How Can I Make My footage better

Bleepthis

Member
I just got my DVX100a and have been taking some test footage, And I just havent been outputting footage of the quality im seeing on this site, now agreed nothing im shooting has been well lit, nor is any of it very visually interesting. Still, I just mean even as basic as resolution seems a little off. I just feel that from filming to rendering a file, somewhere quality is lost. So first of all here is a link to some footage I shot with the "flat" settings discussed here. So after you have viewed that what do you guys think I could do to make it better, or what is it im doing wrong. Wrong type of tape (I use JVC tape by the way), file settings, capture method....?
 
If you know you're not lighting very well and not pointing it at anything very interesting . . . well, shooting good footage is made up of two things -- good lighting, and interesting, well-composed subject matter.

But in terms of the footage you posted, you're going to have to be more specific concerning what it is you see as wrong with this footage.
 
OK, well what I've been doing is comparing footage, and thats how I came to the conclusion my stuff doesn't look as good for some reason. So I'll give an example, Ive been attempting the Tony Scott look. Just to see if I can do it, and I was looking at a post a while back called "man on fire spoof", and was comparing said footage to my own after I added the needed effects. What I found was that my footage did not look as crisp as that footage. What I mean by that is, even after I did some color correction my colors did not look as vibrant. It also seemed there was something else I couldn't quite pick out in my footage that made it worse than most of the other footage I see, which for a while I thought might be artifacting but I have something in the back of my mind telling me its something else. I use JVC tape, Vegas DV capture with a fire wire, and my scene settings are as said the "flat settings". Maybe some of that will help "diagnosing" my problem.
 
If you were a skateboarder in the 1980's, I'd tell you to learn how to turn and carve before you attempt the McTwist. But it's not the 80's and this is not skateboarding...wait where was I?

Oh yeah, keep taking the camera out and practicing.
 
DV will never have the color or crispness of 35mm film. It doesn't have anywhere near the resolution, and the color is actually very poor.

I think what will help is shooting better footage overall -- use good lighting. Use good exposure. Use good comps. Tony Scott's footage started out well to begin with, so he didn't have to do all that much to it to get his look, if anything.

Most who work with film strive to get the look they want on film before they ever go to post. Shooting "flat" and grading it later is something which pretty much came along with video.
 
Bleepthis, I just watched your footage and didn't think it looked that bad. Like others have said, just practice with it. Lighting, composition, throw something pretty in front of the camera...
 
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