image or two ofthe orginal footage so maybe some of us can judge? What options do you have available within your keying s/w? Did you run some test footage before your main shoot?

It's altogether possible that a great quote I saw recently could come in top play here. But also quite sad if it does becausde it's nto good news. It goes somethignlike this "If you shoot footage thinking I'll fix it in post production but do not knowe exactly how you will fix it post production, then you'll be shooting it again once you do know".

2) never been a fan of this 'film effect'. My personal view is that your are shooting using aninterlaced device and ultimately will be plaing it back on an interlaced device so why not just leave it as it is. you'll ony be converting to 24p just to convert it back again when you make the DVD?

Personally, living in PAl country. I would rather thave my 50 interlaced frames per second and have less judder in faster movement.

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