Brightness of project

E

engnorway

Member
So I just did a screening of some of my footage for my cast and had a pretty darned good video project (brand new to boot) and most all of the footage we shot EXT. NIGHT or INT. darkish lighting was nearly unseeable. It was too dark to see all the detail. Beyond the embarassment it was frustrating considering it looks good elsewhere (my TV, monitor, etc.).

So I reset the brightness and contrast on the projector and watched it again later and it looked quite a bit better. The default settings on the projector were 50 on a scale 1 - 100. I set them to about 65 - 72 and the image looked better.

Now, does this mean that I need to boost the brightness and contrast on my footage (which I know I need to do a bit of here and there anyway) or is it safe to assume that I was just a moron and should have thought to check the display before showing it (I'm still kicking myself)? I don't want to get this project done only to find that when it screens at festivals (I'm already in one and waiting to hear back from a few others) half the movie can't be seen.
 
All you can do (should do) is get it looking good on a properly calibrated production monitor. That'll make it look like it's supposed to look.

Where it goes after you're done is really out of your hands. There's no way in the world to compensate for how a viewer will have their system set up..whether it's Bob down the street with his TV, or the projectionist at a festival.
 
Keep in mind that the gamma is different on virtually every kind of display device. This is why you want to do color setup ALWAYS before any display. If you're gonna show a vid somewhere, get color bars up and check it first.
Don't do anything to your footage if it looks right in other places. Just calibrate/set up like you should already be doing. Don't color correct on an uncalibrated monitor, and don't show a film to an audience on an uncalibrated projector.
 
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