Dark Scenes and Master Pedestals

[aravance]

I'm doing a shoot at a club where we really don't have much control over the lighting situation. I've convinced them to leave the house lights on to help bring up the light level for recording, but that's about all the help I'm going to get. It helps some, but still everything is going to be really dark. As we all know, this is a red flag when using HVX's.

Is it a good idea to shoot with a high master pedestal, say around +5-10, to help preserve some of the data in the blacks? The idea is that I'm trying to shoot it pretty fat and then crush the blacks and up the highlights and mids during post/color-correction.

I did this for another shoot and was very pleased with the results. However, that was a very controlled llighting situation. This is not.

Any advice would be helpful.

Thanks.

[ProfessorU]

I think it's worth a try, but I would do some tests before committing to a big job like that. Plus just doing it once will make you feel better when your footage in the monitor looks flat and lifeless. Don't forget you can use undercranking to stretch exposure, too.

I've just started using the grain reduction in After Effects on HVX footage and I'm pleased with it. Maybe you can do something like that?

The DVCPro codec is practically designed for strobe lights. Any options there?