Matrix settings & hot "Miami" look

[ajalali]

Hi folks, I'd like some advice on the following topics:

1. Which matrix setting do you usually use to get a film-look in 24p mode -- "Normal" or "Cinelike"? Does "Cinelike" just boost the overall color saturation, or does it selectively boost certain colors? I'm thinking to use "Normal" setting and just boost saturation in post if necessary, because I sometimes see more chroma noise in shadows/dark areas of the picture when using "Cinelike" matrix...

2. What's the best approach to getting that hot "Miami" film look (outdoors) where the colors are pushed slightly to red and gold hues, and there's lots of contrast? Is it better to do this in post, or in-camera? If doing it in-camera, what are the settings to use -- Cinegamma_V (to crush blacks) and Cine-like matrix?

Thanks!

 

[J_Barnes]

Re: Matrix settings & hot "Miami" lo

Re: Matrix settings & hot "Miami" lo

If you have a rental house close to you, you could check into renting some filters for a day to do some camera tests.

Corals and tobacco filters seem to really suggest that Miami look you're talking about. A lot of people use coral filters to warm up daylight, and tobacco seems to give darker tones a real gritty hot feeling, so experimenting with both in degrees of 1/8-1/2 might really get what you're looking for. Everything else would be lighting as far as getting a specific contrast ratio.

Of course whether or not to use in camera filters vs. post filtering really depends on your working style. Adding the filters in post affords you the most flexability, but it does really increase your rendering time if you're not on a superfast machine.

I know Cuban filmmaker who shot an entire film, largely without lighting, on a Canon GL2. When he was showing me the dailies, I was wincing because everything looked so terrible and he was supposed to be an award winning filmmaker. Flash forward, seven months later after he finished post, he showed me the same scenes and I was completely stunned at what he was able to pull out of the noisy footage. It really looked like 35mm. The lighitng was all corrected, the colors were all enhanced, and a lot of the footage was painted by hand, frame-by frame.

Moral to the story is that you can really polish a turd in post, but even a small selection of frames often took days to render. Get aquainted with your strengths and your ideal workflow before you start shooting. That will tell you how much to do in-camera and how much to do in post.