Dreamlike Look

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I will be shooting a short film and the whole movie needs to look like a dream. Some shots are outside, in a high school, and in a bar.

The outside/high school shots need to have a dreamy, innocent look to it. I guess kind of whiteish. Whats the best way to do that in camera with DVX100a. It should kind of look like the shots from The Virgin Suicides.

The bar will be low light and I don't believe I can actually do any lighting from what they already have, but I still wanna achieve more of a dream look in camera, not necessarily with the "white" look.

I have yet to purchase filters, so that may help, right?

IF you have any ideas for how to do this in post on FCP4, then please let me know that as well.

Thanks for your time.
David
 
Re: Dreamlike Look

[quote author=Dave link=board=news;num=1089150940;start=0#0 date=07/06/04 at 14:55:40]I will be shooting a short film and the whole movie needs to look like a dream.  Some shots are outside, in a high school, and in a bar.  

The outside/high school shots need to have a dreamy, innocent look to it.  I guess kind of whiteish.  Whats the best way to do that in camera with DVX100a.  It should kind of look like the shots from The Virgin Suicides.

The bar will be low light and I don't believe I can actually do any lighting from what they already have, but I still wanna achieve more of a dream look in camera, not necessarily with the "white" look.

I have yet to purchase filters, so that may help, right?

IF you have any ideas for how to do this in post on FCP4, then please let me know that as well.

Thanks for your time.
David [/quote]

There are lots of ways to make something dream like. You can do a Farscape type "floating camera" in post by zooming in on the video and then having it wobble and float. You can reduce the contrast and give it a tint, the tint provided either by a photoshop overlay or a color correction. You can spike the color gammas, again making it alien looking or dreamy, depending on which gamma you spike.
 
Re: Dreamlike Look

softer light and warmer colours can help add to the traditional dreamy look. Bring lots of bounce cards and diffuse as much as you can 8)
 
Re: Dreamlike Look

For the warm colors to the exteriors, try a golden reflector. Also try to overexpose a little, and not to shoot anything in shadow. A white mist filter would also help the whitish soft look you are describing, but try to keep it subtle... Especially if it's going to last the whole film. Good cinematrography has to be unnoticed by the crowd... The dream-like effect I like the most is the one at the beggining of the third LotR, but I can't help you with THAT... ;D
 
Re: Dreamlike Look

not sure what nle you are using but in mine (canopus/edius)i can easily use a soft focus filter and i get a great dreamlike effect. i can increase or decrease the intensity of it. i would think most nles out there could do this. its a basic filter.
jim
 
Re: Dreamlike Look

[quote author=jim stamos link=board=news;num=1089150940;start=0#4 date=07/06/04 at 23:32:40]not sure what nle you are using but in mine (canopus/edius)i can easily use a soft focus filter and i get a great dreamlike effect. i can increase or decrease the intensity of it. i would think most nles out there could do this. its a basic filter.
jim[/quote]

Almost all can, and it is a good idea to do as many effects as you can in post. This is called shooting clean, because you have a clean copy from the field and do SFX in post, where you can tweek all you want and still have the clean copy. SFX while shooting is there for good. Good advice Jim.
 
Re: Dreamlike Look

as far as in camera, the usual method is the 'soap opera': overexposing by widening the ap a stop or 2 extra. a slightly slower shutter speed sometimes as well. the get the 'dreamy' look that is common in film its a post effect, a soft focus filter and on top of that a slight 'glow' filter.
 
Re: Dreamlike Look

you can also shoot at a slower shutter speed like 1/24 which will add more motion blur, and tends to make motion look somewhat "dreamy".
 
Re: Dreamlike Look

when you say whitish, do you mean like any of these?
http://www.urbanmouse.com/LOB/suckerMC/Everlast6.jpg
http://www.urbanmouse.com/LOB/suckerMC/Everlast5.jpg
http://www.urbanmouse.com/DVXuser/DVXmovieSTILLZ/Kitchen_3 Bright.jpg
if so, you use a diffusion on the lens to soften the image in camera(if you know for sure you are going to do this style). Then pull down the saturation to suck out most of the colors, make a copy of that layer and blur it 2 pixels and use screen or overlay mode in Aftereffects. You can use the "adjust curves" to adjust where your brightness levels are.
 
Re: Dreamlike Look

you should also probably order a copy of the filter dvd that is for sale on here, it is an excellent, affordable, way to see a lot of filters and what they really look like.

matthew
 
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