optimal "film look" gamma, chroma, detail, etc settings?

S

scounter

New member
Hey, all -

I am the proud new owner of the DVX100A and I am currently engineering the camera for a shoot that starts tomorrow... I've heard many people talk about the "perfect settings" they've discovered with this camera to make it look as much like film as possible. Of course I'll experiment on my own, but for lack of time, and to avoid reinventing the wheel -- I'd love any advice y'all may have.

thanks so much

Samantha
 
it is like the search for the Holy Grail.
It really depends on the look you are after. There is filmstock with pale colours and a greenish tint and there is filmstock with vivid colours and high contrast. You can kind of re-create most of these looks in the DVX with some experimenting and i guess many here who had the cam for a year or more are still discovering new stuff daily.

for me lowering the detail and the masterped looks good. but others increase detail and lower colour and increase master ped......so go figure.
i guess the most important ingredients are a) a good script, b) 16:9 and c) good lighting.
 
Did your new DVX come with Barry's book and DVD? That is the best place to start. He has broken down the settings in ways for you to see the effects of tweaking the color settings in order to "fake" Magic-Projectile effects in-camera. Many of those adjustments provide "film-like" looks to your footage, in a variety of ways. There are lots of color approaches to film projects--heavy sepia (Brother, Where Art Thou?), desaturated color (Gladiator), or very narrow color pallettes for different scenes (The Passion Of The Christ) are just a few off of the top of my head.

If you have a strong vision for what you want color to help convey in your picture, you probably can get the look with the DVX, either on site with the proper settings, in post via color correction, or some combination of the two.
 
As I have said before, DVX settings are as individual as the cinematographers that use them - "look" is so subjective, people set it up to look like what they like.

My fav settings are:
Detail -4 or -3 (I like a softer image)
Chroma 0 (usually) although I have one scene file with chroma at -4 or -5 for a totally desaturated look.
Phase 0
Color Temp 0
Master ped -6 or -7
Gamma Cine-Like V
Matrix Norm
V detail Thin
24p (of course - what's the point otherwise)
Setup 0

You have to experiment with it or you will never find 'your' look, you will just be using someone elses. Break a leg on your shoot, There's nothing I like more than the excitement of getting it on tape.
 
Very funny,
And "the meaning of life" is - THE HOKEY POKEY.
We've all been told our whole lives that "that's what it's all about" anyway, you'd think we'd realize it by now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top