The Film Look

knightly said:

light and shoot to maximize the lattitude of your image (it'll look muddy). Then you can make choices in post about coloring more easily.

spend your resources on EVERYTHING happening outside the camera... that's what makes the "film look", the camera just captures the result.

The "Film Look" has nothing to do with film!

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What do you mean by muddy? A neutral look?

Muddy may be hard to explain... no definition to shapes, no crispness, lack of contrast... muddy. Easier to explain with audio. Everything is garbly. Now to explain garbly...

Basically you want to light everything pretty evenly, so the difference between light and shadow is only a few stops. You can easily crush the shadows down as much as you want in post.. By lighting and shooting in this manner you ensure that the maximum amount of image information is there, and it gives you the most control over the final image.

I don't know if I would necessarily call it "muddy" but it certainly looks different than you might otherwise expect the footage SHOULD look. everything will look very evenly lit and feel "wrong".. Given the limited latitude of digital video, this is the best way to get similar results to what you might get on film, it's also why a digital shoot, when done correctly, should make use of MORE lights than a film shoot.

Just because the camera can make a picture in next to no light doesn't mean it'll be anything worth looking at in a finished product. Knightly and I agree very much on this point.

As was discussed a bit on another thread, but equally important are cinematic aspects like:

Depth of Field - Being able to control what you focus on and wracking focus from one subject to another adds a lot to the "film look". It's only considered a "film look" because the cameras have lenses that allow you to target the frame in such a way that depth of field is possible. With adapters and other devices, even the most tight video camera can achieve great depth of field effects.

Camera movement - IE Dolly shots, crane shots, and other smooth camera movements. Amateurs tend not to use the moving camera to tell the story, so it usually stands out when you do, but always remember to motivate the movement, as in have a REASON to move it, not just because it looks cool.

Although cool shots still look cool Just got done with a bunch of Student productions (premiering May 2 at SCSU, St. Cloud, MN) and I was shocked at how much production value comes from a simple crane shot or a dolly move coupled with a pan to keep the shot framed right.

We did a shot of a grave site with no lights, outdoors, and long DoF... correct exposure and a low shot across the top of a coffin (made with old aged wood, Actor inside, placed in an actual body sized hole in the ground - production value) craning up as the lid is popped off and panning over to see the reaction of the person digging, raising to an over head shot of both the person and the grave... 6" to 8' through the course of one shot. COOL SHOT! (and motivated camera movement).

My point. It was a completely DV shot (DVX100b, long DoF), outdoors with no extra lighting... costume, makeup, set dressing, framing and camera movement made it EXTREMELY cinematic!

Agree on camera movement. Just finished a short and we had a 6'slider and a very smooth fluid head. Some of those dolly moves combined with a really smooth follow on the pan and pulling focus all at the same time. THAT is what makes something look "cinematic". Also, the use of multiple lenses. The ability to fo from a 28 to a 115 with 3 or 4 stops in between adds a ton. The zoom on a fixed lense just doesn't (IMO) look as good as "real" 115 (for example).