How can I improve the look of footage shot in standard mode?

Baluardo

Baluardo

Well-known member
hello everybody,
sorry for the long-ish post...

i have some experience using the dvx100 in cine gamma and i've always been satisfied with it, even before any color correction.

But now i'm almost finished editing my first docuemntary job shot interlaced, in standard (F1) dvx mode. I shot PAL, 50i, at the 'standard' F1 factory preset.

i'm trying now to improve the look of the images. In many cases (mostly with scenes shot outdoors in the shade, it seems, but not only) the images look pretty 'amatorial' to me. i dont know exactly why. like those quickly assembled small editings you see at the news. crisp annoyingly digital cold-looking. tv shows and documentaries i see look better and more interesting than these scenes.

i also have to say that it's a social and very 'down to earth' kind of documentary, not aiming at the national geographic or other film-like documentaries. more like 'road rules' kind of stuff.

i'm pretty clueless on how to improve it, honestly. White balance is correct, there is saturation (even though weather was never too good so colors are seldom very bright), exposure is correct. it just looks plain cold digital. maybe it's about the crisp edges, i don't know.
maybe i can 'warm up' the tones a little (slightly bringing colors towards orange).
i dont' think it's the interlacing, i dont even like the still shots where nothing moves.. and it's not the shaky camera.

- how can i improve it? are there "standard" corrections for interlaced shot footage? is this a good case for magic bullet?

thanks all,
Andrea
 
Sounds like you after the a look that the DVX gives when NOT shooting on F1.

F1 interlaced is meant for when you want that interlaced digital look that you are trying to fix. You should have shot with any setting other than F1.

Why did you choose F1 and not the progressive modes if you didn't want that 'news' look? By scrolling through the f1-6 presets is very obvious that F1 produces a picture that looks very camcorder like.

Best thing to do would be to get rid of the interlacing and soften the image up in whatever editor you are using.
 
One thought to soften up the image and reduce some of the video look...

I've never done this on interlaced footage, but it should work I believe. I use after effects and make a duplicate of the footage layer, change that layer to soft light blending mode and blur it by 10 pixels or so. Then I adjust the opacity of that duplicated layer to get the look I want. This is good for producing a slightly oversaturated, overexposed film look (kind of puffy and blown-out). This looks a lot less like video...
Like I said you can adjust the opacity to get more or less of the look. A small amount may help get the look you are wanting - or at least minimize the video look. I'd play around with a small clip of your footage and see what you get, you never know ;)
 
joshtownsend: there were 2-3 reasons for not using other setting than F1:
1- i had other footage to insert coming from a cheaper amateur camcorder and i wanted the two sources to match in some way to not disturb the audience (eventually i ended up using very little of the smaller cam though)
2- cine mode is harder to handle (focussing is a hassle when shooting in spontaneous fast documentary style) in those situations
3- i didn't really want a film look. just a standard average tv documentary look (that stuff which is generally shot interlaced, i guess with betacam). but in some bits looks like uncle conrad's b-day video)

RoamingBobert: thanks a lot for your detailed procedure explanation. you can be sure i'll try it (even though i'm kind of concerned about doing a 50 mins project with after effects :) )

thanks for suggestions guys. if somebody else feels like adding comments, they will be welcome!

Andrea
 
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