Short Film - Screen Shots

Thanks for the CC...I wanted the overall look to be underexposed to give it a more "dark bar" look...I'm going to bring it up a little, but not a lot.

I've watched the footage through and there is noise on the still frames, but it isn't distracting once you play the clips...

The DOF is amazing with the mini35...Looks like I'm buying the Redrock lens adapter in the next few weeks for the next shoot so that I only have to rent the lenses...
 
Looks good. How'd you get those actors?

Bob Fagan said:
Nice shots. DOF is really great. What was your lighting setup? I realize some of the noise is jpeg, but is everyone seeing more noise in low light situations? I know I'm seeing it in my shots...not terribly distracting, but I wish I could control it more.
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You're always going to see more noise in low light situations. We learned that from the DVX100. If you want it to look cleaner, overlight it and then just bring it down a bit. You'll get a much better image.

It's really not all the different from film. Not having enough light will cause much more grain when shooting 16mm. Video is just less forgiving.
 
Thanks David. Yes, I was shooting the DVX before this and while I noticed noise I guess I never had to look at it at 720 HD size. Then again, I never noticed that people have so many pores, blemishes and facial hair either in SD. :-)
 
DavidBeier said:
Looks good. How'd you get those actors?
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My roomate Seth (one of the actors in the short and a co-writer) was in Julius Cesar on Broadway with William Sadler (along with Denzel Washington and Colm Feore) and so we called in a favor...he's such a great guy...total pro.

DavidBeier said:
You're always going to see more noise in low light situations. We learned that from the DVX100. If you want it to look cleaner, overlight it and then just bring it down a bit. You'll get a much better image.

It's really not all the different from film. Not having enough light will cause much more grain when shooting 16mm. Video is just less forgiving.
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To be honest, I agree...next time we shoot, I'm going to rent a few extra lights and bring the levels up...the DP had a great light kit and we thought it would be enough, and on the whole, I'm pretty happy with the look of it...but some of it is a little noisy.

Thanks for all the comments!
 
It's interesting actually. One of my film teachers told me that when working with 16mm (and presumably 35mm), one should underlight slightly (1/2 stop) and then go ahead and push process by half a stop when developing. This he argued would reduce grain and give much richer blacks. He showed me some footage to back it up which was pretty impressive.

Digital Video appears to be the exact opposite though. You have to overlight by half a stop and then bring it down.
 
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Well, I guess I could say the DVX and HVX rather than just digital. I'm not sure about the Canon cameras because I havn't worked with them heavily. I remember reading that part of the reason that overlighting works well on Panasonic's is the cine-like gamma ends up needing more light and actually giving you a little more exposure than the zebra stripes would indicate (I've had things supposedly 100% blown out only to find there was still detail in them). I don't know if this is true of other high quality digital cameras with cine-like settings.
 
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