GH2 Surveillance footage with GH2?

[Azmyth]

I need to shoot some scenes for my film as if it was shot with a surveillance/IR camera.. so it will be heavily graded in post to make it look "bad"..

I was originally going to use an HD camcorder of some sort, but would it be better to just use my GH2 and heavily degrade it in post?

 

[zaronz]

I would really recommend you to use C-mount lenses that belong to surveillance cameras with the GH2. If you can get your hands on any super wide-angle lenses like the SLR Magic 12mm or Olympus 12mm that would be gold. Pumping up the ISO to 12.000 and entering Smooth B&W settings really creates the look you're looking for. If you pump the ISO the "heavily degrading" in post will be more or less unnecessary.

 

[Azmyth]

I don't think I am gonna be able to get access to one of those by tomorrow.

These are basically "paranormal activity" type cameras..

 

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

I don't think I am gonna be able to get access to one of those by tomorrow.

These are basically "paranormal activity" type cameras..

Well... by tomorrow... I'd go with post processing the GH-2... but I have a Sony Handicam that has a 'night vision' option, which just 'does the job'. What I've not done is tried to match up the 60i Sony footage with say, 24p GH-1 footage.

I don't know what you are 'looking' for, but Infrared photos, and IR moving pictures, use the red end of the spectrum... duh... but the attempts I've made of doing fake IR using Photoshop for stills, involved just using the red channel of the RGB image, then increasing the contrast, and giving a soft 'blur'. It hasn't really given me an absolutely 'gosh did you really use an IR camera' look, but for a few short clips I think it would be 'good enough'.

In Premiere you could use the 'channel mixer' and eliminate the G and B channels completely, leaving on the Red channel, select 'monochrome' and then adjust the monochrome to the 'greenish' night vision look that seems to be popular with these sorts of things.

 

[NoahK]

Yeah post-process- tons of stuff you can do with filters in post to degrade and get that look. Of course- having those original cameras gives you that intangible texture but 99% of folks won't notice if you do a good job in post.

-Noah

 

[FrameFarmMedia]

Pumping up the ISO to 12.000 and entering Smooth B&W settings really creates the look you're looking for. If you pump the ISO the "heavily degrading" in post will be more or less unnecessary.

This.

I find the Unlocked ISO plus B&W film modes gives a great security cam feel with almost any lens but of course wider is better.