Clothing to prefer/avoid for DVX100B shoot?

catalyst

Member
Hello all,

I've got a shoot coming up this weekend and I need to advise the actors on their wardrobe. Obviously, a lot of this has to do with the roles they're playing, but I can imagine that there are colors or patterns to prefer or avoid for the DVX in particular or DV in general. (I suspect black and white are to be avoided, since they anchor down the brightness range and are easy to under/overexpose, yes?)

So, any advice, please!?

Thanks,

Catalyst
 
In general avoid all of the following:

solid highly saturated primary colors

tight repeating patterns

bright white or black items
 
" bright white or black items"

How do you have a bright black item?

EDIT: In my defense on this blatantly bad interpretation, I was mildly intoxicated.

Sorry. I'll try and not do that again.
 
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The DVX I was using to shoot our movie THE CASINO JOB didn't handle blue very well. VERY VERY noisy.

We ended eliminating most blues from our sets and wardrobes.

Pastels are best.
 
Blacks and white clothing aren't generally a problem. White fabric is not terribly reflective, and black rarely true or absorptive black. In fact, black and white (and gray) costumes have saved my butt a number of times. Think about it, you have color correcting references points in nearly every shot!

Patterns can be a problem, if you have Detail settings up too high. As the patterns move around on screen, weired things happen. With Detail settings turned, they are more pleasing. Detail turned down is more pleasing in general, too.
 
vegasdigitalfilms> ive heard that dv in nature doesnt handle blue well. Which is why most people go for a green screen when they need a keying shot. But i mite be wrong.
 
plainman007 said:
vegasdigitalfilms> ive heard that dv in nature doesnt handle blue well. Which is why most people go for a green screen when they need a keying shot. But i mite be wrong.

I've shot thousands of projects on my Sony VX2000 with absolutley no color noise, even bright vivid reds, yellows and blues.....

The director bought the camera we used off ebay and I wondered if he got a grey market camera. We used a second DVX when it was available and the color reproduction was much better, but still a little noisy with the blues but not as bad as our camera.
 
Vegas > Your statements seem to be muddled up. I dont understand.
First line sounds like your praising the sony vx2000.
Second line sounds like you felt you got a raw deal on the camera (=bad camera). Third line ...starts by saying the dvx was better than the Sony....(which means you shud have got better blues) but then you go on to say the blues were worse and youve had me upsaid down by ending it saying the dvx is not as bad as the Sony. Is this a jig saw puzzle trick ? LOL. Just kidding. You mite have just put it the wrong way. Im confused.
 
I can't speak about the Pany cams, but blue has never been a problem. Red on the otherhand, really seems to be an issue. Overall, avoid really busy patterns and lines.
 
Avoid shirts that are made up entirely of hundreds of small mirrors. Also skimasks or large sombreros pulled down over the face can be problematic (at least for the DVX). Generally avoid exploding ties and clothing made up of live animals which may be frightened by the bright lights. Also plaid.
 
plainman007 said:
Vegas > Your statements seem to be muddled up. I dont understand.
First line sounds like your praising the sony vx2000.
Second line sounds like you felt you got a raw deal on the camera (=bad camera). Third line ...starts by saying the dvx was better than the Sony....(which means you shud have got better blues) but then you go on to say the blues were worse and youve had me upsaid down by ending it saying the dvx is not as bad as the Sony. Is this a jig saw puzzle trick ? LOL. Just kidding. You mite have just put it the wrong way. Im confused.

Sorry...

I was answering someone else about their comments on DV in general handling primary colors. I was just saying that my VX2000 handled colors very nice, unlike the DVX we used on THE CASINO JOB that didn't seem to like blue.

I then said that our DVX's dislike of blue might have been because it was a gray market model off Ebay. We used a second DVX when it was available and it handled blues better than our DVX.

Yes, I was praising the VX as a sidebar comment. Wonderful camera, especially in low-light.
 
:thumbup:
pmgmedia said:
Avoid shirts that are made up entirely of hundreds of small mirrors. Also skimasks or large sombreros pulled down over the face can be problematic (at least for the DVX). Generally avoid exploding ties and clothing made up of live animals which may be frightened by the bright lights. Also plaid.

LMAO!!!
 
Vibrant reds and blues are to be avoided. DV seems to handle brighter greens fairly well. Patterned shirts, paticularly vertically striped, are bad.

Anything near "white" sucks. If you want a shirt to appear white on screen, get a light gray shirt.

Blacks are hard to see unless they are silk or anything that replicates a shinyness because you can pull some definition from that...
 
Hey Suppa > I like tat b&w image in your banner. Nice look to it. Looks almost like its HDRI. I know its not. Is that one of your DVX footage grabs or a still photo ?

A SIDE NOTE : ADULT FILM PRODUCERS DONT NEED TO READ THIS ENTIRE THREAD AS IT DOESNT APPLY TO YOUR PRODUCTIONS. LOL
 
try to keep everything kinda muted. and turn your chroma levels down. then regain the info in post.
 
Timur > your suggestion to keep everything muted and turn chroma levels down ? your answering to my post about the b&w image or regarding the clothing choices. If this is about clothing choices how will keeping chroma levels down help ? Can you elaborate using a hypothetical clothing situation ?
 
byt turning the chroma level down, the DVX / HVX get much less noisy. then you can boost the levels in post.

This helps (with the DVX) in BW because it helps reduce the chorma "blockies" and in post it significantly makes color correction look cleaner and more natural.

As far as clothing goes, the Video image, (all video) because of it s limited ability to reproduce color, has the tendancy to exaggerate whats actually there. this is why Video looks "harsh". pastel colors look great becaus they arent saturated. The Chips can easily decipher the color pallete, and more importantly recreate it.

think of it like this. the way the Video cameras have a tendancy of blowing out highlights in terms of brightness, they do the same thing in terms of Color. if you keep the colors from being to "bright" you can capture the information on tape. then tweak in post. DV needs LOTS of post work to really look good. the trick is to make sure all the information of the image is preserved within the bandwith the DV can handle. but make sure you use as much of it as possible. you can exaggerate highlights and lighting effects by increasing contrast, but the highlights have ot be there to begin with.

in summary, very carefully controll your scene. Shoot Flat, then juice it up in post.
 
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