The film 'look' with digital / HD

Henry Spencer

Henry Spencer

Apologies if this is a rinsed topic

oh, and hello. I'm new so please be gentle

I've recently bought one of these

http://www.sony.co.uk/biz/view/ShowProduct.action?product=HVR-A1E&site=biz_en_GB

and set up my PC with Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 and After Affects CS3

Now, I havent really had the chance to get into the editing side of things just yet as i've been collecting all the images I need from my first short

But there is one thing that is starting to plague my thoughts, how do I make it look like it was possible shot on film????

I've done a little freelance work with the camera so far and although the images have been crisp they lack that romantic film look

Can anyone offer any tips as to how I might be able to achieve the 'film look' with the aformentioned software?? And if possible, could you use laymans terms??? Still getting used to all the jargon

thank you for your time
 
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The biggest factors that contribute to the look are lighting and framing. Next on the list would probably be the shallow focal length, but lighting is MUCH more important. If the footage is already shot, there's not a whole lot you can do.

You will want to work on color correcting your footage so that shots in related scenes have a cohesive look, and probably some kind of overall tonal look. Also a bit of vignetting can help set the mood a bit, and helps focus the eye.


Oh, and :welcome:
 
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Henry whats the price of the this CAM? and does it have mic input slot? i searched on google for input slot but the language is too technical to understand...so i got the rough idea but was unable to know about sond
 
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One of the first things you should do with your footage is correct the Gamma Curve on it. Typically digital video is going to have a straight curve. What you want to do is make that more of an 'S' shape, curving the bottom and top ends. It brings out the highs, and pulls down the blacks. It takes away a lot of that kind of neutral 'video' look that you expect from digital, and a more professional quality image.
 
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thefilmgeek said:
One of the first things you should do with your footage is correct the Gamma Curve on it. Typically digital video is going to have a straight curve. What you want to do is make that more of an 'S' shape, curving the bottom and top ends. It brings out the highs, and pulls down the blacks. It takes away a lot of that kind of neutral 'video' look that you expect from digital, and a more professional quality image.
Click to expand...

i guess it's going to take me a little while before I'm able to interpret this

google will have to be my friend
 
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And, also Henry, keep in mind, there are a lot of things that come together to make something more like a professional 'film'. While your question was about the 'film look', I suspect that means you're wanting to have it feel like a professional production you made. Because of this, you have to keep in mind.....

AUDIO!!!!!!!! :)

Good quality audio is crucial to getting a film feel. If the audio is crappy, or garbled, echoey, or just sounds like a home video... no amount of 35mm adapters or color correction is gonna make the audience look at it like a professional film. Bad audio can completely ruin the illusion that you're bringing to them.
 
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