Video filtering / Hollywood movies

[chazzie]

Hi Guys, not certain where to put this question, but I'll post it here.

I was just wondering how most movies get that soft and kind of dark look at their footage? It's not blurry nor dark, but still it looks better than the average video shot with i.e. a DV cam. I realize ofcourse that a Panavision camera is a $hitload more superior than a DV cam, but if you look at certain workprints, and/or deleted scenes, you'll see that the video is more like the "DV-Cam" style...

[chazzie]

Bump...

[holistic]

Just a stab in the dark here.

My guess would be because ...
A.original is film not video
B.the original is mastered with equipment that costs as much a small tropical island.
C.the main video is encoded at a higher bitrate (or better attention to detail) then the outtakes.

[ ] Agree [ ] Disagree


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[FulciLives]

The difference you are seeing is the difference between FILM and VIDEO. The two look completely different and it boils down to technology i.e., the two formats work totally different in the way they "see" things such as "light" in a different way.

I'm not going to get into it here and I don't know of any links off the top of my head ... maybe someone else can help here with a more technical explanation or a link that explains it all in more detail.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Gees]

I once came across a site that explained how to get simulated "film" look with consumer/prosumer cameras.

I will try to re-find the site, but it was all down to depth of field and lighting techniques.

I'll post a link here if I'm successful. Fingers crossed. :c)

[holistic]

Here ya go

http://www.b-independent.com/production/filmlook.htm

This was not the intent of the question as I read it!

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[Gees]

Holistic - you just beat me to the same link I was going to post now although not the original site I saw, which had photo examples. Thanks :c)

Sorry if I misread the original post. But maybe it'll help others trying to acheive this with DV? :c*

I also read a trick about putting a stocking over the lens to simulate softness & grain when appropriate.

[holistic]

.............I also read a trick about putting a stocking over the lens to simulate softness & grain when appropriate.

kinky ..

Yes have read that somewhere also.

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[flaninacupboard]

Personally if i wanted a "film" look to my material, i'd deinterlace by blending the fields, and then lower the contrast and colour saturation a few notches.

PAL users have an advantage in that DV will be 25fps like our films, wheras you NTSC users get stuck with 29.97. Well, there's your other option! buy a PAL DV camera, blend deinterlace, reduce contrast and colour saturation, resize down to 720X480 and slow down to 23.976 fps. That's about the best you'll get i think!

[chazzie]

We'll be using PAL DV cameras. Thanks a lot for the info, I'll read the webpage indicated above as soon as I have time.

Chazzie