Ideal World Documentary Screen Shots- DVX100A

piercep

piercep

New member
I've creating a documentary on the virtual world Second Life . A woman i know owns a fashion line inside the game. She makes enough off selling these clothes to support herself and her family. I covering her as she tries to grow this business into something larger.

We've been shooting for three months and my crew and i can't get the footage to look good. I bought Barry Green's DVX100 book., read it, and took extensive notes. We tossed out our Home Depot lighting Kit for two Britec 600w and a 250 w with Softboxes.

I'm still struggling with creating nice looking footage from my DVX100-A

Below is some shots we filmed this week. They looked better in the viewfinder but when i loaded them on the machine they looked all washed out. No blacks and very few midtones.

I would appreciate any suggestions.

Yeah, the footage looks really bad

kasi1.jpg

kasi2.jpg

kasi3.jpg
 
It's shot well and there's a lot you can do with color correcting to get your blacks back. Like this. I used curves, levels, and hue saturation.

kasi1neutral.jpg
 
Yeah i checked and the master ped was set to +15;
i suppose that's why there was so little contrast
 
I have some suggestions for run 'n gun exposure. I really like to use DVRack, but in truth, you can (and should be able to!) achieve proper exposure without it in the field.

1. On a longform interview, set your camera to auto iris, zebra 80%, ND and gain "OFF" prior to lighting - it is going to act as your meter. Aiming for a mid-level exposure between 4.0 and 8, begin to set up your lights with key, fill, rim / backlight to your eye's liking. You don't need a tremendous amount of light in a room like the one you've shown in your grabs, so 650w and smaller fixtures should be much more than adequate. White balance the camera on a piece of foamcore exactly where your talent will be seated once you've got the fixtures roughed in.

2. Your camera will tell you if you have too much light - with 650s, even through a diffuser or bounced, the DVX will likely ask for the ND 1/8. I like to re-balance the white manually after throwing the ND in - though this theorhetically has no color temperature bearing on your image.

3. Once you've got to this point, I like to throw the iris to manual - it will stay at the last value where the auto last set it. You have to obey the rules of video to a large extent at this point - a subject in a white shirt or dress is going to challenge the camera's exposure latitude. Once you have your subject seated, look at white or near-white parts of the shot for the zebra pattern. Stripes should just begin to appear in the highlights at 80%. If the whites show no sign of striping, you should nudge the iris open ever so slightly.

4. Many will switch back and forth between 100% and 80% zebra - with the stripes absent completely or showing slightly as you switch back and forth.

At this point, you're ready to shoot. You absolutely should not need to get into the gain control with the lighting package you've indicated. I know that others will jump in and make suggestions here, so I'll sign off!

Cheers,

e
 
We're shooting another interview tonight so i'll use your suggestions. Thanks for those great pieces of advice.
 
You probably solved your major issue with dropping your master pedestal down to its factory setting! Yikes... I didn't even know it went that high. Reminds me of an old bit from the eighties...

:beer:

Marty
Oh, I see... and most master pedestals go up to ten?

Nigel
Exactly.

Marty
Does that mean it's brighter? Is it any brighter?

Nigel
Well, it's five brighter, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes you know, will be shooting at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your DVX. Where can you go from there? Where?

Marty
I don't know...

Nigel
Nowhere! Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?

Marty
Put it up to fifteen?

Nigel
Fifteen. Exactly. Five brighter.

Marty
Why don't you just make ten brighter and make ten be the top number and make that a little brighter?

Nigel
This goes to fifteen.

e
 
overland - Spinal Tap is the greatest film ever made and that sequence is the greatest comedic pause of all time. Do you have the DVD? If you want to see another mockumentary (that has some spinal tap references) check out "When the Acorns Fell..." on my website, http://www.laundryday.com/videos/when-the-acorns-fell/ There's a band in the movie that we modeled after Spinal Tap. Their drummer was killed by a squirrel. Check it out! You might like it.
 
Thanks for the help guys,

We shot another segment last night.
Below are two screen grabs from the camera.
We got tremendously better results after listening to your advice.
If you have any further advice it would be appreciated and used. You all are the best



kasiB1.jpg

kasiB2.jpg
 
I'm not a huge fan of your eye lines in some of the pics...like the first picture.
She's filling up the right side of the frame, and she's looking camera right.
 
The images are much better but seem to be a little out of focus, and probably a little over exposed.

Two really useful items for you would be:

1. A focus chart (this will help you achieve a nice sharp focus).
2. A grey card (this will help take a lof the guesswork out of setting your exposure).

Focus charts can range from free to pricey, and grey cards sell for $8 to $50 depending on if it's one of the cardboard ones or the long lasting plastic ones.
 
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