Band Lights Equal Crazy Weirdness

[dmchord]

I don't know what kind of lights this band had up, but they really wreaked havoc with my images.

HVX200A, DV - 720 x 480 to P2

There were these green and blue lights focused on the band. Anything that fell within the beams of these lights wound up with these vertical lines. I don't even know what to call it. Not pixelated but...striped, and sort of offset. I mean, there are frames where half the singers face has the green light, and is messed up, and half the face is in a gel-less spot, and is fine.

I didn't notice this at all while I was filming. Anyone have any comments about this phenomenon, and what I might do to avoid it int he future?

PS Just went back and looked at the footage in camera, and I'm still not seeing it, though the blue and green tinted portions look a little blurry.

Thanks

 

[Jimmy Moss]

Dv just does not have enough color resolution, and your seeing the results of it. You may have wanted to shoot DVCPRO 50 or 720p. You may want to convert it over to Pro Res and see if that helps.

 

[beefYak]

Looks like normal DV footage to me.

 

[stuckfootage]

A couple of thoughts:

You've got a nice HD camera. Shoot in HD!
Everything will look much better; you'll have more options even if you deliver SD.
The vertical lines are partially a result of DV's 4:1:1 colorspace.
If you shoot HD (DVCPRO HD) you'll get a 4:2:2 colorspace, which you'll really notice
in high saturation situations.

Shoot progressive! Cheesy deinterlacing (like FCP's) will result in larger apparent pixels.

Talk with the lighting people well ahead of time. You need some diffuse frontal
lighting that's white. Save the colors for sides or back lighting.
As it is now, you've got a blue lead singer and a green backup singer. Not pretty.
They should both be a beautiful brown color like the sax player.

Some additional pixellation occurs in low-light situations.
Adding some white frontal lights will help that problem also.

If the house lighting crew can't provide better lighting,
or you don't have time to change their setup,
bring your own front fills.

Why is the background lit better than the foreground?
If you can't turn off those lights, at least try putting up a dark background
to make the performers pop.

Is that a projection screen behind the band on the right?
Can't you ask somebody to make it go away?

Is your camera tilted? Take the time to do a careful setup.